| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08245312B2 |
Method and apparatus for digital rights management
A method of managing the digital rights of a remote device is disclosed. The method includes receiving a warrant including information that the use of content is allowed, issued from a main device having the replay right for the content, transmitting the warrant to a service-providing device, and receiving the content provided by the service-providing device. |
| US08245311B2 |
Content data reproducing apparatus
The music data (output-prohibited music data) downloaded to the client terminal 2 cannot be output until it is formally purchased. In addition, this music data can be reproduced only while the user of the client terminal 2 is being registered to pay the predetermined fixed charges. Therefore, this prevents from hurting the interests of copyright owners or the like. And the client terminal 2 can acquire music data more efficiently, since it does not have to repeat a process of downloading music data. |
| US08245310B2 |
Controlling access to multiple pieces of content of a presentation
In one or more embodiments, a license associated with a first piece of content can grant rights with respect to a second and/or additional pieces of content. That is, language that is included in a first license can express a policy that is interpreted by a client-side device. This policy can establish rights with respect to additional pieces of content. Accordingly, policy enforcement with respect to licensed content can take place on the client-side device and can establish how different content is to be played relative to one another. |
| US08245308B2 |
Using trusted third parties to perform DRM operations
Various embodiments utilize a third party, such as a trusted third-party, to perform DRM operations such as “move” operations. In at least some embodiments, the trusted third-party is utilized for both “move” operations as well as local content access such as playback and the like. In at least some embodiments, a third-party maintains a database that includes an association of clients, content, and move version numbers. A client—termed a “source client” maintains at least a move version number locally in a secure fashion. The version number is incremented each time the source client performs a move operation. Both the source client and the third-party increment the version number each time a piece of content is moved. When the client attempts to perform a move operation, it contacts the third-party to ascertain the third-party's move version number. If the move version numbers match and the source client owns the license/content, then, in at least some embodiments, a move operation is permitted. |
| US08245305B2 |
File processor, method of processing files, and program for processing files
A file processor which couples a plurality of files to create one coupled file including: a file selector that designates a plurality of files to be coupled; a security setting information extracting part that extracts security setting information which includes a setting item which is relevant to security being set to each of the files to be coupled; a coupled file creating part that couples the plurality of files to be coupled to create newly one coupled file; and, a security setup part that creates new security setting information based on the extracted security setting information and add new security setting to the coupled file. |
| US08245303B2 |
Job processing system and image processing apparatus
A multi function periphery includes a plurality of the modules (a scan control section 35 to file system section 40) provided corresponding to a plurality of functions, a virus check section 33 to perform the virus check with respect to the plurality of the control modules, a virus control section 32 to make the virus check section 33 to perform the virus check respectively for some control modules among the plurality of the control modules, a job administration section 31 to allow the job using only the control modules which have been confirmed not to be infected by the virus via the virus check. |
| US08245299B2 |
Method of and apparatus for monitoring code to detect intrusion code
A method and apparatus for monitoring a code to detect intrusion code is used to monitor target code to determine whether the target code is a resident code in a system or an intrusion code into the system. A first code pattern is extracted from the target code and a second code pattern is loaded from a storage unit, and a distance between the first code pattern and the second code pattern is calculated. The calculated distance is compared to a threshold to determine whether the target code is an intrusion code. |
| US08245297B2 |
Computer security event management system
A computer security event monitoring system comprising a trigger for generating a security event alert when a security event occurs and an event manager responsive to the generation of a security event alert. The alert is converted to an incident record by the event manager. The incident record is stored in a storage means and forwarded to an event reaction means for investigation of a reaction to the security event. |
| US08245295B2 |
Apparatus and method for detection of malicious program using program behavior
An apparatus and method of diagnosing whether a computer program executed in a computer system is a malicious program and more particularly, an apparatus and method of diagnosing whether a computer program is a malicious program using a behavior of a computer program, and an apparatus and method of generating malicious code diagnostic data is provided. The apparatus for diagnosing a malicious code may include a behavior vector generation unit which generates a first behavior vector based on a behavior signature extracted from a diagnostic target program; a diagnostic data storage unit which stores a plurality of second behavior vectors for a plurality of sample programs predetermined to be malicious or normal; and a code diagnostic unit which diagnoses whether the diagnostic target program is a malicious code by comparing the first behavior vector with the plurality of second behavior vectors. |
| US08245294B1 |
Network based virus control
The present application relates to virus control in a network. An illustrative embodiment provides a network including a plurality of processing devices and at least one virus control server configured to quarantine a selected processing device from the network by assigning the selected processing device to a unique quarantine sub-network upon the occurrence of a first quarantine event such that all network traffic to and from the selected device must pass through the virus control server. |
| US08245293B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for securely operating shared host computers with portable apparatuses
The present invention provides methods and apparatuses that utilize a plurality of portable apparatuses to securely operate a plurality of host computers. Each portable apparatus including an operating system and a list of software applications is installed in a removable data storage medium. An authorization procedure is implemented before establishing a connected-state operation between a portable apparatus and a host computer. The host computer loads the operating system in the portable apparatus into its random access semiconductor memory (RAM) through the established connected-state operation. |
| US08245289B2 |
Methods and systems for preventing security breaches
A security payload is attached to a received binary executable file. The security payload is adapted to intercept application programming interface (API) calls to system resources from the binary executable file via export address redirection back to the security payload. Upon execution of the binary executable file, the security payload replaces system library export addresses within a process address space for the binary executable file with security monitoring stub addresses to the security payload. Upon the binary executable computer file issuing a call to a given API, the process address space directs the call to the given API back to the security payload via one of the security monitoring stub addresses that is associated with the given API. The security payload then can assess whether the call to the given API is a security breach. |
| US08245282B1 |
Creating tests to identify fraudulent users
A test to identify fraudulent users of an online group is generated. Data associated with a control group is obtained. Data associated with a fraudulent group is obtained. A test to identify fraudulent users of the online group is generated by comparing the data associated with the control group and the data associated with the fraudulent group. |
| US08245281B2 |
Method and apparatus for policy-based network access control with arbitrary network access control frameworks
A method and apparatus for integrating various network access control frameworks under the control of a single policy decision point (PDP). The apparatus supports pluggable protocol terminators to interface to any number of access protocols or backend support services. The apparatus contains Trust and Identity Mediators to mediate between the protocol terminators and a canonical policy subsystem, translating attributes between framework representations, and a canonical representation using extensible data-driven dictionaries. |
| US08245278B2 |
Apparatus and method for secure configuration of shared powerline devices
Client adapter and method simplify security deployment in an EPN, including the shared services electrical power lines of a premises. With direct coupling, piggybacked adapter receives network signals and electrical from EPN-connected first adapter through a shared medium port. An authenticating adapter exchanges security management services and information with supplicant adapter. Two or more adapters may be piggybacked. Piggybacked adapters exchange security management service information without rogue intrusion. Exchanged information, stored, is later used to communicate securely. Defined adjacency (neighborhood) information can be exchanged, and a neighborhood established on an EPN, where one authorized neighbors securely communicate. |
| US08245277B2 |
Universally usable human-interaction proof
Disclosed is a system and method for generating a universally usable, completely automated public turing test to tell a computer and a human apart (CAPTCHA). The universally usable CAPTCHA uses contextually related pictures and sounds to present concepts to a user. The pictures allow the CAPTCHA to be used by someone who could see, and the audio would allow the CAPTCHA to be used by someone who could not see. This combination of sound and images should make the CAPTCHA more universally usable for a larger population of users than previously known CAPTCHAs. |
| US08245276B1 |
System and method for providing internet access services at hotels within a hotel chain
An improved system and method for providing Internet access services to guests of a hotel chain. A web services (WS) framework is used for communications between a central authentication server (CAS) and property management system (PMS) of a hotel within a chain. Authentication of a user to a high speed Internet network is accomplished using the WS framework to facilitate communication between the CAS and PMS. A gateway device for authentication is bypassed and transactions are posted by implementing a WS interface between a CAS and PMS at each hotel. Additional transactions may be incorporated within the WS interface thereby increasing the system and method's ability to deliver significant improvements in customer service to the hotel guest. Reduced dependence upon a gateway device to facilitate communications allows a hotel to implement a high speed Internet access program with a degree of independence from one particular vendor. |
| US08245274B2 |
Method for communication security and apparatus therefore
A FireNet security system in which trustworthy networks, called BlackNets, each comprising One (1) or more client computers, are protected by FireBreaks against attacks from untrustworthy networks, called RedNets. All incoming transactions from the RedNet are examined by the FireBreak to determine if they violate any of a plurality of protection rules stored in a local protection rules database. Any transaction found to be in violation is discarded. Valid transactions are forwarded to the BlackNet. If an otherwise valid transaction is found to be suspicious, the FireBreak will forward to a FireNet Server relevant information relating to that transaction. If the FireNet Server verifies that the transaction is indeed part of an attack, the FireNet Server will create new protection rules suitable to defend against the newly identified source or strategy of attack. Periodically, all FireBreaks in the FireNet system will transfer, directly or indirectly, all new rules. |
| US08245273B2 |
Sharing referenced content through collaborative business applications
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for sharing referenced content through collaborative business applications. The method includes detecting referenced content in an electronic communication. The referenced content references content stored in an external repository. The referenced content identifies a registered external repository connector. The method also includes determining that an Access Control List (“ACL”) for the referenced content lacks an entry for a recipient of the electronic communication. The method includes generating an ACL entry for the recipient in response to the recipient lacking an entry in the ACL for the referenced content. The ACL entry controls access to the referenced content for the recipient. The ACL entry is defined based on a security policy associated with the recipient. |
| US08245269B2 |
System and method for delivering video programs to a video distribution center
Embodiments of the present invention are systems and methods for delivering video programs to a video distribution center. An embodiment of the invention is a method for delivering video programming to a distribution center that provides broadcast programming and store-and-forward programming, such as video on demand based on video programming recorded at the distribution center. The method comprises sending a plurality of video programs to the distribution center. Wherein, the plurality of video programs is to be provided as broadcast programming by the distribution center. The method also comprises sending ancillary data to the distribution center. The ancillary data includes business rules that include permission for the distribution center to record one or more selected video programs of the plurality of video programs. |
| US08245267B2 |
Methods, systems, and products for recording media on a user device
Methods, devices, and products are disclosed for recording media. A network command message is received that identifies media to be recorded by a user's device. The network command message was sent on behalf of a provider and comprises the provider's instruction to have the user's device record the media. An entry is created in a recording schedule to record the media. The media is received and recorded such that the provider schedules recording of the media. |
| US08245266B2 |
User interface
A method of controlling quality of video data transmitted from a first user terminal to at least one other user terminal in a communication system includes detecting at said first user terminal a condition that indicates that the quality of the video data is below an acceptable threshold; automatically generating instructions based on the detected condition for a user of the first user terminal, said instructions intended to provide a humanly implementable remedy to improve the quality of the video data; outputting the instructions to the user in a humanly comprehensible form; and receiving an input from a user of the first user terminal responsive to the instructions to implement the remedy and thereby improve the quality of the video data. |
| US08245265B2 |
Method and apparatus for converting digital content metadata and network system using the same
A method and apparatus for converting digital content metadata received external to a network into digital content metadata peculiar to the network and a network system using the same. Particularly, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for converting TV-Anytime metadata into UPnP CDS metadata and a network system using the same. The apparatus for converting digital content metadata according to the present invention includes a mapping module for converting the received external digital content metadata into the digital content metadata peculiar to the network, and a search module for locating a method of accessing a program in a predetermined manner using the unique identifier assigned to each program in the received external digital content metadata. |
| US08245263B2 |
System and method for managing conditional access blackout events in a video data distribution system
A computer readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computer configure blackout event data indicating at least one event criterion data for selecting client devices subject to the blackout event for restricted content data; configure client devices into a client device group subject to the blackout event in accordance with the event criterion data; configure at least one substitution event data table for the client device group; and send restricted content and the substitution event data table embedded in the restricted content data to each client device in the client device group. |
| US08245261B2 |
Methods and apparatus for providing remote diagnostics to a television receiver
Described herein are techniques for allowing a customer support agent to remotely analyze a television receiver. A television receiver is communicatively coupled to a customer support center through a communication network. A customer support agent remotely accesses the television receiver and the television receiver transmits video content to the customer support center through the communication network. The video output is outputted to the customer support agent at the customer support center for analysis of the television receiver. |
| US08245259B2 |
Video and digital multimedia aggregator
The present invention utilizes an aggregator for searching, packaging and delivering content. The aggregator processes requests, searches, provides search results and acquires content. The aggregator, operating in a communications network, includes a request and results processing server, a search engine server coupled to the request and results processing server and a content acquisition server coupled to the request and results processing server. A request and results processing server receives a request for content, the search engine server searches for the content and the content acquisition program acquires content for delivery to the user. The request and results processing server includes a search request processor that receives information related to a user's search request and provides the information to a search results form builder that creates an electronic search request. |
| US08245256B2 |
Autoscrolling through interactive television content
A video client device receives a request for interactive television content. The video client device provides, in response to the request, the interactive television content for display on a video display device. The video client device receives an instruction to initiate an autoscroll function. The video client device retrieves, in response to the instruction, configuration information that identifies a manner for performing the autoscroll function. The video client device performs the autoscroll function to automatically scroll through the interactive television content, in a horizontal direction or a vertical direction, on the video display device based on the configuration information. |
| US08245249B2 |
Methods and apparatus to adjust signature matching results for audience measurement
Methods and apparatus to adjust signature matching results for audience measurement are disclosed. An example method to adjust a signature matching result associated with monitoring a media content presentation disclosed herein comprises obtaining a monitored signature representative of the monitored media content presentation from a monitoring device, obtaining an environmental characteristic associated with the monitored signature from the monitoring device, and adjusting the signature matching result using an adjustment value when the monitored signature is determined to match a reference signature representative of reference media content, the adjustment value selected from a plurality of adjustment values based on the matched reference signature and the environmental characteristic. |
| US08245247B2 |
Medium transporting unit and medium processing apparatus
A holding mechanism is operable to hold a top medium from a plurality of plate-shaped media accommodated in a stacker in a stacked manner. A transport arm supports the holding mechanism. When the lift mechanism lifts down the transport arm, one of a first elastic pressing force and a second elastic pressing force greater than the first elastic pressing force is selectively applied from the holding mechanism to an upper surface of the top medium. |
| US08245244B2 |
Device, system, and method of executing a call to a routine within a transaction
Device, system, and method of executing a call to a routine within a transaction. In some embodiments an apparatus may include a memory having stored thereon compiled code corresponding to a transaction, wherein the transaction includes at least one call to a first routine of a pair of first and second mutually inverse routines, and wherein the compiled code includes a call to a first wrapped routine replacing the call to the first routine; and a runtime library including wrapper code, wherein the wrapper code, when executed in response to the call to the first wrapped routine, results in executing the call to the first routine within the transaction and undoing the call to the first routine responsive to abort of the transaction. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08245238B2 |
Routing workloads based on relative queue lengths of dispatchers
Mechanisms for distributing workload items to a plurality of dispatchers are provided. Each dispatcher is associated with a different computing system of a plurality of computing systems and workload items comprise workload items of a plurality of different workload types. A capacity value for each combination of workload type and computing system is obtained. For each combination of workload type and computing system, a queue length of a dispatcher associated with the corresponding computing system is obtained. For each combination of workload type and computing system, a dispatcher's relative share of incoming workloads is computed based on the queue length for the dispatcher associated with the computing system. In addition, incoming workload items are routed to a dispatcher, in the plurality of dispatchers, based on the calculated dispatcher's relative share for the dispatcher. |
| US08245235B1 |
Allocating computer resources to workloads as a function of reliability indications
A computer system has plural partitions for running respective workloads. Reliability-indicating events are monitored and the resulting data is used by a workload manager in allocating computer resources to workloads. |
| US08245233B2 |
Selection of a redundant controller based on resource view
A method, a system and a computer program product for selecting a primary controller for a server system based on the services offered by each controller. A primary controller designator (PCD) utility determines the relative importance of a controller based upon the services provided by the controller and the weighted importance assigned to these services. The PCD utility classifies the services provided by a system-controller according to the following: (1) the number of OS partitions a system-controller is able to communicate with; and (2) the number of hardware devices that a controller has access to. The importance of the services is determined by the host OS partition information and the degree of importance of a partition that utilizes/requires the particular service(s). The PCD utility designates a controller as a “Primary” if the designated “Primary” is capable of providing services that are required for the most important OS partitions, according to the classification of controller services. |
| US08245231B2 |
Method of launching low-priority tasks
A driver is provided to manage launching of tasks at different levels of priority and within the parameters of the firmware interface. The driver includes two anchors for managing the tasks, a dispatcher and an agent. The dispatcher operates at a medium priority level and manages communication from a remote administrator. The agent functions to receive communications from the dispatcher by way of a shared data structure and to launch lower priority level tasks in respond to the communication. The shared data structure stores communications received from the dispatcher. Upon placing the communication in the shared data structure, the dispatcher sends a signal to the agent indicating that a communication is in the data structure for reading by the agent. Following reading of the communication in the data structure, the agent launches the lower priority level task and sends a signal to the data structure indicating the status of the task. Accordingly, a higher level task maintains its level of operation and spawns lower level tasks through the dispatcher in conjunction with the agent. |
| US08245229B2 |
Temporal batching of I/O jobs
Batching techniques are provided to maximize the throughput of a hardware device based on the saturation point of the hardware device. A balancer can determine the saturation point of the hardware device and determine the estimated time cost for IO jobs pending in the hardware device. A comparison can be made and if the estimated time cost total is lower than the saturation point one or more IO jobs can be sent to the hardware device. |
| US08245225B2 |
Method, system, terminal and device management server for installing software components
A method for installing software components includes: a terminal receives a software component package delivered by a Device Management (DM) server directly or a download address of the component package and a command instructing to download delivered by the DM server, where the software component package contains more than one software component; if the terminal receives the download address and the command instructing to download, the terminal downloads the software component package from the download address; the terminal installs the obtained software component package locally and generates management nodes and subnodes of the management nodes corresponding to the software components under a Deployed subtree of the Software Component Management Object (SCOMO) of the terminal. With the present invention, the process of installing software component is more reasonable. A system and apparatus for installing software components are also provided. |
| US08245224B2 |
Retrieving data from an information carrier
A method of retrieving content data and instructional data from a storage medium includes providing a storage medium having content data and instructional data, the content data having a physical and logical format on the storage medium that is known to the instructional data, wherein the instructional data includes plug-in data and has a physical and logical format on the storage medium that is known to firmware of a storage medium reading device, and further wherein the physical and logical format of the content data on the storage medium is incompatible and unknown to the firmware of the storage medium reading device. The method further includes retrieving, via the firmware, the instructional data from a predefined position on the storage medium and retrieving, via the firmware in cooperation with the instructional data, the content data from the storage medium. |
| US08245219B2 |
Standardized mechanism for firmware upgrades of RFID devices
The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates managing a device within a radio frequency identification (RFID) network. A radio frequency identification (RFID) network can include at least one device that receives data from a tag. An upgrade component can evaluate at least one device and identify an applicable portion of firmware for the device based on the evaluation, wherein the applicable portion of firmware can be independently deployed to the device. |
| US08245217B2 |
Management of software and operating system updates required for the process of creating a virtual machine facsimile of an existing physical or virtual machine
Disclosed are techniques for using known update technologies to automatically identify the updates installed on a physical machine prior to facsimile creation, to locate the update packages from an update server, and to download them to the machine performing the facsimile creation. The use of update technologies enables precise identification of the updates that affect the defined set of files requiring replacement, and thus minimizes the number of updates that need to be downloaded. In addition, the desired set of replacement files are extracted and cached to allow for their reuse during subsequent facsimile creations using either the same or different physical or virtual machine as the source. Downloading the minimal set of updates and caching them for reuse eliminates the redundant downloads of updates and results in a shorter time for facsimile creation. |
| US08245215B2 |
Method for automatically modifying a program and automation system
A method for automatically modifying a program of an automation system, wherein a first item of data related to a program component is determined using an identificator assigned to the automation system, wherein a program code object stored in a database is selected using a selector based upon the first item of data, and wherein the program is modified by means of the program code object in that the program code object is integrated into the program. Further, an automation system with a program having program components and which is automatically modifiable in accordance with the method, having an assigned identificator for determining a first item of data related to a program component, a selector for selecting a program code object stored in a database based upon the first item of data, and an integrator for integrating the program code object into the program and finally a computer readable medium. |
| US08245214B2 |
Reliably updating computer firmware while performing command and control functions on a power/thermal component in a high-availability, fault-tolerant, high-performance server
A system and incorporated method is provided for performing high reliability flash updates using firmware residing in a computing environment. The system comprises a nonvolatile memory having a boot sector and an application sector and a volatile memory in processing communication to update the nonvolatile memory. The volatile memory also includes an implemented algorithm that can temporarily store functions necessary to update the nonvolatile memory via a flash update. |
| US08245210B2 |
Compile-time context for dynamically bound operations
Compile-time context information is captured and provided to a runtime binder for dynamic features in programming languages. For example, a C# run-time binder uses the information to perform a run-time bind with semantics matching the compiler's binding behavior. Dynamic programming language features supported relate to compound operations, events, delegates, member accessibility, dynamic-typed objects, structs passed by ref, arguments passed by name rather than position, extension methods, conditionally compiled methods, literal arguments, overflow checking, dynamic indexed properties, dynamic method groups, and static method groups. |
| US08245205B2 |
System and method for sharing objects between applications in a virtual runtime environment
The techniques and mechanisms described herein are directed at sharing objects between applications executing in a virtual runtime environment. The techniques include compiling a cpu-independent file to create executable instructions that are associated with an application that is executable in a virtual runtime environment. A constructor associated with a shareable class defined within the cpu-independent file is executed to create an instance of a shareable object. The shareable object is then persisted in a manner such that other applications executing in the virtual runtime environment may access the shareable object. The technique may be performed during pre-JIT compilation or just-in-time compilation of the cpu-independent file. The execution of the constructor is performed at a restricted security level that prevents access to changeable information when generating static data for the static members of the shareable object. |
| US08245202B2 |
Processor emulation using speculative forward translation
A method and apparatus for processor emulation using speculative forward translation are disclosed. A potential candidate for forward translation is identified from one or more portions of target system code. A priority for forward translation is assigned to the potential candidate. It is determined whether the potential candidate is a valid candidate for forward translation. If valid, the potential candidate is translated with a host system to produce one or more corresponding blocks of translated code executable by the host system. |
| US08245200B2 |
Method, system, and apparatus for dynamically injecting logging statements into web 2.0 javascript applications
A Method, System and Apparatus for dynamically injecting logging statements into Web 2.0 JavaScript applications includes a single block of JavaScript code configured to execute on a client device by loading a profiler JavaScript code into memory on the client device and registering a target JavaScript object. The profiler JavaScript code is configured to dynamically scan the user-defined JavaScript code and modify the functions to add events to a modified user-defined code which include an identification of when the function was called, when the function was exited and when an exception occurs. The modification module is wrapped into a try/catch block so that exceptions can be handled and posted back to the server or displayed to the user or developer. |
| US08245197B2 |
Program monitoring method, computer, and abnormal monitoring program product
A program monitoring method includes the steps of describing an operating point code (2P) indicating an operating point value (3P) in one or more locations of a module (1M), counting the operating point value (3P) indicated by the operating point code (2P) by a counter if an execution position becomes the location of the operating point code (2P) while the module (1M) is being executed, and deciding that the module (1M) has not been executed normally if a difference between the numerical value counted by the counter and a score value (3S) is not a predetermined numerical value. |
| US08245194B2 |
Automatically generating unit test cases which can reproduce runtime problems
A method and system for automatically generating unit test cases for a computer program that can reproduce runtime problems. The method comprises: modifying the computer program according to one or more interested target program units in the program and possibly occurring run time problems; test executing the modified program; and automatically generating unit test cases according to the interested runtime problems occurring during the execution of the interested target program units. Wherein the modifying step adds captor code and problem detective code into the program, the captor code being configured to record the execution paths and execution contexts of the interested target program units in the program; and the problem detective code being configured to detect the interested unexpected exceptions possibly raised and the interested violations of predefined behavior rules possibly produced by the execution of the program units. The present invention further provides methods and systems for debugging and for regression testing using the above method, and a computer program testing method and system. |
| US08245190B2 |
First and second manager components that communicate to initialize and/or shut down software components in an ordered sequence
An apparatus in one example comprises: a first manager component responsible for one or more first software components within one or more first executables of a distributed software application; and a second manager component responsible for one or more second software components within one or more second executables of the distributed software application. The first and second manager components communicate to initialize and/or shut down the one or more first software components and the one or more second software components in an ordered sequence based on one or more dependency relationships among two or more of: the one or more first software components; and/or the one or more second software components. |
| US08245189B2 |
Generically managing the configuration of heterogeneous software artifacts
A method for managing a configuration of heterogeneous software artifacts uses a common central configuration representation. An artifact of an unknown type, from an initial software solution, is submitted to a solution configuration tool. The solution configuration tool sends a request to a solution architect for locations of configuration files within the artifact. For each artifact whose configuration file locations have been requested from the solution architect, the solution configuration tool determines if each corresponding configuration file is a property file or an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. If the corresponding configuration file is an XML file, then the solution architect provides a first and second xPath for locating the names and values of the configuration parameters in the XML configuration file. The configuration file and configuration parameter locator information is then stored in a configuration locator file. Information in the configuration locator file is used to introspect configuration parameters from the artifacts and store these generically in a central configuration file. Solution-level parameters are then defined and mapped to artifact-level parameters for use in configuring subsequent software solutions instantiated from the initial software solution. |
| US08245184B2 |
System and method for graphically building business rule conditions
A system and method are disclosed for graphically building business rule conditions. The method of graphically building business rule conditions comprises displaying a menu of function icons for the user, and a menu of business rule attribute icons for the user. The method allows the user to freely drag and drop functions and attributes onto a staging canvas, and relate the functions and attributes to build a graphical depiction of the desired business rule condition. The method generates source code directly from the graphical depiction such that the user does not have to understand the specific syntax and nuances of the development environment or runtime environment for the business rule. |
| US08245182B2 |
Class selectable design sharing
A computer implemented method for class selectable design sharing obtains a set of classes for a design model from a source system, and identifies desired classes from the set of classes to form an identified subset of classes. The computer implemented method further exports the identified subset of classes from the design model of the source system to a design model of a target system. |
| US08245181B2 |
Printed circuit board layout system and method thereof
A printed circuit board layout system and a method thereof are provided. The method includes the following steps: obtaining corresponding outlines of selected component and unselected components in response to a user selecting one component; obtaining the range value; generating a reference outline according to the obtained range value and outline of the selected component; performing an intersection operation according to the reference outline and outlines of the unselected components, and determining whether one component is associated within the reference outline; marking and displaying the outlines of the corresponding unselected components when the unselected components are associated within the reference outline. |
| US08245180B2 |
Methods for defining and using co-optimized nanopatterns for integrated circuit design and apparatus implementing same
A set of layout nanopatterns is defined. Each layout nanopattern is defined by relative placements of a particular type of layout feature within a lithographic window of influence. A design space is defined as a set of layout parameters and corresponding value ranges that affect manufacturability of a layout. Layouts are created for the set of layout nanopatterns such that the created layouts cover the design space. The layouts for the set of layout nanopatterns are then optimized for manufacturability. A point in the design space is selected where the set of layout nanopatterns are co-optimized for manufacturability. A circuit layout is created based on the selected point in design space using the corresponding set of co-optimized layout nanopatterns. The optimized layouts for the set of layout nanopatterns and the associated circuit layout can be recorded in a digital format on a computer readable storage medium. |
| US08245179B2 |
RF circuit, circuit evaluation method, algorithm and recording medium
It is required to qualitatively design a circuitry device in which not only in a small-signal simulation but also in a large-signal simulation, loop oscillation and motorboating oscillation of an amplifier are precisely predicted to suppress oscillation without severing a loop or without inserting a circulator. To remove insertion loss due to a probe resistor Rx, a negative resistor −Rx/2 is arranged at both ends thereof. To prevent consumption of a DC bias in the probe, a DC block is applied. Further, to remove thermal noise caused by an actual resistor to reduce influence on a noise factor NF, the noise temperature (environmental temperature) of the actual resistor is set to zero Kelvin. |
| US08245177B2 |
Crossbar structure with mechanism for generating constant outputs
Embodiments provide crossbar structures, and reconfigurable circuits that contain crossbar structures, that include n inputs and an output, where n is an integer, chains of transistors coupled to the n inputs and the output, a plurality of control signal elements—each coupled to one or more transistors of the plurality of chains of transistors to selectively couple said n inputs to the output—and an additional chain of transistors coupled to at least some of the plurality of control signal elements and the output to selectively couple a constant output voltage to the output. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed. |
| US08245175B2 |
Routing variants in electronic design automation
Some embodiments provide a system that facilitates the creation of a schematic in an electronic design automation (EDA) application. During operation, the system obtains a source point and a destination point in the schematic from a user of the EDA application. Next, the system uses a line-probe-search technique to generate a set of route variants between the source point and the destination point. The system then provides the route variants to the user through a graphical user interface (GUI) in the EDA application and obtains, from the user, a selection of a route variant from the route variants through the GUI. Finally, the system uses the selected route variant as a route in the schematic. |
| US08245171B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program product for implementing interactive cross-domain package driven I/O planning and placement optimization
Disclosed are a method, a system, and a computer program product for implementing interactive cross-domain package driven I/O planning and placement optimization of an electronic circuit design. In some embodiments, the method identifies an object on a first EDA tool session, determines a drop location for the first object based on a tentative location in the first EDA tool session, places the first object at the drop location, and adjusts the drop location via a second EDA tool session, performs placement or routing of a portion of the design. The method or the system further comprises placing a corresponding first object in the second EDA tool session, initiating the second EDA tool session object move in the first EDA tool session, determining whether a constraint is satisfied. |
| US08245170B2 |
Timing library test apparatus, method for testing timing library, and computer readable medium comprising timing library test program
A timing library test apparatus includes a difference calculator looks into a look-up table in a timing library, the look-up table having timing constraint values registered in association with combinations between reference transient times of a signal at a reference terminal and constraint transient times of a signal at a constraint terminal, and groups neighboring two timing constraint values in the look-up table as one pair, respectively, to calculate differences between neighboring two timing constraint values of pairs, a determination part determines whether the differences calculated by the difference calculator has a characteristic feature of increase inclination or decrease inclination, and a decision part decides that the timing library has a singular point when the determination part determines that the differences doesn't have the characteristic feature, and to decide that the timing library doesn't have the singular point when the determination part determines that the differences has the characteristic feature. |
| US08245168B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating memory models and timing database
A method and apparatus are provided for creating and using a memory timing database. A plurality of characterization memories are defined, which can be mapped to a memory resource. Each characterization memory has different memory parameters. A plurality of variants of tiling each characterization memory to the memory resource are also defined. Timing characteristics of each tiling variant of each characterization memory are stored in the memory timing database for the memory resource based on sets of input ramptimes and output loads. |
| US08245163B1 |
Partial compilation of circuit design with new software version to obtain a complete compiled design
Methods, computer programs and systems for using two software programs to generate a compiled design for an integrated circuit (IC) are provided. The method compiles a first IC design using a first design program and then migrates the first IC design to a second IC design, still using the first design program. Additionally, the method performs synthesis and analysis on the second IC design, still using the first design program. A second design program is used to import compile information associated with the compiling of the first IC design and the synthesis and analysis of the second IC design. The second design program is also used to create a compiled design for the second IC based on the imported compile information. |
| US08245161B1 |
Verification of computer simulation of photolithographic process
A method for calibrating a computer program that simulates a physical process and a photomask are disclosed. A first physical artifact may be exposed to the physical process to produce a second physical artifact. The first physical artifact may include one or more features characterized by traceably measured known dimensions. One or more features of the second physical artifact may be measured to produce one or more measured dimensions. The physical process may be simulated with a computer simulation using the known dimensions of the first physical artifact as inputs to produce an output. The output may be compared to the measured dimensions of the second physical artifact to produce a result. A figure of merit may be assigned to the computer simulation based on the result. The photomask may have one or more features with one or more traceably measured dimensions. |
| US08245160B2 |
System and method for creating a focus-exposure model of a lithography process
A system and a method for creating a focus-exposure model of a lithography process are disclosed. The system and the method utilize calibration data along multiple dimensions of parameter variations, in particular within an exposure-defocus process window space. The system and the method provide a unified set of model parameter values that result in better accuracy and robustness of simulations at nominal process conditions, as well as the ability to predict lithographic performance at any point continuously throughout a complete process window area without a need for recalibration at different settings. With a smaller number of measurements required than the prior-art multiple-model calibration, the focus-exposure model provides more predictive and more robust model parameter values that can be used at any location in the process window. |
| US08245153B2 |
System and method for displaying gantt charts with other project management tools
A graphical user interface for a Gantt chart map display (100) includes a list of projects (214), a corresponding activity timeline reflecting activity for each project, and a control (210) at a side or bottom area of the Gantt chart map display for manipulating date ranges viewable in the viewable area. The GUI further includes a selected date range control (204) providing a high level view (202) of the corresponding activity timeline displayed in the viewable area (212) above and can provide a high level view of corresponding activity beyond the scrollable view. A dynamic set of controls (205 and 206) enables preset filtered views of the Gantt chart with preset time frames such as days, weeks, months and years or predetermined date ranges entered by a user. The preset filtered view can also automatically re-sort and scale content on the Gantt chart into a viewable area to reduce scrolling. |
| US08245152B2 |
Method and apparatus to accelerate scrolling for buffered windows
Methods and apparatuses to accelerate scrolling for buffered windows. In one aspect of the invention, a method to scroll a buffered window on a data processing system includes: determining a second region of a second pixel image of a window in a frame buffer, which corresponds to a first region of a first pixel image of the window buffered in a window buffer that is scrolled from a first position to a second position in the first pixel image of the window in the window buffer; and scrolling the second region in the frame buffer to synchronize the second pixel image in the frame buffer with the first pixel image in the window buffer. In one example according to this aspect, the second region in the frame buffer is scrolled using graphics hardware; the frame buffer is located inside a video memory under control of the graphics hardware. |
| US08245151B2 |
Web browser window management
Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with web browsers are described. One exemplary embodiment includes a graphical user interface having a window arrangement option for display on a display screen and being configured to initiate, when selected, an arrangement of open windows having a selected window type. An arrangement logic that, in response to the window arrangement option being selected, re-displays the open windows having the selected window type in a selected arrangement on the display screen without re-displaying open windows not having the selected window type. |
| US08245147B2 |
System and method for reordering a user interface
Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable storage media for customizing a user interface. The method displays an interface to a user. In the interface, a slice has interface elements, a stack has a group of slices, a window has a group of stacks, and each interface element is associated with a segment of a highly structured document. The interface includes a panel having one or more containers, each container representing one stack, and one or more tokens, each token representing one slice. The method relocates at least one token to a different location in the container based on user input, displays in the panel a preview based on the relocated token, generates a user interface workflow based on the one or more containers and the relocated token, and displays the generated user interface workflow. |
| US08245144B2 |
Object model for a user interface
Various embodiments provide techniques and processes for defining elements of a user interface (UI) using a tree of objects created based on a markup language. In some embodiments, a client application provides markup that defines one or more aspects of a UI to an application programming interface (API). The API parses the markup to determine a namespace and one or more UI elements defined by the namespace. Instances of the UI elements are created, and properties of the UI elements are set on the instances. A user interface may then be displayed that includes the instances of the UI elements. |
| US08245141B1 |
Hierarchical collaboration policies in a shared workspace environment
In one embodiment, a first administrative entity having first members may initiate an operated shared workspace having a policy control engine. The first administrative entity may configure a first set of policies regarding workspace access, while a second administrative entity, having second members, may configure a second set of policies regarding workspace access. The policy control engine may then apply the first policies to the first and second members, and also may apply one or more policies of the second set of policies to the second members in response to the respective policies being stricter than corresponding policies of the first set of policies. |
| US08245138B2 |
Recording and/or reproducing apparatus for displaying operating status thereof and a method of displaying a content of operation
Disclosed is a recording-reproduction apparatus having a recording-reproduction unit which includes an operation unit and an output unit. The operation unit has an operation element. The recording-reproduction unit further includes a control unit that displays a discrimination figure displaying the current operating status of the recording-reproduction apparatus in the center of the operating-content-viewing region and generates a display command signal for displaying a plurality of discrimination figures in the periphery of the discrimination figure displaying the current operating status. The discrimination figures are provided as guiding signs to which contents of recording or reproduction operations are assigned. The output unit is provided for outputting a display signal prepared from the display command signal generated from the control unit. |
| US08245137B2 |
Electronic filing system with scan-placeholders
In an electronic document filing system, placeholder objects are used to provide an explicit representation of document files which are not yet present but which are explicitly expected by the system. A placeholder object can be a real filing system object, which may be processed by the filing system in the same manner as any other filing system object, and can include filing system data such as file metadata. The metadata may be associated with an expected source for the document file (e.g., for automatic capture of a paper document from a scanner). |
| US08245136B2 |
Updating inserted text in a graphic file
An authoring tool provides a storage receptacle for text components of graphics designs. In one embodiment, the storage receptacle is a computer readable media (e.g., a hard drive or memory). The storage receptacle is easily accessed from within the graphics authoring environment and allows for the text to be changed independently of the graphics authoring environment, for possible future insertion into graphics files. Once a text item from the storage receptacle has been inserted in a graphics file, a relationship is maintained between the graphics file and the text item in the receptacle. This relationship can then be used in many ways, in particular to keep the text in the graphics file and the text in the receptacle synchronized. The storage receptacle can be implemented as a database system. In this manner the authoring tool automates the synchronization between the textual content which is usually drafted and edited outside of the graphics environment and the final graphics files in which the text will ultimately be inserted. |
| US08245134B2 |
Differential dynamic content delivery with a session document recreated in dependence upon an interest of an identified user participant
Differential dynamic content delivery, including creating a session document for a presentation, including identifying a user participant for the presentation, where the session document includes a session grammar and a session structured document, the user participant has a user profile comprising user classifications and user interests, the user interests comprising data fields for storing data values indicating user interest in one or more subjects of the presentation; receiving from the identified user participant at least one data value indicating user interest in one or more subjects of the presentation; storing in the user profile the data value indicating user interest; recreating the session document in dependence upon the data value indicating user interest; selecting from the recreated session document a classified structural element; and presenting the selected structural element to at least one user participant. |
| US08245132B2 |
Publication layout system
Some embodiments disclose a computer-implemented system configured to create an advertisement. The system can include: (a) an administrative toolkit configured to facilitate a template creator at a first location to create a template comprising a plurality of template portions, and to input content components to populate the template, the administrative toolkit comprising: (1) a template definition and editing module configured to: (i) create the template at a development site accessible to the template creator and not accessible to an end user; and (ii) establish rules governing content to be placed in one or more of the template portions; and (2) a template inventory management module configured to move a copy of the template from the development site to a production site accessible to the end user, thereby updating the production site; and (b) an end-user interface configured to facilitate the end-user at a second location to: (1) access the copy of the template over an information exchange network after the copy of the template has been moved to the production site: and (2) populate one or more of the portions with content in accordance with the rules established by the template creator, whereby the end-user can create a customized advertisement that, conforms to standards set by the template creator. Other embodiments are disclosed in this application. |
| US08245131B2 |
Constraining layout variations for accommodating variable content in electronic documents
Methods, systems and machine-readable instructions for constraining layout variations for accommodating variable content in electronic documents are described. In one aspect, explicit logical blocks extracted from the electronic document are received. Each of the explicit logical blocks corresponds to a content region of the electronic document assigned a respective content style. Layout relationships among the explicit logical blocks are determined. Based on the layout relationships, rules constraining layout variations among implicit logical blocks to approximate the electronic document in appearance while accommodating variable content are generated. Each of the implicit logical blocks corresponds to a respective one of the explicit logical blocks and accommodates variable content having the content style assigned to the corresponding explicit logical block. The rules are stored in a machine-readable medium. |
| US08245128B1 |
Intelligent client agent for a hybrid online/offline application
An intelligent client agent and a method for using the client agent to operate a hybrid online/offline client application. A mobile client device is configured with a client agent comprising a dispatcher for receiving and responding to page requests from a client browser, a cache for storing the presentation formats of pages, a database for storing data for the pages, a voice engine for interaction with the application user in audio, and a script engine for assembling a page to be presented graphically or aurally. Instead of storing each page (e.g., of an application) as a static composition, the presentation format of the page is stored separate from content (e.g., data). At the time of assembly, the desired content is retrieved and bound to the presentation format and provided to the user. |
| US08245127B2 |
Method and apparatus for a document annotation service
Embodiments of the present invention provide method, system and computer program product for annotating a document being divided by intervals. The method includes identifying, at each interval in the document, one or more keywords in the text of the document; determining, at each interval, the number of context classes associated with each keyword; identifying at least one annotation word and at an interval in the text of the document, the annotation word having two or more annotations associated with two or more context classes; determining the annotation based on the context class with highest count at the annotation word interval; and annotating the document with the determined annotation. |
| US08245125B1 |
Hybrid rendering for webpages
Disclosed herein are methods and systems for hybrid rendering of web applications. A request for a first webpage is sent to a server-side renderer from a web browser. The first webpage and associated JavaScript instructions are received in the web browser from the server-side renderer. The first webpage is displayed in the web browser. It is then determined if the JavaScript instructions are loaded in the web browser. If the JavaScript instructions are loaded, a second webpage is rendered in the web browser based upon a request for the second webpage. If the JavaScript instructions are not loaded, the web browser sends the request for the second web page to the server-side renderer. |
| US08245121B2 |
Signal control circuit and signal control apparatus
A signal control circuit and a signal control apparatus that can reduce processing time and can send or receive correct data with reliability. When a data generation block outputs data, a data judgment block judges the number of changed bits by comparing each bit of the data output in the preceding session with the corresponding bit of the data to be sent in the current session and outputs position information indicating the position of each changed bit and the number of changed bits when the number of changed bits has reached a predetermined level. An output control block keeps a time period for stabilizing the change in value of the bit corresponding to the position information when the data is output, and directs a data storage block to send the value of the bit corresponding to the position information to an external circuit after the kept period has passed. |
| US08245119B2 |
Source-channel approach to channel coding with side information
Code designs for channel coding with side information (CCSI) based on combined source-channel coding are disclosed. These code designs combine trellis-coded quantization (TCQ) with irregular repeat accumulate (IRA) codes. The EXIT chart technique is used for IRA channel code design (and especially for capacity-approaching IRA channel code design). We emphasize the role of strong source coding and endeavor to achieve as much granular gain as possible by using TCQ. These code designs synergistically combine TCQ with IRA codes. By bringing together TCQ and EXIT chart-based IRA code designs, we are able to approach the theoretical limit of dirty-paper coding. |
| US08245115B2 |
Method of decoding by message passing with scheduling depending on neighbourhood reliability
The invention relates to an iterative method by message passing for decoding of an error correction code that can be displayed in a bipartite graph comprising a plurality of variable nodes and a plurality of check nodes. For each iteration in a plurality of decoding iterations of said method: variable nodes or check nodes are classified (720) as a function of the corresponding degrees of reliability of decoding information available in the neighborhoods (Vn(d),Vm(d)) of these nodes, a node with a high degree of reliability being classified before a node with a low degree of reliability; each node thus classified (725) passes at least one message (αmn,βmn) to an adjacent node, in the order defined by said classification. The invention also relates to a computer program designed to implement said decoding method. |
| US08245114B2 |
Transmitting apparatus, transmitting method, and program
A change amount detector calculates the amount of change between frames in a predetermined display range in an image corresponding to image data. When the calculated amount of change is larger than a first threshold, a redundancy determining portion determines the number of data of redundant data such that the number of data of the redundant data for image data in the predetermined display range is increased. A communication controller transmits data containing image data based on the determined number of data of the redundant data. |
| US08245111B2 |
Performing multi-bit error correction on a cache line
A processor may comprise a cache, which may be divided into a first and second section while the processor operates in a low-power mode. A cache line of the first section may be fragmented into segments. A first encoder may generate first data bits and check bits while encoding a first portion of a data stream and a second encoder may, separately, generate second data bits and check bits while encoding a second portion of the data stream. The first data bits may be stored in a first segment of the first section and the check bits in a first portion of the second section that is associated with the first segment. The first decoder may correct errors in multiple bit positions within the first data bits using the check bits stored in the first portion and the second decoder may, separately, decode the second data bits using the second set of check bits. |
| US08245110B2 |
Error correcting code generation method and memory control apparatus
An objective of the present invention is to make it possible to appropriately correct an error of data in a cache memory. A store processing unit generates an nt-ECC on the basis of data stored in a non-target area that was read out from a cache memory with a search of the cache memory, and generates t-ECC on the basis of the data to be stored in the buffer. |
| US08245106B2 |
Method for error correction and error detection of binary data
For algebraic single symbol error correction and detection, a method is proposed which achieves correcting single symbol errors at unknown positions within codewords, identifying cases where multiple symbols within a codeword are uncorrectably corrupted, and identifying cases where a single symbol within a codeword is uncorrectably corrupted. The method comprises the steps of calculating a syndrome of a received word, splitting the syndrome into two parts, checking 3 integer weight quantities calculated from the two syndrome parts, converting the syndrome into a vector of integer valued “orthogonal bit error weights” associated to the received bits, and toggling those bits of the received word, where the associated “orthogonal bit error weight” is in the upper half of its possible value range. |
| US08245101B2 |
Patrol function used in flash storage controller to detect data errors
A patrol function performed in a storage controller connected to a flash memory storage module. The function causes selected areas of the flash storage to be read for purposes of detecting and correcting errors. |
| US08245099B2 |
States encoding in multi-bit flash cells for optimizing error rate
Memory cells are programmed and read, at least M=3 data bits per cell, according to a valid nonserial physical bit ordering with reference to a logical bit ordering. The logical bit ordering is chosen to give a more even distribution of error probabilities of the bits, relative to the probability distributions of the data error and the cell state transition error, than would be provided by the physical bit ordering alone. Preferably, both bit orderings have 2M−1 transitions. Preferably, the logical bit ordering is evenly distributed. The translation between the bit orderings is done by software or hardware. |
| US08245093B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving automatic retransmission request feedback information element in a communication system
An Automatic Retransmission reQuest (ARQ) data block reception apparatus and method in a communication system is provided. In the ARQ method, an ARQ feedback Information Element (IE) is transmitted to an ARQ data block transmission apparatus. The ARQ feedback IE includes a first field for indicating a Connection IDentifier (CID) of an ARQ connection, a second field for indicating the presence/absence of an additional ARQ feedback IE after the ARQ feedback IE, a third field for indicating a type of an Acknowledgement (ACK) MAP included in the ARQ feedback IE, a fourth field for indicating a Block Sequence Number (BSN) of an ARQ data block, and m ACK MAP fields. The m ACK MAP fields each include information indicating presence/absence of an additional ACK MAP field after a corresponding ACK MAP field, and an ACK MAP indicating success/failure in normal reception for each of n ARQ data blocks, wherein m and n each denote an integer greater than or equal to 1. |
| US08245092B2 |
Method for efficient control signaling of two codeword to one codeword transmission
In a wireless communication system (200), a compact control signaling scheme is provided for signaling the selected retransmission mode and codeword identifier for a codeword retransmission when one of a plurality of codewords (CW1, CW2) being transmitted over two codeword pipes to a receiver (201.i) fails the transmission and when the base station/transmitter (210) switches from a higher order channel rank (231) to a lower order channel rank (241), either by including one or more additional signaling bits in the control signal (240) to identify the retransmitted codeword, or by re-using existing control signal information in a way that can be recognized by the subscriber station/receiver to identify the retransmitted codeword. With the compact control signal, the receiver (201.i) is able to determine which codeword is being retransmitted and to determine the corresponding time-frequency resource allocation for the retransmitted codeword. |
| US08245089B2 |
Transmission device, image data transmission system and transmission method
A transmission device includes: a storage unit that holds test data used for checking occurrence/nonoccurrence of a communication abnormality; a serial conversion unit that converts image data to be transmitted and the test data stored in the storage unit into serial data; a transmission unit that transmits the serial data converted by the serial conversion unit to a reception device; and an initialization unit that, when an instruction of particular initialization is inputted, performs initialization on other circuits than the storage unit without performing initialization on the storage unit. |
| US08245088B1 |
Implementing quality of service (QoS) by using hybrid ARQ (HARQ) response for triggering the EV-DO reverse activity bit (RAB)
Methods and systems are provided for implementing quality of service (QoS) by using Hybrid ARQ (HARQ) response for triggering the EV-DO reverse activity bit (RAB). In an embodiment, an access node provides service to a plurality of access terminals, the plurality including a select group of one or more access terminals. The access node detects that it has, over a time period, sent more than a threshold number of HARQ negative acknowledgements (NACKs) with respect to reverse-link communication of the select group, and responsively (1) sets the RAB for the first wireless coverage area and (2) instructs the select group of access terminals to ignore the RAB. The select group ignores the RAB, while the rest of the access terminals obey the RAB. |
| US08245087B2 |
Multi-bit memory error management
Various embodiments include fault tolerant memory apparatus, methods, and systems, including an apparatus comprising a memory device including a plurality of addressable memory locations, and a memory manager coupled to the memory device, the memory manager including a scheduling unit operable to detect a multi-bit error in data read from the memory device, and to retry the read operation in order to distinguish between an intermittent error and a persistent error. |
| US08245086B2 |
Visual feedback system for multiple partitions on a server
Techniques are disclosed for conveying which hardware components of a logically partitioned computer system are assigned to a selected logical partition of the computer system. Partition information for the computer system is received. Further, a request is received from a user to view which hardware components of the computer system are assigned to a selected logical partition of the computer system. Based on the received partition information, one or more hardware components are determined that are assigned to the selected logical partition. Based on the determined hardware components, a virtual model of the computer system is generated that visually distinguishes hardware components assigned to the selected logical partition from hardware components not assigned to the selected logical partition. The virtual model is output responsive to the request. |
| US08245084B2 |
Two-level representative workload phase detection
A subset of a workload, which includes a total set of dynamic instructions, is identified to use as a trace. Processor unit hardware executes the entire workload in real-time using a particular dataset. The processor unit hardware includes at least one microprocessor and at least one cache. The real-time execution of the workload is monitored to obtain information about how the processor unit hardware executes the workload when the workload is executed using the particular dataset to form actual performance information. Multiple different subsets of the workload are generated. The execution of each one of the subsets by the processor unit hardware is compared with the actual performance information. A result of the comparison is used to select one of the plurality of different subsets that most closely represents the execution of the entire workload using the particular dataset to use as a trace. |
| US08245082B2 |
Application reporting library
An apparatus and a method for detecting and reporting malfunctions in computer programs is described. A reporting library of an Application Programming Interface (API) is configured to direct a report of software malfunction to a specified server. The API is implemented in an application to be executed on a computer system. The application implementing the API is to report software malfunction of the application to the specified server. |
| US08245079B2 |
Correlation of network alarm messages based on alarm time
Problems in a network may be diagnosed based on alarm messages received from devices in the network and based on logical circuit path information of the network. In one implementation, a device may log alarm messages, in which each of the logged alarm messages may identify a network device that generated the alarm message and each of the alarm messages are associated with a time value. The device may group the alarm messages in the log of alarm messages based on the time values of the alarm messages to obtain one or more alarm message clusters and analyze the alarm message clusters to locate potential causes of the logged alarm messages. |
| US08245070B2 |
Method for optimizing voltage-frequency setup in multi-core processor systems
A method for dynamically operating a multi-core processor system is provided. The method involves ascertaining currently active processor cores, identifying a currently active processor core having a lowest operating frequency, and adjusting at least one operational parameter according to voltage-frequency characteristics corresponding to the identified processor core to fulfill a predefined functional mode, e.g. power optimization mode, performance optimization mode and mixed mode. |
| US08245069B2 |
Multiple power supplies providing enhanced power efficiency
Method and computer program product for supplying power in a computing system, and computer program product implementing the method. The method comprises monitoring power consumption of the computing system, supplying power to the computing system using only a first power supply over a first range of power consumption, and supplying power to the computing system using a combination of the first power supply and a second power supply over a second range of power consumption. The first power supply provides greater efficiency than the combination of the first and second power supplies over the first lower range of power consumption, the combination of the first and second power supplies provides greater efficiency than the first power supply over the second higher range of power consumption. |
| US08245067B2 |
Power sharing among portable electronic devices
A portable electronic device is operative to facilitate power sharing with at least a second electronic device coupled thereto. The portable electronic device includes a battery power source, a first port adapted for connection to a first network connection and a second port adapted for connection to a second network connection. An input stage in the portable electronic device is connected to the first port. The input stage is operative to supply power received from the first network connection through the first port to the battery power source for recharging the battery power source. The portable electronic device further includes an output stage connected to the second port. The output stage is operative to supply power from the battery power source to the second network connection through the second port. |
| US08245063B2 |
Clock selection for a communications processor having a sleep mode
A clock selector operative on two clocks operating on different domains and responsive to a SELECT input provides a transition from a first clock to a second clock, and from a second clock to a first clock with a dead zone therebetween. The delay is provided by a doublet register having a first register coupled to a second register, the two registers operative on one of the clock domains. Additionally, a clock selector is operative on two clocks which are each accompanied by a clock availability signal where the state machine provides a variety of states to create a dead zone between selections, and to bring the state machine to a known state until a clock signal is again available. |
| US08245062B1 |
Postponing suspend
According to one general aspect, a method may include operating a computing device in a first power mode. The method may also include executing, by a processor of the computing device, at least one non-interactive task. The method may also include detecting, by a processor of the computing device, a request to place the computing device in a second power mode, wherein the second power mode consumes less system resources than the first power mode. The method may further include delaying the transition of the computing device to the second power mode until either the completion of the non-interactive task or an overriding triggering event. |
| US08245060B2 |
Memory object relocation for power savings
A computer system may manage objects in memory to consolidate less frequently accessed objects into memory regions that may be operated in a low power state where the access times may increase for the memory objects. By operating at least some of the memory regions in a low power state, significant power savings can be realized. The computer system may have several memory regions that may be independently controlled and may move memory objects to various memory regions in order to optimize power consumption. In some embodiments, an operation system level function may manage memory objects based on parameters gathered from usage history, memory topology and performance, and input from applications. |
| US08245057B2 |
Method of power management for dynamically controlling power in a processor in according to a workload rate of the processor
A method of power management detects a workload rate of a processor, increases a power level of the processor based on a first value that is an average of the detected workload rate over an up reference time, and decreases the power level of the processor based on a second value that is an average of the detected workload rate over a down reference time. The down reference time may be longer than the up reference time. A power management apparatus includes a processor, a workload detector configured to detect a workload rate of the processor, a power management unit configured to receive the workload rate of the processor and generate a level control signal indicating a power level of the processor, a voltage control unit configured to provide the processor with a supply voltage corresponding to the level control signal, and a clock control unit configured to provide the processor with a clock signal having a frequency corresponding to the level control signal. |
| US08245050B1 |
System and method for initial key establishment using a split knowledge protocol
A split knowledge protocol adapted to establish an initial key for use in authenticating a first computer to a second computer. The second computer initiates the split knowledge protocol by generating a bit sequence and splitting the sequence into a predetermined number of segments. The second computer then encrypts each segment with a predetermined key associated with each segment before transmitting each encrypted segment to the first computer. In response, the first computer decrypts each encrypted segment using the associated key. The first computer then recovers the bit sequence from the decrypted segments. Accordingly, the first and second computers have knowledge of (i.e., access to) the same bit sequence, which may thus be used as the initial key. |
| US08245048B2 |
Authentication method, system, server, and client
An authentication method is disclosed herein. The method includes: by a server, using a Trigger message nonce to generate a Trigger message, and sending the generated Trigger message to a client so that the client can extract the Trigger message nonce; after determining that the Trigger message nonce is valid, using the Trigger message nonce to generate a digest, and authenticating the Trigger message generated by using the Trigger message nonce; after the authentication succeeds, sending a session request to the server indicated by the Trigger message, where the session request carries a session ID. The corresponding system, server and client are disclosed herein. The present invention makes the authentication process more secure through the client and the server based on the DS or DM protocol. |
| US08245046B2 |
Interconnect device to enable compliance with rights management restrictions
To help ensure that only authorized media content that is associated with rights management (RM) restrictions is delivered from a compliant RM interface of a source device to a non-compliant RM interface of a destination device, an interconnect device provides a compliant RM interface to connect to the source device and monitors media content received from the source device to detect an embedded digital watermark. The interconnect device takes the necessary steps to determine if the watermark is authentic and control delivery of the media content to the destination device accordingly. The interconnect device may go back to the source device or to a remote service to authenticate the watermark. If the watermark is authentic, the media content is passed by the interconnect device to the non-compliant interface of the destination device outside of normal RM restrictions. Otherwise, the delivery of the media content is restricted by the interconnect device. |
| US08245044B2 |
Payment transaction processing using out of band authentication
Systems, apparatuses, and methods for increasing the security of electronic payment transactions, such as eCommerce transactions conducted over the Internet. A transaction approval or authorization mechanism uses an out of band process to provide authentication or identification data that has previously been registered by a user and associated with the user's payment device or account. The out of band authentication data may be provided in response to a message sent to a user's mobile phone, where the message is generated in response to entering the user's phone number into a form that is provided when the user engages in an electronic payment transaction using a desktop computer. The data may include a digital signature and associated digital certificate that is used to authenticate the user. |
| US08245040B2 |
Secret authentication system
An authenticated apparatus generates scrambled data from key data and authentication data, such that another key data, which configures the product data, or authentication data is obtained through back-calculation of the product data by using the authentication data or key data, the scrambled data including the product data and the like generated by multiplying the authentication data indicative of the authenticated apparatus's or a user's authenticity by the key data. The authenticated apparatus generates verification data through an operation of the authentication data, key data, or scrambled data, and transmits the verification data and scrambled data to an authenticating apparatus. The authenticating apparatus then verifies authenticity of the authenticated apparatus based on the verification data and scrambled data received from the authenticated apparatus and each authenticated apparatus's or each user's authentication data stored in the authenticating apparatus. |
| US08245033B1 |
Imparting real-time priority-based network communications in an encrypted communication session
This specification describes technologies relating to imparting real-time priority-based network communications in an encrypted session. In general, aspects of the subject matter described can be embodied in methods that include establishing, based on cryptographic information in a reserved, random-data portion of a handshake communication, a session, receiving parameter values relating to a sub media stream, included in a header of a network communication, storing the parameter values, obtaining state information and a data payload included in a second network communication, identifying, from the state information, a purpose of the second network communication, and whether a header of the second network communication includes one or more new values corresponding to one or more of the parameters, updating one or more of the stored values based on the one or more new values, and processing the data payload based on the identified purpose and the stored parameter values. |
| US08245030B2 |
Method for authenticating online transactions using a browser
A method for performing a one-time user setup for authenticating a user and a specific computer using a service provider server and an authentication server including: receiving an identity profile from the service provider server, generating a Pre-Authorization Anchor (PAA) in response to receiving the identity profile, communicating the PAA to the user browser, generating a Server Fingerprint (SFP) for the user browser, generating an activation code, after generating the PAA and SPF, transmitting the activation code to the user browser via an out-of-band communication channel, using the activation code to establish a secure communication channel between the service consumer browser and the service provider server, receiving via the secure communication channel a client fingerprint (CFP), wherein the CFP is encoded using a key that is based on the SPF, and sending a rolling key challenge (RKC) to the user browser via the secure communication channel. |
| US08245027B2 |
Method and system for unified audio control on a personal computer
A system and method for improved audio controls on a personal computer is provided. The system and method provide a unified architecture for audio controls across hardware and software interfaces of the personal computer. An intelligent facility may automatically change audio controls for users to simply interact with various communications and media applications. To this end, a configurable audio controller intelligently handles various aspects of the system's audio devices by following various rules that may be based at least in part on user-configurable settings and a current operating state. The present invention also provides audio controls so that a user may easily change audio settings such as the volume of an audio output device. There are many applications that may use the present invention for automatic control of audio devices based upon the user's context. |
| US08245020B1 |
Creating a partial instance of component in response to user specifying a value for a dynamic attribute of a selected component
The present invention provides a configuration system, method, and software program for efficiently configuring products with dynamic components. Component definitions in the configuration system can include both static and dynamic attributes. Static attributes are fixed and are defined prior to the user configuring a product. Dynamic attributes are defined during a configuration session, and the values of dynamic attributes are unique to a configuration session. When an attribute of a dynamic component is specified or changed during the configuration process, the configurator creates only a partial instance of the component with the specified dynamic attribute, and it associates a state of the configuration process with such partial instance. When the configurator executes a constraint that involves a component with one or more dynamic attributes, the configurator uses, for each dynamic attribute, the most recent partial instance of the component with a value for that attribute. |
| US08245018B2 |
Processor register recovery after flush operation
An information handling system includes a processor that may perform general purpose register recovery operations after an instruction flush operation that an exception, such as a branch misprediction causes. The processor receives an instruction stream that may include multiple instructions that operate on a particular target register that stores instruction result information. The general purpose register may temporarily store instruction opcode and register bits information for use during dispatch, execution and other operations. The processor includes a recovery buffer unit for use during flush recovery operations. The processor may use recovery valid and recovery pending bits that correspond with each instruction during the register recovery from flush operation. |
| US08245014B2 |
Thread interleaving in a multithreaded embedded processor
The present invention provides a network multithreaded processor, such as a network processor, including a thread interleaver that implements fine-grained thread decisions to avoid underutilization of instruction execution resources in spite of large communication latencies. In an upper pipeline, an instruction unit determines an-instruction fetch sequence responsive to an instruction queue depth on a per thread basis. In a lower pipeline, a thread interleaver determines a thread interleave sequence responsive to thread conditions including thread latency conditions. The thread interleaver selects threads using a two-level round robin arbitration. Thread latency signals are active responsive to thread latencies such as thread stalls, cache misses, and interlocks. During the subsequent one or more clock cycles, the thread is ineligible for arbitration. In one embodiment, other thread conditions affect selection decisions such as local priority, global stalls, and late stalls. |
| US08245013B2 |
Mapped offsets preset ahead of process migration
Disclosed is a computer implemented method and computer program product to prioritize paging-in pages in a remote paging device. An arrival machine receives checkpoint data from a departure machine. The arrival machine restarts at least one process corresponding to the checkpoint data. The arrival machine determines whether a page associated with the process is pinned. The arrival machine associates the page to the remote paging device, responsive to a determination that the page is pinned. The arrival machine touches the page. |
| US08245006B2 |
Data storage device and data management method
A data storage device for storing and managing data includes a data memory, an input unit, a data writer, and a data deleter. The data memory stores data. The data memory includes a preferential deletion area for storing data which needs to be preferentially deleted. The input unit accepts input data. The data writer stores the input data in the data memory. The data deleter deletes data stored in the data memory. The data deleter starts to delete data stored in the preferential deletion area before starting to delete data stored in the data memory other than the preferential deletion area when a predefined condition is satisfied. |
| US08245001B2 |
Storage device and method for protecting its partition
The present invention provides a storage device and a method for protecting its protected partition in which the storage device comprises a master boot record unit and a protected partition, the protected partition comprises an application data area and a system data area for storing application data and system data to be provided to a user, respectively, and the system data area is in a customized data format of nonstandard file system. With the storage device and the method for protecting its protected partition, security of system data in the protected partition of the storage device is enhanced. |
| US08245000B2 |
System and method for managing security of a memory device
A computing device and method for managing security of a memory or storage device without the need for administer privileges. To access the secure memory, a host provides a data block containing a control command and authentication data to the memory device. The memory device includes a controller for controlling access to a secure memory in the memory device. The memory device identifies the control command in the data block, authenticates the control command based on the authentication data, and executes the control command to allow the host device to access the secure memory. |
| US08244994B1 |
Cooperating memory controllers that share data bus terminals for accessing wide external devices
A memory controller mechanism is operable in a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode, a first memory controller portion of the mechanism can use a first set of data terminals to perform a first external bus access operation (EBAO) and a second memory controller portion of the mechanism can use a second set of data terminals to perform a second EBAO. The first and second EBAO operations may be narrow accesses that occur simultaneously. In the second mode, one of the controllers can use both the first and second sets of data terminals to perform a wider third EBAO. The memory controller mechanism can dynamically switch between first mode and second mode operations. In situations in which one of the sets of data terminals would not otherwise be used, performing wide accesses in the second mode using the one set of data terminals improves bus utilization. |
| US08244991B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus for subdividing data for storage in a dispersed data storage grid
An efficient method for breaking source data into smaller data subsets and storing those subsets along with coded information about some of the other data subsets on different storage nodes such that the original data can be recreated from a portion of those data subsets in an efficient manner. |
| US08244988B2 |
Predictive ownership control of shared memory computing system data
A method, circuit arrangement, and design structure utilize a lock prediction data structure to control ownership of a cache line in a shared memory computing system. In a first node among the plurality of nodes, lock prediction data in a hardware-based lock prediction data structure for a cache line associated with a first memory request is updated in response to that first memory request, wherein at least a portion of the lock prediction data is predictive of whether the cache line is associated with a release operation. The lock prediction data is then accessed in response to a second memory request associated with the cache line and issued by a second node and a determination is made as to whether to transfer ownership of the cache line from the first node to the second node based at least in part on the accessed lock prediction data. |
| US08244986B2 |
Data storage and access in multi-core processor architectures
Technologies are generally described for a system for sending a data block stored in a cache. In some examples described herein, a system may comprise a first processor in a first tile. The first processor is effective to generate a request for a data block, the request including a destination identifier identifying a destination tile for the data block, the destination tile being distinct from the first tile. Some example systems may further comprise a second tile effective to receive the request, the second tile effective to determine a data tile including the data block, the second tile further effective to send the request to the data tile. Some example systems may still further comprise a data tile effective to receive the request from the second tile, the data tile effective to send the data block to the destination tile. |
| US08244985B2 |
Store performance in strongly ordered microprocessor architecture
Apparatus and methods relating to store operations are disclosed. In one embodiment, a first storage unit is to store data. A second storage unit is to store the data only after it has become detectable by a bus agent. Moreover, the second storage unit may store an index field for each data value to be stored within the second storage unit. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08244984B1 |
System and method for cleaning dirty data in an intermediate cache using a data class dependent eviction policy
In one embodiment, a method for managing information related to dirty data stored in an intermediate cache coupled to one or more clients and to an external memory includes receiving a dirty data notification related to dirty data residing in the intermediate cache, the dirty data notification including a memory address indicating a location in the external memory where the dirty data should be stored and a data type associated with the dirty data, and extracting a bank page number from the memory address that identifies a bank page within the external memory where the dirty data should be stored. The embodiment also includes incrementing a first count associated with a first entry in a notification sorter that is affirmatively associated with the bank page, determining that the dirty data has a first data type, and incrementing a second count associated with the first entry. |
| US08244983B2 |
Memory control systems with directory caches and methods for operation thereof
A memory control system is provided with a directory cache and a memory controller. The directory cache has a plurality of directory cache entries configured to store information regarding copies of memory lines stored in a plurality of memory caches, wherein each directory cache entry has one or more bits configured to store an ownership state that indicates whether a corresponding master directory entry lacks a memory cache owner. The memory controller is configured to free for re-use ones of the directory cache entries by 1) accessing a particular directory entry, and 2) determining whether the ownership state of the particular directory cache entry indicates that a corresponding master directory entry lacks a memory cache owner. If so, the memory controller A) skips a master directory update process, and B) claims for re-use the particular directory cache entry. |
| US08244976B2 |
Monitoring performance of a storage area network
A performance monitor reports SAN performance so that issues within the SAN are not masked from the client. Accesses to the SAN may be grouped into the categories of SAN logical or SAN physical. In one specific embodiment, the ranges of service times for accesses to the SAN are determined by monitoring service times of accesses to the SAN from the client perspective. In another specific embodiment, the ranges of service times for the SAN are determined by the SAN returning data with each request that indicates the service time from the SAN perspective. This allows reporting not only SAN logical and SAN physical accesses, but also allows reporting SAN service time. By specifying SAN service time, the client is able to better determine network delays. In yet another embodiment, information is returned by the SAN to indicate whether the access is SAN logical or SAN physical. |
| US08244971B2 |
Memory circuit system and method
A memory circuit system and method are provided in the context of various embodiments. In one embodiment, an interface circuit remains in communication with a plurality of memory circuits and a system. The interface circuit is operable to interface the memory circuits and the system for performing various functionality (e.g. power management, simulation/emulation, etc.). |
| US08244969B2 |
System including a fine-grained memory and a less-fine-grained memory
A data processing system includes one or more nodes, each node including a memory sub-system. The sub-system includes a fine-grained, memory, and a less-fine-grained (e.g., page-based) memory. The fine-grained memory optionally serves as a cache and/or as a write buffer for the page-based memory. Software executing on the system uses a node address space which enables access to the page-based memories of all nodes. Each node optionally provides ACID memory properties for at least a portion of the space. In at least a portion of the space, memory elements are mapped to locations in the page-based memory. In various embodiments, some of the elements are compressed, the compressed elements are packed into pages, the pages are written into available locations in the page-based memory, and a map maintains an association between the some of the elements and the locations. |
| US08244967B2 |
Method to rewrite flash memory with exclusively activated two blocks and optical transceiver implementing controller performing the same
An effective algorithm for the CPU with a flash memory is disclosed to shorten a dead time to erase the flash memory and to write new data therein. The flash memory of the invention provides front and back blocks for the user data area. When the front block is filled, the back block is erased just after the front block is fully filled in advance to receive a new data next to be written. |
| US08244964B2 |
Read preamble for data capture optimization
Systems and/or methods are provided that facilitate data capture optimization for devices accessing memories via a bus. In an aspect, a memory can output a read preamble prior to pushing data onto a bus. The read preamble can be a known sequence of one or more bits. A host device accessing the memory via the bus can analyze the read preamble and, particularly, timing characteristics of the read preamble. The timing characteristics can be utilized to identify an optimal capture point within a window of data validity. |
| US08244959B2 |
Software adapted wear leveling
A subset of software objects stored in a first segment of non-volatile memory are identified as requiring frequent write operations or otherwise associated with a high endurance requirement. The subset of software objects are move to a second segment of non-volatile memory with a high endurance capacity, due to the application of wear leveling techniques to the second segment of non-volatile memory. The first and second segments of memory can be located in the same memory device or different memory devices. |
| US08244955B2 |
Storage system and its controlling method
This invention, in the interface coupled to the server, the disk interface coupled to the second memory to store final data, the cache to store data temporarily, and in the storage system with the MP which controls them, specifies the area by referring to the stored data, and makes the virtual memory area resident in the cache by using the storage system where the specified area is made resident in the cache. |
| US08244953B1 |
System and method for faster data retrieval from tape media
The present invention is a system and method for extending the functionality of tape device tapemarks. When data is backed up to tape, the tape controller may mark the tape with a tapemark to organize portions of the tape. Present tape storage devices are limited to a single type of tapemark; therefore current recovery requests require knowledge of the tapemark location. The present invention allows for unique types of tapemarks. By allowing the tape device, tape controller and/or backup and recovery software to recognize unique tapemarks, data organized by unique tapemarks can be recovered without referencing tapemark location, thereby optimizing recovery. Unique tapemarks may be encrypted such that data recovery is only completed upon verification of the requester. |
| US08244952B2 |
Multiple processor system and method including multiple memory hub modules
A processor-based electronic system includes several memory modules arranged in first and second ranks. The memory modules in the first rank are directly accessed by any of several processors, and the memory modules in the second rank are accessed by the processors through the memory modules in the first rank. The data bandwidth between the processors and the memory modules in the second rank is varied by varying the number of memory modules in the first rank that are used to access the memory module in the second set. Each of the memory modules includes several memory devices coupled to a memory hub. The memory hub includes a memory controller coupled to each memory device, a link interface coupled to a respective processor or memory module, and a cross bar switch coupling any of the memory controllers to any of the link interfaces. |
| US08244949B2 |
Slot interface access unit, method thereof, and program thereof, as well as redundancy configuration of main unit, and replacing method of the same
A single main unit manages information on hardware resources and the like of all main units connected to a network in an integrated fashion. A slot management module, a slot control module, and a physical slot/managed slot comparison table are provided between an input/output control module and a slot interface subordinate thereto. The input/output control module accesses the slot interface by using virtual slot identification information. The slot management module refers to the physical slot/managed slot comparison table, converts the virtual slot identification information into physical slot identification information, and accesses a slot control module corresponding to the physical slot identification information obtained by the conversion, thereby realizing a physical access of the input/output control module to the slot interface. |
| US08244947B2 |
Methods and apparatus for resource sharing in a programmable interrupt controller
Efficient techniques are described for identifying active interrupt requests to improve performance and reduce power requirements in a processor system. A method to identify active sampled interrupt requests begins with scanning groups of the sampled interrupt requests one group at a time to identify an active interrupt request in any scanned group. A group of interrupt requests is an M/R priority of N sampled interrupt requests, M is the number of priority levels, and R is a resource sharing factor. A group selection circuit is updated to a new group in response to having identified an active interrupt request to improve the latency in processing high priority interrupt requests. Also, groups having active interrupt requests may be identified by early detection or look ahead circuitry. The scanning of groups of interrupt requests may be stopped until the next interrupt request sample point has been reached to reduce power utilization. |
| US08244943B2 |
Administering the polling of a number of devices for device status
Administering the polling of a number of devices for device status including determining whether a task identification for polling the device is in the delayed polling queue; if the task identification for polling the device is not in the delayed polling queue, determining whether the task identification for polling the device is in the immediate polling queue; if the task identification for polling the device is in the immediate polling queue; calculating a new time interval for polling the device in dependence upon a predetermined base period and a random selection of a time offset, wherein the time offset is within a predetermined range; calculating a next polling time for polling the device in dependence upon the current time and the new time interval; inserting the task identification in the delayed polling queue in dependence upon the next polling time. |
| US08244938B2 |
Sliding write window mechanism for writing data
Various embodiments writing data are provided. In one embodiment, the data arranged in a plurality of write intervals is loaded into a plurality of buffers, the totality of the plurality of buffers configured as a sliding write window mechanism adapted for movement to accommodate the write intervals. The data may reach the storage system out of a sequential order, and by loading it appropriately into the said buffers the data is ordered sequentially before it is written to the storage media. When a commencing section of the sliding write window is filled up with written data, this section is flushed to the storage media, and the window slides forward, to accommodate further data written by the writers. The writers are synchronized with the interval reflected by the current position of the sliding write window, and they send data to be written only where this data fits into the current interval of the window. |
| US08244937B2 |
Solid state storage device controller with parallel operation mode
Solid state storage devices and methods for operation of solid state storage devices are disclosed. In one such method, a master memory controller is comprised of a plurality of memory communication channels. At least one of the memory communication channels is used to communicate with one or more slave memory controllers. The master and slave memory controllers can operate in a parallel operation mode to communicate with a plurality of memory devices coupled to the memory communication channels of each memory controller. |
| US08244935B2 |
Write aggregation using optional I/O requests
A computer readable storage medium comprising software instructions, which when executed by a processor, perform a method, the method including obtaining a first non-optional Input/Output (I/O) request from an I/O queue, determining that a second non-optional I/O request and an optional I/O request are adjacent to the first non-optional I/O request, generating a new data payload using a first data payload from the first non-optional I/O request, a second data payload for the second non-optional I/O request, and a third data payload corresponding to the optional I/O request, wherein the third data payload is interposed between the first data payload and the second data payload, generating a new non-optional I/O request comprising the new data payload, and issuing the new non-optional I/O request to a storage pool, wherein the new data payload is written to a contiguous storage location in the storage pool. |
| US08244934B2 |
Data storage network management
Disclosed is a method of managing a data storage network comprising a plurality of data storage volumes and a plurality of paths for connecting a server to a selected one of said data storage volumes, comprising determining, for an individual path, a plurality of performance parameters of said path during an interval; calculating a path performance metric from a combination of the determined performance parameters; and, if the path performance metric falls below a predefinable quality standard blocking the individual path from being used for a data communication with one of the data storage volumes; and signaling the blocking of the individual path. A computer program product and a server adapted to implement this method are also disclosed. |
| US08244930B1 |
Mechanisms for synchronizing data transfers between non-uniform memory architecture computers
A first node includes a DMA engine for transferring data specified by a sequence of control blocks to a second node. When a control block does not require synchronization between memories, the DMA engine sends an end of transfer (EOT) message after the last datum, increments an EOT counter, and processes the next control block. When a control block requires synchronization and the EOT counter is at zero, the DMA engine sends an EOT with a flag after the last datum, increments the EOT counter, and waits for the EOT counter to return to zero before processing the next control block. A memory controller at the second node detects the EOT with or without a flag and generates an EOT acknowledgement with or without a flag. When a link interface at the second node detects the EOT acknowledgement with a flag, it sends an interrupt to a local processor complex. |
| US08244923B2 |
Application setting management apparatus, and method and program for controlling setting management apparatus
An application setting management apparatus provided therein is capable of managing settings that differ in accordance with the device groups even when a plurality of device groups differing in function and option from each other are included. The management apparatus is connected to a plurality of devices through a communication line, and includes a reception unit configured to receive information in regard to setting for a certain application from each of the plurality of devices through the communication line, a group processing component configured to group the plurality of devices on the basis of the received information in regard to the setting for the certain application, and a transmission unit configured to transmit information used for configuring the common setting in relation to the certain application through the communication line to a plurality of grouped devices. |
| US08244921B2 |
Apparatus for providing a user interface, peripheral devices, computer means, methods of providing a user interface, and programs
There is provided an apparatus for providing a user interface comprising a peripheral device (1) for displaying a user interface, and computer means (2) connected to the peripheral device (1). The apparatus is configured to provide user-interface information to the peripheral device (1), and the peripheral device (1) is configured to allow a user to interact with a program on the computer means (2) via a user interface displayed on the peripheral device (1). The apparatus is configured so that the computer means (2) sends user-interface information to the peripheral device (1) to allow the peripheral device (1) to display a plurality of panes of the user interface to the user without receiving further user-interface information from the computer means (2). |
| US08244920B2 |
Smart card set protocol optimization
A method of facilitating communications between a computer device and a smart card reader having an associated smart card, the computer device including a smart card resource manager and a smart card reader service, the smart card reader service acting as a relay for commands between the smart card resource manager and the smart card reader, the method comprising: receiving from the smart card resource manager a first command for setting a protocol for communications with the smart card; and responding, prior to receiving a reply from the smart card to the first command, to the smart card resource manager with a message indicating that the smart card has successfully received the first command. |
| US08244917B2 |
Communication system, communication apparatus and communication method as well as program
A communication system, a communication apparatus, and a communication method as well as to a program for acquiring the advantages of a plurality of communication protocols are provided. An NFC communication is executed between an NFC communication unit 51 of a communication apparatus 1 and an NFC communication unit 61 of a communication apparatus 2, thereby it is recognized that a communication (BT communication) by Bluetooth (registered trademark) is possible, and further the BD addresses of a BT communication units 52 and 62 are exchanged as communication information necessary to the BT communication. Then, in the communication apparatuses 1 and 2, the NFC communication between the NFC communication units 51 and 61 is switched (overhanded) to the BT communication between BT communication units 52 and 62, and the BT communication is executed based on the BD addresses of the BT communication units 52 and 62. |
| US08244912B2 |
System for networked digital pathology exchange
A computer-based method and apparatus to facilitate the exchange of pathology studies for the purpose of providing a primary or secondary pathological diagnosis. A study consists of one or more lower-resolution images, the references to the corresponding higher-resolution images, associated image metadata, study metadata and patient metadata. The studies are exchanged from one organization (hospital, practice, or individual physician) to another organization through a set of interconnected dispatcher services. In a cloud model, a plurality of dispatchers may be connected through a Global Dispatcher, both facilitating the addition of new organizations to the cloud and allowing for the addressing of studies from any organization in the cloud to any organization, group or individual in the cloud. By this means, the originating organization may obtain the desired level of care through the selection of recipient organizations, groups and individuals according to the organization's existing criteria. Efficiency in diagnosis is improved through the addressing of a study to a plurality of qualified recipients, as the first recipient with an appropriate, available resource may review and provide a diagnosis for the study. |
| US08244910B2 |
Method and system to modify function calls from within content published by a trusted web site
A network-based publication system, to publish data over a communications network, includes an interface to receive, via the communications network and from a first user, user data to be published by a network-based publication system. The publication system further includes a publisher component to generate publication data (e.g., an HTML document) including the user data and function modifying code. The publisher component generates the publication data in accordance with a publication format. The interface publishes the publication data via the communications network. The function modifying code is interpreted and executed, at a browser application, to disable (or modify) least one function of programming language supported by the browser application. |
| US08244908B2 |
System, method and program for distributed event detection
A distributed event detection system for detecting a complex event by a distributed detection process, includes a plurality of broker nodes for routing events and a route node for distributing the complex event, wherein the route node comprises a detection formula decomposing unit which decomposes a complex event detection formula for detecting the complex event into a plurality of complex sub-event detection formulae; a sub-route node assignment unit which assigns a broker node as a sub-route node with respect to each of the complex sub-event detection formulae decomposed by the detection formula decomposing unit; and a complex event detecting unit which detects the complex event based on a complex sub-event detected by the sub-route node assigned by the sub-route node assignment unit. |
| US08244904B2 |
Electronic device and base station for maintaining a network connection
An electronic device and wireless base station for maintaining a persistent connection are provided. In an embodiment, a system includes an electronic device that connects to a web-server via a physical link that is bandwidth-constrained. The physical link also includes a wireless base station and at least one network address translation (“NAT”) router that is configured to terminate idle connections between the client and the web-server. One of the electronic device and the wireless base station is configured to send keep-alive packets to the web-server in order to reduce the likelihood of the NAT router terminating the connection. The keep-alive packets are sent on a variable basis that is intended to reduce bandwidth consumption while ensuring that the NAT router does not deem the connection idle and terminate the connection. |
| US08244902B2 |
Device, system, and method of distributing messages
Device, system, and method of distributing messages. For example, a data publisher capable of communication with a plurality of subscribers via a network fabric, the data publisher comprising: a memory allocator to allocate a memory area of a local memory unit of the data publisher to be accessible for Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) read operations by one or more of the subscribers; and a publisher application to create a message log in said memory area, to send a message to one or more of the subscribers using a multicast transport protocol, and to store in said memory area a copy of said message. A subscriber device handles recovery of lost messages by directly reading the lost messages from the message log of the data publisher using RDMA read operation(s). |
| US08244901B2 |
Methods and apparatus to facilitate client controlled sessionless adaptation
A disclosed example method for managing media content includes retrieving metadata for a plurality of encodings of the media content, wherein the metadata includes a first uniform resource locator (URL) and a first set of byte offsets for a first portion of the media content having a first encoding and a second URL and a second set of byte offsets for a second portion of the media content having a second encoding. The example method also includes requesting the first portion of the media content utilizing the first URL and the first set of byte offsets. |
| US08244900B2 |
Measuring method, measuring apparatus and computer program
There is provided a measuring apparatus for acquiring packets being transmitted and received within a packet network and measuring communication quality on the basis of the acquired packets, the apparatus including a part that extracts packets acquired within one of given sampling periods, each sampling period set intermittently, and a part that measures communication quality on the basis of the packets acquired within the sampling period. |
| US08244899B1 |
Delivering a video stream
Delivering a video stream is disclosed. A request for the video stream is received. A past portion of the video stream is delivered to a client. The past portion has a marker time that precedes a current time by an interval that corresponds to a buffer length in a client buffer. Receiving a video stream is also disclosed. A request for the video stream is transmitted. A past portion of the video stream is received. The received past portion has a marker time that precedes a current time by an interval that corresponds to a buffer length in a client buffer. |
| US08244898B1 |
Single message media session control
A method, system, and medium are provided for initiating and controlling a media stream with a single message sent from the mobile device to the content provider. The single message uses session description information from a session-description template. In response to receiving the single request, the content provider initiates transmission of the media content according to the instruction in the request. If the content provider does not have a version of the media that matches the selected session-description template, then the content provider may suggest a different version of the media content to the mobile device. The mobile device would then generate a new request based on the suggested version of the media content. |
| US08244897B2 |
Content reproduction apparatus, content reproduction method, and program
A content reproduction apparatus is provided for reproducing variable-speed content. The content reproduction apparatus includes a data acquisition section for obtaining first streaming data and second streaming data, wherein the first streaming data includes first reproduction time data indicating a time to reproduce the first streaming data at a first streaming speed, and wherein the second streaming data includes second reproduction time data indicating a time to reproduce the second streaming data at a second streaming speed. The content reproduction apparatus also includes a reproduction time acquisition section for calculating a third reproduction time according to the first reproduction time data, the second reproduction time data, and a relationship between the first streaming speed and the second streaming speed, the third reproduction time being a time to reproduce the first streaming data at the first streaming speed followed by the second streaming data at the first streaming speed. |
| US08244894B1 |
Detach mechanisms for host-based mobility protocols
A method and apparatus for performing a detach procedure between a first device and a second device. The method includes receiving, at a first device, an informational exchange message to delete an IP security association between the first device and a second device. The informational exchange message further includes a notify message indicating that the deletion of the IP security association is due to a detach request. In response to the notify message indicating that the deletion of the IP security association is due to the detach request, the method further includes automatically deleting, at the first device, a mobility related state associated with the host-based mobility protocol. |
| US08244892B2 |
Radio communication device and radio communication system comprising same
Radiocommunication device comprising a starter software module suitable to allow a simplified radio link of the radiocommunication device with a local radiocommunication network and allow a downloading, by this simplified radio link, of an update of a use software module that is contained in the radiocommunication device and that is suitable to enable a normal radio link to be set up. |
| US08244888B2 |
Method and mechanism for implementing tagged session pools
An improved method, mechanism, and system for implementing, generating, and maintaining for implementing session pools is disclosed. A session in a session pool can be customized to with a specific set of affinities and attributes. Tags can be associated with the customized sessions. When a later request is made for a session having a set of desired characteristics, the tags can be used to search for and identify a session in the session pool having the requested characteristics. Also disclosed is a method, mechanism, and system for dynamic sizing of session pools. |
| US08244881B2 |
Service virtualization over content-centric networks
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating network service virtualization. During operation, the system receives a service request from a client, and initializes a communication session with the client. The system constructs an interest using session state information that can identify the client and/or a previous communication session. The interest comprises a hierarchically structured variable-length name. The system then broadcasts the interest to a number of servers. The system subsequently forwards to the client data received from a server which responds first to the interest. |
| US08244879B2 |
Surreptitious web server bias towards desired browsers
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to processing requests from a client to a server and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for transmitting data in a surreptitious pattern. In this regard, in one embodiment of the invention, a method for processing requests from a client system to a server system through a communications network can be provided. The method can include establishing a covert packetization pattern for fragmenting data into packets before transmission, splitting a request into one or more packets according to the covert packetization pattern, transmitting each packet to a server system, responsive to reconstructing fragmented packets, recognizing the covert packetization pattern, and responsive to recognizing the covert packetization pattern, giving priority to a client system. |
| US08244877B2 |
Method and system for processing a control message in an internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service
A method and system for processing a message in an Internet protocol-based mobile communication system supporting a multimedia service. In the system, application servers include a representative application server and multiple backend application servers. A method for defining a control message between application servers to set up a session using the standard Internet protocol is provided. When an application server performs a call processing operation, control message processing load and control message transmission delay is reduced. |
| US08244874B1 |
Edge-based resource spin-up for cloud computing
Aspects of the present invention include distributing new resources closer to end-users which are making increased demands by spinning-up additional virtualized instances (as part of a cloud provisioning) within servers that are physically near to the network equipment (i.e., web servers, switches, routers, load balancers) that are receiving the requests. |
| US08244873B2 |
Method, system and computer program product for server selection, application placement and consolidation planning of information technology systems
A plurality of application profiles are obtained, for a plurality of applications. Each of the profiles specifies a list of resources, and requirements for each of the resources, associated with a corresponding one of the applications. Specification of a plurality of constraints associated with the applications is facilitated, as is obtaining a plurality of cost models associated with at least two different kinds of servers on which the applications are to run. A recommended server configuration is generated for running the applications, by formulating and solving a bin packing problem. Each of the at least two different kinds of servers is treated as a bin of a different size, based on its capacity, and has an acquisition cost associated therewith. The size is substantially equal to a corresponding one of the resource requirement as given by a corresponding one of the application profiles. Each of the applications is treated as an item, with an associated size, to be packed into the bins. The bin packing problem develops the recommended server configuration based on reducing a total acquisition cost while satisfying the constraints and the sizes of the applications. |
| US08244869B2 |
System and method for starting server services
In one embodiment, services are not loaded if they are not needed by the user and if no services needed by the user are dependent upon them. In one embodiment, server services are represented as nodes in a graph data structure. Connections between the nodes indicate dependencies between the server services. The graph is sorted to create an ordered list of services which can be used to startup the services. In another embodiment a server services manager reads license files and user inputs and marks the ordered list of services to indicate which services are to startup. |
| US08244863B2 |
Content pattern recognition language processor and methods of using the same
A device for detecting network traffic content is provided. The device includes a processor configured to receive a signature associated with content desired to be detected, and execute one or more functions based on the signature to determine whether network traffic content matches the content desired to be detected. The signature is defined by one or more predicates. A computer readable medium for use to detect network traffic content is also provided. The computer readable medium includes a memory storing one or more signatures, each of the one or more signatures associated with content desired to be detected. Each of the one or more signatures is defined by one or more predicates, and each of the one or more predicates can be compiled into a byte code stream that controls a logic of a network traffic screening device. |
| US08244856B2 |
Network management system accelerated event desktop client
This invention relates to a network management system accelerated event desktop client. This invention also relates to a method and computer program product for controlling an accelerated event desktop client in a network management system. The network management system comprises: a probe for intercepting a system event from a monitored system and creating an event item or modifying an event item associated with the system event; a collection database server collecting, in database of event items, a new event item or modification to an existing event item; a first client and a second client; a notifying means for notifying the first client of the new event item or event item modification; and first client notifying means for notifying the second client of the new event or event item modification. Additionally the second client can retrieve event item data, corresponding to the event notification received from the first client, from the database where the event item is collected. |
| US08244851B1 |
Group network connector
The present invention relates to a method and system for contacts management and an interface application for managing, searching and sharing electronic contact information of users of a group. |
| US08244850B1 |
Centralized storage management for multiple heterogeneous host-side servers
Centralized management of both host-side storage objects on multiple heterogeneous host-side servers and logical data containers on a storage system is performed by a management server. In one embodiment, the management server automatically provisions a logical data container on the storage server according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system. In another embodiment, the management server automatically performs a snapshot operation on logical data containers on the storage system according to the storage virtualization strategy without administrator interaction at the storage system. In another embodiment, the management server centrally monitors for out-of-space events in the storage system and automatically correlates the out-of-space events in the storage system to out-of-space events for the host-side file systems. |
| US08244847B2 |
Management of a service oriented architecture shared service
An approach that manages a service oriented architecture (SOA) shared service is provided. In one embodiment, there is a service management tool, including an identification component configured to identify a SOA shared service that needs to be revised; and a revision component configured to develop a revision procedure to address the SOA shared service that needs to be revised, and implement the revision procedure for the SOA shared service. |
| US08244843B1 |
System and method for automated discovery and procurement of management information bases (MIBs)
A generic mechanism enabling the programmatic identification of MIBs needed for control of an SNMP agent for a network device is disclosed. The present invention provides for the automatic retrieval of the identified MIBs and their loading onto a network management station (NMS) without user intervention. Additionally, previously known MIBs are programmatically examined to determine whether they require updating. Any required updates may be performed automatically with the updated MIBs being loaded onto the NMS. |
| US08244841B2 |
Method and system for implementing group policy operations
A system and method for performing various operations on group policy objects, by manipulating group policy objects as a single entity to perform backup, restore, import and copy operations. The backup operation transfers the various subparts of a selected group policy object to a file system. A restore operation restores a backed-up group policy object to its domain, in the same state as when the backup was performed. An import operation transfers the settings within a backed-up source group policy object to a destination group policy object, erasing its previous settings. A copy operation transfers the settings from a source group policy object to a new group policy object. Copy and import operations can be cross-domain, and a migration table can be used to convert security group and UNC pathnames as appropriate for the destination domain. Backup management, rollback of incomplete operations, and support for application deployment are also provided. |
| US08244836B2 |
Methods and systems for assigning provisioning servers in a software provisioning environment
A software provisioning environment can include several provisioning servers for providing software provisioning to one or more target machines. To assign provisioning servers to the target machines, a provisioning server can be configured to assign the provisioning servers utilizing the provisioning objects. The provisioning server can be configured to associate selected provisioning objects with respective provisioning servers. By associating a provisioning object with a respective provisioning server, the respective provisioning server will operate as the provisioning server for any provisioning processes performed on target machines utilizing the selected provisioning object. The provisioning server can be configured to associate the provisioning objects with the provisioning servers based on any number of factors such as location of the provisioning servers, specifications of the provisioning servers, load on a provisioning server, and performance of a provisioning server. |
| US08244834B2 |
System, apparatus and methods for storing links to media files in network storage
When a user purchases digital rights to a media file, or otherwise obtains the right to have a copy of the media file downloaded to the user's wireless device, a link to the media file that is stored in the media database is stored in a user storage database. When the user desires to have the media file downloaded to the user's wireless device, the user sends a request to the network. The network performs a check to determine whether the user is authorized to receive the requested media file, and if so, causes the requested media file to be downloaded to the user's wireless device where the media file is stored in the local memory of the wireless device for playback by the user on the wireless device. |
| US08244828B2 |
Digital guide system
A Digital Guide System (DGS) assembles and delivers contextual, narrative content information to an end-user requiring a guided or self-guided tour of a physical space. DGS consists of a Content Management System application (CMS), a Channel Administration application (CA), a Content Repository (CR) and a Channel Device application (CDA). CMS allows developers to build content information in discrete narratives using a modular story-building methodology. The CMS stores all information relevant to editorial control and content development in the CR. The CA is a browser-based registration and device management application that delivers content information to devices in channels designated for that content information by the CMS. The CDA allows the user to navigate through the content information using the modular story based organization and collects usage information in a user log for transmittal to the CA. |
| US08244824B2 |
Coordinated control for multiple computer-controlled medical systems
A method of operating a plurality of computer systems includes translating inputs generated by the operation of an input device associated with a first computer into control signals for operating at least one other computer system to operate the at least one other computer system in a corresponding manner. |
| US08244822B1 |
Push notification delivery system
An example method for delivery of push notifications includes receiving a push notification including a message and a destination, creating a send token, sending a push notification derived from the received push notification and the send token, and receiving push information concerning a processing of the sent push notification which is identified by the send token. An example system for delivering push notifications includes a server system having a processor, memory, and a network interface, where the memory stores program instructions including code segments for receiving a received push notification via the network interface. In this example, the program instructions further includes code segments for creating a send token, code segments for sending a sent push notification derived from the received push notification and the send token via the network interface, and code segments for receiving received push information concerning a processing of the sent push notification are provided. |
| US08244818B2 |
System and method for visual representation of spam probability
There is disclosed a system and method for visually representing the probability of SPAM messages on a mobile communication device. In an embodiment, the method comprises: obtaining a probability that a message is SPAM; and for each of one or more messages in a message list, visually representing the probability that a message is SPAM such that any differences in the probabilities as between messages are discernable from the visual representation. In another embodiment, the method further comprises: determining the percentage of the message downloaded to the mobile communication device; and displaying for each of one or more messages appearing in the message list an object or icon visually representing at least one of the probability that the message is SPAM, or the percentage of the message downloaded to the mobile communication device. |
| US08244817B2 |
Method and apparatus for electronic mail filtering
A message processing apparatus (200) is provided in an electronic messaging system. The message processing apparatus (200) holds an ordered queue (232) of the electronic messages (101) and adds a new incoming message (101) to the queue (232) according to a reputation score (201) allocated to each incoming message. Messages having a highest reputation score (201) are extracted from a top of the queue (232) for detailed analysis according to one or more filtering mechanisms. A message forwarding unit (250) forwards wanted messages to a server unit (300) for onward transmission to a recipient terminal (20). Messages from a trusted client identity (105) who is most likely to send wanted messages are allocated a high reputation score (201) and take priority through the queue (232). Messages from a non-trusted client identity (105) are allocated a lower reputation score (201) and remain in the queue (232) until all messages with a higher reputation score (201) have been extracted. |
| US08244814B1 |
Methods and systems for managing email configuration
A computer-implemented method for managing email configuration may include receiving a first email message from a first device, identifying device-type information in the first email message, identifying a second email message addressed to the first email address, and using the device-type information to select email-configuration information for the second email. The method may further include reformatting a body of the second email based on the email-configuration information, removing an attachment to the second email in response to the email-configuration information, providing a user with the email-configuration information for the second email message, and associating the device-type information with the first email address. A computer-implemented method for including email-configuration information in an email may involve identifying a first email message from a first user, including email-configuration information in the first email message, and sending the first email message to a first recipient. Corresponding systems are also disclosed. |
| US08244812B2 |
Outsourcing of email hosting services
A system, a method and computer-readable media for initiating the hosting of email for an Internet domain name. A secure communication channel is established with an entity requesting email hosting services. After verifying that the requesting entity is authorized to control the domain name, information describing email accounts with the domain name is received, and email services are provided for the email accounts. |
| US08244811B1 |
Method and apparatus for searching messaging identities
A method and apparatus for creating a catalog for use with at least one computer system that manages a plurality of email messages. The catalog provides an index into the plurality of email messages, and comprises a plurality of display identifiers that each identifies an entity. The catalog correlates at least some of the plurality of display identifiers to corresponding email addresses. The method comprises creating the catalog to include a user interface that enables the display identifiers to be displayed to a user and that enables the catalog to be searched based upon at least some information other than the display identifiers. |
| US08244810B1 |
System and method for merging instant messages
An instant message delivery system includes a network node with a packet queue. The packet queue stores packets containing instant messages. When the system detects network congestion, it merges two or more packets where possible to make a single packet. In particular, when two or more data packets contain instant messages with the same recipient, the system merges the data packets into a single data packet with multiple instant messages. When two or more data packets have instant messages with the same recipient and the same sender, the system merges the data packets into a single data packet and further merges the instant messages into a single instant message containing more than one message body. |
| US08244809B2 |
System and methods for electronic message content identification
An electronic message identification method and system is provided for identifying and managing electronic messages. The electronic message identification method and system may be used for sending an electronic file to a customer by receiving an approval from the customer indicating acceptable content for electronic files that are sent to the customer; receiving the electronic file from a sender, the electronic file including file content and a message content identifier corresponding to the file content; comparing the message content identifier to the approval from the customer; and delivering the file content to an electronic mailbox of the customer, if the message content identifier is consistent with the approval from the customer indicating acceptable content. |
| US08244807B2 |
Merging instant messaging (IM) chat sessions
The present disclosure provides for merging of instant messaging (IM) chat sessions. In some embodiments, two separate IM chat sessions are merged into a single IM chat session. |
| US08244804B1 |
Validation of device activity via logic sharing
Methods and systems for validating device activity by way of logic sharing are presented. In an example, a text file comprising a script defining programming logic to be executed in conjunction with an online game is transmitted from a server device via a communication network to a client device. Input data for a client-side application executing at the client device for the online game is received at the client device. The input data is transmitted via the communication network from the client device to the server device. The script is executed at the client device from the client-side application using the input data to produce a first result. The script is also executed at the server device from a server-side application using the input data received from the client device to produce a second result equal to the first result. |
| US08244802B2 |
Geospacial location associated with content on a network
The format of the Presence Information Data Format-Location Object (PIDF-LO) as defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is extended or modified to accommodate, within the standard. PIDF-LO format, an association of geospacial location to virtual content on the Internet. A filename of virtual content is associated with geospatial location information (either a specific location, zone, or direction). The filename is inserted into a |
| US08244795B2 |
Page aggregation for web sites
Disclosed is a method and device and computer storage medium for determining whether two pages linked on the World Wide Web are a part of the same World Wide Web site. The method involves examining and comparing the IP addresses of the Web pages, and can also be extended to finding other pages to which a given Web page is linked on the Web, and to determining whether a Web page of interest is part of a Web site with a desired characteristic, such as being part of an electronic commerce site. |
| US08244786B2 |
Device and method for generating a random number
A method and a device are provided, in particular a transponder, for generating a random number by a linear feedback shift register, wherein a first seed is generated by means of a first automaton, a second seed is generated by means of a second automaton, the first and second automata operate using different functional principles, so that the first and second seeds have different properties, and the shift register is reloaded with the first and/or second seed. |
| US08244785B2 |
Method of generating random numbers for a gaming system
Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for providing random numbers for a gaming system. A random number generator (RNG) processor is arranged to select a plurality of RNG system components and configure them in an RNG pipeline, to provide random numbers to a gaming system. In one embodiment, a true random number generator (TRNG) is used to generate seeds for a pseudo random number generator in the pipeline. Analysers, loggers and other elements may also be included in the pipeline. |
| US08244784B2 |
Generating a number based on mask and range constraints
Generating a number based on mask and range constraints. For example, a method of generating a pseudo random number satisfying a range constraint and a mask constraint may include determining a number of possible solutions satisfying the range constraint and the mask constraint; selecting an index representing a solution of the possible solutions; and generating the pseudo random number based on the index. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08244783B2 |
Normalizer shift prediction for log estimate instructions
A floating point processor unit includes a shift amount calculation circuit within a normalizer portion of the floating point unit, wherein the shift amount calculation circuit is utilized to compute the normalizer shift amount for a log estimate instruction that runs as a pipelinable instruction. |
| US08244781B2 |
Network accessed storage files system query/set proxy service for a storage virtualization system
A system and method provides for querying and setting file attributes between Network File System and Common Internet File System network attached storage systems. Aspects of the present invention may be performed by a storage virtualization system that acts as an intermediary between one or more network attached storage systems. By querying and setting file attributes, files may be migrated between network attached storage systems while keeping the file attributes and primary location of the file contents intact. In addition, the present invention provides an additional aspect of ensuring that file names of multi-protocol files are compatible across every protocol. |
| US08244776B2 |
Method and device for customizing a mail history
A method and a device for customizing a mail history are provided. A method in accordance with an embodiment includes: generating a mail tree composed of all received mails belonging to a same topic; receiving a user input indicating a mail to be replied to and a mail to be referred to which are selected by the user, the mail to be replied to and the mail to be referred to being located on different branches of the mail tree; acquiring a first plurality of mails on a first path from a root mail of the mail tree to a child mail of the mail to be replied to, and a second plurality of mails on a second path from the root mail to a child mail of the mail to be referred to; and merging the first plurality of mails and the second plurality of mails to generate a merging result as the mail history. With the method and the device, when replying to a current mail, a user can conveniently refer to a mail on a different branch of a same mail tree or on a different mail tree, thereby improving the efficiency of a mail system. |
| US08244773B2 |
Keyword output apparatus and method
Related keywords having certain relations to a target keyword are extracted from a unit storing keywords according to relations among each other. Expressions corresponding to the target keyword and related keywords are read from a unit storing expressions correspondingly with each stored keyword, each expression having been extracted from a content containing the corresponding keyword. A commonness between the expressions corresponding to each related keyword and the target keyword is calculated. An association between each related keyword and the target keyword is calculated using a distance for each related keyword from the target keyword and the commonness. A related keyword having a certain association is extracted as a same-region keyword in a same region as the target keyword. A drawing including the target keyword and related keywords arranged according to the associations is output with the same-region keyword displayed distinguishably from other related keywords not included in the same region. |
| US08244771B2 |
Information processing device for accepting description information of multi-media content including keywords and reference information indicative of duplicative occurrence of each keyword and retrieving location information in the content using the respective keywords and associated reference information
There are provided a storage device and a computer-readable medium capable of efficiently storing keywords contained in description information and efficiently retrieving the keyword. A list producing portion (6) extracts the keywords from the description information and produces a keyword list correlating the keywords with the scene information containing the keywords. A description information converter (8) converts the keywords contained in the keyword list received from the list producing portion (6) among the keywords contained in the externally received description information into reference information for specifying the keywords in the keyword list received from the list producing portion (6). A storage (10) stores the converted description information provided from the description information converter (8) and the keyword list provided from the list producing portion (6). |
| US08244766B2 |
Applying a model of a persona to search results
A data search and retrieval system that, in response to a search query, applies a model to search results to generate information to be returned to a user. The model may define characteristics of a persona such that the application of the model generates information consistent with the persona. A persona may be an individual person or a group of people having shared characteristics. A user may be presented with a list of identifiers of available models of personae. When the user selects a model of a particular persona to be applied, the information generated in return to the user may be consistent with the characteristics associated with the selected persona. |
| US08244765B2 |
Avoiding three-valued logic in predicates on dictionary-encoded data
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for dictionary encoding data without using three-valued logic is provided. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method includes encoding data in a database table using a dictionary, wherein the data includes values representing NULLs. A query having a predicate is received and the predicate is evaluated on the encoded data, whereby the predicate is evaluated on both the encoded data and on the encoded NULLs. |
| US08244757B2 |
Facet-based interface for mobile search
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that improve data searching on mobile devices. A facet-based search application is provided that has a filter region, a results region, a facet navigation region, and a menu region. A user applies a facet-based filter to a set of data by selecting a number on a keypad or other area that correlates spatially to a filter option in the facet navigation region. A set of data in the results region is updated based on the applied facet-based filter. The user can also apply a freeform text filter to the data by selecting one or more characters for which to search. The data displayed in the results region is updated based on the applied freeform text filter. When input is received from the user to save the applied filter, an attribute label is displayed as a query term in the filter region. |
| US08244755B2 |
Search engine optimization using page anchors
A web content search request including a search term is received at a searching/indexing device. A web search is performed based upon the search term. A markup language (ML) document returned via the web search including the search term is parsed. A location of the search term within the ML document is identified. A hypertext link to the identified location of the search term within the ML document is configured. |
| US08244753B2 |
Bookmark-guided, taxonomy-based, user-specific display of syndication feed entries using natural language descriptions in foreground and background corpora
A method for user-specific display of syndication feed entries uses a taxonomy, a user-specific foreground corpus of bookmarks, and a background corpus of feed entries. User-specific book-marks are received. Each bookmark provides a natural-language description characterizing a bookmark resource. The natural-language descriptions are classified to determine one or more bookmark topics for each bookmark. The topics are maintained in the taxonomy. The bookmark topics are each associated with accumulators in the user-specific foreground corpus. Each book-mark is accumulated to the accumulators corresponding to each of its topics. Feed syndication entries are received and similarly classified according to associated natural-language descriptions. Entry topics are associated with accumulators in the background corpus. A user-specific weight is determined for each entry by aggregating the accumulators corresponding to the entry topics for the foreground and background corpora. The entries are displayed for a specific user in order of declining user-specific weight. |
| US08244748B2 |
Including annotation data with disparate relational data
Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture that may be used for identifying and indicating annotations made for a variety of different type (i.e., heterogeneous) data objects are provided. According to some embodiments, an annotation store may be queried to identify annotations for data objects in a current view of data. For certain identifiable portions of the view (e.g., a row in a relational view), a callable function may be created that returns a set of indicia maps indicating which objects in the portions are annotated. Bits in an indicia map may correspond to different objects (e.g., individual cells in a row or the row itself). Using these indicia maps, an indication of which data objects are annotated may be provided in the view, for example, by displaying annotation icons proximate annotated objects. |
| US08244745B2 |
Analyzing usage information of an information management system
In an information management system, activity data is collected and analyzed for patterns. The information management system may be policy based. Activity data may be organized as entries including information on user, application, machine, action, object or document, time, and location. When checking for patterns in the activity or historical data, techniques may include inferencing, frequency checking, location and distance checking, and relationship checking, and any combination of these. Analyzing the activity data may include comparing like types or categories of information for two or more entries. |
| US08244744B1 |
Community-modified profile with connection-based authorization
In some embodiments, disclosed techniques may include providing a profile of a first user to a second user, wherein the profile of the first user includes a first profile data; determining that the second user is permitted to modify the profile of the first user, wherein said determination includes determining that a social connection exists between the second user and the first user; receiving a second profile data from the second user, wherein the second profile data is a proposed modification to the first profile data; providing the second profile data to the first user; receiving from the first user an approval of a change to the profile of the first user, wherein the change to the profile of the first user includes the second profile data; and associating the second profile data with the profile of the first user. |
| US08244741B2 |
Method and apparatus for extracting information from a database
A method for retrieving calculation results, wherein a first input or selection causes a first calculation on a database to produce an intermediate result, and a second selection or input causes a second calculation on the intermediate result, producing a final result. These results are cached with digital fingerprint identifiers. A first identifier is calculated from the first selection, and a second identifier is calculated from the second selection and the intermediate result. The first identifier and intermediate result are associated and cached, while the second identifier and final result are associated and cached. The final result may be then retrieved using the first and second selections or inputs by recalculating the first identifier and searching the cache for the first identifier associated with the intermediate result. Upon locating the intermediate result, the second identifier may be recalculated to locate the cached second identifier associated with the final result. |
| US08244740B2 |
Providing suggested sites associated with target sites
Systems, methods, and computer storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that facilitate providing suggested sites in accordance with target sites are provided. Web-browsed data is locally stored on a user device and uploaded to a suggestion engine. Additional web-browsed data is communicated to the suggestion engine via a suggested site request that provides a request for suggested sites related to a target site. In embodiments, the web-browsed data contained in the suggested site request includes data not previously uploaded to the suggestion engine. The suggestion engine utilizes the web-browsed data uploaded to the suggestion engine and the web-browsed data communicated via the suggested site request to provide suggested sites in association with the target site. |
| US08244737B2 |
Ranking documents based on a series of document graphs
Ranking documents based on a series of web graphs collected over time is provided. A ranking system provides multiple transition probability distributions representing different snapshots or times. Each transition probability distribution represents a probability of transitioning from one document to another document within a collection of documents using a link of the document. The ranking system determines a stationary probability distribution for each snapshot based on the transition probability distributions for that snapshot and the stationary probability distribution of the previous snapshot. The stationary probability distributions represent a ranking of the documents over time. |
| US08244735B2 |
Efficient and scalable data evolution with column oriented databases
A method, system and program product for data evolution on column oriented databases is disclosed. For an input evolution operation, reusable and non-reusable attributes are identified. For attributes in a target schema that cannot be reused from the source schema, data and bitmap indexes of those attributes are generated from source data and bitmap indexes. A decompose operation is disclosed for decomposing a table into two tables. A merge operation is disclosed in which only one input table can be reused for mergence. A second merge operation is disclosed in which both input tables cannot be reused for mergence. |
| US08244730B2 |
Learning syntactic patterns for automatic discovery of causal relations from text
The present invention provides a method for extracting relationships between words in textual data. Initially, training relationship data, such as word triplets describing a cause-effect relationship, is received and used to collect additional textual data including the training relationship data. Distributed data collection is used to receive the training data and collect the additional textual data, allowing a broad range of data to be acquired from multiple sources. Syntactic patterns are extracted from the additional textual data and a distributed data source is scanned to extract additional relationship data describing one or more causal relationships using the extracted syntactic patterns. The extracted additional relationship data is then stored, and can be validated by a supervised learning algorithm before storage and used to train a classifier for automatic validation of additional relationship data. |
| US08244729B2 |
Method and system for collecting online merchandising data
A method and system for automating electronic merchandising and product recommendation by creating a third party merchandising product database populated with data obtained directly at the point of sale. According to one embodiment, collection or direct importation of such data from an existing physical source or a product or merchandising database, which can be complex and costly, is not required. As a result, the cost of creating a usable merchandising system and database is reduced. |
| US08244727B2 |
Method, apparatus, and computer program product for content use assignment by exploiting social graph information
An apparatus for automatically assigning content information may include a processor. The processor may be configured to receive content information, and identify the usage type and the sub-usage type of the content information. The content information may comprise an indicator for a usage type and a sub-usage type. The processor may be further configured to automatically assign the received content information to the at least one user contact based on the sub-usage type, and to perform a specified function, based on a usage type. Associated methods and computer program products may also be provided. Another method, apparatus, and computer program product for providing content information may also be provided. |
| US08244718B2 |
Methods and systems for hardware acceleration of database operations and queries
Embodiments of the present invention provide a database system that is optimized by using hardware acceleration. The system may be implemented in several variations to accommodate a wide range of queries and database sizes. In some embodiments, the system may comprise a host system that is coupled to one or more hardware accelerator components. The host system may execute software or provide an interface for receiving queries. The host system analyzes and parses these queries into tasks. The host system may then select some of the tasks and translate them into machine code instructions, which are executed by one or more hardware accelerator components. The tasks executed by hardware accelerators are generally those tasks that may be repetitive or processing intensive. Such tasks may include, for example, indexing, searching, sorting, table scanning, record filtering, and the like. |
| US08244714B1 |
On-demand database service system, method and computer program product for generating a custom report utilizing outer joins
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for generating a custom report using outer joins in the context of an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for generating an on-demand database service custom report can enable embodiments to generate reports that reflect a relationship between at least two different objects. The ability of embodiments to provide such additional insight into database contents may lead to more efficient and effective reporting. |
| US08244713B2 |
Content management system that retrieves data from an external data source and creates one or more objects in the repository
A content management system (CMS) provides a way to include data from an external source as an object in the repository managed by the CMS. The CMS includes an external data mechanism that processes a document with a query to a data source external to the repository. The external data mechanism executes the query, and creates one or more objects in the repository according to the type of data returned as defined by classification rules. Each object containing data returned from the query is linked to that query via a formal relationship in the CMS. When an object that has a formal relationship with a query is checked out of the repository, the query corresponding to the object may be executed, and the data returned from the query may be stored in the object. In the alternative, the data may be used directly if a corresponding lifecycle policy indicates the corresponding query should not be executed. |
| US08244710B2 |
Method and system for information retrieval using embedded links
Retrieving information from information sources using links. A set of information sources is preprocessed to extract content from text and existing links in the information sources according to some predetermined criteria. A set of search results is generated from amongst the preprocessed information sources in response to a received search query. |
| US08244708B2 |
System and method for improving integrity of internet search
A system and method are provided to receive a search query from a user, typically via a web browser, the Internet, and a web server. A search engine obtains a set of potential search results based on the search query. For each Internet domain or web site mentioned in the search results, a set of data sources is accessed to obtain information concerning the legitimacy of the business associated with the Internet domain or web site. The legitimacy information is used to reorder or to change or to augment the appearance or presentation of the search result for the Internet domain or web site. The processed search results are returned to the user. |
| US08244707B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing supplemental video content for third party websites
A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing supplemental video content for third party websites is disclosed. In one embodiment, coded instructions are transmitted from a content enhancement server to a host server, for incorporation into the webpage source code. The host server is controlled by a first entity and the content enhancement server is controlled by a second entity commercially distinct from the first entity. Keywords are generated by execution of the coded instructions in the webpage received in the client computer from the host server, and the keywords are sent to a content enhancement server, which generates supplemental substantive video content information for transmission to the client. |
| US08244701B2 |
Using behavior data to quickly improve search ranking
Systems and methods for applying user behavior data to improve search query result ranking are provided. Upon receiving an update file indicating that recent, significant user behavior data is available for a document associated with an inverted index, the update file is published periodically and frequently to an index server. After filtering out the relevant update information from the update file, the index server extracts identifiers of the documents having the associated user behavior data. The update file and the identifier of the documents are utilized to update an in-memory index containing representations of metadata indicative of the user behavior. The in-memory index is continuously updated and utilized to serve search query results in response to user search queries. Search query results from the in-memory index are ranked using the user behavior data prior to serving. Thus, results associated with recent, significant user-behavior metadata receive prominent placement on the search results page. |
| US08244700B2 |
Rapid update of index metadata
Systems and methods for performing an updating process to an in-memory index are provided. Upon receiving notice of document modifications covered by an inverted index associated with a search engine, in the form of an update file, a representation of the modification is published onto various index serving machines. Each index serving machine receiving the update file determines if the modifications are applicable to the index serving machine. If an index serving machine determines that it contains mapping information corresponding to the modified documents, the index serving machine utilizes the update file and associated mapping information to update an in-memory index. In embodiments, the in-memory index is used to provide results to user queries in tandem with the inverted index. In some embodiments, an extra in-memory index is maintained that is revised with constantly incoming metadata updates and the existing in-memory index is periodically swapped with the revised in-memory index. |
| US08244690B2 |
Storage system
The present invention relates to a storage system including a de-duplicate function and a full-text search function or the like, and reduces an amount of index information about full-test search to save storage resource. In this system, a storage apparatus includes a processing unit for de-duplicating a plurality of files having the same content regarding a file group of data inputted/outputted through a host apparatus. A full-text search processing server performs a full-text search processing to the file group and includes a processing unit for causing the full-text search processing to correspond to de-duplicate. An index information creation processing performed to a plurality of target files having the same content by the full-text search processing unit is inhibited according to a status of de-duplicate to the file group by the processing unit. Thereby, the amount of index information can be reduced. |
| US08244685B2 |
Data restoration utilizing forward and backward deltas
A restoration technique includes storing a collection of blocks having (i) a first baseline of blocks defining a file at a first time within a predefined window, (ii) older blocks, and (iii) newer blocks. The technique further includes providing a direction signal to restore the file at a particular time from the collection of blocks. The direction signal has an older direction value when the particular time is older than the first time and (ii) a newer direction value when the particular time is newer than the first time. The technique further includes forming, from the collection of blocks, a second baseline of blocks from the first baseline of blocks and additional blocks. The additional blocks are either (i) the older blocks or (ii) the newer blocks depending on the direction value. The second baseline defines the file at the particular time. |
| US08244682B2 |
Saving snapshot of a knowledge base without blocking
A consistent snapshot of a large main memory knowledge base is saved to persistent storage without blocking the application for the duration of serializing and writing the knowledge base. Taking the snapshot comprises bringing the knowledge base to a consistent state (in a multithreaded application), using virtual memory facilities to obtain a copy-on-write copy of the knowledge base in memory, and using a separate thread or process to serialize the copy-on-write copy to persistent storage. |
| US08244673B2 |
Information presenting device, information presenting method, information presenting program, and integrated circuit
An information presenting device for narrowing down information for users and stimulating interest in users from various viewpoints, and presenting the information to users in an easily ascertainable manner. Specifically, a content recommending device displays an image, a commonality map image includes a title image, a Venn diagram image, and a details button image. The Venn diagram in the commonality map image relating to all content is narrowed down to a Venn diagram about a set containing, as elements, content IDs of content having an attribute value, for example, “Mayumi Hamada” for an attribute “artist”. In the content recommending device, a multiple profile acquiring unit acquires viewing/listening history tables including content IDs of content viewed/listened to in player terminals, and a profile common relationship ascertaining unit calculates an extent of a common portion of the acquired viewing/listening history tables. The commonality is expressed as a Venn diagram. |
| US08244672B1 |
Method and system for establishing an application contact list
A method and system for establishing an application contact list is provided. A user will establish a master contact list on a client station. In response to execution of an application using a contact entry from the master contact list, the client station will then designate the contact entry as a member that is associated with the executed application. In this manner, the client station will mark contacts based on the applications that used the contacts. In addition, the client station generates application contact lists by filtering the master contact list to identify contact entries that are associated with an initiated or executed application. The client station then generates an application contact list including the contact entries that are associated with the application. The user may then select a contact entry from the application contact list for use in execution of the application. |
| US08244671B2 |
Replica placement and repair strategies in multinode storage systems
A multimode storage system uses a global-placement and local-repair strategy for replica placement and repair of data objects. The data objects are initially placed randomly throughout the storage system, while the subsequent replacement replicas of any lost data objects are placed non-globally, for example within the same cluster as the repair source. This approach aggregates the bandwidth of all leaf switches/routers for repair and thus improves data repair bandwidth and repair speed. The approach also reserves more root switch bandwidth for tasks such as data rebalance, a process migrating data to the new nodes that have replaced failed ones. |
| US08244670B2 |
System and method for reliable symmetric data synchronization
The subject matter discloses a system for adding a data item during a synchronization process, said system comprising a receiving (target) side electronic device having a database being compatible to a database of a sending (source) side, such that each data item has unique local and remote identifiers. The system comprises a control unit for assigning a local identifier and a remote identifier to the data item in the database of the receiving (target) side, such that the local identifier of the receiving (target) side is stored as the remote identifier of the sending (source) side and vice versa. After adding the data item, access to the data item stored in the database of the receiving (target) side, is enabled by receiving the remote identifier or the local identifier of the data item as stored in the database of the sending (source) side. |
| US08244666B2 |
Identifying an item based on data inferred from information about the item
There are provided methods and systems to identify an item based on data inferred from information about the item. Information is received that is descriptive of an item capable of being listed on an information storage and retrieval platform. The information is associated with an aspect-value pair, which is an aspect of the item and a value of the aspect and is inferred from the information. An expression of an interest of a user in an additional item is received. The expression is associated with the aspect-value pair. In response to the associating of the expression with the aspect-value pair, the item is identified as the additional item. |
| US08244665B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method and information processing program
The present invention provides an information processing apparatus which can direct a user to a playlist different from a playlist being reproduced. There is provided the information processing apparatus including a content storage unit storing a plurality of contents therein, a playlist storage unit storing a plurality of playlists which is related to at least some of the plurality of contents, a reproducing unit sequentially reproducing a plurality of contents belonging to a first playlist in a plurality of playlists, a candidate content extracting unit extracting one or more candidate contents relating to a content being reproduced by the reproducing unit from the content storage unit, a playlist extracting unit extracting a second playlist to which the extracted candidate contents belong from the playlist storage unit, and a playlist switching unit switching a playlist to be reproduced by the reproducing unit from the first playlist into the second playlist. |
| US08244662B2 |
Graph embedding techniques
Approaches to embedding source graphs into targets graphs in a computing system are disclosed. Such may be advantageously facilitate computation with computing systems that employ one or more analog processors, for example one or more quantum processors. |
| US08244661B1 |
System and method for facts extraction and domain knowledge repository creation from unstructured and semi-structured documents
Provided are methods and systems that extract facts of unstructured documents and build an oracle for various domains. The present invention addresses the problem of efficient finding and extraction of facts about a particular subject domain from semi-structured and unstructured documents, makes inferences of new facts from the extracted facts and the ways of verification of the facts, thus becoming a source of knowledge about the domain to be effectively queried. The methods and systems can also extract temporal information from unstructured and semi-structured documents, and can find and extract dynamically generated documents from Deep or Dynamic Web. |
| US08244657B2 |
Multi-objective optimization using weight adjustment of initial and corrected solutions
A multi-objective optimization apparatus provides a weight adjustment apparatus, method, and computer program product, to perform optimization while reflecting user's demands. The multi-objective optimization apparatus for adjusting weights of a plurality of evaluation items includes a correction accepting unit for accepting an operation for correcting an initial solution as one of solutions to the plurality of evaluation items, and a weight adjustment unit for adjusting weights of the plurality of evaluation items using the initial solution based on the corrected solution as a corrected initial solution. |
| US08244648B2 |
Method and system for providing a distributed adaptive rules based dynamic pricing system
A system for providing distributed control to process transactions is disclosed. The system includes a service provider system having associated therewith a number of rules and a number of meta-rules, a point of service device having associated therewith a number of rules and a number of meta-rules, and a portable device having associated therewith a number of rules and a number of meta-rules. The portable device uses its associated rules to determine an outcome for a transaction. If the portable device is unable to determine the outcome for the transaction, the portable device uses its associated meta-rules to either determine whether one or more of its associated rules can be altered locally in order to determine the outcome or request the point of service device to help determine the outcome using the rules and meta-rules associated with the point of service device. If the point of service device is unable to determine the outcome using its associated rules, the point of service device uses its associated meta-rules to either determine whether one or more of its associated rules can be altered locally in order to determine the outcome or request the service provider system to help determine the outcome using the rules and meta-rules associated with the service provider system. |
| US08244644B2 |
Supply chain multi-dimensional serial containment process
A computer implemented method, an apparatus, and computer usable program product for containing a defective product across a supply chain is provided. A data processing system receives a notice from a source supplier that a product is defective. The data processing system identifies an exposure level associated with the defective product, wherein the exposure level comprises a list of affected assemblies and a range of serial numbers associated with the affected assemblies. Responsive to identifying the exposure level, the data processing system notifies each supplier in the supply chain of the defective product. |
| US08244640B2 |
Packet schema for pay-as-you-go service provisioning
Methods and a program of instruction provide a packet schema framework for communication between elements of a pay-as-you-go business model including a provisioning server, an adapted electronic device, and a service provider. The packet schema defines provisioning instructions and content types to support service provisioning, including electronic device configuration and state, time-metering, and other types of functional and administrative tasks as well as to provide a foundation for any future messages needed for product evolution. The schema also defines security at multiple levels to guard against malicious users who may try to hook into the system to fraudulently use and/or configure the electronic devices for their own use and gain. |
| US08244638B2 |
Automatic image analysis and capture
In general terms, some embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatuses for automatically analyzing and/or capturing an image of a deposit item for use in a deposit transaction. In some embodiments, a method is provided that includes: (a) generating, by a remote capture device, an image of a deposit item, where the generating the image is based at least partially on the deposit item being exposed to the remote capture device; (b) determining, automatically by the remote capture device, that the image is satisfactory for reading deposit item information from the image, where the deposit item information is associated with the deposit item; and (c) performing, automatically by the remote capture device, a predetermined action, where the performing the predetermined action is based at least partially on the determining that the image is satisfactory for reading deposit item information from the image. In some embodiments, the performing the predetermined action includes capturing, automatically by the remote capture device, the image of the deposit item. In other embodiments, the performing the predetermined action includes prompting, automatically by the remote capture device, a user of the remote capture device to capture the image. In some embodiments, the method occurs in substantially real-time and/or while the deposit item is being exposed to the remote capture device. |
| US08244632B2 |
Automated transfer with stored value
According to the invention, a method for automatically transferring an incoming payment to a handler is disclosed. In one step, the incoming payment associated with a payee is received. A first predetermined rule that applies to the incoming payment is determined. The first predetermined rule is applied to the incoming payment. It is determined if a second predetermined rule applies to the incoming payment. The second predetermined rule is applied to the incoming payment based upon the second-listed determining step. |
| US08244630B1 |
Performance based auto loans
Disclosed are systems and methods for providing a loan having an interest rate and a loan period. The systems and methods dynamically adjust the interest rate during the loan period based on actual payment performance of a borrower, thereby resulting in an improved reward structure, greater borrower loyalty and an improved experience for the borrower. |
| US08244629B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating a bi-gram score in fraud risk analysis
Evaluating fraud risk in a transaction between consumer and a merchant over a network is disclosed. The merchant requests service over the network using a secure, open messaging protocol. An e-commerce transaction or electronic purchase order is received from the merchant, the level of risk associated with each order is measured, and a risk score is returned to the merchant. In one embodiment, data validation, highly predictive artificial intelligence pattern matching, network data aggregation and negative file checks are used to examine numerous factors to calculate fraud risk. A risk score is generated and compared to the merchant's specified risk threshold. The result is returned to the merchant for order disposition. |
| US08244624B2 |
Establishing standardized diamond profiles and pricing
A method and system for establishing an index useful for pricing diamonds in a standardized way that thus makes diamonds amenable for derivative trading via futures contracts or the like. |
| US08244621B1 |
Method and system for displaying information and initiating executions from within a security trading environment
A computerized system (10) and method for displaying a security trading environment (150) is disclose. The system (10) includes a client system (14) that is in communication with a server system (12) and a display system (20). The server system (12) provides information relating to securities to the client system (14) and routes trade executions. The display system (20) displays security information and accepting input from a user to initiate trade executions in a trading window (152), displays security information in a chart format in a chart window (160), displays security information relating to a group of securities in a watchlist window (162), displays security information relating to securities in which the user has positions in an account detail window (164), displays news relating to securities in a news window (166) and displays information relating to trade executions in a messages window (172). |
| US08244612B2 |
Inserting value into customer account at point of sale using a customer account identifier
A method of adding a value to a customer account is provided. A request to add a value to a customer account of a customer is received from a point of sale terminal. The request may comprise value identification data associated with the value and account identification data associated with the customer account. The customer account identification data may be entered at the point of sale. The request may be associated with a purchase of the value. The value may be caused to be added to the customer account. During subsequent value purchase transactions, additional value may be added to the account. |
| US08244608B2 |
Takeoff list palette for guiding semi-automatic quantity takeoff from computer aided design drawings
Embodiments of the present invention enable users to efficiently guide semi-automatic quantity takeoff from computer aided design (CAD) drawings by selecting multiple drawing objects and/or multiple instances of drawing objects as the target of subsequent commands. In some embodiments, the user supplements an automated portion of a quantity takeoff from a CAD drawing by selecting one or more drawing objects in a takeoff palette. The user defines the dimension (e.g., linear) to quantify and optionally the parameter to be quantified (e.g., length) for the selected drawing objects simultaneously. The quantity takeoff engine quantifies the instances associated with the selected drawing objects, performs takeoff calculations, and updates a workbook accordingly. To further facilitate the analysis of the CAD drawing, the user simultaneously selects one or more drawing objects and/or one or more instances of drawing objects to view and organize (e.g., filter, search, etc.) by properties in a properties palette. |
| US08244607B1 |
System and method for creating and implementing community defined presentation structures
A presentation configuration system may receive metadata from multiple users utilizing tax preparation applications. The metadata may be tags or labels of interview segments of the tax preparation applications. The presentation configuration system may create community defined presentation structures from the metadata such that the community defined presentation structure includes an organization of interview segments within a tax preparation application. The community defined presentation structure may indicate how interview segments of a tax preparation application should be presented to a user. Furthermore, a tax preparation application may provide a user (e.g., a taxpayer) with multiple options corresponding to community defined presentation structures. The tax preparation application may receive a selection of one of the options from the user. Thus, the tax preparation application may present the tax preparation interview segments of the tax preparation application to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the option selected. |
| US08244605B2 |
Devices for processing shipping documentation sent from a vehicle
The present invention automates the process of receiving transportation documentation and producing advance loading manifests therefrom to optimize load planning and dynamic product shipment and delivery control. Methods provide for receipt of the transportation documentation, initial preparation, and transmission of the documentation from on board a vehicle or while the vehicle is in transit. |
| US08244604B1 |
Method and apparatus for inventory searching
A method is disclosed that includes identifying an inventory item corresponding to a product configuration. The product configuration is defined using a feature map. The inventory item is also defined using the feature map. Each entry of the feature map corresponds to one of a number of features of a product. |
| US08244602B2 |
Method for making a dunnage platform
The present invention relates to methods of manufacturing lightweight thermoplastic dunnage platform decks or repairing and reusing damaged lightweight thermoplastic dunnage platform decks to be mounted with molded feet. In an embodiment of the present invention, a dunnage platform with damaged feet is modified such that the damaged feet are removed and replacement feet are attached. In an embodiment of the present invention, the damaged feet of a dunnage platform are removed and the resulting dunnage platform deck is shipped to a desired site whereupon molded feet are attached to the dunnage platform deck and the dunnage platform generated from the deck and molded feet is used for shipping cargo. |
| US08244600B2 |
Presentation of information or representations pertaining to digital products available for digital distribution
Improved methods, systems, graphical user interfaces and computer program code for presenting representations or information concerning digital products are disclosed. The representations of digital products can serve to promote certain digital products at an online digital product distribution site. Information concerning a particular digital product can be rapidly accessible from a displayed page at an online digital product distribution site referencing a plurality of different digital products. According to one aspect, a plurality of representations (e.g., images) can be dynamically presented to facilitate access to corresponding digital product information. The representations being presented can be automatically changed on a periodic basis, unless user interaction requests otherwise. According to another aspect, digital product information can be presented in an overlay window that can be initiated by a user and present relevant information concerning a digital product. Advantageously, digital product information can be quickly presented to a user without having to navigate to a new page of an online distribution site. |
| US08244594B2 |
Method for remote acquisition and delivery of goods
A system and method for remote acquisition and delivery of goods includes a server in communication with customer computers, such as through a user interface via the internet. The server can store customer information including billing information, and may include a real-time video processor. A mobile delivery system in communication with the server includes an energy efficient vehicle, a real-time video device, a global positioning system, a communication device and a printer. In use, a customer communicates with a mobile delivery agent via the real-time video device and the communication device to remotely acquire a product. Once acquired, the delivery agent delivers the product to a designated delivery location. The real-time video device can be utilized during the entire transaction. The system preferably includes a processor for optimizing system efficiencies, including selecting a delivery agent based on the product, pick-up location and delivery site. |
| US08244593B2 |
Method and system for monetizing content
An e-commerce system, comprising an endorsement engine, a first interface software coupled to the endorsement engine and adapted to interact with one or more content sources connected over a network and adapted to enable subscriptions from users using a protocol, and a second interface software coupled to the endorsement engine and adapted to interact with one or more merchants to receive information about products, is disclosed. In an embodiment, the first interface software enables an endorsing user to browse the content sources and select a content item, to enter code associated with the selected content element, to view product information provided by merchants, to select a product for endorsement, and to enter code associated with the selected product. Upon retrieval of content by a viewing user who previously subscribed to the content source using the protocol, at least one of the content-specific code and the product-specific code is also provided to the viewing user via the protocol. Upon activation of the content-specific code, the viewing user is connected to the selected content and is able to view the selected content, and upon activation of the product-specific code by a viewing user, the viewing user is connected to a network-connected shopping cart, and is thereby enabled to buy the product. |
| US08244590B2 |
Software system for decentralizing ecommerce with single page buy
A software system with a “single page buy” capability—both product information and purchase information on a single webpage. The software does the backend work needed to display both, in order to simplify the user experience. In one embodiment, commerce is “atomized” by pushing out the capability to purchase throughout the Internet—to ads on 3rd party sites, references in blogs, articles, etc. In one embodiment, a gliding product display is provided. The ad has a banner-type ad dimension, with product icons scrolling or gliding across it. |
| US08244588B1 |
Method and apparatus for entering purchase information
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that enters purchase information into a software application. The system starts by accessing a file containing a receipt for a purchase. The system then extracts information relating to the purchase. Next, the system creates an entry for the purchase in a database for the software application. While creating the entry in the database, the system fills in a set of fields in the entry using the extracted information. |
| US08244585B1 |
Optimized bidding for pay-per-click listings
A plurality of pay-per-click listings is retrieved based on a search query. For each pay-per-click listing, a rank value is calculated that is based at least in part on a performance score and a maximum bid, thereby generating a calculated rank value. The plurality of pay-per-click listings is ordered based at least in part on the calculated rank value. A cost is determined associated with each of the plurality of pay-per-click listings. |
| US08244584B1 |
System for managing online advertising including ticker for data display
A system provides a unified way for a user to manage a number of separate online advertising accounts. A simple and secure web page accessible through an ordinary web browser is used to both control and receive data from the separate accounts. The user can alter aspects of the various accounts (bid amount per click, etc.) and these changes will be relayed to the individual accounts. The system also includes a “ticker” application that operates constantly on the user's personal computer and displays selected online data in a separate window that can quickly be brought to the front and checked as needed. The system also provides visual or audible alarms when the data from the online accounts indicate that certain preset threshold have been passed. The system also provides the user with a variety of custom reports enabling the user to better control and exploit online advertising. |
| US08244582B2 |
Method and stored program for accumulating descriptive profile data along with source information for use in targeting third-party advertisements
A descriptive-profile mercantile method, for use at a juncture in a data-communications topology having associated therewith a maintained databank of partial profiles, is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: from a user, receiving a transaction having therein a first partial profile; using the first partial profile, searching a databank having a plurality of second partial profiles, wherein is included in said databank at least one null profile so that said searching will always yield at least one proximate second partial profile to the first partial profile; and between the user and the databank, contracting: (I) for the databank to own or represent a right to a first mutually agreed portion of the first partial profile, and substantially thereafter said databank incorporating the agreed portion of the first profile into at least one second partial profile; or (II) for the user to own or represent a right to a second mutually agreed portion of at least one said proximate second partial profile, and substantially thereafter the databank transmitting to the user the second mutually agreed portion of the second profile. The present invention operates best on a brokerage representation model; and thereby provides a means for making viable the economic commerce in information attributes. |
| US08244581B2 |
Data processing system and data processing method
A data processing system includes a distributing device that distributes edited advertisement data and display terminal devices that display the edited advertisement data distributed to a first place in a predetermined territory. The display terminal devices are each provided with a first reader/writer configured to read out from and/or write in an IC card having stored memory identification data. The data processing system also includes a second reader/writer configured to read out from and/or write in an IC card. The data processing system also includes a hysteresis management device that manages hysteresis data HD1, HD2 from the first reader/writer, correlated with the memory identification data, and hysteresis data HD1 from the second reader/writer, correlated with the memory identification data. The data processing system further includes a hysteresis analysis device that correlates the hysteresis data HD1, HD2 for each of the memory identification data to generate analysis data. |
| US08244576B2 |
Calculating the benefit of an investment in training
A system and method for calculating a return on investment made in training. The system includes at least one computer having access to networks and servers to collect and synthesize accounting, training, and personnel data, in order to calculate costs and benefits of training. The method for calculating costs and benefits includes steps of collecting data, calculating contributions by members of the organization, calculating costs incurred by members of the organization, and correlating contributions made by members with training received by members of the organization. |
| US08244575B2 |
Method and apparatus for creating due-to reports for activities that may not have reference value
Methods and apparatuses for computing a variance for the difference between two business metrics. In one embodiment, the method accesses a response model and a plurality of activities with start and end values for each of the plurality of activities. Furthermore, the method computes a variance for the difference between the first and second business metrics for each of the plurality of activities using the response model by setting that activity to one of the corresponding starting and ending values and setting others of the plurality of activities to the value state opposite of that activity, wherein the variance for an activity is the change in contribution for that activity between the start and end sales volumes. |
| US08244573B2 |
Dynamic marketing system and method
Provided herein are systems and methods for providing access to marketing data via a reduced-complexity marketer GUI for dynamically defining market segments for use in marketing campaigns. The systems and methods provide a searchable list of person-related and entity-related pluralities of market segmentation criteria, obtain a market segmentation definition comprising a search key corresponding to selected market segmentation criteria, and perform a series of steps to obtain a first market-segment snapshot. |
| US08244570B2 |
Business flow analysis method and apparatus
A series of transaction records is extracted for each case from a database storing processing results of respective performed jobs to generate, for each case, a process instance including job names and time data of the performed jobs arranged in a time series. Then, process instances satisfying a designated condition are classified among the process instances to calculate, for each classification, an average value and standard deviation of transition periods that are differences between a start time and an end time of a job section to be processed in the pertinent process instances. By identifying a process instance, which has correlation with the route before the job section and for which the reduction of the transition period is expected and/or a process instance, which has correlation with the entire route and for which the reduction of the transition period is expected, an improvement candidate is automatically shown to the user. |
| US08244567B2 |
Business goal incentives using gaming rewards
Gaming rewards are provided as an incentive for performing business goals. A business goal can be comprised of one or more tasks and a threshold for each task. When one or more participants perform tasks which satisfies the corresponding thresholds, a corresponding gaming reward is awarded to the participants. A business goal may require a single participant to satisfy a single task threshold, multiple participants to satisfy a threshold for one or more tasks, or a single participant to satisfy one or more thresholds for several tasks. |
| US08244565B2 |
Individual productivity and utilization tracking tool
A method of tracking productivity and utilization information regarding an individual of an organization. The method including entering via an input device information regarding the individual into a database that: 1) identifies each direct task worked on by the individual during a session of work, 2) direct time applied to each of the identified direct tasks during the session of work, and 3) a number of units processed or completed for each of the identified direct tasks corresponding to each of the applied direct times. The method further including displaying on a display information regarding productivity and utilization for the individual based on the direct tasks, the direct times and the number of units that are present in the database. |
| US08244563B2 |
Appraisal evaluation and scoring system and method
A system and related methods for the management and evaluation of real estate appraisals comprising, a method of determining a standardized score representative of the accuracy and quality of a real estate appraisal. Data from the appraisal is extracted and evaluated according to a plurality of compliance and risk based rules applicable to the type of appraisal. Each rule is given a particular weight, and an appraisal score may be calculating by summing each instance of a rule triggered multiplied by the weight assigned to that rule. Weights may be set by experts, or determined by statistical analysis. |
| US08244562B2 |
Sequence of algorithms to compute equilibrium prices in networks
The claimed subject matter provides an architecture for facilitating equilibrium solutions for resource allocation markets. One particular example of such markets can be a computer network environment. The architecture can model buyers as nodes and suppliers as edges, incorporating notions of an ascending price auction in order to provide optimal equilibrium solution to Eisenberg-Gale type convex programs in strongly polynomial time. |
| US08244561B2 |
System and method for selecting and reserving airline seats
This invention relates to an electronic means by which people can select the exact seat or seats they want for any type of event or reserve an appointment for any activity. More specifically, a customer or a ticket re-seller or a venue operator can go, for example, to the internet and select the event or activity for which he wants a ticket or tickets or reserve a time and reserve and order the exact seat or seats or the time of his choosing directly online. The seat or seats may be displayed on a personal computing device, and additional information about the seat or seats may be displayed in response to the customer or ticket re-seller or venue operator placing a location indicator over a portion of the interactive seating display. |
| US08244554B2 |
System, method, and apparatus for managing price information with locking mechanisms
A computer-implemented method for managing price information. Embodiments include receiving a mapping of interconnected components, identifying as a first subset components subject to a first fixed price agreement not subject to a second fixed price agreement that overlaps the first fixed price agreement, identifying as a second subset the components subject to the second fixed price agreement not subject to the first fixed price agreement, and identifying as a third subset the components subject to both the first fixed price agreement and the second fixed price agreement. The method also includes receiving a price change for a price associated with a component in one of the subsets of components, and distributing an offset of the price change to components in the other subsets of components. |
| US08244553B2 |
Template development based on sensor originated reported aspects
A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: providing one or more reported aspects associated with one or more source users that were originally reported by one or more sensors; and developing one or more templates designed to facilitate one or more end users to achieve one or more target outcomes when one or more emulatable aspects indicated by the one or more templates are emulated, the development of the one or more templates being based at least on a portion of the one or more reported aspects In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. |
| US08244550B2 |
System and method for transmitting/receiving data by using a mobile communication terminal in a zigbee pan
A mobile communication terminal equipped with a Zigbee communication module for transmitting/receiving contents data in a Zigbee Personal Area Network (PAN) and a method for transmitting/receiving data by a mobile communication terminal in a communication system of the Zigbee PAN are provided. The communication system of the Zigbee PAN includes a first terminal equipped with a Zigbee communication module capable of Zigbee communication, for generating contents data for extracting a tag from the generated contents data, generating profile information using the tag, and for broadcasting the profile information and the contents data in the Zigbee PAN, and a second terminal for comparing a tag of the contents data detected from the received profile information with a previously stored tag upon receiving the profile information broadcasted from the first terminal, and then for receiving the contents data if the detected tag of the contents data and the previously stored tag coincide with each other. |
| US08244546B2 |
Singing synthesis parameter data estimation system
There is provided a singing synthesis parameter data estimation system that automatically estimates singing synthesis parameter data for automatically synthesizing a human-like singing voice from an audio signal of input singing voice. A pitch parameter estimating section 9 estimates a pitch parameter, by which the pitch feature of an audio signal of synthesized singing voice is got closer to the pitch feature of the audio signal of input singing voice based on at least both of the pitch feature and lyric data with specified syllable boundaries of the audio signal of input singing voice. A dynamics parameter estimating section 11 converts the dynamics feature of the audio signal of input singing voice to a relative value with respect to the dynamics feature of the audio signal of synthesized singing voice, and estimates a dynamics parameter, by which the dynamics feature of the audio signal of synthesized singing voice is got close to the dynamics feature of the audio signal of input singing voice that has been converted to the relative value. |
| US08244545B2 |
Dialog repair based on discrepancies between user model predictions and speech recognition results
An architecture is presented that leverages discrepancies between user model predictions and speech recognition results by identifying discrepancies between the predictive data and the speech recognition data and repairing the data based in part on the discrepancy. User model predictions predict what goal or action speech application users are likely to pursue based in part on past user behavior. Speech recognition results indicate what goal speech application users are likely to have spoken based in part on words spoken under specific constraints. Discrepancies between the predictive data and the speech recognition data are identified and a dialog repair is engaged for repairing these discrepancies. By engaging in repairs when there is a discrepancy between the predictive results and the speech recognition results, and utilizing feedback obtained via interaction with a user, the architecture can learn about the reliability of both user model predictions and speech recognition results for future processing. |
| US08244544B1 |
Editing voice input
A computer-implemented method of generating a voice command to perform an action includes receiving a voice request to perform the action, wherein the voice request comprises first audio information for one or more first data fields associated with the action; generating a GUI that when rendered on a display device comprises a prompt message prompting a user to speak second audio information for one or more second data fields associated with the action; and inserting into the one or more second data fields data indicative of one or more of (i) the first audio information, and (ii) the second audio information. |
| US08244540B2 |
System and method for providing a textual representation of an audio message to a mobile device
A textual representation of a voice message is provided to a communication device, such as a mobile phone, for example, when the mobile phone is operating in a silent mode. The voice message is input by a caller and the voice message converted to phonemes. A text representation of the voice message is transmitted to the mobile phone. The representation includes characters based on the phonemes with well known words being represented in an easily understood shorthand format. |
| US08244537B2 |
Audience state estimation system, audience state estimation method, and audience state estimation program
Video signal relative to an imaged audience and audio signal according to voices from the audience are generated in an input unit. A characteristic amount detection unit detects information on a movement amount, movement periodicity, a volume, voice periodicity of the audience, and a frequency component of voices from the audience based on the video signal or the audio signal. An estimation unit estimates an audience state based on the detected result. An output unit outputs the estimated result of the audience state. The audience state can be easily estimated without observing the audience state by a person. |
| US08244535B2 |
Audio frequency remapping
An exemplary system and method are directed at receiving an audio signal and process the audio signal into a remapped audio signal based on a plot profile. The plot profile may include at least one of an identified range of audio frequencies. The processing may comprise retrieving an identified range of audio frequencies from the plot profile; determining a range of impaired audio frequencies in the audio signal based on the identified range of audio frequencies; shifting the frequency of at least a portion of the impaired audio frequencies to outside of the identified range; and continuing to retrieve identified ranges of audio frequencies from the plot profile. The shifting of the impaired audio frequencies of the audio signal may be performed until no further identified ranges of audio frequencies are available for consideration. |
| US08244533B2 |
Speech recognition performance improvement method and speech recognition device
Speech recognition performance is improved without changing a speech recognition engine. A speech data generation section generates, from speech data for which speech recognition is to be performed, a plurality of pieces of speech data whose starting positions of the non-speech regions differ. A speech recognition engine performs speech recognition by using each of the pieces of speech data. A totaling/comparison section provides the most numerous recognized result from among a plurality of obtained recognized results. |
| US08244522B2 |
Language understanding device
A language understanding device includes: a language understanding model storing unit configured to store word transition data including pre-transition states, input words, predefined outputs corresponding to the input words, word weight information, and post-transition states, and concept weighting data including concepts obtained from language understanding results for at least one word, and concept weight information corresponding to the concepts; a finite state transducer processing unit configured to output understanding result candidates including the predefined outputs, to accumulate word weights so as to obtain a cumulative word weight, and to sequentially perform state transition operations; a concept weighting processing unit configured to accumulate concept weights so as to obtain a cumulative concept weight; and an understanding result determination unit configured to determine an understanding result from the understanding result candidates by referring to the cumulative word weight and the cumulative concept weight. |
| US08244518B2 |
Input/output processor (IOP) based zSeries emulation
The emulation of a data processing I/O protocol employs a process which obviates the need to consider hardware specific functionality for which emulation is not an optimal solution. The particular protocol described in exemplary fashion herein is the OSA protocol as defined by Open System Adapter standards. The use of this emulation is also seen to leave in place all of the software tools otherwise employed. |
| US08244517B2 |
Enhanced matching through explore/exploit schemes
Content items are selected to be displayed on a portal page in such a way as to maximize a performance metric such as click-through rate. Problems relating to content selection are addressed, such as changing content pool, variable performance metric, and delay in receiving feedback on an item once the item has been displayed to a user. An adaptation of priority-based schemes for the multi-armed bandit problem are used to project future trends of data. The adaptation introduces experiments concerning a future time period into the calculation, which increases the set of data on which to solve the multi-armed bandit problem. Also, a Bayesian explore/exploit method is formulated as an optimization problem that addresses all of the issues of content item selection for a portal page. This optimization problem is modified by Lagrange relaxation and normal approximation, which allow computation of the optimization problem in real time. |
| US08244513B2 |
Simulation execution apparatus and method with cyclicity detection mechanism and computer readable medium
There is provided with simulation execution apparatus including: a receiving unit configured to receive a cyclic signal; registers; a simulation execution unit configured to execute simulation of a logic circuit model which operates with the use of the cyclic signal and the registers; a counter configured to count time based on the cyclic signal; a register value monitoring unit configured to monitor the values of the registers; a register data recording unit configured to record in a storage, register data made up of the values of the registers in association with the time of the counter when the value of at least one of the registers is changed; a cyclicity detection unit configured to detect a cyclicity of the register data based on the storage; and a stop unit configured to give a stop instruction signal which instructs stop of the simulation execution to the simulation execution unit. |
| US08244508B1 |
Method for modifying a piece of 3D geometry
A three-dimensional solid geometry modeling method is described that can move or modify any piece of solid or surface geometry, such as a protrusion or depression, when faces are changed in a way that is not obvious or predictable from the original data. The method involves a combination of local changes and a context-based process that uses simplification, detaching, modification, and reattaching algorithms. The method is invoked automatically when a modeling tool (such as Move or Pull) is used to move or modify a piece of geometry. During the movement or modification, the geometry reflects the changes dynamically as the user interacts with the modeling tool. When performing the modification, simplification of the faces and edges can be manually or automatically invoked. |
| US08244506B2 |
Ultrasound simulation apparatus and method
A method includes receiving data values associated with one of a position and orientation of a simulated scanner relative to an object. Image values are calculated, substantially in realtime, based on the data values. A simulated ultrasound image is rendered in a graphical display based on the image values. The simulated ultrasound image is representative of an interior or a simulated interior of the object on the ultrasound scan plane. Ultrasound simulation systems are also disclosed. |
| US08244505B2 |
Predicting NOx emissions
A method of predicting a nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission rate of a non-continuous, natural gas-fired boiler is presented. The method includes: calculating a correlation of the NOx emission rate to a measured fuel flow rate and a sampled oxygen (O2) concentration based on a plurality of sampled NOx emission concentrations, measured fuel flow rates, and sampled (O2) concentrations during operation of the non-continuous, natural gas-fired boiler using a computing device; calculating a predicted NOx emission rate based on the correlation with the measured fuel flow rate and the sampled O2 concentration using the computing device; and providing the predicted NOx emission rate for use by a user. |
| US08244503B1 |
Quantitative measurements of system complexity
A method is provided for determining the complexity of a system. The method includes creating a response matrix for the system, creating a contingency matrix, Cn, from the response matrix, and calculating the complexity of the system from the formula: Complexity=[α/det(CnTCn)]*Log2([(H(x)/H(y))]) wherein H(x) is the input information quantity, H(y) is the output information quantity, and α is a dimensionless system constant. The method also includes displaying the complexity of the system. |
| US08244497B2 |
Method of solving a process function for manufacturing an extrusion die
Methods are provided for solving a process function for modification of a non-test die for use in extrusion of a honeycomb body. The process function is solved by comparing measured widths of a plurality of slots between pins of a test die in the post-removal state and measured widths of a plurality of slots between pins of the test die in the pre-removal state. Methods are also provided for modifying a non-test die for use in extrusion of a honeycomb body. Such methods remove non-test-die material from a plurality of pins of the non-test die based on application of the process function. |
| US08244496B2 |
Fuel viscosity detection apparatus
An object of the present invention is to estimate a viscosity of a fuel with high accuracy at all times, irrespective, for example, of fuel properties or conditions of deterioration with time.An internal combustion engine 10 includes a fuel pump 32 for supplying an injection valve with fuel in a tank 24. An ECU 40 detects a transition time t that begins when a drive signal is outputted to the fuel pump 32 and ends when the pump enters a steady operating state. At a start of the fuel pump 32, the higher the viscosity of the fuel, the longer the transition time t tends to be. The ECU 40 therefore detects the viscosity of the fuel based on a deviation Δt between the transition time t and a reference time t0. If, for example, a biofuel is used, therefore, the latest viscosity can be accurately detected at all times even with the viscosity of the fuel fluctuating depending on, for example, properties or a condition of deterioration with time of the fuel, and the detection result can be incorporated in, for example, correction of a fuel injection pressure. |
| US08244495B2 |
Method and system for region of interest calibration parameter adjustment of tracking systems
A method for adjusting parameters of a calibration model in a position sensing system including a sensor for obtaining a measurement indicative of a location of an object, the method including: a) providing an initial set of model parameters for determining a relationship between a sensor measurement and a location value within a predetermined volume of location values; b) selecting a plurality of sub-segments of location values within the range of location values; c) providing for each of the selected plurality of sub-segments of location values a local set of model parameters for determining a relationship between a sensor measurement and a location value within the selected sub-segment of location values; d) obtaining a measurement from the sensor; e) determining an estimate of the location of the object from the sensor measurement and the initial set of model parameters; and f) identifying at least one of the selected sub-segments of location values related to the estimate of the location of the object. |
| US08244486B2 |
Structural health monitoring system having memory on structure
Storage of information, such as baseline information and structure ID, in a memory that is mounted on the structure, rather than inside the diagnosis hardware. This allows for faster and more convenient information retrieval. In particular, this approach allows for a more modular system in which different diagnosis hardware or other analyzers can be simply plugged into a structure's sensor network, whereupon they can quickly download any desired structure-specific information (e.g., baseline information, structure ID, and other useful information) from the on-structure memory. |
| US08244485B2 |
System and method for detecting damage, defect, and reinforcement in fiber reinforced polymer bonded concrete systems using far-field radar
A non-contact, far-field radar nondestructive testing (NDT) method is disclosed that is capable of detecting at least one of defects, damages, and reinforcement conditions in near-surface region of multi-layer systems using monostatic inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) measurements and applicable to various types of structural elements. The method includes the steps of conducting far-field monostatic ISAR measurements, executing an imaging algorithm, and executing a progressive image focusing algorithm. |
| US08244483B2 |
Shape recognition methods and systems for searching molecular databases
The present disclosure presents novel shape comparison methods. Methods for determining shape similarity between a query molecule and a target molecule and methods for screening one or more molecules in a database based on shape similarity to a query molecule are described. |
| US08244481B2 |
Methods for utilizing paint formulations based on paint component risk scores
Methods for predicting the performance risk of a paint component are disclosed. The methods include providing a proposed paint formulation, wherein the proposed paint formulation comprises at least one paint component, and identifying previous paint formulations comprising the paint component. The methods further include evaluating formulation similarities between the previous paint formulations and the proposed paint formulation, assigning formulation similarity scores based on the formulation similarities, and determining a paint component risk score for the paint component based on the formulation similarity scores. The proposed paint formulation may be utilized in a manufacturing application when the paint component risk score satisfies a manufacturing threshold value. |
| US08244475B2 |
Coupling human neural response with computer pattern analysis for single-event detection of significant brain responses for task-relevant stimuli
The human neural response is coupled with computer pattern analysis for robust single-event detection of significant non-stationary brain responses triggered upon occurrence of a task-relevant stimulus. Classifier performance is enhanced fusing together the outputs of multiple different classifiers albeit multiple spatial classifiers to extract a temporal pattern as the brain response evolves, time and frequency-based spatio-temporal classifiers, and/or EEG and pupillary classifiers. |
| US08244474B2 |
Feature pattern recognition system, method, and program
A feature pattern recognition system, method, and program capable of recognizing feature pattern with a high accuracy are provided. Discrete symbols (nucleotide symbols or the like) constituting a to-be-recognized sequence (a DNA sequence or the like) are converted to numerals by using symbol frequencies that are obtained according to sequence positions or types of the discrete symbols to generates test data or a test data matrix Xtest, a matrix calculation (Ytest=WpromXtest or the like) of multiplying a separation matrix (Wprom or the like) obtained by an independent component analysis or a principal component analysis with the test data or the test data matrix Xtest is performed, separation data or a separation data matrix Ytest is obtained, and it is decided in which side of a threshold exists a feature decision element (elements of first row or the like) of the Ytest, so that it is decided whether or not the feature pattern (a promoter or the like) exists in the sequence by using a feature decision element (multiple rows of elements may be used). |
| US08244473B2 |
System and method for automated data analysis and parameter selection
System and method for automatic analysis and determination of a parameter. Measurement data are obtained from one or more sensors deployed to measure a desired parameter, the data being associated to identified locations. The measured data are processed to parse out the data obtained with at least one sensor configured to provide a measurement of a selected subsurface parameter and examined to automatically output a value determined to be the most accurate value for the selected parameter from the obtained measurement data. |
| US08244467B2 |
Method and device for determining a reliable position of an aircraft
The invention relates to a method and device for determining a reliable position of an aircraft. The device (1) includes means (3, 10) for determining different aircraft position values and means (8, 16, 18) for deducing a reliable position therefrom, using coherence tests and a consolidation method. |
| US08244465B2 |
Navigation system and display method of road network on the same system
A control section 1, according to a map scale designated by a user via an input section 2, draws on its internal drawing memory, roads including its own-vehicle position obtained by a position information acquiring section 4 and display elements including city centers (display elements representing a city and indicating the representative position of the city each) or facilities. If the own-vehicle position and the display elements including the city centers or facilities are displayed in isolation on the display section 7, the control section calculates the route from the own-vehicle position to the display elements under the condition recommended by the navigation or under the condition the user designates, and draws the route produced as a result of the route calculation on the drawing memory. |
| US08244463B2 |
Method and system for providing directions for driving
A system and method of providing information (such as directions) to a driver of a vehicle while driving the vehicle without requiring that the driver remove his eyes from looking out the windshield at the road ahead. A positioning device is associated with the vehicle and determines the present location of the vehicle which is compared to a desired location (e.g., the location of a desired turn at an intersection) necessary to reach a preset destination which has been stored. When the vehicle is in a predetermined location (e.g., 500 feet or 10 second before the intersection), an advisory message to the driver is projected onto the windshield using a heads-up display projector so that the driver can prepare for and make the necessary movement (e.g., turning the correct way at the desired intersection). An optional auditory signal can provide a message indicating the necessary action, either in general or specifically (through a speech synthesizer), with optionally different sound indicators, depending on the urgency of the action. A wireless receiver used with the present invention can display other information such as road conditions, traffic and weather information, as well as advertising and e-mail. The present invention contemplates that images of intersections (live pictures, photos or sketches) may be displayed to indicate the proper turn and provide landmark information to assist in determining the appropriate turn. |
| US08244459B2 |
Method for stitching multiple converging paths
A method of stitching converging path segments to aesthetically label Y-intersections, path bifurcations or splits in roads or the like entails determining which pair of adjacent path segments subtend the largest angle. The path segments subtending the largest angle are reconstructed (stitched together) and a single instance of the label is then rendered along the reconstructed path. Although this stitching can be performed on the client device, pre-stitching server-side is even more efficient in terms of economizing over-the-air bandwidth and onboard processing resources. |
| US08244457B2 |
Device for a motor vehicle
A device for a motor vehicle includes at least one distance sensor for recording a predominantly lateral clearance between the motor vehicle and objects, and a control device for controlling the distance sensor, the distance sensor emitting measuring signals during an activation time, and receiving measuring signal reflected by at least one object during a measurement receiving time. In the process, the measurement receiving time of the distance sensor is modifiable by the control device. |
| US08244456B2 |
Validation of track databases
Methods for validating track databases based on the contents of a geological database. The track database stores a piecewise-polynomial spline as a geometric representation of the track, along with offsets from spline points to represent the geo-locations of features on the track. After the computations associated with the geometric representation are completed and the track database is populated, the geo-locations of features in the track database are checked for consistency with the geo-locations of monuments in the geological database. If the geo-location of a feature in the track database is found to differ by more than a threshold distance from its projected geo-location, as computed from offsets from a monument in the geological database, then corrective action is taken. The illustrative embodiment also enables the validation of data values in the track database and relationships among track features. |
| US08244454B2 |
Navigation device and method
This invention relates to a navigation device (200) comprising: an input interface (220, 240) configured to enable a user to select a destination; a processor (210); and a display (240) controllable by the processor; characterized in that the navigation device (200) further comprises: a store (230) for building data, said building data being representative of the shape of buildings at each of a plurality of destinations, and a destination view generation module (490) for generating, from building data stored in said store (230) for said user selected destination, a three-dimensional representation of a building at said user selected destination, said processor (210) being responsive to said destination view generation module (490) to control said display (240) to display said three-dimensional representation to said user. |
| US08244450B2 |
Vehicle position information providing devices, methods, and programs
Vehicle position information providing devices, methods, and programs acquire a first current position of a vehicle based on a radio signal received from a GPS satellite and acquire a second current position of the vehicle based on a signal received by a communication device that communicates over a mobile phone network. The devices, methods, and programs determine whether the first current position and the second current position coincide. If the first current position and the second current position do not coincide, the devices, methods, and programs cause the communication device to transmit information relating to the first current position to an information center. |
| US08244449B2 |
Apparatus for detecting the state of battery
In an apparatus for detecting a state of a battery serving as a power source for cranking an internal combustion engine, a detecting unit and an internal resistance calculating unit are installed. The detecting unit detects a current and a voltage of the battery during a cranking period of the internal combustion engine, and outputs a parameter associated with at least one of the detected current and voltage of the battery. When a degree of change in the parameter within a specified period included in the cranking period is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the internal resistance calculating unit calculates an internal resistance of the battery based on values of the current and voltage of the battery, the values of the current and the voltage being detected within the specified period. |
| US08244445B2 |
Stuck vehicle with time and pedal related traction control
A method for controlling a powertrain of a vehicle is provided for traction control. The method comprises controlling wheel slip to a first amount, the first amount independent of a driver requested output; and controlling the wheel slip to a second amount when a vehicle speed is less than a threshold for a first duration, the second amount based on the driver requested output. In this way, the driver is allowed to modify the wheel slip in a controlled way during specific traction control conditions. |
| US08244442B2 |
System and method for stability control of vehicle and trailer
A system and method for stability control of a vehicle and a trailer. The system and method can receive vehicle and trailer operating data or signals and define one of a brake-based stability control subsystem and a torque management-based stability control subsystem as the dominant stability control system. Based on the stability control subsystem defined as the dominant stability control system, the system and method provide stability control for the vehicle and the trailer. |
| US08244440B2 |
Method and device for triggering a circuit arrangement with electric actuators
A method and device for actuating a shifting arrangement with electric actuators of a transmission control of a motor vehicle. The method includes determining a total current of the shifting arrangement available at a point in time, detecting shift requests of shift elements and compared these with the total available current. Shift requests are then tested according to preset priorities and the sequentially performed according to the priority test. The method avoids exceeding a preset allowed current load, when the requested shifts would exceed the total available current. If the total available current would not be exceeded by the requested shifts, the requests are carried out. A device is also provided in the shifting arrangement which has control and detection mechanisms that monitor current and control the current flow. |
| US08244428B2 |
Automatic fore-aft detection for an aircraft
An automatic fore/aft detection procedure as described herein may be implemented in connection with an aircraft brake control system that utilizes wheel-mounted accelerometers that detect landing gear acceleration for purposes of antiskid control. The fore/aft detection procedure automatically determines that the aircraft is moving in a forward direction based upon the current wheel speed and rotational direction of the wheels. Once detected, forward direction is assigned to the rotational direction of each wheel (clockwise or counterclockwise) and a fore/aft orientation can be assigned to the accelerometer for each wheel. |
| US08244427B2 |
Modular temperature performance diagnostic for a vehicle
A vehicle includes a power inverter module (PIM), a motor/generator unit (MGU), vehicle components, temperature sensors, and a controller. The sensors measure temperatures of a motor winding of the MGU, and temperatures of the multiple phase outputs of the PIM. The second plurality of temperature sensors measures temperatures of the vehicle components. The controller calculates an average temperature of the components, and individually diagnoses each temperature sensor using the average temperature. A control circuit for the vehicle includes the first and second plurality of sensors and the controller. A temperature performance diagnostic method includes using the first plurality to measure a temperature of the motor winding and the phase outputs of the PIM, using the second plurality to measure a temperature of the components, calculating an average temperature of the components, and individually diagnosing the performance of each of the first plurality of sensors using the average temperature. |
| US08244425B2 |
In-vehicle apparatus
A navigation apparatus carries out a diagnosing process for vehicle behavior, for example, whether sudden accelerating operation or sudden braking operation has been done, wherein the diagnosing process is carried out based on vehicle acceleration. It is necessary to accurately calculate the vehicle acceleration in order to perform a reliable diagnosing process. The navigation apparatus calculates a difference between a first vehicle acceleration defined by an output from an acceleration sensor and a second vehicle acceleration calculated based on a vehicle speed and vehicle angular speed. The navigation apparatus carries out the diagnosing process, for example, when the above difference between the first and second vehicle accelerations is less than a predetermined value. |
| US08244421B2 |
Vehicle and control method of vehicle
When the low SOC control request is output and the catalyst warming request is not output, the low SOC control mode is set as a control mode and the state of charge (SOC) of the battery is controlled according to the managing center SOC* set as the smaller value S2 than the value S1 for the normal time. When the catalyst warming request is output, the catalyst warming mode is set as a control mode regardless of the low SOC control request and the engine is controlled to perform the self sustained operation (no-load operation) at the idling rotation speed Nidl with the spark-retard state. Namely, when the battery temperature is low and the catalyst temperature is also low, the catalyst warm-up is given a higher priority than the low SOC control and prevents the exhaust emission from becoming worse. |
| US08244418B1 |
System and method for generating alert signals in a weather awareness and warning system
A weather awareness and warning system (“WAWS”) provides aircraft position data and weather data input to a weather alert (“WA”) processor from a navigation system and a datalink system. The weather data contains three-dimensional delineations of a defined weather area. The WA processor determines an aircraft alert position and a weather alert zone; if the aircraft alert position falls within or penetrates the weather alert zone, the WA processor generates an alert signal and provides a weather alert signal to an alerting system comprising of visual alert(s) displayed on a display unit such as an HDD unit or a HUD unit, or an aural alert sounded by an aural alert unit. The aircraft alert position and weather alert zone could be determined by the WA processor by executing an algorithm(s) embedded in software containing the disclosed embodiments and methods. |
| US08244417B2 |
Method for maintaining pose of spacecraft
Embodiments of invention disclose a system and a method for formation-keeping of a spacecraft in response to a displacement of the spacecraft to a displaced pose with respect to at least one direction of the displacement, wherein the spacecraft is configured to issue a compensative force by generating a command to issue a compensative force. The compensative force is determined as a function of a sum of the base force configured for maintaining the spacecraft in the displaced pose with respect to the direction of the displacement and an excess force configured for optimizing the formation-keeping with respect to the direction of the displacement of the spacecraft at the displaced pose. |
| US08244416B2 |
Process for evaluating an error in the positioning of an aircraft generated for an on-board positioning system
A process for evaluating an error in the aircraft positioning as generated by an on-board positioning system is disclosed. The aircraft positioning as generated by the positioning system is recorded through radar means, the presence of at least one group of targets arranged on the ground is detected through said radar means, the position of such a group of targets is measured through said radar means with respect to the aircraft positioning, and the error in the aircraft positioning is evaluated, comparing with at least one threshold value the value of at least one reference magnitude being characteristic of the difference existing between the measured position and a known position of the group of targets with respect to the aircraft positioning. |
| US08244414B2 |
Avionic aviation system with an earth station for automatically eliminating operating malfunctions occurring in airplanes, and corresponding method
An avionic aviation system, and a corresponding method, with an earth station for automatically eliminating operating malfunctions occurring in airplanes. The avionic aviation system is connected to a plurality of airplanes via a wireless interface of the avionics. If, by sensor, an operating malfunction is detected on an airplane, a dedicated operating malfunction usage device is selected to automatically eliminate the malfunction by a filter module, and a switching device of the earth station is specifically enabled to activate the operating malfunction usage device. |
| US08244412B2 |
System and methods for on-board pre-flight aircraft dispatching
Systems and methods for providing pre-flight dispatching are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for on-board dispatching of an aircraft includes a flight dispatching apparatus positioned within the aircraft that is configured to perform one or more flight dispatching tasks. A communications apparatus is configured to exchange wireless signals between the dispatching apparatus and one or more ground-based facilities. In another embodiment, a method of dispatching an aircraft includes designating a person to perform predetermined dispatching tasks, and establishing a wireless data connection between the aircraft and at least one ground-based facility. Information obtained from the at least one ground-based facility is then processed to perform the one or more dispatching tasks, and at least a portion of the processed information is communicated to the at least one ground-based facility using the wireless data connection. |
| US08244411B2 |
Orientation-based wireless sensing apparatus
An orientation-based wireless sensor includes a transmitter unit having a body housing a microprocessor, a transmitter, and an accelerometer for detecting the orientation of the transmitter unit relative to one-, two- or three-axis of the direction of the pull of earth's gravity. The transmitter body is mounted on a feature of a vehicle that it is desirable to monitor. The transmitter will transmit orientation data at predetermined time intervals to a receiver on the vehicle, which will in turn process the information, adding additional information, such as GPS location, and wirelessly send the data to a database that is available to a customer over the Internet. |
| US08244403B2 |
Visual navigation system and method based on structured light
A visual navigation system and method based on structured light are provided. The visual navigation system at least includes at least one projector for generating a specific path pattern formed by structured light, and a visual server. In addition to facilitating the visual navigation system to detect an obstacle, the pattern formed by the structured light provides a specific path pattern followed by robots during the navigation. In the visual navigation method, when detecting the obstacle, the visual server routes a virtual path and issues a movement-control command to the robots, which in turn follow the virtual path. The present invention is capable of raising the accuracy for the robot navigation and reducing operation burden of the visual server by using the structured light to guide the robots. |
| US08244400B2 |
Method and device for automatically stacking tires on a support
The present invention relates to a method and a device for automatically stacking tires (4) on a support (1). According to the method, geometrical data of the tires (4) and/or a digital model of the tires (4) is provided, based on the geometrical data and/or the tire model and a predefinable size of the support (1), an algorithm calculates a stacking pattern for the tires (4) on the support (1) by taking into account a predefined size of the support, said stacking pattern making it possible to store the largest possible number of tires (4) in a stable manner on the support (1). Positional data of the tires (4) are adopted from the stacking pattern and associated trajectories of a handling device for stacking the tires (4) are generated and stored according to the stacking pattern. The stored positional data and trajectories are retrieved and transferred to the handling device, which receives the tires (4) at a given receiving position and puts the same on the support (1) in accordance with the positional data and associated trajectories. The present method and the associated device make it possible to automatically stack the tires with an optimal stacking pattern for the tires. |
| US08244396B2 |
Turning machine and machining method by the same
The turning machine according to the present invention includes a displacement sensor (200) which measures a distance between an immobile reference point and a position of variable point which reflects the positional displacement of the tool, the immobile reference point being able to determine a relative positional correlation relating to a variable position of tools with the progress of machining of the workpiece (W) by the tool (421). In drawings the reference point is set up in the guide bush (90). And based on the measured result by the displacement sensor, the tool is moved so that the center height of the tool and the center line of the workpiece satisfy relatively the predetermined positional correlation. Accordingly, the center height deviation amount due to heat deformation and the like is corrected. |
| US08244395B2 |
Method for managing an active safety for an automatically operating machine
This invention relates to a method for managing active safety for an automatically operating machine comprising a work surface and a work tool displaced according to a pre-established work program. The method consists of dividing (100) the work surface into several zones and, during the work program cycle and in response to detection (200) of an operator's intrusion into a first zone when the tool is active in a second zone, also consists of carrying out at least one of the following actions: keeping (210) the tool's programmed displacement at the normal speed if the tool's displacement is programmed in a zone not adjacent to the first one, keeping (220) the tool's programmed displacement at reduced speed if the tool's displacement is programmed in a zone adjacent to the first one and modifying (230) the work program if the tool's displacement is programmed in the first zone so that the tool's work can be continued in a zone other than the first one. |
| US08244391B2 |
Method for minimizing productivity loss while using a manufacturing scheduler
Tools and/or resources which newly become available to a re-entrant flow manufacturing line, data processing pipeline or the like are allocated in substantially real time to processing operations independent of and consistent with a scheduling segment previously generated by dispatching items such as workpieces or data to tools and/or resources of a manufacturing line until the newly available tool or resource can be conveniently included in a subsequently generated schedule segment in order to avoid productivity loss due to schedule latency. Items can be dispatched in a priority order to accelerate completion of processing. A schedule segment including the newly available tool or resource can be facilitated by merging allocations of a real time dispatch list with allocations of a dispatch list corresponding to a previously generated schedule segment. |
| US08244390B2 |
System and method for improved dental geometry representation
A digital data set representing a pre-scanned tooth geometry, including digital data representing a digitally-mirrored contralateral digital tooth model including a crown component, is merged with data representing a scanned patient tooth crown image which lacks sufficient data to completely represent a complete tooth crown to create a complete digital tooth crown model. |
| US08244388B2 |
Artificial contests among temporal sequences
A method for arranging a primary contest including a primary computer system in communication with a data feed to a source of data including sequences, wherein the sequences are discrete functions of time, the method including selecting sequences as contestants in the contest, providing a definition of a contest outcome as a measure relating to either a contestant's performance independently of other contestants or a joint performance of interacting contestants, receiving data from the data feed, wherein the data relates to the sequences selected, and determining an outcome of the contest according to the definition. |
| US08244384B2 |
System identification in automated process control
The systems and methods described herein allow for automatic identification experiments in a closed loop, where the old control strategy, already tuned and tested, is utilized. The strategy is modified to inject additional signal optimized for identification. The experimenting time may be reduced by performing only those system manipulations which explore model uncertainties important to potential degradation of controller performance by discrepancy between the system and the model. The disruptions are reduced by keeping the control loop closed, which eliminates waiting for steady state before applying steps to the inputs and reduces the risk of process limits crossing. The energy of additional signal can be set to meet the maximum allowable disruption requirements. The energy of additional signal is in a direct relation to the speed of identification related information gathering. It can be varied in time to follow the needs of system operators. |
| US08244375B2 |
MRI compatible lead
Disclosed herein is an implantable medical lead. In one embodiment, the lead includes a ring electrode, a tip electrode, first and second helically wound coaxial conductor coils, and a distal coil transition. The coils extend between the proximal and distal ends of the lead. The distal coil transition is proximal to the ring electrode and near the distal end and is where the first coil transitions from being outside the second coil proximal of the distal coil transition to being inside the second coil distal of the distal coil transition. |
| US08244373B1 |
Load-carrying body for reducing torsional and tensile loading on electronic components in an implantable medical electrical lead
A load-carrying body for reducing torsional and tensile loading on electrical components in an implantable medical electrical lead includes an electronic component disposed in-line with the implantable medical electrical lead, and a casing for the electronic component. The electronic component has a proximal end conductively coupled to a lead conductor and a distal end conductively coupled to a lead electrode. The casing is mechanically coupled to the lead so as to isolate the electrical component from torque or tensile loads applied to the lead, the lead electrode, or both. |
| US08244371B2 |
Pancreas lead
An implant device comprising an electrode for electrical stimulation of the pancreas, the device being adapted to be inserted into the pancreas, and to change at least one of its properties after being inserted into the pancreas, so that it will cause less irritation to the pancreas than before changing said property. |
| US08244364B2 |
Apparatus and method for electrical stimulation of human retina
An apparatus and method for retinal stimulation are shown. The method comprises varied parameters, including frequency, pulse width, and pattern of pulse trains to determine a stimulation pattern and visual perception threshold. |
| US08244362B2 |
Vision regeneration assisting apparatus
Provided is a vision regeneration assisting apparatus including a plurality of electrodes which are placed in a human body to apply an electrostimulation pulse signal to a cell for forming a retina; and a controller which outputs the electrostimulation pulse signal having bipolarity from the electrodes, wherein the controller comprises a capacitor which accumulates a current used for the electrostimulation pulse signal and converts the current into a voltage; a voltage detecting circuit which detects the voltage of a capacitor; and a switching circuit which allows the current to flow in the electrodes until the voltage of the capacitor reaches a predetermined voltage and allows the current having polarity opposite to (the polarity of the current which flows until the voltage of the capacitor reaches the predetermined voltage) until the voltage of the capacitor is substantially reset to 0. |
| US08244351B2 |
Cardiac device interface to reduce ventricular pacing
A cardiac interface device helps program an implantable cardiac rhythm or function management device, such as to reduce unnecessary ventricular pacing to avoid contributing to the advancement of heart failure disease progression. An intrinsic conducted AV interval is measured for at least one heart rate, and is predicted or measured for other heart rates. One or more of an age-predicted upper rate limit, a measured sensed AV offset, a PVARP based on measured retrograde conduction time can be used to determine an AV search hysteresis control parameter, and a resulting ventricular interval is graphically displayed relative to the intrinsic conducted AV interval at various heart rates. Confidence intervals or percentage ventricular pacing can also be displayed. Separate graphs for sense and pace initiated AV intervals can be provided. |
| US08244349B2 |
Adaptive shock delivery in an implantable cardiac stimulus device
Methods and devices that are configured to deliver cardiac stimuli in a particular fashion. In an illustrative embodiment, a method is used wherein a first stimulus is delivered using a first polarity, and, if the first stimulus fails to successfully convert an arrhythmia, a second stimulus having a second polarity that is different from or opposite of the first polarity is then delivered. Subsequent stimuli, if needed, are delivered in a continuing alternating-polarity manner. The first polarity may be determined by observing whether successfully-converting stimulus has been delivered previously and, if so, the polarity of the most recent stimulus that resulted in successful conversion is used as the first polarity. In additional embodiments, electrode configuration may be changed instead of or in addition to polarity, following unsuccessful stimulus delivery. Devices configured to perform such methods are included in additional illustrative embodiments. |
| US08244348B2 |
Method and apparatus for cardiac arrhythmia classification using template band-based morphology analysis
An implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (ICD) includes a tachyarrhythmia detection and classification system that classifies tachyarrhythmias based on a morphological analysis of arrhythmic waveforms and a template waveform. Correlation coefficients each computed between morphological features of an arrhythmic waveform and morphological features of the template waveform provide for the basis for classifying the tachyarrhythmia. In one embodiment, a correlation analysis takes into account the uncertainty associated with the production of the template waveform by using a template band that includes confidence intervals. |
| US08244344B2 |
Drug releasing coatings for medical devices
The invention relates to a medical device for delivering a therapeutic agent to a tissue. The medical device has a layer overlying the exterior surface of the medical device. The layer contains a therapeutic agent and an additive. In certain embodiments, the additive has a hydrophilic part and a drug affinity part, wherein the drug affinity part is at least one of a hydrophobic part, a part that has an affinity to the therapeutic agent by hydrogen bonding, and a part that has an affinity to the therapeutic agent by van der Waals interactions. In embodiments, the additive is water-soluble. In further embodiments, the additive is at least one of a surfactant and a chemical compound, and the chemical compound has a molecular weight of from 80 to 750 or has more than four hydroxyl groups. |
| US08244343B2 |
System and methods for performing surgical procedures and assessments
The present invention involves systems and related methods for performing surgical procedures and assessments, including the use of neurophysiology-based monitoring to: (a) determine nerve proximity and nerve direction to surgical instruments employed in accessing a surgical target site; (b) assess the pathology (health or status) of a nerve or nerve root before, during, or after a surgical procedure; and/or (c) assess pedicle integrity before, during or after pedicle screw placement, all in an automated, easy to use, and easy to interpret fashion so as to provide a surgeon-driven system. |
| US08244339B2 |
Wireless cardiac pulsatility sensing
An implantable medical device system and associated method monitor changes in transimpedance in a body tissue due to changes in cardiac pulsatility. A first dipole is used to deliver a non-stimulating electrical current. The first dipole includes a first electrode and a second electrode adapted to be deployed along a first body location. A second dipole is used to measure a voltage resulting from the non-stimulating electrical current being conducted through a portion of a patient's body. The second dipole includes a third electrode and a fourth electrode different than the first electrode and the second electrode and adapted to be deployed along a second body location spaced apart from the first body location. |
| US08244335B2 |
Non-invasive cardiac monitor and methods of using continuously recorded cardiac data
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of analyzing cardiac information by collecting a plurality of self-contained, wearable, portable cardiac monitors each of the cardiac monitors electronically storing at least 24 hours of continuously detected and unanalyzed cardiac signals from a mammal. Next, retrieving cardiac information stored in each of the plurality of self-contained portable cardiac monitors. Next, forwarding retrieved cardiac information. |
| US08244333B2 |
Scanned laser vein contrast enhancer
The present invention is a Miniature Vein Enhancer that includes a Miniature Projection Head. The Miniature Projection Head may be operated in one of three modes, AFM, DBM, and RTM. The Miniature Projection Head of the present invention projects an image of the veins of a patient, which aids the practitioner in pinpointing a vein for an intravenous drip, blood test, and the like. The Miniature projection head may have a cavity for a power source or it may have a power source located in a body portion of the Miniature Vein Enhancer. The Miniature Vein Enhancer may be attached to one of several improved needle protectors, or the Miniature Vein Enhancer may be attached to a body similar to a flashlight for hand held use. The Miniature Vein Enhancer of the present invention may also be attached to a magnifying glass, a flat panel display, and the like. |
| US08244332B2 |
Three-dimensional breast anatomy imaging system
A diffuse optical spectroscopy system comprises a laser breast scanner, a handheld probe connected to the laser breast scanner for scanning a breast, and a tracking device coupled to the handheld probe, wherein the tracking device determines locations of the handheld probe relative to the breast. The tracking device comprises a magnetic tracking device, an optical tracking device or a laser tracking device. |
| US08244331B2 |
Method and device for determining an optimum direction of projection for recording projection images
The invention relates to a method and a device for determination of an optimum direction of projection or position for recording a number of two-dimensional projection images of an object of interest, with the two-dimensional projection images being recorded by rotation or translation of an imaging system around the object. Inventively the process is as follows: a) estimating a position of the object at a point in time; b) determining at least one optimum imaging view from which the optimum direction of projection and/or position is produced, for the position estimated under a) with the aid of previously determined measurement. Preferably the measurement is expressed as a function of a transformation which is described by a spatial object-imaging system relationship. |
| US08244329B2 |
Multiple channel tracheal tube placement device and technique for using the same
According to various embodiments, a tracheal tube may employ sensing techniques for determining a distance between the inserted tube and an anatomical structure such as a carina. The distance information may provide an indication as to whether or not the tracheal tube is properly placed within the trachea. Because a tracheal tube may rotate within the trachea, the sensing information may be gathered from multiple locations on the tracheal tube for a rotation-independent measurement technique. |
| US08244322B2 |
Protective cover mechanism
A protective cover mechanism (26) and a portable electronic device (20) using the protective cover mechanism (26) is provided. The protective cover mechanism (26) for covering an interface (28) of the portable electronic device (20), comprises a protective cover (262) and a elastic plate (264). The protective cover (262) for covering the interface (28), and includes a sliding portion (2626), the sliding portion (2626) defines an aperture (2628) therein; The elastic plate (264) passes through the aperture (2628) for stopping the protective cover (262) away from the portable electronic device (20), the elastic plate (264) has a first end (2642) and an opposite second end (2646), the first end (2642) being mounted to the portable electronic device (20), the second end (2646) being biased against the interface (28). |
| US08244318B2 |
Hinge device and mobile terminal including the same
A mobile terminal is disclosed. The mobile terminal includes a first body forming the external appearance of the mobile terminal, a second body rotatably coupled to the first body, the second body forming the external appearance of the mobile terminal, and a coupling unit for rotatably coupling the first body and the second body to each other. The coupling unit includes a hinge housing fixedly coupled to the first body, an outer head fixedly coupled to the second body, an inner head disposed between the hinge housing and the outer head so as to generate a collision sound during rotation of the inner head, a cam mounted in the hinge housing such that the cam contacts the inner head, and an elastic spring mounted in the hinge housing for providing elastic force to the cam. |
| US08244309B2 |
Driving recorder
A driving recorder of the present invention is provided with: a data collecting portion that collects driving condition data of a vehicle; a storage portion that stores the driving condition data in a non-volatile manner; a communications portion that performs mutual communications with a mobile telephone terminal, using a cable or wirelessly; and a control portion that comprehensively controls these portions each provided as a functional part, wherein the control portion controls the communications portion to thereby permit the communications portion to transmit and receive the driving condition data to and from the mobile telephone terminal. |
| US08244307B1 |
System allowing hands free use of a mobile phone in conjunction with a vehicle transceiver
A communications system for a motor vehicle in which the hands-free device for a mobile phone is integrated into an audio or information system of the motor vehicle such as a car radio. The voice and/or data transmission between the mobile phone and the hands-free device takes place over an additional short-range radio link. A transceiver for this short-range radio link is contained both in the car radio and in the mobile phone. The need to install additional connection interfaces is thus eliminated. In addition, the need to couple the mobile phone to the hands-free device using a cable is eliminated. This has the advantage that the mobile phone can remain, for example, in the driver's pocket. The coupling between the mobile phone and car radio occurs automatically if the mobile phone moves into the range of the short-range radio link of the car radio. |
| US08244303B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting a plurality of key data
An apparatus and method for transmitting a plurality of key data. When a Short-Term Key Message (STKM) is received, a mobile equipment transmits the received STKM to a smart card. The smart card determines whether there are a plurality of key data in the STKM, detects the plurality of key data when there are the plurality of key data, generates individual information for identifying each of the plurality of detected key data, generates a response message having the plurality of detected key data and the generated individual information, and transmits the response message to the mobile equipment. Therefore, a plurality of key data can be included and transmitted in one message. |
| US08244297B2 |
Preventing self-induced interference in dual-radio device
In a wireless device that includes two different radio transceivers that communicate in two different wireless networks, wireless transmissions from one radio in the first network may be timed so that they do not coincide with wireless receptions by the other radio in the second network. A non-wireless interface between the two radios may be used to convey information about the scheduled reception times so that the transmission will not be scheduled during those reception times. This may be particularly useful when the receiving radio is operating in a centralized and highly scheduled network, while the transmitting radio is operating in a more decentralized network. |
| US08244294B2 |
Character input apparatus and method for mobile terminal
A method for effectively inputting characters in an ultra-compact mobile terminal is disclosed. When the mobile terminal enters a character input mode, one of a plurality of key groups having at least one key block is displayed by manipulation a scroll key in an up or down direction, and characters of the key blocks are displayed. Characters of the displayed key blocks and one character is selected using one of two selection keys or the scroll key operated in a push direction. Several characters are displayed in each of the key blocks and a character is selected by manipulating one of the two selection keys or pushing the scroll key a number of times. The selected character is displayed on a display unit. |
| US08244291B2 |
Method and mobile station for automatic creation of talk group
A method of automatic creation of a talk group in a wireless radio communication system comprising a plurality of mobile stations, said method comprising the steps of: transmitting by a first mobile station an emergency message containing at least its ID and localization data; transmitting by other mobile stations their IDs and localization data in response to said emergency message; creating said talk group by selecting those mobile stations which transmitted their IDs and localization data. |
| US08244286B2 |
Mobile communications device with information feedback function and method thereof
A mobile communications device to provide feedback on spam text messages. A corresponding method is provided. The method includes steps of: receiving a message from a server; decoding the message; identifying whether the server ID of the received message is one of the predetermined numbers; displaying the menu on the display unit if the server ID is one of the predetermined numbers; receiving a reply code, generating a reply message corresponding to the reply code, and sending the reply message to the server. |
| US08244281B2 |
Apparatus, and associated method, for forming a page message including a structure of partial identifiers of differing bit lengths using random or pseudorandom numbers and for using random ATI
Apparatus, and an associated method, for facilitating paging of an access terminal operable in a radio communication system. Access-terminal assignment is provided by which to identify an access terminal that is to be page. A first-generated number is detected, such as an access-terminal-originated number. Selection is made as to whether to use the first-generated number. If selection is made not to use the first-generated number, a second number is instead used. |
| US08244279B2 |
Methods and apparatus for associating mapping functionality and information in contact lists of mobile communication devices
In one illustrative example, a method of providing mapping functionality in a contact list of a mobile communication device comprises the acts of providing a contact list organizer function in the mobile communication device for use in organizing a plurality of contacts of a contact book or list; identifying, through a user interface of the mobile communication device, a user input request to map a location of a selected one of the contacts of the contact list; and causing a map corresponding to the location to be visually displayed in a display of the mobile communication device in response to the user input request. In another illustrative example, the method comprises the acts of causing a map of a location to be visually displayed in a display of the mobile communication device; receiving a user input request to associate the location of the map with a contact in a contact book or list of the mobile communication device; and storing location data corresponding to the location in one or more location fields of the contact in response to the user input request. In one embodiment, the contact list is part of an address book having a plurality of address book contacts. |
| US08244275B2 |
System and method for hybrid location in a UMTS network
A system and method for estimating a location of a wireless device receiving signals from plural nodes of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (“UMTS”) network. Observed time difference of arrival (“OTDOA”) measurements of signals received by the wireless device are collected and a message is transmitted to a stand alone serving mobile location center (“SAS”), the message including round trip time information, tipping information, and the collected OTDOA measurements. One or more location measurement units (“LMU”) are tasked to determine uplink and downlink signal measurements between the wireless device and ones of the plural nodes as a function of the transmitted message. At the one or more LMUs, range measurements from the wireless device to ones of the plural nodes, uplink time of arrival (“TOA”) measurements, and downlink TOA measurements are determined. A location of the wireless device may then be determined as a function of the uplink and downlink TOA measurements, OTDOA measurements, round trip time information, and range measurements. |
| US08244273B1 |
Method and system of assigning a channel without paging
A method and system for setting up a communication with a given mobile station served by a RAN that defines one or more coverage areas. The RAN may receive an indication of a location of the given mobile station. The RAN may then use the location of the given mobile station to identify one or more wireless coverage areas associated with the given mobile station. The RAN may also receive a request to set up a communication with the given mobile station. In response, the RAN may assign a channel for the communication to the given mobile station in each identified wireless coverage area without first paging the given mobile station. |
| US08244272B2 |
Continuous data optimization of moved access points in positioning systems
Methods and systems of continuously optimizing data in WiFi positioning systems. A location-based services system uses WiFi-enabled devices to monitor WiFi access points in a target area to indicate whether a WiFi access point has moved relative to its previously recorded location. A WiFi-enabled device communicates with WiFi access points within range of the WiFi-enabled device so that observed WiFi access points identify themselves; A reference database is accessed to obtain information specifying a recorded location for each observed WiFi access point in the target area. The recorded location information is used for each of the observed WiFi access points in conjunction with predefined rules to infer whether an observed WiFi access point has moved relative to its recorded location. The reference database is informed of the identity of any observed WiFi access point that is inferred to have moved. |
| US08244271B2 |
Distributed data collection of satellite data
A shuttle message that is passed between GPS enabled devices that is processed at either a bit level or word level with data that the GPS enable device has already gathered and augmenting the positioning data stored at GPS enabled devices by retrieving data contained in the shuttle message. The shuttle message is then passed with any updated information from a GPS enabled device to one or more other devices such as a mobile station. |
| US08244269B2 |
Allocating radio resources in mobile communications system
Transmitting information using a preamble of a Random Access Channel (RACH) in an Evolved Universal mobile Telecommunications System (E-UMTS) is provided. A preamble transmission is used to inform a base station of specific information when a terminal uses a RACH and the base station efficiently allocates radio resources for data transmission to the terminal according to the specific information. Delay time before the terminal transmits data is reduced and unnecessary consumption of radio resources is minimized. |
| US08244268B2 |
System and method for communicating with a plurality of remote communication units
A communication system and method provides data and voice communication from a base unit to a plurality of mobile command units and a plurality of remote units located at different locations across a geographical area. |
| US08244265B2 |
Techniques for aligning application output and uplink resource allocation in wireless communication systems
A technique for reducing a time delay between an application output at a subscriber station and uplink resource allocation for the subscriber station includes scheduling, between periodic uplink resource allocations, one or more probe uplink resource allocations for the subscriber station. Next, respective information in at least one of the one or more probe uplink resource allocations is received at an access point. Finally, subsequent periodic uplink resource allocations are scheduled based on at least one of the one or more probe uplink resource allocations. |
| US08244261B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing radio resources in mobile communication system
Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for managing radio resources, capable of effectively managing radio resources. When a normal call and a handover call are attempted, radio resources are allocated and it is determined whether or not to perform an overload control based on received load related information and then it is determined whether or not to admit the call depending on an availability of a bandwidth for radio resources, a priority of real time traffic or a locking probability of data. The quality and efficiency of a mobile communication service is enhanced by pertaining an effective allocation on radio resources and controlling the load of radio resources in the mobile communication system. The radio resource managing apparatus and method using the same are applied to IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications)-Advanced system base station, thereby optimizing the efficiency of radio resources. |
| US08244258B2 |
VoIP communication control method and access point apparatus
A critical threshold value of the number of connections of VoIP communication by a wireless LAN is set to an access point apparatus. The access point apparatus records identification information of terminals each of which has transmitted a request for connection of VoIP communication. After the number of terminals whose identification information have been recorded reaches the critical threshold value, the access point apparatus transmits a packet indicating release an association to a terminal whose identification information is newly recorded. |
| US08244257B2 |
Handover from a Macro cell back to a Femto cell
A method for a cellular network (100) comprising cells (110) of a first kind controlled by corresponding base stations (111), and cells (120-122) of a second kind controlled by corresponding base stations (125-127). The second kind of cells are smaller than the first kind of cells (110). The network (100) comprises functions (140) for control of the base stations, and functions (150) for handing over the control of user terminals (123, 112) between base stations. The method is used when a call in a cell of the second kind (120-122) is handed over to a base station of the first kind. The method lets said control function (140) of the base station of the cell of the second kind send identifying information to the control function (140) of the base station (111) of the first kind, such that if the call is to be handed back to the original base station (125-127), the original base station can be found by the network. |
| US08244252B2 |
Method for activating a network-based service in a communication network, apparatus, device and network therefore
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus, in a communication network, for processing a request to initiate a communication using a first communication system, the request including information relating to one or more parties with which the communication is intended to be initiated, comprising: processing logic for determining whether the request includes information relating to a predetermined party, and where it is so determined, initiating a service in accordance with the information relating to the predetermined party. |
| US08244246B2 |
Better system reselection in multi-system wireless communication environment
Disclosed are systems, methods and computer program products for better system reselection (BSR) in a multi-system wireless communication environment. In one aspect, the BSR procedure provisions a mobile device to determine if a currently-registered wireless communication system is the most-preferred system among systems of a similar technology and among systems of different technologies identified in the device's combined preferred roaming list (PRL). The mobile device then activates an intra-system BSR timer if the currently-registered system is not the most-preferred system among systems of similar technology and an inter-system BSR timer if the currently-registered system is not the most-preferred system among systems of different technologies. Upon expiration of the intra-system BSR timer, the mobile device searches for a more-preferred system among systems of similar technology. Upon expiration of the inter-system BSR timer, the mobile device searches for a more-preferred system among systems of different technologies. |
| US08244245B2 |
Portable telephone communication system, communication control method, and communication control program
A plurality of radio base stations connected to a network are divided into radio base stations of the upper-level version having a specific function and radio base stations of lower-level version not having the specific function. Each portable telephone has a cell selecting function of receiving message information transmitted from each radio base station, detecting the cell having the highest radio quality indicating adequateness to communication from the message information, and selecting the detected cell as the cell to which the portable telephone belongs. The portable telephone is characterized by enabling the user to select either an upper-level version communication mode in which the portable telephone connects and communicates only with the radio base stations of the upper-level version or normal communication mode in which the portable telephone connects and communicates with all the radio base stations. |
| US08244243B2 |
Communication control apparatus and communication control method
An ASN-GW that controls communication of a plurality of BSs of which each wirelessly accommodates MS includes a PGID management table that manages PG #1 to be set for macro BSs and PG #2 to be set for a femto BS, a location registration database that manages PGID of identifying PG in which the MS is currently located and last BSID of identifying BS that performs final location registration of the MS, and a GW-side control unit that transmits, upon receiving data for the MS, paging information through all the macro BSs under the PG #1 when the present position of the MS is the PG #1, and that transmits, upon receiving data for the MS, the paging information through the femto BS under the PG #2 based on the last BSID when the present position of the MS is the PG #2. |
| US08244240B2 |
Queries as data for revising and extending a sensor-based location service
The claimed subject matter provides systems and/or methods that facilitate automatically maintaining a database of base stations. A location component can obtain a query that includes a listing of detected base stations. Additionally, the location component can identify whether the detected base stations are included in a base station database. Further, the location component can generate an estimated location related to the query. Moreover, a database update component can modify the base station database based at least in part upon the query. |
| US08244238B1 |
Dynamic configuration of unlimited service for roaming subscriber
Methods, systems, and apparatus are presented for enabling unlimited roaming service on a roaming partner switch. In one aspect, a method includes configuring a billing system corresponding to a home wireless service provider to authorize a subscriber device to receive unlimited roaming service on a roaming partner switch; receiving, by the home wireless service provider, a registration request from the roaming partner switch identifying the subscriber device; registering the subscriber device in the billing system as an unlimited roaming service subscriber device; and providing unlimited roaming service to the subscriber device. Further, a call request associated with the subscriber device can be received from the roaming partner switch and billing associated with the call request can be suspended. |
| US08244237B2 |
Handset self diagnostics
A system for handset self diagnostics is provided. The system includes a handset and a diagnostic engine on the handset to obtain diagnostic data for the handset. The system also includes an application on the handset, and the application includes at least one user interface that uses the diagnostic data to assist a user of the handset to operate the handset. |
| US08244235B2 |
System and method for extending a mobile device to control, connect and communicate with equipment, networks and systems
The functionality of a mobile device is extended to connect to and communicate with a piece of equipment, data storage peripherals and secure networks. Specifically, a mobile device is extended in capability and functionality through the integration with a portable mobile device extender to facilitate seamless connection and communication with a piece of equipment, data storage peripherals and/or secure networks. Another aspect of the disclosure is to effectively enhance real world imagery by merging, on a mobile device, images and video from the real world with and projections from laser or video from a projection device, controlled by the mobile device. |
| US08244234B2 |
System and method of measuring total radiated power from mobile wireless communications device
A system for testing a communications device includes a portable wireless communications device comprising a transmitter for transmitting an RF signal. A monitoring device receives the RF signals from the portable wireless communications device and analyzes the RF signals to determine total radiated power emitted from the transmitter. An adaptive antenna equivalent circuit is coupled to the transmitter. A connection line extends between the adaptive antenna equivalent circuit and the monitoring device. The adaptive antenna equivalent circuit has an equivalent antenna impedance matched to the portable wireless communications device and the connection line and monitoring device based on transmit frequency to ensure that total radiated power of the RF signals is transmitted from the transmitter to the monitoring device. |
| US08244232B2 |
Portable terminal and method for controlling operation mode
A portable terminal includes a transmission unit, a reception unit, an operation mode judgment unit, an operation mode change unit. The transmission unit transmits first operation mode information including a first operation mode and a first setting time. The reception unit receives second operation mode information including a second operation mode and a second setting time. The operation mode judgment unit calculates a current degree of influence from the second operation mode on the first operation mode that decreases with time from the second setting time, and calculates an evaluated value of the current degree of influence from at least one operation mode including the second operation mode. The operation mode change unit changes, when the evaluated value exceeds a threshold value, the operation mode of the portable terminal to the second operation mode. |
| US08244229B2 |
Mobile video call response
Ring-back content is provided to a mobile video caller willing to call a recipient in a process in which: the ring-back content is stored, a first communication leg is established between an intermediate network element and the mobile video caller, a second communication leg is established between the intermediate network element and the recipient, and the delivery of the ring-back content to the mobile video caller is started between the initiating of the mobile video call and answering to the call by the recipient. The delivery of the ring-back content may be lead by an early connect message to delay charging. On establishing the second communication leg, no connect message is passed to the caller, but the charging of the mobile video call is started. |
| US08244228B1 |
Method and apparatus for providing a mobile wireless local area network
A first cellular phone having mobility, the first cellular phone including an access point configured to control access of a plurality of second cellular phones to a wireless local area network. The wireless local area network complies with a wireless local area network protocol. A conference controller is configured to control a flow of communication in a communication link between the plurality of second cellular phones accessing the wireless local area network. The flow of communication in the communication link between the plurality of second cellular phones is compatible with the wireless local area network protocol. The communication link between the plurality of second cellular phones is mobile in accordance with the mobility of the first cellular phone. The plurality of second cellular phones establish the communication link through the access point to form a teleconference. |
| US08244225B2 |
Information distribution system and method for a mobile network
A method of and system for distributing information forming part of an information campaign to a user's mobile device in a mobile communication network are provided. The method comprises receiving campaign message information defining campaign messages to be distributed on behalf of an information provider to a mobile device. A campaign message request associated with a mobile device is received by the system, with the campaign message being generated by embedded architecture content forming part of an application program of a mobile device service provider. The system associates the campaign request with target profile information defined by the information provider in order to select a suitable campaign message for distribution and distributes the selected campaign message to the service provider or mobile device, in response to the received campaign request. |
| US08244224B2 |
Providing customized information to a user based on identifying a trend
To provide customized information to the user, a wireless communications network node receives a stream of data associated with a user. A first trend associated with at least a first attribute in the stream of data is identified, and based on the identified first trend, customized information is sent for presentation to the user at a mobile station. |
| US08244217B2 |
System and method of authenticating login credentials in a wireless communication system
A technique in a wireless mobile device for use in enabling service sessions with a host service via a wireless network is described. The device receives a host login credential from the host service, and saves it in memory. The device detects a logoff trigger for logging off from an enabled service session with the host service. In response to detecting the logoff trigger, the device performing the following actions. The device prompts with, in a display, an entry screen having a field for entry of a device login credential for use in logging on to a subsequent service session with the host service. The device receives, via a user I/O subsystem, the device login credential in response to the prompting, and saves it in memory. After receiving and saving the device login credential, the device logs off from the enabled service session with the host service. After the logging off from the enabled service session, the device detects a login trigger for logging on to the subsequent service session with the host service. In response to detecting the login trigger, the device authenticates the saved device login credential with the saved host login credential. |
| US08244214B2 |
Self-aware dynamic authorization method and architecture for closed femtocell environments
An exemplary embodiment discloses a self-aware dynamic authorization method for closed femtocell environments. Initially, a dynamic authorization table is initialized to set authorized records of at least an authorized user equipment (UE) for a closed femtocell. When the closed femtocell provides services for the authorized UE, IMSI/MSISDN records are learned in an initial phase for learning data. The learned IMSI/MSISDN records are dynamically adjusted with the expired period of the access right on the femtocell in a reweighting phase. The expired or oldest IMSI/MSISDN records will be removed from the dynamic authorization table in an ageing phase. |
| US08244206B1 |
Determining mobile device location capabilities
A method of operating a communication system to process emergency service calls is disclosed. A call request for an emergency service call from a mobile communication device is received. The call request includes a device identifier for the mobile communication device. A location capability database is queried using the device identifier to determine if the device identifier is in the location capability database. A default location capability is assigned if the device identifier is not in the location capability database. A location of the mobile communication device is determined using the default location capability if the device identifier is not in the location capability database. |
| US08244205B2 |
Reestablishment of an RRC connection for an emergency call in an LTE network
A mobile device initiates an RRC connection reestablishment procedure or a cell update procedure for an emergency call after experiencing a failure condition in an LTE network environment. The mobile device establishes an RRC connection with an acceptable cell to originate an emergency call. The mobile device detects a failure condition, such as a radio link failure, which disrupts the RRC connection. The mobile device searches for available cells that it may reestablish the RRC connection with, but can only find acceptable cells. The mobile device may initiate an RRC connection reestablishment procedure with an acceptable cell. The mobile device may also only attempt to reestablish the RRC connection with a cell that is part of a PLMN that the original acceptable cell was also a part of. The mobile device may also enter an RRC_IDLE mode upon detecting a failure condition. |
| US08244203B2 |
RF circuit module
A module for radio frequency signal circuits includes an electrically conductive housing. Coax connectors are secured to the rear face of the housing. A circuit board is contained within the interior spaced between sidewalls of the housing. A ground side of the circuit board includes a layer of electrically conductive material which is electrically connected to the housing. Coax cables extend within the interior of the housing from the coax connectors and between the ground side of the circuit board and an opposing sidewall. An opposite side of the circuit board contains circuit components interconnected with one another through a plurality of circuit paths. |
| US08244200B2 |
System, circuit and method for activating an electronic device
The disclosure provides a system, circuit and method for activating an electronic device from a low power state. The circuit comprises: a microprocessor; a first accelerometer; a second accelerometer which is activated upon receiving a movement signal from the first accelerometer, indicating a movement of the electronic device; a threshold circuit connected to an output of the second accelerometer to allow only signals generated by the second accelerometer that exceed a threshold to pass; an input device; and a monitoring circuit connected to the input device and an output of the threshold circuit. The monitoring circuit comprises a latch circuit utilizing signals from the threshold circuit and a reset signal from the microprocessor to generate a trigger signal to activate the input device. The monitoring circuit selectively generates an activation signal to activate the electronic device to a higher power state utilizing a notable signal received from the input device. |
| US08244197B2 |
Receiving device and electronic equipment using the same
In an image rejection mixer, when a signal in the first radio frequency band is inputted to an input terminal, the first mixer and the second mixer convert the input signal in the first radio frequency band to a signal in the first intermediate frequency band by using the first local signal from a local signal oscillator, and a filter circuit attenuates an image interfering signal existing in the first intermediate frequency band by means of the first attenuation band. Also, when a signal in the second radio frequency band is inputted to the input terminal, the first mixer and the second mixer convert the input signal in the second radio frequency band to a signal in the second intermediate frequency band by using the second local signal from the local signal oscillator, and the filter circuit attenuates an image interfering signal existing in the second intermediate frequency band by means of the second attenuation band that is narrower than the first attenuation band. |
| US08244195B2 |
Low noise amplifier
A wideband tuneable low noise amplifier that is capable of receiving signals over a wide range of frequencies, providing tuneable filtering to remove out of band interferer signals, and providing variable gain for a wide range of frequencies. To accommodate variable gain, the low noise amplifier has an amplifier stage comprising two gain stages, and the relationship between the gain stages is controlled responsive to changes in the voltage gain of an input stage. Linearity monitoring combined with Q-enhance may be employed to increase performance at low signal levels. |
| US08244194B2 |
Narrow-band tunable radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers and related methods
Narrow band tunable radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers (PAs) and related methods are disclosed that provide narrow band tunable gain responses, such as linear gain responses, that can be selected for different frequency bands. The narrow band tunable PAs thereby provide out-of-band rejection for different selectable frequency bands so that narrow band filters are not required in the transmit input path for communication devices. The pass band location and/or bandwidth for the narrow band gain response can be tuned using different techniques, as desired. The narrow band tunable PAs can also be fabricated using CMOS processing, if desired, so that a CMOS PA integrated circuit is provided. |
| US08244192B2 |
System and method for wireless communication of magnetic resonance data
In one embodiment, a method of wirelessly transmitting magnetic resonance (MR) data is provided. The method comprises steps of obtaining at least one MR signal having a Larmor frequency from a radio frequency (RF) channel in an RF coil, the RF coil comprising multiple RF channels, each RF channel associated with a single imaging element, generating a modulation signal based on the MR signal, generating a carrier signal with a predetermined frequency, the predetermined frequency being associated with the RF channel and using the modulation signal to phase modulate the carrier signal to form a phase-modulated signal. |
| US08244190B2 |
Multi-antenna relay with self-interference cancellation
A wireless relay node (100) comprises a receiving side (110) and a transmitting side (120) adapted for concurrent reception and transmission of an information stream, and at least one of the two sides has multiple antennas for multi-antenna operation. In the internal design, the wireless relay node is further configured (130) for cancelling signal feedback from a multi-antenna dependent feedback channel from the transmitting side to the receiving side based on an N×M dimensional filter matrix (135) dependent on the multi-antenna dependent feedback channel, where at least one of N and M is greater than 1. In this way, self-interference cancellation of a multi-antenna dependent feedback signal from the output to the input of the wireless relay node is effectively obtained. |
| US08244184B2 |
Radio communication system capable of maintaining communication performed between master station and slave station belonging to such master station even when interference signal is detected
A radio communication system includes one master station which performs transmission without being controlled by another radio station and which is configured to independently set a channel for use in a radio communication, and at least one slave station which belongs to the one master station and whose radio communication channel used and transmission/reception operations are controlled by the master station. When detecting an interference signal which disturbs the radio communication during operation, the one master station or the at least one slave station sets a first modulation scheme applied to the radio communication to the same second modulation scheme as a modulation scheme used in broadcast in order to convey information necessary for an evasive action to move to another radio communication channel. |
| US08244182B2 |
Electronic device and method for listening to FM radio using a bluetooth device communicating with the electronic device
A method for listening to frequency modulation (FM) radio using a Bluetooth device receives analog audio signals from an FM chip and converts the analog audio signals into digital audio signals. The method further records audio files according to the digital audio signals and plays the audio files synchronously to generate audio data, and outputs the audio data to a Bluetooth chip which communicates with the Bluetooth device wirelessly. |
| US08244175B2 |
Method and system for signal repeater with gain control and spatial isolation
A repeater device may be utilized to enable forwarding extreme high frequency (EHF) communication between EHF-enabled wireless devices. The repeater device may utilize spatial isolation to prevent and/or reduce interference between received and transmitted EHF RF signals, wherein reception and/or transmission of EHF RF signals in the repeater device may be performed via narrow beams that may enable minimal interference by transmit EHF RF signals to reception of EHF RF. The repeater device may utilize phased arrays to enable performing beamforming, and signal processing operations, including shift and/or amplitude adjustment, may be performed on signals received and/or transmitted via antenna elements in the phased arrays to enable beamforming during reception and transmission of EHF RF signals. Signal processing operations performed in the repeater device may be modifiable to enable continued spatial isolation between receive and transmit EHF RF signal in the repeater device. |
| US08244174B1 |
System for mobile station positioning
Mobile station positioning is implemented using various methods and devices. According to one example embodiment of the present invention, an azimuth angle estimation of the location of a mobile station is accomplished using a radio-signal processing apparatus. The azimuth angle is estimated with respect to a nearby base station that covers a service area using common sectorization via multiple directional antennas respectively transmitting at different azimuth angles. The apparatus has a memory for storing information that associates directional sector antennas of the nearby base station and expected antenna radiation gains in the common sectorization service area corresponding to locations relative to the nearby base station. The apparatus also includes a processor arrangement that determines received signal strengths of respective signals received from different ones of the directional sector antennas of the nearby base station and that determines estimated azimuth angles by comparing the stored information with the received signal strengths. |
| US08244172B2 |
Remote host-based media presentation
An electronic device includes a first communication interface operable to receive a decoded digital data set from an apparatus remote from the electronic device, and a first circuit coupled to the first communication interface and operable to enable an output device to provide an output representing the data set. |
| US08244170B2 |
Tracking locally broadcast electronic works
A second player detects a first player locally broadcasting an electronic work. The second player accepts a distribution cookie from the first player at the second player with the broadcast of the electronic work. The second player updates the distribution cookie with tracking information about the broadcast of the electronic work to the second player. The second player updates the distribution cookie with a plurality of electronic work ratings of a plurality of electronic works by a recipient at the second player. The second player, responsive to detecting a network connection provides the distribution cookie to a tracking server enabled to analyze the distribution cookie. |
| US08244166B2 |
Fusing device and image forming apparatus employing the same
Disclosed are a fusing device and an image forming apparatus employing the fusing device. The fusing device includes a belt having a closed loop configuration, a first roller rotatably disposed inside the loop defined by belt. The first roller includes heat absorbent layer. The fusing device further includes a second roller rotatably disposed outside the loop of the belt, the first and second rollers each make pressing contact with the portion of the belt that passes between them to form the fusing nip. The heat absorbent layer of the first roller provides heat for the fusing nip. |
| US08244165B2 |
Imaging forming apparatus and method of controlling same
An image forming apparatus has a function for adjusting the position at which a toner image is formed on a printing material, based upon amount of light reflected from a toner image that has been formed on an image carrier. The light-emitting unit emits light that irradiates the image carrier, and the detecting unit detects an amount of substrate-light reflected from the substrate of the image carrier. The determining unit determines whether the difference between the amount of substrate-light detected at a first point in time and the amount of substrate-light detected at a second point in time later than the first point in time is greater than a predetermined threshold value. The light-power control unit increases the amount of light in the light-emitting unit if the difference is greater than the predetermined threshold value. |
| US08244161B2 |
Developing apparatus
A developing apparatus includes a tank configured to contain a developing agent including a toner and a carrier, the tank having a discharge port configured to discharge the developing agent overflowing from the tank, a supplier configured to develop a latent image by using the toner contained in the tank, a replenisher configured to contain the developing agent and to replenish the developing agent into the tank, and a controller configured to estimate an amount of the developing agent in the tank in according with the amount of the supplied developing agent and the amount of the replenished developing agent and to execute a forced discharge for forcibly discharging the developing agent contained in the tank from the discharge port based on the estimated amount of developing agent. |
| US08244159B2 |
Image forming apparatus and developing cartridge thereof
Disclosed are an image forming apparatus of improved power transmission structure and a developing cartridge thereof. The image forming apparatus may include a main body; a driving unit which includes a driving shaft mounted to the main body and a driving coupler connected to the driving shaft. The driving coupler may be provided with a plurality of driving tips. The image forming apparatus may further include a consumable unit that may be detachably received in the main body. The consumable unit may include a driven shaft, a rotating body rotating with the driven shaft and a passive coupler rotating with the driven shaft. The passive coupler may be provided with a plurality of passive tips. The plurality of driving tips and the plurality of passive tips may come into engaging contact with each other when the consumable unit is operably received in the main body, and may remain in the engaging contact even when the respective rotational axes of the driving shaft and the driven shaft intersect with each other. |
| US08244158B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An apparatus includes: an image forming unit having a photosensitive drum; a motor configured to rotate forwardly and reversely; a discharging roller to which a driving force is transferred from the motor; an one way clutch configured to transfer the driving force to the photosensitive drum or block a transfer of the driving force; a returning roller returning the recording sheet drawn by the discharging roller; a rotation direction converting mechanism transmitting the driving force to the returning roller to rotate the returning roller in a certain direction; and a time lag mechanism including engaging portions with a gap therebetween, when the rotation direction of the motor being switched, each of the engaging portions being engaged with each other after a predetermined time, thereby delaying the transfer of the driving force from the motor to the returning roller. |
| US08244155B2 |
Developer cartridge with shutter member and image forming apparatus
A developer cartridge is provided with a cartridge main body with a supply port for supplying developer to an apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus, a shutter member displaceable between an opening position for opening the supply port and a closing position for closing the supply port, an operation lever arranged to face the opening cover and adapted to displace the shutter member between the opening position and the closing position, and a biasing member for biasing the operation lever toward the closing posture. The operation lever is displaceable between an opening posture corresponding to the opening position and a closing posture corresponding to the closing position. The operation lever is displaced from the closing posture to the opening posture against a biasing force of the biasing member due to interference with a part of the opening cover when the opening cover is closed. |
| US08244153B2 |
Frame structure for an image forming apparatus
The image forming apparatus includes detachable unit components and a frame assembly to hold the detachable unit components in predetermined positions in the image forming apparatus. The frame assembly includes a pair of metal frames and a pair of resin frames, each of which is attached to one of the metal frames. Each of the metal frames includes a first positioning structure, which corresponds to an original point of the metal frame, a first fixing structure, a second positioning structure, wherein each of the resin frames includes a first positioning structure, which corresponds to an original point of the resin frame; a fixing structure; a second positioning structure; and a plurality of pressing pieces, by which the resin frame is pressed against one of the metal frame. |
| US08244137B1 |
Multichannel on a single wave laser over wave division multiplexing in free space optics using phase masks
A system comprises a laser configured to produce a laser beam; a modulator optically coupled to said laser; and a phase mask optically coupled to said modulator. The phase mask may be configured to pre-distort a pre-existing wavefront to produce a pre-distorted wavefront to be transmitted over free space. |
| US08244130B2 |
Passive optical network system with mode-variable optical network unit
An optical line terminal connecting with numbers of optical network units comprises a control unit which controls each optical network unit to make it operate in a first mode in which transmission and reception of control messages and data are possible or in a second mode in which the transmission and reception of control messages are possible but the transmission of data is impossible, according to a communication permission request transmitted from an optical network unit and based on a preset maximum number of optical network units permitted to execute upstream communication from the optical network unit to the optical line terminal. |
| US08244126B2 |
Automatically selecting a clock recovery mode within optical network terminals
This disclosure is directed to techniques for facilitating clock recovery in optical networks. An optical network terminal (ONT) that terminates a fiber link of an optical network includes a clock mode selection module that automatically selects a clock recovery mode based on a type of optical network to which the ONT connects and a type of service provided to one or more subscriber devices coupled to the ONT. By automatically selecting the clock recovery module, an administrator or other user need not provision this aspect of the optical network, thereby reducing administrative tasks and facilitating the provisioning of the optical network. In addition, the techniques enable selection of the most optimal clock recovery mode based on the current state of the optical network. |
| US08244125B2 |
Passive optical network protection switching
This disclosure relates to detection of optical fiber failure and implementation of protection switching in a passive optical network (PON). A protection switch determines whether there is an optical fiber failure in a fiber link between an OLT and a group of ONTs. In the case of an optical fiber failure, an optical fiber may be physically cut or damaged, causing the optical fiber link to be disabled. A protection switch may detect an optical fiber failure by determining a peak optical power of at least a portion of an upstream optical signal transmitted from one or more ONTs via the optical fiber link. If the peak optical power is less than a threshold value, the protection switch may detect a fiber failure. In response to a detected fiber failure, the protection switch may switch upstream and downstream PON transmissions from a primary optical fiber to a secondary optical fiber. |
| US08244124B2 |
Eye safety mechanism for use in optical cable with electrical interfaces
An eye safety mechanism for use with a bi-directional data cable having an electrical interface at least one (but potentially both) ends, despite the fact that the cable communicates over much of its length using a bi-directional optical channel. Upon power-up, the eye safety mechanism determines whether or not a loss of signal condition is present on an optical receive channel of the bi-directional data cable. If the loss of signal is present, the mechanism intermittently disables the optical transmit channel of the bi-directional data cable. On the other hand, if the loss of signal is not present, the mechanism enables the optical transmit channel of the bi-directional data cable without intermittently disabling transmission at least for most of the time until the next time a loss of signal is detected on the optical receive channel. |
| US08244122B2 |
Electronic device
The electronic device according to the present invention comprises a body having an opening part defined therein, a cover member for opening and closing the opening part of the body, a pivotally supporting mechanism for pivotally supporting a base end part of the cover member at a position adjacent to the opening part of the body, and a cam mechanism provided to opposed parts of the body and the cover member. The cam mechanism comprises a slidable contact surface and a sliding part relatively sliding on the slidable contact surface along a predetermined cam curve as the cover member is opened and closed, and the predetermined cam curve is defined about a pivot of the pivotally supporting mechanism and so as to make the cover member move in either direction of two opposite directions along the pivot of the pivotally supporting mechanism in a process of closing the cover member. |
| US08244119B2 |
Image capturing apparatus and method for controlling the same
An image capturing apparatus including an image capturing unit configured to obtain an image by image capturing includes a first storage unit configured to store face information of an owner of the image capturing apparatus, an estimation unit configured to estimate a photographer of the image capturing apparatus based on a relationship between an object included in the image obtained by the image capturing unit and the face information of the owner stored in the first storage unit, and a change unit configured to change a photographing mode to a simple photographing mode according to the estimated photographer. |
| US08244106B2 |
Apparatus and methods for resolving recording conflicts of a digital video recorder
Apparatus and methods are provided which facilitate the resolution of recording conflicts of a digital video recorder (DVR). A DVR identifies a recording conflict between a first recording timer associated with a first television program and a second recording timer associated with a second television program. A communication is initiated to a communication device associated with a user of the digital video recorder to inform the user of the recording conflict. Responsive to the communication, the user provides information to the DVR via the communication device requesting to resolve the recording conflict. The DVR utilizes the provided information to modify one or more of the conflicted recording timers to resolve the conflict. |
| US08244105B2 |
Talking replay
A method for broadcasting a pre-recorded audio stream together with a video instant replay during a live event being broadcast, comprising, recording, prior to the live event, the comments of individuals who will be participating in the live event, transferring the recorded audio stream comments to an audio bank, accessing the audio stream during the live event, synchronizing the audio stream with a video instant replay of a portion of the live event, and broadcasting the synchronized prerecorded audio stream and video instant replay. |
| US08244101B2 |
Digital video segment identification
An entertainment system, having a capability to playback a stored digital video record that includes frames of video data received from a television broadcast system, approximates ranges of frames in a digital video record that are either commercials or non-commercials. The system also approximates frames that are either a beginning or an ending of a commercial or a non-commercial. The system then associates as a commercial two of the approximated frames that are a beginning or an ending of a commercial or a non-commercial and one or more of the approximated ranges there between until a predetermined percentage of the playback time of the digital video record is taken up by the associated commercials. |
| US08244099B2 |
Picture reproducing apparatus and method, recording medium, and picture reproducing program
To facilitate implementing a user operation control in a picture reproducing apparatus for reproducing contents recorded on a disk or the like. A picture reproducing apparatus selects and reproduces a plurality of prerecorded picture streams in the disk. A reproduction control unit is configured to reproduce the picture streams in either of two reproduction modes, i.e., a normal mode for accepting particular key inputs pertaining to picture reproduction and a menu mode for not accepting the particular key inputs. The mode in which the picture streams are reproduced may be written by contents creators in a script file which is recorded on the disk. |
| US08244097B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program
An information processing apparatus includes an image input section configured to input an edit target image, an edit target image attribute input section configured to input attribute information of the edit target image, a display control section configured to display the edit target image displayed on a display screen, a user instruction input section configured to input an instruction from a user, a correction parameter acquisition section configured to acquire a correction parameter, an image editing section configured to edit the edit target image displayed on a display screen, an edited image attribute acquisition section configured to acquire attribute information, an edit information generation section configured to generate edit information, and an edit information storage section configured to store the edit information. |
| US08244095B2 |
Digital broadcast receiver and data broadcast content processing method
A digital broadcast receiver and data broadcast content processing method for the same are disclosed. The method includes receiving and displaying contents of a broadcast web site (BWS); selecting a displayed content for storage; storing the content selected for storage in a state existing at the time of selection; selecting a stored content for reproduction; and reproducing the content selected for reproduction. As a result, the user can store desired broadcast content in a memory unit during viewing of BWS contents, and reproduce desired content stored in the memory unit on a screen when necessary. |
| US08244080B2 |
Method for producing photoelectric composite substrate, photoelectric composite substrate produced by the method, and photoelectric composite module using the substrate
The present invention provides a production process for a photoelectric composite substrate having an excellent productivity, comprising a step in which a sheet-like adhesive is stuck to an optical waveguide, a step in which a supporting base material of the above sheet-like adhesive is peeled off to prepare the optical waveguide provided with the adhesive, a step in which the above optical waveguide provided with the adhesive is adhered to an electric wiring board to prepare the electric wiring board provided with the optical waveguide and a step in which an optical path conversion mirror is formed in the optical waveguide of the above electric wiring board provided with the optical waveguide, a photoelectric composite substrate produced by using the above production process and a photoelectric composite module produced by using the above photoelectric composite substrate. |
| US08244078B2 |
Hydrogel based sensor probe for detecting an environmental state
A sensor probe for detecting an environmental state within a bodily lumen includes an elongated body having an optical guide with an outcoupling surface, which is part of an end surface of the elongated body, facing a reflective surface of an overhanging part. The sensor probe further includes a photodetector which detects a property of light which is composed of light in the optical guide that is reflected from the outcoupling surface of the optical guide and of light in the optical guide that is reflected from the overhanging part. The sensor probe also includes a hydrogel material having a property that changes when getting into contact with an environmental material and/or when detecting an environmental change. The hydrogel material is provided between the end surface of the elongated body and the overhanging part. |
| US08244074B2 |
Electronic acquisition of a hand formed expression and a context of the expression
Embodiments include an apparatus, device, method, and computer program product. In an embodiment, a device includes a handheld writing device that includes a writing element, and a writing detector module operable to generate information indicative of a handwriting movement of the writing element. The device also includes a context detector module operable to generate information indicative of a content portion of a document proximate to the handwriting movement of the writing element. |
| US08244066B2 |
Adaptive membrane shape deformation system
A system and method determines the shape of a surface that preferably is a deployed space-based adaptive flexible membrane antenna, using patterned projections, image capturing, and membrane shape processing for producing membrane shape data describing the contour of the surface of the membrane with the membrane shape data then preferably used as inputs for a feedback control actuation system for deforming the membrane to a desired shaped so as to maintain the three-dimensional shape of the membrane in the desired shape. |
| US08244064B2 |
Method for registering and merging medical image data
The present invention relates to a method for the registration and superimposition of image data when taking serial radiographs in medical imaging, wherein a plurality of image data sets for a region of a patient (17) that is being investigated are constructed at time intervals using an imaging system (1) and are referenced with a first image data set for the region that is being investigated that was constructed previously using said imaging system (1). In the above method, a location system (2) is used during the production of serial radiographs constantly, or at least at a respective proximity in time to the construction of individual data sets, to determine a current spatial position of the region being investigated in a reference system that is firmly connected to the imaging system (1), whereby in the construction of the first image data set, a first spatial position of the region that is being investigated is recorded. In the construction of some or all further image data sets, the respective current spatial position of the region that is being investigated is determined and an image content of each first image data set is geometrically adapted on the basis of the difference between the first and the current spatial position, such that compensation is made for a different spatial position of the region that is being investigated. The geometrically adapted first image data set or an image data set derived therefrom, or an image data set that is positionally connected thereto by registration is then displayed superimposed with the respective further image data set. |
| US08244058B1 |
Method and apparatus for managing artifacts in frequency domain processing of light-field images
Various methods and apparatus for removing artifacts in frequency domain processing of light-field images are described. Methods for the reduction or removal of the artifacts are described that include methods that may be applied during frequency domain processing and a method that may be applied during post-processing of resultant angular views. The methods may be implemented in software as or in a light-field frequency domain processing module. The described methods include an oversampling method to determine the correct centers of slices, a phase multiplication method to determine the correct centers of slices, a method to exclude low-energy slices, and a cosmetic correction method. |
| US08244057B2 |
Removal of image artifacts from sensor dust
Removal of the effects of dust or other impurities on image data is described. In one example, a model of artifact formation from sensor dust is determined. From the model of artifact formation, contextual information in the image and a color consistency constraint may be applied on the dust to remove the dust artifacts. Artifacts may also be removed from multiple images from the same or different cameras or camera settings. |
| US08244043B2 |
Moving information between computing devices
A computer-implemented method for moving information between computing devices includes capturing a digital image of a display of a first computing device using a camera of a second computing device, transmitting, to the first computing device, data that corresponds to the digital image; analyzing the transmitted data on the first computing device to determine whether the digital image matches a current display of the first computing device, and using the analysis to cause one of the first or second computing devices to invoke an application and match a state of an application that is executing on the other of the first or second computing devices. |
| US08244040B2 |
Object position recognition system, object positioning system, and system and method for adjoining objects
A system recognizes the outline of an object that includes, at its edge, a portion including a rollover or a chipped portion. An image processing unit finds an outline of an object having a flat face from an image captured perpendicular to the flat face. A dark-transition-boundary detecting unit detects, on each of a plurality of recognition lines, a possible boundary point of dark-transition where a bright-to-dark transition occurs from outside toward inside of the object. A bright-transition-boundary detecting unit detects a possible boundary point of bright-transition where a dark-to-bright transition occurs from outside toward inside of the object. An edge detecting unit detects an edge point on the basis of the possible dark-transition-boundary point and the possible bright-transition-boundary point. An outline-determining unit determines an outline of the object that minimizes the sum of deviations between the outline and the respective edge points detected on the recognition lines. |
| US08244039B2 |
Apparatus, method, and computer program product for acquiring processing content for image data
A first combination of feature and processing content of image data is stored in a storing unit in a first period, and a second combination of feature and processing content of image data is stored in the storing unit in a second period that is later in terms of time. When a change in processing content is detected between the first period and the second period, an updating unit updates the first combination to the second combination. An acquiring unit acquires a processing content for target image data based on a combination of feature and processing content stored in the storing unit. An output unit outputs the processing content acquired by the acquiring unit. |
| US08244037B2 |
Image-based data management method and system
Methods and systems are provided for storing, organizing, and accessing image-based documents. The method includes receiving an image-based document, conducting an OCR conversion process to produce an equivalent document in text format, identifying keywords of the equivalent document in text format, linking the keywords with the image-based document and the corresponding equivalent document in text format, and storing the image-based document, the corresponding equivalent document in text format, and the keywords in a relational database. |
| US08244036B2 |
Method for emphasizing differences in graphical appearance between an original document and a modified document with annotations
A method for emphasizing differences in graphical appearances between an original document and a modified document is provided in accordance with an aspect of the present invention. The method includes the step of receiving a first bitmap of the modified document, and a second bitmap of the original document. The method includes deriving a set of difference points based upon a comparison of the first bitmap and the second bitmap. The method includes a step of superposing a spatial index onto the set of difference points, and generating polygon vertices from a plurality of adjacent elements of index. Each of the elements has a predetermined density of difference points. The method concludes with generating an annotation from the polygon vertices. |
| US08244035B2 |
Image processing apparatus and control method thereof
Each page image of image data including a plurality of pages is divided into a plurality of areas by block selection, and meta information associated with at least one of the coordinate position, size, and type of each of the plurality of areas is held. As a combining condition, at least a direction to retrieve areas to be combined is set, area combining processing for combining two or more areas which satisfy the combining condition of the plurality of areas of the image data into one area is executed, and information associated with the areas of the image data including the combined area is stored. |
| US08244034B2 |
Image processing method
An image processing method adopted to remove noise present in an image, includes: an image input step in which an original image constituted of a plurality of pixels is input; a multiple resolution image generation step in which a plurality of low-frequency images with resolutions decreasing in sequence and a plurality of high-frequency images with the resolutions decreasing in sequence are generated by decomposing the input original image; a noise removal processing step in which noise removal processing is individually executed on the low-frequency images and the high-frequency images; and an image acquisition step in which a noise-free image of the original image is obtained based upon both the low-frequency images and the high-frequency images having undergone the noise removal processing. |
| US08244031B2 |
System and method for identifying and classifying color regions from a digital image
A system and method of identifying and classifying regions of a digital image. The method includes an initial step of inputting an image as a color digital image. Subsequently, information that identifies color regions of the color digital image is obtained. Finally, color and non-color regions of the color digital image are classified based upon the identifying information. |
| US08244029B1 |
Recursive filters on GPUs
A computer-implemented method for generating depth-of-field effects includes receiving information specifying an input image rendered using a pinhole camera. A first set of circles of confusion associated with portions of the input image are determined based a set of parameters associated with the pinhole camera. The first set of circles of confusion are then associated with heat conductivity of a medium. The portions of the input image are blurred according to heat diffusion in the medium to generate a first output image having a first depth-of-field effect. |
| US08244027B2 |
Vehicle environment recognition system
A vehicle environment recognition system includes stereo-image taking means for taking images of an environment around a subject vehicle and for outputting the images as a reference image and a comparative image, first stereo matching means for forming a first distance image on the basis of the reference image and the comparative image or on the basis of two images obtained by preprocessing the reference image and the comparative image, second stereo matching means for forming a second distance image on the basis of two images obtained by preprocessing the reference image and the comparative image in a different manner, detection means for detecting objects in the reference image on the basis of the first and second distance images, and selection means for selecting one of the results of detection based on the first and second distance images. |
| US08244026B2 |
Apparatus and method for automatic airborne LiDAR data processing and mapping using data obtained thereby
Apparatus for processing of a LiDAR point cloud of a ground scan, comprises: a point cloud input for receiving said LiDAR point cloud, a ground filter for filtering out points that belong to the ground from said point cloud, thereby to generate an elevation map showing features extending from the ground, an automatic feature search and recognition unit associated with said three dimensional graphical engine for searching said elevation map of said three-dimensional model to identify features therein and to replace points associated with said feature with a virtual object representing said feature, thereby to provide objects within said data; and a three-dimensional graphical renderer supporting three-dimensional graphics, to generate a three-dimensional rendering of said ground scan. |
| US08244024B2 |
Method and apparatus for guiding placement of vehicle service fixtures
A machine vision system is configured to facilitate placement of a vehicle service apparatus relative to an associated vehicle. The machine vision system is configured to utilize images of optical targets received from one or more cameras to guide the placement of the vehicle service apparatus relative to the associated vehicle. |
| US08244021B2 |
Quantitative, multispectral image analysis of tissue specimens stained with quantum dots
A biological sample such as a tissue section is stained with one or more quantum dots and possibly other fluorophores (total number of fluorophores N). A camera coupled to a microscope generates an image of the specimen at a plurality of different wavelengths within the emission spectral band of the N fluorophores. An analysis module calculates coefficients C1 . . . CN at each pixel from the set of images and reference spectral data for the N fluorophores. The coefficients C1 . . . CN are related to the concentration of each of the individual fluorophores at each pixel location. Morphological processing instructions find biological structures, e.g., cells, cellular components, genes, etc., in the images of the specimen. Quantitative analysis is performed on the identified biological structures. A display module displays the quantitative analysis results to the user, along with images of the specimen. The images can include images constructed from one or more of the coefficients C1 . . . CN. The quantitative analysis display includes histograms of the biological structures, scatter plots of fluorophore concentrations, statistical data, spectral data and still others. |
| US08244018B2 |
Visualizing a 3D volume dataset of an image at any position or orientation from within or outside
A machine-implemented display method that, with respect to a volume dataset being rendered, enables a user to navigate to any position in space and look in any direction. Preferably, the volume dataset is derived from a computer tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. With the described approach, the user can see details within the dataset that are not available using conventional visualization approaches. The freedom-of-motion capability allows the user to go to places (positions) within the volume rendering that are not otherwise possible using conventional “orbit” and “zoom” display techniques. Thus, for example, using the described approach, the display image enables a user to travel inside physical structures (e.g., a patient's heart, brain, arteries, and the like). |
| US08244016B2 |
Method for suppressing streak artifacts in images produced with an x-ray imaging system
A method for reconstructing images from a set of acquired projection views weights the value backprojected into each image voxel depending on whether the backprojected raysum passes through a highly attenuating region in the subject of the image. If the raysum exceeds an attenuation threshold value, the backprojected values are weighted to substantially reduce the contribution of that raysum to the reconstructed image and to thereby reduce streak artifacts otherwise produced by high attenuation objects such as metal surgical clips. |
| US08244015B2 |
Methods and apparatus for detecting aneurysm in vasculatures
Methods and apparatus for detecting aneurysm in vasculatures are provided. The method includes removing bone structures from three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) angiography image data and extracting spherical shapes from the bone removed 3D CT angiography image data. The method further includes displaying the extracted spherical shapes on an image of the 3D CT angiography image data. |
| US08244010B2 |
Image processing device and a control method and control program thereof
An image processing device that quickly performs suitable image processing by using an input device to point at an image displayed on the medical image processing device, and makes it possible to readily observe medical images needed for a medical procedure. The medical image processing device includes: an input element by which medical information that includes at least patient information, and the image processing type that uses the medical image data is input; an extraction element for extracting combinations of the medical image data that conform to the patient information and the image processing type; an evaluating unit for evaluating out combinations of medical image data that have the highest possibility of being used; an information reporting unit for reporting of the combinations of medical image data and evaluating result information; and a selection unit for prompting a user to select the combination of medical image data. |
| US08244009B2 |
Image analysis device
A CPU executes a gray value gradient calculation process to, for example, an R signal in step S10, executes an isotropic change feature value calculation process based on a gray value gradient calculated in step S11, and further executes a possible polyp detection process for generating a possible polyp image at a location where a polyp exists based on an isotropic change feature value calculated in step S12. This improves the detection of an existing location of an intraluminal abnormal tissue. |
| US08244007B2 |
System and method for registration of medical images based on insufficiently similar image areas
The present invention relates to a system (1) and method for registration of medical image (10,11). Furthermore the invention relates to a computer program (5) for registration of medical images (10,11), when the computer program (5) is executed in a computer (2). In order to provide a more accurate registration transformation of medical images it is suggested to detect insufficiently similar areas (14,14′,25,26) and to exclude them from the registration by means of an exclusion mask (22,24,27) that indicates which pixels/voxels should not be included during the registration process. |
| US08244006B2 |
Finger vein image inputting device and apparatus using the same
There is a need for providing a finger vein image inputting device that can miniaturize and thin a finger vein authentication apparatus and provide high authentication accuracy. The finger vein image inputting device according to the present invention includes a body, a band pass filter for transmitting only light of a specific wavelength, a light source for applying light to a finger placed over the band pass filter, and an imaging means for imaging transmitted light from the finger. A gradient index lens is provided between the band pass filter and the imaging means and causes refractive-index distribution around an optical axis. A polarizing filter is provided at least one of between the light source and the finger and between the finger and an imaging device. |
| US08244005B2 |
Electronic apparatus and image display method
According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a viewer image generating module, a viewer recognition module, a group extraction module, and an image display module. The viewer image generating module generates an image of a viewer by capturing the image of the viewer. The viewer recognition module detects a face image in the generated image and recognizes the viewer corresponding to the detected face image. The group extraction module extracts, from a plurality of groups each including still images, groups including at least one of a still image including the face image of the viewer and a still image imported by the viewer. The image display module displays still images in the extracted groups on a screen. |
| US08243999B2 |
Method and system for the diagnosis of disease using retinal image content and an archive of diagnosed human patient data
A method for diagnosing diseases having retinal manifestations including retinal pathologies includes the steps of providing a CBIR system including an archive of stored digital retinal photography images and diagnosed patient data corresponding to the retinal photography images, the stored images each indexed in a CBIR database using a plurality of feature vectors, the feature vectors corresponding to distinct descriptive characteristics of the stored images. A query image of the retina of a patient is obtained. Using image processing, regions or structures in the query image are identified. The regions or structures are then described using the plurality of feature vectors. At least one relevant stored image from the archive based on similarity to the regions or structures is retrieved, and an eye disease or a disease having retinal manifestations in the patient is diagnosed based on the diagnosed patient data associated with the relevant stored image(s). |
| US08243997B2 |
Detecting geographic-area change using high-resolution, remotely sensed imagery
A method, system, and medium are provided for detecting change in a geographic area. One embodiment includes receiving a set of remotely sensed imagery that depicts the geographic area, automatically identifying changes in physical features of the geographic area by comparing, without user intervention, the set of remotely sensed imagery to a dataset of previously stored remotely sensed imagery that also depicts the geographic area, and deriving a change-quality measurement associated with the set of remotely sensed imagery, wherein the change-quality measurement quantifies a suitability of comparison of the set of remotely sensed imagery to the previously stored remotely sensed imagery. |
| US08243996B2 |
Method of determining PSF using multiple instances of a nominally similar scene
A digital image acquisition system includes a portable apparatus for capturing digital images and a digital processing component for detecting, analyzing and informing the photographer regarding motion blur, and for reducing camera motion blur in an image captured by the apparatus. The digital processing component operates by comparing the image with at least one other image, for example a preview image, of nominally the same scene taken outside the exposure period of the main image. In one embodiment the digital processing component identifies at least one feature in a single preview image which is relatively less blurred than the corresponding feature in the main image, calculates a point spread function (PSF) in respect of such feature, and de-convolves the main image using the PSF. In another embodiment, the digital processing component calculates a trajectory of at least one feature in a plurality of preview images, extrapolates such feature on to the main image, calculates a PSF in respect of the feature, and de-convolves the main image using the PSF. In another embodiment the digital processing unit after determining the degree of blur notifies the photographer of the existing blur or automatically invokes consecutive captures. |
| US08243993B2 |
Method for moving object detection and hand gesture control method based on the method for moving object detection
A method for moving object detection includes the steps: obtaining successive images of the moving object and dividing the successive images into blocks; selecting one block, calculating color feature values of the block at a current time point and a following time point; according to the color feature values, obtaining an active part of the selected block; comparing the color feature value of the selected block at the current time point with that of the other blocks at the following time point to obtain a similarity relating to each of the other blocks, and defining a maximum similarity as a local correlation part; obtaining a motion-energy patch of the block according to the active part and the local correlation part; repeating the steps to obtain all motion-energy patches to form a motion-energy map; and acquiring the moving object at the current time point in the motion-energy map. |
| US08243991B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting targets through temporal scene changes
A system and method for detecting a target in imagery is disclosed. At least one image region exhibiting changes in at least intensity is detected from among at least a pair of aligned images. A distribution of changes in at least intensity inside the at least one image region is determined using an unsupervised learning method. The distribution of changes in at least intensity is used to identify pixels experiencing changes of interest. At least one target from the identified pixels is identified using a supervised learning method. The distribution of changes in at least intensity is a joint hue and intensity histogram when the pair of images pertain to color imagery. The distribution of changes in at least intensity is an intensity histogram when the pair of images pertain to grey-level imagery. |
| US08243989B2 |
Collaborative tracking
Disclosed is a system (200) and method (101) for collaborative tracking of an object, the method comprising updating (105) the track with an object measurement using a camera tracking module (230), determining (110) a track quality measure for the updated track, based on the track quality measure, determining (120) whether a second tracking module (260), remotely located from the camera, should be applied, if the second tracking module (260) is to be applied, selecting (130) data describing the track and the object, transmitting (140) the selected data to the second tracking module over a network (240) that imposes constraints of bandwidth and/or latency, and applying (150) the second tracking module (260) to determine the next position of the object in the track. |
| US08243984B1 |
User identifiable watermarking
In one embodiment, video from a security camera is overlaid with small but visible indicators in each corner of the frame. The indicators may comprise an encoded value that can be decoded upon visual inspection by a user without the use of a computer. The encoded value may identify the camera such that a user knowledgeable about the format and sequence of the indicators can view the images and readily understand the identity of the security camera. In some embodiments, the indicators identify other information associated with the video such as the persons, objects, locations, conditions, times, or other data that is associated with the video. |
| US08243983B2 |
Graphically encoded data copy and paste
In accordance with one or more aspects, at a first device both an indication of data to be copied and a request to perform graphical copying of the data is received. The data is graphically encoded to generate an image that is displayed by the first device. In a second device, a request to perform graphical pasting of data is received. The second device captures the image displayed by the first device and decodes data graphically encoded in the image. The decoded data is pasted to a location of the first device. |
| US08243982B2 |
Embedding information in document border space
A method for embedding coded information in a document border includes encoding information as a plurality of data carrying dot pair patterns where each dot is too small to be visually noticeable. For each page of a document to be rendered, the method includes determining whether the border area is blank. If found not blank the border area is cleared. Each of the plurality of data carrying dot patterns is embedded in the blank border area of the document page. The document page with the embedded data carrying dot patterns is then rendered, where each data carrying dot is too small to be visually noticeable. |
| US08243974B2 |
Wireless microphone
A wireless microphone includes a grip that includes a barrel. The barrel includes a barrel body that is configured with a battery receiving space and that has one side formed with a cutout for access to the battery receiving space. The grip further includes a lid coupled to the barrel body and operable to a closing state for closing the cutout. The grip also includes an external thread formed on the barrel and the lid and constituted by a first thread part on the barrel and a second thread part on the lid. The wireless microphone further includes a retainer configured for threaded connection to the external thread to retain the lid in the closing state. |
| US08243970B2 |
Virtual reality sound for advanced multi-media applications
The method and apparatus described herein generates realistic audio for a virtual reality simulation based on the position (location and orientation) of a participant's head. The audio may be generated based on independent and dependent audio profiles. The independent audio profile represents the participant-independent propagation of sound from a virtual source to each of one or more virtual objects in the simulation. The dependent audio profile represents the propagation of the sound from each of the one or more virtual objects to the head or ears of the participant based on a position of the participant's head or ears. An audio processor generates the desired audio signal at the head of the participant by combining the dependent and independent audio profiles to determine a total audio profile for the virtual source, and filtering an audio wave corresponding to the virtual source based on the total audio profile. |
| US08243968B2 |
Flat-panel television and audio equipment
Disclosed is an audio equipment, comprising: an audio output amplifier and a speaker, with a sound output from the speaker based on an audio signal that is input in the audio output amplifier, and with a high signal output as an error signal to protect the audio output amplifier when an abnormal operation occurs. The audio equipment further comprising a rectifier circuit to stabilize the error signal. |
| US08243965B2 |
Electro-acoustic transducer
An electro-acoustic transducer is disclosed. The electro-acoustic transducer includes an electret diaphragm, an orifice plate and a plurality of dividing structures. The dividing structures, disposed between the electret diaphragm and the orifice plate, are cross-shaped. Each of the dividing structures includes two extending portions intersecting with each other. |
| US08243963B2 |
Swivel tweeter mechanism for a constant phase coaxial acoustic transducer
An audio transducer assembly configured for positioning with respect to a mounting surface, said assembly employing a tweeter in a directionally adjustable body which swivels radially and axially for positioning and directing the tweeter in a desired direction. By keeping the center of rotation at or near the center of the surface of the tweeter, the adjustment of the tweeter does not significantly offset its body in the X or Y direction through its range of motion. Such configuration allows for compensation of the distortion caused by placing the tweeter in the middle of a woofer in a speaker having multiple transducers in a single assembly. |
| US08243949B2 |
Network addressible loudspeaker and audio play
Methods and systems for network addressable loudspeakers and audio play are presented. One or more network addressable loudspeakers are registered at a server. An end user selects a network addressable loudspeaker to output audio, and an audio file is streamed from an audio source to the selected network addressable loudspeaker. |
| US08243945B2 |
Earphone jack
An earphone jack (100) for a portable electronic device includes a detecting module (20) and a jack module (30). The detecting module is configured for detecting if a plug of an earphone has been connected to the earphone jack. The jack module is connected to the detecting module, and includes a connecting hole (32) configured for receiving the plug defined therein, two earphone connectors (333, 334) configured for connecting the plug, a contacting member (35) connected to the detecting module, and a movable member (331) separately connected to the contacting member. Therefore, the detecting module can detect the plug connected to the earphone jack without causing any instantaneous current in the jack module and the plug. |
| US08243942B2 |
Headphones for connection to an external active noise compensation device
There is provided headphones for connection to an external active noise compensation device. The headphones have at least one earphone, a microphone near the ear, and a passive circuitry network for increasing the amplification of the external noise compensation device. In that way noise compensation in respect of the external noise compensation can be increased by increasing the overall amplification by the passive network. |
| US08243935B2 |
Sound image localization control apparatus
Provided is a sound image localization control apparatus allowing, when sound is reproduced so as to perform sound image localization for a plurality of users, each of the plurality of users to variably adjust an acoustical effect individually without diminishing a sound image localization effect. The sound image localization control apparatus includes a processing characteristic setting means (13; 14) setting a processing characteristic in a controlling means (12), such that each of acoustic transfer functions, for at least two predetermined positions, represents a desired characteristic. Further, the controlling means (12) of sound image localization control apparatus receives an acoustic signal and the processing characteristic which is set by the processing characteristic setting means and performs signal processing. Additionally, the sound image localization control apparatus includes a sound reproducing means (3) receiving an output from the controlling means. |
| US08243931B2 |
Method for detecting security error in mobile telecommunications system and device of mobile telecommunications
A method and apparatus for detecting a security error at a PDCP layer of an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system, a mobile communication system, are disclosed.Conditions for determining a security failure are defined. A receiving side PDCP layer determines whether HFN de-synchronization, namely, a security failure, has occurred by using particular conditions (namely, conditions for determining the security failure). If it is determined that the security failure has occurred, the receiving side PDCP layer informs an RRC layer to re-establish an RB or perform a PDCP RESET procedure to re-set security configuration of a transmitting side and the receiving side. |
| US08243930B2 |
Counterfeit prevention system based on random processes and cryptography
A first portion of a label is formed using a chaotic process that cannot be controlled and forms a portion of the label using the chaotic information. A prospective counterfeiter cannot control the first portion of the label, and hence can only form a different random portion. A private encryption key is used to encrypt information indicative of the random portion. That encrypted information is placed on the same label. That encrypted information can be decrypted by a user using a public key, and compared with the random portion. If they agree, then the label is genuine, and the product has not been counterfeited. Since the random information cannot be replicated exactly, there is no way to copy this label and its encrypted portion exactly onto another product or label. |
| US08243926B2 |
Transport stream encryption device and its editing device and method for use therein
An encryption device, comprising: detection portion for detecting a TS header, a PES header, a sequence header, a GOP header, and a sequence end code for a transport stream not encrypted; and encryption portion for encrypting the transport stream except the TS header, the PES header, the sequence header, the GOP header, and the sequence end code. An editing device, comprising: detection portion for detecting a TS header, a PES header, a sequence header, a GOP header, and a sequence end code in a transport stream; and editing portion for editing the encrypted transport stream without decryption in units of TS packets ranging from a TS packet where the GOP header is detected to a TS packet previous to a TS packet where a subsequent GOP header is detected out of TS packets having an identical PID. |
| US08243919B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing elliptic curve scalar multiplication in a manner that counters power analysis attacks
When multiplicative splitting is used to hide a scalar in an Elliptic Curve scalar Multiplication ECSM operation, the associated modular division operation employs the known Almost Montgomery Inversion algorithm. By including dummy operations in some of the branches of the main iteration loop of the Almost Montgomery Inversion algorithm, all branches of the algorithm may be viewed, from the perspective of a Power Analysis-based attack, as equivalent and, accordingly, devoid of information useful in determining the value of the scalar, which may be a cryptographic private key. |
| US08243914B2 |
Method and system for user prioritization within call completion services using a preferred allocation of resources
A method and system for hierarchical prioritization and execution of call completion services are provided. When a caller applies for a call completion service, the caller is identified and assigned a priority from among different priorities such as high priority or regular priority. Thereafter, attempts to execute call completion services are performed hierarchically by launching call completion services for callers having a higher priority before similar attempts are performed for callers of a lower priority. Hence, call completion services are handled according to the priority assigned to the callers rather than the order in which each caller applied for a call completion service. |
| US08243910B2 |
Single point of contact personal communication system
A computer/telephony integrated single-point-of-contact system (CISS) enabling a user to contact another using multiple devices with a single contact attempt is disclosed. A plurality of computer programs residing in a computer use a subscriber database, authorization database, priority list database, and device attributes database to determine how to respond to a request to contact a subscriber. If the request is an emergency, the computer repeatedly contacts all of the subscriber's devices until a response is received. Otherwise, the computer contacts the subscriber's devices in a sequential order determined by the subscriber. The computer can also delete redundant un-received messages from a subscriber's devices and create a real-time connection between the requester and the subscriber, if it is technically possible, at the subscriber's request. |
| US08243906B2 |
Group communication system, group ID number issuing apparatus, and call control apparatus
There is provided a group communication system allowing group communication to be performed by a simple operation as well as a group ID number issuing apparatus and a call control apparatus to be applied to such a group communication system. When a user takes a group organization procedure to the group communication system, a group representative telephone number representing the group is issued. After the group representative telephone number is issued, the group representative telephone number can be used in the same manner as for calling a subscriber to call a group member to perform group communication. The group communication can be performed by limiting to a lower level subgroup, a pair of the group representative telephone number and an identifier can be used instead of the subscriber's telephone number to determine the calling partner to make a call. |
| US08243895B2 |
Communication system with configurable shared line privacy feature
A PBX system with a shared line connected to a plurality of telephone devices includes one or more processors that control a connection for an incoming call from a caller, the one or more processors being operable to access a listing that includes one or more callers or calling numbers designated as private to a first telephone device. The one or more processors being further operable to send an alert to only the first telephone device in the event that the one or more callers or the calling numbers in the listing includes a caller or calling number associated with the incoming call. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US08243894B2 |
Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus
A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations. |
| US08243893B2 |
Customer messaging service
A messaging and alerting service is described. An implementation includes enrolling a customer in the messaging and alert service, storing a list of businesses selected by the customer, storing a customer contact hierarchy list, and contacting the customer according to the contact hierarchy list. The messaging and alerting service enables real-time, interactive alerts to be delivered to customers in the customer's preferred media. In addition, customers may respond to the alerts to provide important directions to a business. |
| US08243888B2 |
Apparatus and method for managing call details using speech recognition
A method and apparatus for managing call details using speech recognition are provided. To manage call details, incoming and outgoing voice signals during a call are converted into their written equivalent by speech recognition technology. The details of the call, including the conversation, are stored in text form so that a user can search for them when needed. Accordingly, the user can easily retrieve what was spoken during calls and systematically manage desired information by searching or sorting the call details. |
| US08243886B2 |
Consumer electronic registration, control and support concierge device and method
We disclose a concierge device that can be configured to register, control and support a consumer device. It can alternatively or redundantly connect to a home management bridge and/or cloud-based management servers. It can accept menus that allow a single concierge device to provide a wide range of functions for various consumer devices. The concierge device allows the user in a single action to initiate a support session, automatically identifying the consumer device. The concierge device can be configured for voice or video support calls. The concierge device in conjunction with a home management bridge or gateway can manage on boarding of components of an automated home, such as switches and lamps. Implementations of the concierge device that include a display can show supplemental information, such as advertising, optionally in coordination with media being played on a consumer device coupled in communication with the concierge device. |
| US08243884B2 |
X-ray anode having improved heat removal
An X-ray anode includes a coating and a support body. In addition to a strength-imparting region, the support body has a region formed of a diamond-metal composite material. The diamond-metal composite material is formed of 40 to 90% by volume diamond particles, 10 to 60% by volume binding phase(s) formed of a metal or an alloy of the metals of the group consisting of Cu, Ag, Al and at least one carbide of the elements of the group consisting of Tr, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, B, and Si. The highly heat-conductive region can be form-lockingly connected at the back to a heat-dissipating region, for example formed of Cu or a Cu alloy. The X-ray anode has improved heat dissipation and lower composite stress. |
| US08243883B2 |
Wireless X-ray detector operation coordination system and method
In one embodiment, a method for coordinating operation of X-ray detectors in a wireless X-ray system includes detecting multiple wireless X-ray detectors within an operative range of an X-ray base station, the detected X-ray detectors each having one of multiple possible statuses, including an active status corresponding to a designation of the X-ray detector as a desired recipient of radiation during a current X-ray imaging sequence, an inactive status corresponding to a designation of the X-ray detector as not the desired recipient of radiation during a current X-ray imaging sequence, and an unenabled status corresponding to the X-ray detector not being configured to operate with the X-ray base station. The method also includes determining the current status of each detected X-ray detector and displaying on a user-viewable screen a visual indication of the status of each detected X-ray detector. |
| US08243882B2 |
System and method for indicating association between autonomous detector and imaging subsystem
A method and a system are disclosed for operating an X-ray imaging subsystem with an X-ray imaging detector. Each subsystem may be one of many that could operate with one another to create X-ray images. An association is established between the imaging subsystem and the imaging detector, and a user-perceptible indication of the association is generated. The user may be prompted to confirm the association. Thereafter, the two subsystems may be used together for X-ray imaging. An X-ray source of the imaging subsystem may be disabled until the association is established or until the confirmation is received. |
| US08243880B2 |
Substrate measuring method and apparatus
According to one embodiment of a substrate measuring method, a shape of a unit structure is measured by making an electromagnetic wave incident on a periodical structure and detecting a scattered electromagnetic wave. Measurement conditions are determined through calculation of a scattering profile representing the distribution of scattering intensities of the electromagnetic wave and optimization corresponding to a comparison result obtained by comparing the scattering profile every time a value of a parameter of attention is changed. |
| US08243878B2 |
High-resolution X-ray diffraction measurement with enhanced sensitivity
A method for analysis includes directing a converging beam of X-rays toward a surface of a sample having an epitaxial layer formed thereon, and sensing the X-rays that are diffracted from the sample while resolving the sensed X-rays as a function of angle so as to generate a diffraction spectrum including a diffraction peak and fringes due to the epitaxial layer. A characteristic of the fringes is analyzed in order to measure a relaxation of the epitaxial layer. |
| US08243875B2 |
Method and device for imaging tomography
An imaging method for imaging a region of investigation of an object, comprises the step of irradiating the region of investigation with at least one energy input beam along a plurality of projection directions, wherein the at least one energy input beam comprises a plurality of individual energy input beam components, wherein the energy input beam is shaped such that at least two of the energy input beam components have different cross-sections and groups of parallel energy input beam components being parallel to one of the projection directions provide a continuous irradiation of the region of investigation. Furthermore, a device for imaging the object is described. |
| US08243873B2 |
Driver circuit, display device including the driver circuit, and electronic appliance including the display device
An object of the present invention is to provide a driver circuit including a normally-on thin film transistor, which driver circuit ensures a small malfunction and highly reliable operation. The driver circuit includes a static shift register including an inverter circuit having a first transistor and a second transistor, and a switch including a third transistor. The first to third transistors each include a semiconductor layer of an oxide semiconductor and are depletion-mode transistors. An amplitude voltage of clock signals for driving the third transistor is higher than a power supply voltage for driving the inverter circuit. |
| US08243870B2 |
Apparatus for removing thermal sleeve from cold leg of reactor coolant system
Disclosed is an apparatus for removing a thermal sleeve from a cold leg of a reactor coolant system, which removes an unintentionally separated thermal sleeve without pipe cutting, preventing invasion of impurities into pipes and achieving reliable pipe re-welding. The apparatus includes a sleeve removal tool including a corn head formed at a shaft, a pressure plate below the corn head to maximize hydraulic pressure inside a safety injection pipe, a spring connected to the pressure plate to keep the pressure plate unfolded, and a guide wheel to guide the sleeve removal tool into the safety injection pipe, a horizontal movement carrier including bodies connected to each other by a link, a seating rod for seating of the sleeve removal tool, and moving wheels for movement of the horizontal movement carrier, and a vertical movement carrier including first and second anti-separation bars to prevent separation of the horizontal movement carrier. |
| US08243867B2 |
Receiver and communication system having the same
A receiver may include a clock and data recovery circuit, a detection circuit and a sampling clock generator. The clock and data recovery circuit may receive first data and sample the first data to generate recovered data in response to a reception sampling clock signal. The detection circuit may detect a frequency difference between a transmission sampling clock signal and the reception sampling clock signal by comparing the first data and the reception sampling clock signal to generate a frequency difference detection signal. The sampling clock generator may generate the reception sampling clock signal based on the frequency difference detection signal and a first reference clock signal. Therefore, a communication system including the receiver may effectively reduce a jitter noise. |
| US08243866B2 |
Analog baud rate clock and data recovery
An analog baud rate clock and data recovery apparatus includes a first track and hold circuit that delays a received signal by one unit interval to create an odd signal; a second track and hold circuit that delays the received signal by one unit interval to create an even signal; a first comparator circuit; and a second comparator circuit. The first track and hold circuit outputs the odd signal to the first comparator circuit and the second comparator circuit. The second track and hold circuit outputs the even signal to the first comparator circuit and the second comparator circuit. The first comparator adds the odd signal to the even signal and outputs a first potential timing error. The second comparator subtracts the odd signal and the even signal and outputs a second potential timing error signal. A desired timing error signal is derived from the first and second potential timing error signals. The desired timing error signal is used to determine whether signal sampling is early or late. |
| US08243864B2 |
Noise reduction filtering in a wireless communication system
A technique for noise reduction in a wireless communication system uses controllable bandwidth filters (120) to filter a received signal. In a typical implementation, the filters (120) are used at baseband frequencies. A measurement (RSSI) is indicative of the strength of the received signal. A control circuit (144) generates a control signal (146) to control the bandwidth of the filters (120). If the received signal strength is above a first threshold, a wider bandwidth may be used for the filters (120). If the received signal is below a second threshold, the control circuit (144) generates the control signal (146) to set the filters (120) to a more narrow bandwidth. The system (100) may also be used with digital filters (150, 152) following digitization by analog to digital converters (ADCs) (130, 132). The system (100) is particularly well-suited for operation with noise-shaped ADCs (130, 132), such as Delta-Sigma converters. |
| US08243863B2 |
Semiconductor device
To provide a semiconductor device which can transmit/receive data to/from a reader/writer without interruption of operation by the reader/writer or the like. A semiconductor device capable of wireless communication includes an antenna circuit, a first demodulation signal generation circuit which demodulates a signal whose modulation factor is from 95% to 100%, both inclusive, a second demodulation signal generation circuit which demodulates a signal whose modulation factor is from 95% and 100%, both inclusive and from 10% and 30%, both inclusive and a logic circuit which selects one of a demodulation signal from the first circuit and a demodulation signal from the second circuit. When the antenna circuit receives an electromagnetic wave, the logic circuit selects the demodulation signal from the second circuit, and when the antenna circuit transmits an electromagnetic wave, the logic circuit selects the demodulation signal from the first circuit. |
| US08243859B2 |
Joint frequency and unique word detection
Systems, devices, processors, and methods are described for joint detection of frequency and unique word (UW) location(s) for burst transmissions. Embodiments receive a wireless signal. Frequency detection is performed, resulting in multiple possible frequency correlation peaks. A subset of the correlation peaks are each used to perform trial frequency corrections, thereby generating a set of trial sequences. A UW correlation is performed on each of the trial sequences to generate a maximum UW correlation value for each trial sequence. The UW correlation value and the frequency correlation peak value are weighted and combined to generate a joint detection correlation value. The trial sequence having largest joint detection correlation value may indicate the correct transmission frequency and UW location. The jointly detected information may then be used to identify the frequency and start time of the burst transmission, which may then be demodulated, decoded, etc. to recover its payload data. |
| US08243857B2 |
Cordic based complex tuner with exact frequency resolution
Systems and methods are disclosed that include selecting a sampling frequency and a tuning resolution frequency. These systems and methods may further include determining a wordlength of the phase accumulator, a numeric representation of the phase range, and a reduced representable value of a phase accumulator. In addition, these systems and methods may include operating the phase accumulator, where the phase accumulator creates an output phase accumulator signal. These systems and methods may further includes adjusting the angle of the output phase accumulator signal, where the output phase accumulator signal is adjusted based upon the operation of the phase accumulator, where adjusting the angle of the output phase accumulator signal creates an adjusted output phase accumulator signal and operating a CORDIC module, and where the CORDIC module performs operations upon the output phase accumulator signal based upon the parameters of the phase accumulator. |
| US08243852B1 |
Method of and circuit for receiving a sample of an input signal to be used to calculate parameters for a predistortion circuit in an integrated circuit
A circuit for receiving a sample of an input signal to be used to calculate parameters for a predistortion circuit in an integrated circuit is described. The circuit comprises a power measurement circuit coupled to receive the input signal; a first port of a dual port random access memory for receiving data associated with power of the input signal over a predetermined period of time; and a second port of a dual port random access memory for generating the data associated with the power of the input signal stored over the predetermined period of time. A method of receiving a sample of an input signal to be used to calculate parameters for a predistortion circuit in an integrated circuit is also described. |
| US08243851B2 |
Radio system and a method for relaying radio signals
The present invention provides a radio system and a method for relaying radio signals. The radio system comprises at least one transmit path, a digital predistortion unit, a calibration unit and a feedback path. The feedback path is commonly used by the digital predistortion unit and the calibration unit with the present invention. The calibration signal is adapted to update at least one of phase and amplitude changes and the digital predistortion. The present invention further relates to a method for relaying radio signals. The method comprises updating the digital predistortion as well as an updating of the phase and amplitude changes. The updating of the digital predistortion and the updating of the phase and amplitude changes is implemented using a feedback signal. The present invention further relates to a computer program product for the manufacture of the radio system according to the invention. The present invention further relates to a computer program product for the execution of the method according to the present invention. |
| US08243847B2 |
Digital transmitter
An equalizer provided in a digital transmitter compensates for attenuation in a signal channel to a digital receiver. The equalizer generates signal levels as a logical function of bit history to emphasize transition signal levels relative to repeated signal levels. The preferred equalizer includes an FIR transition filter using a look-up table. Parallel circuits including FIR filters and digital-to-analog converters provide a high speed equalizer with lower speed circuitry. The equalizer is particularly suited to in-cabinet and local area network transmissions where feedback circuitry facilitates adaptive training of the equalizer. |
| US08243844B2 |
Power reduction for digital subscriber line
An apparatus comprising a transmitter configured to transmit a low power mode Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) signal using a plurality of DMT tones, wherein a subset of the DMT tones are used for transmitting data, and wherein at least some of the remaining DMT tones are used for a Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR) reduction is disclosed. Included is a network component comprising at least one processor configured to implement a method comprising promoting transmission of a plurality of data streams using a plurality of first digital tones, and promoting transmission of at least one second digital tone that reduces a peak of a signal generated by at least one of the first digital tones. |
| US08243843B2 |
Systems and methods for low-complexity MIMO detection using leaf-node prediction via look-up tables
A method for building a look-up table for a receiver in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detection system simulates a MIMO detector over many channel realizations, tracks channel metric and parameter values used for each channel realization resulting from such simulating, and stores, in a look-up table, best values of the tracked values used for a particular channel metric. |
| US08243837B2 |
Sequence allocating method and wireless mobile station device
It is an object to provide a sequence allocating method that, while maintaining the number of Zadoff-Chu sequences to compose a sequence group, is configured to make it possible to reduce correlations between different sequential groups and between same sequential groups. This method comprises the steps of setting a standard sequence with a standard sequence length (Nb) and a standard sequence number (rb) in a step (ST101), setting a threshold values (Xth1(m)) and (Xth2(m)) in accordance with an RB number (m) in a step (ST103), setting a sequence length (N) corresponding to RB number (m) in a step (ST104), judging whether ¦r/N−rb/Nb¦=Xth1(m) is satisfied in a step (ST106), judging whether ¦r/N−rb/Nb¦=Xth2(m) is satisfied in a step (ST107), including Zadoff-Chu sequences with a sequence number (r) and a sequence length (N) in a sequence group (rb) in a step (ST108); if both judgments are positive, and allocating the sequence group (rb) to the same cell in a step (ST113). |
| US08243835B2 |
Method and apparatus for measurement report for the decision of transmission mode transition
Disclosed are a method and apparatus for measurement report for the decision of transmission mode transition that obtain a threshold value of reporting CQI_difference of all frequency sub-bands; measure a CQI value at each CQI reporting frequency sub-band of whole frequency band in each measure time interval; determine a CQI_difference value based on the measured CQI value of each CQI reporting frequency sub-band; and compare the determined CQI_difference value with the threshold value, if a condition is satisfied, then the UE sends the determined CQI_difference value to the BS. After the UE has reported this measurement report to the BS, the BS may choose a more suitable data transmission mode for the UE based on this measurement report to make data transmission more effective. |
| US08243833B2 |
Method for transmitting a multicarrier signal designed for limiting interference, signal, emitting device, receiving method and device and corresponding computer programs
A method is provided for transmitting a multi-carrier signal formed of a temporal succession of symbols comprised of a set of data elements. The method includes: calculating an interference affecting a set of at least two data elements which are to be protected and are spaced out two by two from no more than one time carrier and no more than one frequency carrier, the interference taking into account the value of the data elements to be protected and values of the data elements of a contour ring consisting of carriers immediately adjacent to data elements to be protected, and; determining at least one value to be attributed to at least one data element of the contour ring for reducing, upon reception, the calculated interference. |
| US08243831B2 |
Image deblocking filter and image processing device utilizing the same
An image deblocking filter comprises an instruction memory. A decision unit executes instructions stored in the instruction memory to decide a first path or a second path of instruction fetching from the instruction memory to an execution unit. The execution unit is operable to execute a first instruction in the decided path the in one clock cycle. The first instruction represents a complex of three arithmetic operations and two bitwise operations for three variable operands and two constant operands. The first and second paths respectively realize deblocking formulae of a first and a second image compression standard. |
| US08243829B2 |
Method of filtering a pixel using a filtering coefficient
In one embodiment, the method includes obtaining a pixel value difference between two successive pixels. The two successive pixels are on a block boundary. The method further includes calculating the filtering coefficient based on the pixel value difference, and obtaining four successive filtered pixel values based on the filtering coefficient. The four successive pixels include the two successive pixels used in the obtaining a pixel value difference, and two of the four successive pixels are included in a first block and two of the four successive pixels are included in a second block. |
| US08243828B2 |
Method of performing loop-filtering on a pixel of an image
In one embodiment, the method includes obtaining quantization information of a first block including the pixel to be filtered, and obtaining a block type of the first block and a second block. The second block is adjacent to the first block. The quantization information is compared to a threshold value, and loop-filtering is performed on the pixel to be filtered by using at least three successive pixels if the quantization information is greater than the threshold value and the type of the first and second block is an intra-coded block type. The at least three successive pixels include the pixel to be filtered. |
| US08243825B2 |
Decoding and encoding method for deinterleaver
A decoding method implemented in a deinterleaver is provided, converting a television signal to image data. A preset mechanism is provided for converting the television signal to the image data. The preset mechanism comprises a plurality of multiplication and addition operations performed using a database and an adder. |
| US08243824B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method
Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus configured to process a code stream having a first resolution with data having the first resolution scalably encoded, including setting means, first creating means, authoring means, second creating means, and code stream replacing means. |
| US08243822B2 |
Data transfer scheme, frame synchronization device and data transfer method
A data transfer scheme includes at least one decoding unit that receives encoded video data as input, generates frame data by decoding the video data, stores the frame data and updates the stored frame data in response to newly input video data, at least one frame processing unit that stores the frame data decoded by the decoding unit and manipulates the frame data, and a frame synchronization unit that transfers the frame data stored in the decoding unit to the frame processing unit and transfers update data to be used for update of the frame data stored in the frame processing unit to the frame processing unit in response to update of the frame data stored in the decoding unit. |
| US08243820B2 |
Decoding variable coded resolution video with native range/resolution post-processing operation
A video codec provides for encoding and decoding pictures of a video sequence at various coded resolutions, such that pictures can be encoded at lower coded resolutions based on bit rate or other constraints while maintaining a consistent display resolution. The video codec further provide for encoding and decoding pictures of the video sequence at ranges lower than that used for display, and then expanding the range after decoding for display. The video codec applies post-processing operations, such as de-blocking, de-ringing, and color conversion, at the native resolution and range of the decoded video, prior to range expansion and upsampling for display. |
| US08243817B2 |
Method of performing loop-filtering on sets of four successive pixels of an image
In one embodiment, the method includes obtaining quantization information of a first block, obtaining a block type of the first block, and comparing the quantization information and a threshold value. Loop-filtering is performed on four successive pixels by using at least three successive pixels in a horizontal direction firstly if the quantization information is greater than the threshold value and the type of the first block is intra-coded block type, and loop-filtering is performed on four successive pixels by using at least three successive pixels in a vertical direction secondly if the quantization information is greater than the threshold value and the type of the first block is intra-coded block type. |
| US08243816B2 |
Entropy decoding method
An entropy decoding method includes retrieving video data corresponding to an microcode, operating an entropy decoding operation on the video data to acquire a result, and retrieving video data corresponding to a subsequent microcode according to a MPS synchronously. The method further includes determining if the MPS matches the result, and operating an entropy decoding operation according to the subsequent microcode on the video data corresponding to the subsequent microcode if the MPS matches the result. |
| US08243815B2 |
Systems and methods of video compression deblocking
An exemplary graphics processing unit (GPU) comprises a decoder and a video processing unit. The decoder is configured to decode a first and a second deblocking filter acceleration instruction. The first and second deblocking filter instructions are associated with a deblocking filter used by a particular video decoder. The video processing unit is configured to receive encoded by the deblocking filter acceleration instructions, and to determine first and second memory sources specified by the received parameters as one of a plurality of memory sources located on the GPU. The video processing unit is further configured to load a first block of pixel data from the first memory source, and to apply the deblocking filter to the first block of pixel data, and to load a second block of pixel data from the second memory source, and to apply the deblocking filter to the second block of pixel data. |
| US08243806B2 |
Recording and reproducing apparatus, sending apparatus and transmission system
A video signal recording and reproducing apparatus is provided that is capable of reducing the encoding amount required for video recording thereby to record a longer video signal while suppressing deterioration of image quality when the video is displayed. An apparatus is also provided that is similarly capable of efficiently transmitting the video signal with a smaller transmission capacity during transmission of the video signal. A structure constituting the present invention comprises: a decoding unit which decodes an inputted video signal into video frames; a decimation unit which decimates the number of video frames decoded by the decimation unit; an encoding unit which encodes the video frames decimated by the decimation unit into encoded video signals; and a storage device which stores the video signals encoded by the encoding unit, wherein the decimation unit performs decimation for each video signal. |