| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08346815B2 |
Dynamic image display area and image display within web search results
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for providing image search results with web corpus search results. In one aspect, a method includes determining dimensions of an image display environment in which image search results are to be displayed, determining an insertion score that defines an ordinal insertion position at which the image display environment is to be inserted into a ranking of general search results that defines ordinal positions for each of the general search results, the dimensions and the insertion score determined, in part, from the quality scores of the images, generating a search results resource for displaying the general search results according to their respective ordinal positions and the image display environment at the ordinal insertion position on a client device, and providing the search results resource in response to the search query. |
| US08346814B2 |
Method and system of splitting and merging information spaces
An approach is provided for managing split and merge operations for information spaces with respect to their information content. |
| US08346813B2 |
Using node identifiers in materialized XML views and indexes to directly navigate to and within XML fragments
A method and apparatus is provided for efficiently searching and navigating XML data stored in a relational database. When storing a collection of XML documents, certain scalar elements may be shredded and stored in a relational table, whereas unstructured data may be stored as a CLOB or BLOB column. The approach includes identifying a reference address to within an XML tree index entry and storing the address in an xmltable index. The tree index entry allows for navigation in all axes. A path-based expression may be evaluated in the context of the reference address of the LOB. The result of the evaluation identifies another XML tree index entry containing a LOB locator used to retrieve the content from the document. The tree index, node index, and secondary function indexes are used together to enhance the performance of querying the XML data. |
| US08346809B2 |
Querying markup language data sources using a relational query processor
An XML wrapper queries an XML document in an on-the-fly manner so that only parent nodes in the document that satisfy the query are extracted and then unnested. The parent nodes and associated descendent nodes are located using XPath expressions contained as options in data definition language (DDL) statements. The parent nodes satisfying the query and associated descendent nodes are extracted and stored outside of a database according to a relational schema. The wrapper facilitates applications that use convention SQL queries and views to operate on that information stored according to the relational schema. The wrapper also responds to query optimizer requests for costs associated with queries against external data sources associated with the wrapper. |
| US08346808B2 |
System and method of accessing resources in a computer network
An exemplary method of accessing resources in a computer network may include (a) receiving into a networking device, from a first client device of a plurality of client devices, a request for a given resource (e.g., a file, directory, or metadata) assigned to a given file service (e.g., a file share service, file sync service, or file search service), (b) verifying that the first client device is allowed to access the given file service, (c) in response to verifying that the first client device is allowed to access the given file service, identifying a second client device having at least one stored resource assigned to the given file service, and (d) sending to the second client device an updated request for the given resource that includes a unique identifier of the at least one stored resource assigned to the given file service. |
| US08346805B2 |
Filter driver for identifying disk files by analysis of content
A system and method for excluding certain types of files from being saved to a system by examining file data. The file data is examined by: mapping the circular queue to memory; reading the file identifiers from the circular queue (a named mutex is locked until all file identifiers have been read from the queue); using the file identifier to open the file; scanning the opened file to create a file signature; comparing the file signature to each entry on a list of signature criteria; and performing a storage policy if there is a match. |
| US08346803B2 |
Dynamic generation of target files from template files and tracking of the processing of target files
Target file generation systems and methods are described, which are optionally for use by ordinary computer users enable those users to readily generate target files without the requirement that they know the internal layout structures of the target files. A user is enabled to select a template file from a plurality of template files via a user interface configured to be displayed on a computer display to the user, wherein the template files include changeable fields associated with corresponding field delimiters and prompting labels. An incomplete software program file containing variable name locations is accessed from memory. The program file is parsed to locate the variable name locations. The label names obtained from the template file selected by the user are inserted into the variable name locations to further complete the software program file. The software program file is stored in computer memory. |
| US08346796B2 |
System for searching property listings based on location
A system for searching property listings based on location may include storing, in a database of a mobile electronic device, a set of property listing entries, wherein a property listing entry includes an identification data field and a location coordinate data field. A property searching application may be executed on a processor of the mobile electronic device, wherein executing the property searching application includes multiple operations. Updated property listing entries may be received from a listing server. The set of property listing entries may be transformed based on the updated property listings. A search area may be determined. The database may be queried to retrieve one or more property listing entries from the set of property listing entries based on a comparison between the search area and the location coordinate data fields of the property listing entries. |
| US08346789B2 |
System and method for generating homogeneous metadata from pre-existing metadata
A method according to one embodiment includes determining the presence of pre-existing metadata associated with at least one local media content file. The method of this embodiment may also include determining at least one data field contained within the pre-existing metadata and generating a homogeneous metadata file for the at least one local media content file by mapping data contained within the at least one data field of the pre-existing metadata into at least one defined data field of the homogeneous metadata file. |
| US08346788B1 |
Techniques for mapping data models using an intermediate processing layer
Described are techniques for mapping a first set of objects in a first data model to a second set of objects in a second data model. In response to receiving the first set of objects, a third set of objects are generated using the first set of objects. The third set of objects include association objects each of which represent an association between a first object in the second set and a second object in the second set. A command set of provided for generating the second set of objects by extracting information from objects included in any of the first set and the third set. A request for an object in the second set is received. In response to the request, commands of the command set are executed to generate the object. |
| US08346787B1 |
Method and apparatus for continuous data protection
A method and apparatus for continuous data protection is provided. In one embodiment, the method for continuous data protection comprises receiving a write request for writing at least one data segment to storage; computing, using at least one processor, a signature for the at least one segment; comparing, using at least one processor, the signature that is associated with the at least one segment with a plurality of data signatures for previously stored data segments; and processing the data segment in a manner dependent upon whether the signature matches any one of the plurality of data signatures. |
| US08346786B2 |
Information processing system, information processing apparatus, information processing method and computer readable medium
An information processing system includes an acceptance section, a first processing section, a conversion section and a second processing section. The acceptance section accepts first storage location information that is indicative of where a first electronic file in a first storage unit is stored. The first processing section processes the first electronic file in accordance with a first processing content. The conversion section converts the first storage location information to second storage location information that is indicative of where a second electronic file in a second storage unit is stored. The second electronic file has an identical content as that of the first electronic file. The second processing section processes the second electronic file in accordance with a second processing content. |
| US08346785B1 |
Performing abstraction and/or integration of information
Abstraction and/or integration can be performed on information, e.g. transaction data items in standard and/or proprietary formats, using data processing systems. For example, standard-based abstraction operations can analyze transaction data items in standard format to obtain transaction segment data items, each about a transaction segment; transaction segment data items can be used to obtain and store segment group data structures, each about a type of transaction segment data items and which can also include standard-based abstraction artifacts. Abstraction operations on standard or proprietary format can automatically extract pre-integration information, such as usage attributes, useful in integration and for other purposes. Integration can be performed on transaction type attribute data, producing merged attribute data including mapping attributes, such as based on match results from associated fields of selected transaction types in different formats. Attribute data items being integrated can include pre-integration information and segment group data structures with standard-based abstraction artifacts. |
| US08346784B1 |
Java script reductor
A system can be provided for dynamically serving a content file. A content object request function can receive a request for a webpage defined by the content file, the content file including a plurality of embedded or referenced content objects, at least one of the plurality of content objects including a Javascript. A content-file modifier can modify the content file to include instructions to generate reports comprising information relating to invocation of stubs. A report receiver can receive reports from the end user system, and an object usage analyzer quantifes usage of each of the stubs. An object prioritizor can prioritize the plurality of content objects based on the analysis, the prioritization including an identification of at least one high-priority content object. An object injector can modify the content file such that the high-priority content object automatically loads upon rendering of the content file. |
| US08346779B2 |
Method and system for extended bitmap indexing
A system and method for enhancing bitmap indexing representation of a dataset, which comprises a plurality of cases and features, each case characterized by one or more values of each feature. Currently, the bins vector for each case in the dataset, is a binary array, which is a bitmap indexing representation of each respective feature of the case. The system and method enhance the bitmap indexing by padding each bins vector. The padding is carried out by identifying all target bit locations with a ‘1’ value and replacing at least one ‘0’ bit adjacent to a target bit location with a non-zero numerical value, thereby creating a padded bitmap index. The padding factor may be based on any mathematical or statistical factor concerning population or subpopulation relevant to each of the features of the dataset. |
| US08346778B2 |
Organizing portions of a cascading index on disk
Techniques for compressing branch nodes in an index are provided. The branch nodes may be part of a main index of a multi-level index that also includes one or more journal indexes. A Bloom filter may be generated and associated with, e.g., a branch node in the main index. The Bloom filter is used to determine whether, without accessing any leaf blocks, a particular key value exists, e.g., in leaf blocks associated with the branch node. |
| US08346768B2 |
Fast merge support for legacy documents
A method is presented for merging document metadata at a client computer. A document obtained from a server computer is opened by a user at the client computer. If the document does not include paragraph identifiers, a paragraph identifier is assigned to each paragraph in the document. When the document is opened by a second user at a second client computer, metadata for the document is received from the server computer. A determination is made whether to merge the metadata received from the server computer with current metadata for the document. When it is determined that the current metadata and the metadata received from the server computer should be merged, paragraph identifiers are adjusted in the document based on the metadata received from the server computer. |
| US08346767B2 |
Image search result summarization with informative priors
An informative priors image search result summarization system and method that summarizes image search results based on the image relevance (as determined by a search engine's initial ranking) and the image quality. Embodiments of the system and method cluster the image search results, rank images within each cluster based on a computed image score, and then select a summary image for the cluster. Each cluster is analyzed and an image in the cluster having the maximum image score is included in a selected summary collection. The image score is computed using the image relevance and the image quality, as well as a cluster coherence, a density, and a diversity. The selection of images from a collection of candidate images generates an image search result summarization, which is presented to a user. The summaries are presented to the user in a ranked order based on their image scores. |
| US08346762B2 |
Creation, management and delivery of map-based media items
Improved techniques to facilitate generation, management and delivery of personalized media items for users are disclosed. Users are able to influence or control content within a personalized media item. According to one aspect, personalized media items can pertain to generation and delivery of map-based media items. These media items are playable by a media playback device. For example, when a map-based media item is played by a media playback device, an audio output and/or a visual output can be provided. The audio output can be provided by digital audio, and the visual output can be provided by at least one digital image that is associated with at least a portion of the digital audio. |
| US08346758B2 |
Method and system for transmitting a query in a wireless network
A method of transmitting a query in a wireless network includes receiving a plurality of queries from a plurality of user equipments, aggregating the plurality of queries at a node of the network, the network including at least one of an access point of the network and an intermediate node of the network, and transmitting the aggregated plurality of queries to a query server. |
| US08346756B2 |
Calculating valence of expressions within documents for searching a document index
Tools and techniques related to calculating valence of expressions within documents. These tools may provide methods that include receiving input documents for processing, and extracting expressions from the documents for valence analysis, with scope relationships occurring between terms contained in the expressions. The methods may calculate calculating valences of the expressions, based on the scope relationships between terms in the expressions. |
| US08346738B2 |
Verification of data categorization
Verification and categorization of data in a system that interfaces with common knowledge repositories having different application programming interfaces. The system inputs a data tree structure with categories of information. The relationships in the data tree are queried against common knowledge repositories. A report of potentially erroneous categorizations in the data tree may be output for further review. |
| US08346736B2 |
Apparatus and method to deduplicate data
A method to deduplicate data by receiving a data set, setting a data chunk size, selecting a first stage deduplication algorithm, and selecting a second stage deduplication algorithm, where the first stage deduplication algorithm differs from the second stage deduplication algorithm. The method selects a data chunk, where that data chunk comprises all or a portion of the data set, performs a first stage deduplication analysis of the data chunk using the first stage deduplication algorithm. If the first stage deduplication analysis indicates duplicate data, then the method performs a second state deduplication analysis of said data chunk using the second stage deduplication algorithm to verify the data as duplicate. Only if both data deduplication analysis indicate duplicate data the data chunk is replaced by a deduplication stub or reference to the identical data chunk which is already stored. |
| US08346735B1 |
Controlling multi-step storage management operations
A method is used in controlling multi-step storage management operations. From a specification of a desired configuration of a data storage system, a description of a multi-step transaction for producing the desired configuration is derived. The description includes directions for reacting to results of an intermediate step within the multi-step transaction. Management operations are invoked based on the description. |
| US08346731B1 |
Techniques for global single instance indexing for backup data
Techniques for global single instance indexing for backup data are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for indexing backup data. The method may comprise generating a content hash for an item being backed up. The item may be associated with a resource name and the content hash may be used as an identifier in backup and indexing. The method may further comprise saving an entry for the item in an index database. The entry may comprise a resource list which may comprise the resource name and a reference count associated with the resource name. Moreover, the method may comprise setting a value for the reference count. |
| US08346730B2 |
Deduplication of data on disk devices based on a threshold number of sequential blocks
Deduplication of data on disk devices based on a threshold number (THN) of sequential blocks is described herein, the threshold number being two or greater. Deduplication may be performed when a series of THN or more received blocks (THN series) match a sequence of THN or more stored blocks (THN sequence), whereby a sequence comprises blocks stored on the same track of a disk device. Deduplication may be performed using a block-comparison mechanism comprising metadata entries of stored blocks and a mapping mechanism containing mappings of deduplicated blocks to their matching blocks. The mapping mechanism may be used to perform later read requests received for the deduplicated blocks. The deduplication described herein may reduce the read latency as the number of seeks between tracks may be reduced. Also, when a seek to a different track is performed, the seek time cost is spread over THN or more blocks. |
| US08346725B2 |
Evolution of XML schemas involving partial data copy
XML schema evolutions can be performed on an XML-type database using partial data copy techniques. The partial data copy techniques provide mechanisms to identify a minimal set of data in the database that needs be copied out in order for schema evolution operations to occur. Identifying the minimal set of data involves comparing an existing XML schema to a new XML schema and determining the differences between the two schemas. Based on those differences, a minimal set of data can be determined. That data can then be copied to a temporary storage location, while the XML schema and its associated database structure are updated to conform to the new XML schema. Then, the minimal set of data is copied back into the modified database structure. |
| US08346722B2 |
Replica placement strategy for distributed data persistence
Methods and systems are described that involve replica placement strategy for distributed systems. At the time of index creation, initial index replica placement is decided. The first index replica is placed locally on the current processing server node. This server node operates as a master host for the first replica. The other index replicas are placed on different hosts depending on the index type, split index or non-split index, and a set of criteria. For non-split indexes, the set of criteria includes: a number of recently created replicas per host, resource usage per host, and a total number of replicas per host. For split indexes, the set of criteria includes: a number of replicas of any split index part per host and a number of local first replicas of split index parts. If all criteria are equal, the first host in alphanumeric ordering receives a next replica. |
| US08346720B2 |
Information update system, information update method, and computer-readable medium
A system includes a first server apparatus storing information and a plurality of second server apparatuses being connected to the first server apparatus. Each of the plurality of second server apparatuses transmits an update request signal for request to update the information stored in the first server apparatus to the first server apparatus. The first server apparatus selects, when receiving the update request signal, an update scheme corresponding to the update request signal out of a plurality of update schemes. The first server apparatus updates information corresponding to the update request signal with the selected update scheme. |
| US08346711B2 |
Method for identifying multi-input multi-output Hammerstein models
The method for the identifying of multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) Hammerstein models that includes modeling of the linear dynamic part of a Hammerstein model with a state-space model, and modeling the nonlinear part of the Hammerstein model with a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN). |
| US08346710B2 |
Evaluating statistical significance of test statistics using placebo actions
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for evaluating statistical significance using placebo actions. One method includes receiving exposure data and control data describing exposed and control subjects and determining a test statistic for each of a plurality of subject actions including a desired action and a plurality of placebo actions. The test statistic for an action corresponds to an estimated effect that exposure to the treatment has on a likelihood that a subject will take the action. The method further includes comparing the test statistic for the desired action to the test statistics for the plurality of placebo actions, and determining whether the test statistic for the desired action is statistically significant according to the comparison. Another method includes automatically identifying placebo actions using a taxonomy that classifies subject actions or treatments, and determining test statistics for the placebo actions. |
| US08346707B2 |
Rule reasoner, and dynamic materialization method for wild pattern rules including the same
Rule reasoner includes: a Rete network builder for receiving ontology, including ontology instance represented by triple and ontology schema defining classes and properties of the triple, and reasoning rule, building Rete network corresponding to the ontology and the reasoning rule, selecting clue pattern corresponding to wild pattern rule with reference to the ontology schema when reasoning rule having wild pattern is received, rewriting the wild pattern rule with reference to the clue pattern, and adding test node, alpha memory node, and wild rule node so that the rewritten wild pattern rule is incorporated; a Rete network implementer for generating reasoned triple by implementing the Rete network built by the Rete network builder or generating reasoning rule where the wild pattern rule is dynamically materialized; and a Rete network expander expanding the Rete network by inputting the new reasoning rule, generated by the Rete network implementer, to the Rete network builder. |
| US08346706B2 |
Method and device for identifying traffic-relevant information
A device is arranged to carry out a method for identifying traffic-relevant information in a moving vehicle, wherein image data of a visual sensor and map data of a navigation system are each pre-evaluated for the identification and the results of the pre-evaluation are combined and interpreted. The image and map data is scanned for traffic-relevant information and compacted to relevant image and map data in a first and second scene interpretations, and the relevant image and map data is supplied to a rule engine and to a state machine for interpreting the image and map data. The rule engine evaluates the image and map data and transmits an action to be executed to the state machine which carries out a transition in its state space including pre-defined states and outputs information which is assigned to the state or to the transition. |
| US08346704B2 |
Controlled constraint sharing in parallel problem solvers
Controlled constraint sharing in parallel problem solvers is described. In embodiments, constraint sharing in a problem solver is controlled by comparing a total number of shared constraints obtained in a time interval to a target, and regulating the subsequent number of shared constraints obtained from other problem solvers accordingly. Embodiments describe how the regulation of the subsequent number of shared constraints can be achieved by controlling the size of constraints shared by other problem solvers. Embodiments describe how an additive increase/multiplicative decrease algorithm can be used to determine the size of constraints to be exchanged. Embodiments also describe how the utility of the shared constraints can be determined, and used to control the size of constraints shared by other problem solvers. In embodiments, the problem solver is a Boolean satisfiability problem solver. |
| US08346703B2 |
Systems and methods for analyzing communication options
Methods and systems for analyzing communication options, including determining one or more states of one or more communication-related conditions, and analyzing the one or more states and one or more communication options to determine an optimum communication option. |
| US08346700B2 |
Vehicle health monitoring reasoner architecture for diagnostics and prognostics
A health monitoring system for a vehicle system includes a plurality of managers and a decision support module. Each manager corresponds to a different sub-system of the vehicle system, and generates manager output pertaining to the sub-system based at least in part on an intermediate output. Each manager comprises a plurality of reasoners. Each reasoner corresponds to a different component of the sub-system, and comprises a plurality of modules and a reasoner fusion block. Each module obtains data regarding a different aspect of the component and generates a preliminary output based on the data. The reasoner fusion block is coupled to the plurality of modules, receives the preliminary output, and generates the intermediate output based on the preliminary output. The decision support module is coupled to the plurality of managers, receives the manager output therefrom, and provides a decision support output based on the manager output. |
| US08346697B2 |
Direct construction of finite state machines
A method and system for direct construction of a minimal deterministic finite state machine corresponding to a regular expression are provided. The method includes providing a regular expression represented as a regular expression tree with nodes of operators and leaves of elementary character transitions and traversing the regular expression tree recursively to build minimal finite state automata (FSAs) corresponding to the branches of the tree, wherein the FSAs end in a specified tail automaton. The operators are concatenation, alternation, and Kleene closure. A concatenation operation is performed by recursive construction in reverse order wherein each automaton built becomes the tail for the preceding argument of the operation. An alternation operation is performed by recursively building automata corresponding to the arguments of the operation with the same tail and merging them. A Kleene closure operation is performed by: building an automaton terminating in a unique marker; merging the automaton with the tail automaton to form a combined automaton; and traversing the combined automaton to expand the marker into transitions and states to achieve the intended behaviour. |
| US08346690B2 |
Method of generating an integrated fuzzy-based guidance law using Tabu search
The present invention relates to the generation of an integrated guidance law for aerodynamic missiles. Particularly, a Tabu search-based approach is utilized for generating an integrated fuzzy guidance law, which includes three separate fuzzy controllers. Each of these fuzzy controllers is activated in a unique region of missile interception. The method includes the following steps: establishing a missile guidance law ƒ(z), where z represents a vector containing fuzzy membership functions and guidance rules associated with the missile guidance law; and optimizing the missile launch guidance law ƒ(z) by minimizing the equation f ( z ) = w 1 t f + w 2 ∫ 0 t f a m 2 ⅆ t + w 3 r ( t f ) , where tƒ represents missile interception time, r represents a distance between the missile and a target, w1, w2 and w3 are weighting factors, and am represents a missile normal acceleration, and further |r(tƒ)| |
| US08346689B2 |
Recommendation system using rough-set and multiple features mining integrally and method thereof
The present invention solves problems of cold start, first rater, sparsity and scalability for recommendation. A recommendation system according to the present invention finds association rules through data mining. Then, the recommendation system integrates a rough-set algorithm and a statistical analysis prediction for recommendation. The recommendation is dynamically made from a result of the rough-set algorithm and a result of the statistical analysis prediction by setting a standard deviation as a threshold. |
| US08346686B2 |
Taxonomy-driven lumping for sequence mining
Methods and apparatus are described for modeling sequences of events with Markov models whose states correspond to nodes in a provided taxonomy. Each state represents the events in the subtree under the corresponding node. By lumping observed events into states that correspond to internal nodes in the taxonomy, more compact models are achieved that are easier to understand and visualize, at the expense of a decrease in the data likelihood. The decision for selecting the best model is taken on the basis of two competing goals: maximizing the data likelihood, while minimizing the model complexity (i.e., the number of states). |
| US08346681B2 |
System and method for decision support
Embodiments of the present invention use a construct referred to herein as a “choicebox” to support choice-making within a conceptual choicespace. The choicebox allows the identification of one or more options, one or more factors, and one or more perspectives for a particular choice. Each choice is associated with one or more categories. The options, factors, and perspectives are logically mapped to imagined x, y, and z axes and can be envisioned and graphically represented as a three-dimensional assessment matrix or box. Within the context of the present invention, choiceboxing is the activity of deliberating about a choice using such matrices. Choiceboxes are built and manipulated using software that renders their data into visual and interactive form. They serve as shareable places for collaborative deliberation. |
| US08346677B1 |
Method and system for conducting commerce over a wireless communication network
Described herein is an enabling product that facilitates implementation of an m-commerce business solution. According to an embodiment of the present invention an m-commerce solution includes: a content provider or merchant site that provides products and goods to be purchased; a payment system allowing online authorization of funds to purchase the goods; and a wireless network for all customer interactions. Embodiments described herein perform at least one of the following three functions: 1) protocol conversions; 2) customer information reposing, and 3) payment authorization system interfacing. |
| US08346676B1 |
Reporting shipping rates and delivery schedules for multiple services and multiple carriers
The present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods for displaying to each of a plurality of users upon each user's request a preview of shipping rates and delivery schedules for the particular user to ship a particular package, wherein each user accesses the computer system over a global communications network using a client computer device, and wherein each user has an individual electronic connection to the global communications network. The present invention compares shipping rates and delivery schedules for each service and each carrier for shipping a particular package and reports the carrier and service offering the lowest rate or the fastest delivery schedule, according to the user's option. |
| US08346674B2 |
Intelligent physical mail handling system
A system and method for handling unwanted physical mail pieces having a sorter and imager which intercepts one or more pieces of physical mail, which produces an electronic image of a front panel of each piece of mail, and which physically retains pieces of mail in temporary physical storage, and which cooperates with an optical recognizer to determine an intended recipient for each retained piece of mail, further cooperating with a server that notifies the intended recipients and receives a choice for disposition of the mail, and including a destruction which destroys said pieces of mail rejected by the intended recipient. |
| US08346667B2 |
Distributed secure anonymous conferencing
A communications manager of an enterprise receives an add-conference request to host a conference by the enterprise from an organizer client, wherein the conference to enable an anonymous user that does not have enterprise credentials to join the conference. The communications manager sends an add-conference response to the organizer client indicating that the conference is organized. |
| US08346664B1 |
Method and system for modifying financial transaction categorization lists based on input from multiple users
A system and method for modifying financial transaction categorization lists based on input from multiple users whereby, when a given user of a computing system implemented financial management system modifies their own list of possible categorizations for a given financial transaction, data indicating the given user's modification of the given user's own list of possible categorizations for a given financial transaction is obtained by the computing system implemented financial management system. The obtained data indicating the given user's modification of their own list of possible categorizations for a given financial transaction is then used by the computing system implemented financial management system to create and/or modify a shared list of possible categorizations for a given financial transaction. The shared list of possible categorizations for a given financial transaction is then made available to, and/or used by, a community of users of the computing system implemented financial management system. |
| US08346662B2 |
Desktop alert with interactive bona fide dispute initiation through chat session facilitated by desktop application
A consumer installs a desktop application on a computer which renders a user interface on the computer's desktop. Upon installation, the desktop application is registered to receive offers and alerts. Each alert includes data for a transaction on an account conducted with a merchant where the account was issued by an issuer to an account holder to conduct transactions on the account with merchants. A received alert is rendered on the desktop. If the consumer, upon review of the rendered alert, deems the corresponding transaction to be fraudulent, the consumer can operate the user interface to activate a live chat with a web service, and use the live chat to send information sufficient to initiate a bona fide dispute of the transaction. The offers are rendered on the user interface as advertisement and are selectable to initiate a transaction on the account. |
| US08346661B2 |
Aggregation of customer transaction data
Aggregating customer records to conduct due diligence to facilitate business transaction includes receiving a request to aggregate customer transaction records, wherein the customer transaction records are stored when a customer conducts a transaction with a selected one of a first company and a second company. A plurality of customer transaction records are determined from a first enterprise. The plurality of customer transaction records are aggregated from the first enterprise, wherein the plurality of customer transaction records comprises records associated with the first company and records associated with the second company. The aggregated customer transaction records are communicated in response to the request. |
| US08346659B1 |
Secure authentication and payment system
A transaction and payment and processing system securely conducts transactions over the public telephone network. The transactions may be between and among entities of any type such as individuals, merchants, utilities, banks, etc. Nothing more than access to a telephone is required after initial registration of a user. |
| US08346656B2 |
System and method for displaying market information and order placement in an electronic trading environment
A system and method are provided for displaying a trading screen and placing an order in an electronic trading environment. The system and method may be used to assist a trader in selecting an item of interest, such as the inside market (best bid and best ask) to be displayed relative to a user configured location on the trading screen, such as the center of the trading screen. In a preferred embodiment, the inside market will stay located relative to center of the trading screen and the price levels associated to the inside market will move as the market conditions fluctuate. Other features and advantages are described herein. |
| US08346655B2 |
System and method for providing a platform for the trade of financial instruments
The present invention is a system and method for providing a trading platform for the trade of F.I.s. According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided a server or server cluster including at least one Interfacing Server adapted to interface with a user, possibly via a distributed data network such as the interne. The IS1 may be adapted to present to a user a trading platform, to receive from a user trade instructions, via the platform, and execute them. The trading platform may include innovative trade options including mid-trade options (e.g. trade insurance), batch trade options, series trade options, parlay trade options and “close now”/“extend” options. |
| US08346649B2 |
Methods and computer software applications for selecting securities for an investment portfolio
Provided are methods and computer software applications for generating a stock portfolio, and/or enhanced stock index, through using a plurality of growth factors and a plurality of value factors to rank stocks, and for constructing investment vehicles based on the stock portfolio. The method, software application, or computer apparatus of the present technology employs a novel stock selection strategy to select stocks from a pre-selected universe of securities such as a commercially available stock market index in order to create a stock portfolio, and/or enhanced stock index, and a fund based thereon that can generate positive alpha as compared to a fund based on the pre-selected universe of securities. |
| US08346647B1 |
Systems and methods relating to bond liquidity
In one aspect, an embodiment comprises a computer system comprising: (a) a computer readable memory that stores price information for a plurality of bonds; and (b) a processor unit that calculates a liquidity cost score for one or more of said plurality of bonds; wherein said liquidity cost score calculation is based on data regarding quoted bid price and quoted ask price if a bond is a quoted bond, wherein said liquidity cost score calculation is based on a regression analysis if a bond is a non-quoted bond, and wherein said processor unit comprises one or more processors. |
| US08346642B2 |
Trading orders with decaying reserves
In various embodiments, an apparatus includes a processor and a memory. The memory is communicatively coupled to the processor. The memory stores software instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive a trading order for a particular quantity of a trading product. The trading order specifies that a first portion of the particular quantity is a displayed quantity and that a second portion of the particular quantity is a reserved quantity. The trading order specifies at least one of a decay rule, a decay interval, a decay rate, decay quantity, and one or more conditions. The software instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to cause the reserved quantity to decay based at least in part on at least one of the decay rule, the decay interval, the decay rate, and the decay quantity, and one or more conditions. |
| US08346640B1 |
Multi-account cash recycling
A currency handling device such as a currency recycler, depository machine or a dispensing machine may provide users with the ability to access multiple accounts from the same device. Accordingly, a user may make deposits to or withdrawals from multiple accounts from a single device. The multiple accounts may, for example, correspond to different departments in a business or organization, allowing employees from different departments to use the same currency device to process transaction (e.g., change orders, deposits, etc.). |
| US08346639B2 |
Authentication of a data card using a transit verification value
Transaction processing involves receiving data from an access transaction application of a portable consumer device, wherein the received data comprises data from an access transaction data string that includes a transit verification value wherein, with the exception of the transit verification value, the access transaction data string is substantially similar to a retail data string comprising retail data, wherein the access application data string is adapted for use with an access transaction processing system and the retail data string is adapted for use with a retail processing system. The transaction processing involves processing access transaction application data for selective authorization of the transaction. |
| US08346636B2 |
Processing system for acquiring and reporting compliance with data security requirements
Methods, systems, and machine-readable media are disclosed for tracking and reporting information related to compliance with a set of security requirements by one or more entities handling financial transaction information. According to one embodiment, a system can comprise one or more acquirer systems, each adapted to process information related to a plurality of financial transactions for entities involved in the transaction. A tracking and reporting system can be communicatively coupled with each of the acquirer systems. The tracking and reporting system can be adapted to collect at least a subset of the information related to the plurality of financial transactions, collect compliance information related to the entities involved in the transaction, the compliance information for each entity indicating that entity's compliance with the set of security requirements, and generate one or more reports based on the information related to the plurality of financial transactions and the compliance information. |
| US08346635B1 |
Methods systems and computer program products for identifying suspect data of an electronic tax return
Identifying suspect electronic tax data of an electronic tax return prepared using a tax preparation program. A first field of the tax return is populated with first tax data. The program selects statistical data for another type of tax data based upon the first tax data. A second field is populated with second tax data, which is compared with selected statistical data to determine whether the second tax data satisfies pre-determined criteria relative to the selected statistical data, e.g., whether the second tax data is within a pre-determined range or standard deviation of a mean or average of statistical data. If the second tax data does not satisfy the criteria, e.g., is outside of the range or standard deviation, the program issues an alert to notify the preparer of the specific location of the suspect data. The alert may be issued in real time while the tax return is being prepared. |
| US08346633B2 |
System and method for low level code calculation
A computer-implemented method for re-calculating low level codes for a plurality of bill of materials that receives a list of a plurality of materials connected by a first set of edges that represent a component subcomponent relationship and a second set of edges that represent a co-product relationship. The same low level code may be assigned to each material connected by the second set of edges, the assigning includes forming at least one equal group. Each equal group may include the number of nodes in the equal group, a list of nodes in the at least one equal group that have been processed, and the low level code for the equal group. The results of the low level code assignment may be displayed to allow the user to receive the materials in the equal group at the same time. |
| US08346632B2 |
Recall system and method for RFID medical item tracking system
A medical item recall system for medical items at one or more medical facilities at which the medical items are consumed and/or distributed to patients provides each of the medical items has stand-off readable tags, such as RFID tags. The system comprises medical facilities storage devices at the one or more medical facilities containing medical items, the medical items being identified via the stand-off readable tags and associated with individual medical facilities storage devices. The system further comprises an inventory management system that receives recall information for the medical items, receives content information concerning the medical items contained in each of the medical facilities storage devices, and issues reports for locations of medical items matching the recall information. |
| US08346629B2 |
Website, user interfaces, and applications facilitating improved media search capability
A method for improving media search capability includes providing a user with access to an interface that allows the user to provide one or more inputs relating to an item of media (such as an audio or video recording of a song or a cover song), performing a media search in response to the one or more inputs, and presenting search results via an interactive display generated depending upon media ratings, wherein one or more of the media ratings is determined from media ratings inputs depending upon one or more metrics associated with sources or providers of the media ratings inputs. |
| US08346622B2 |
Connection system
Various embodiments include systems and methods for providing communication among a plurality of users with complementary requirements in an electronic network. |
| US08346616B2 |
System and method for fuel price-protection
A fuel-price protection mechanism whereby customers may pre-purchase quantity-based amounts of fuel and retrieve said fuel at any participating fuel retailer. The quantity-based amounts of fuel are represented in the customers account as a quantity-based fuel credit. The fuel credits may be redeemed at a participating fuel retailer to obtain fuel. The fuel credits are associated with a customer's home geographical region or a customer's selected price class. A conversion mechanism will allow the customer to redeem fuel credits in a different geographical region or price class. Redemption within the home region or the customer selected price class can occur without conversion. |
| US08346615B2 |
Financial gadgets
Methods, computer program products, and systems, related to providing financial gadgets to users. In one implementation, a method includes receiving gadgets and receiving a notification that one or more gadgets has been certified. A web page with an interface through which users can select gadgets is generated and provided to a user computer. A user selects a gadget, and the selected gadget is run, including providing the user-specific financial information to the gadget. Content based on the output of the gadget is provided to the user. User-specific financial information can be collected, and modified by the gadget. A notification can be received that a financial institution has authorized one or more of the certified gadgets and the web page can only allow users to select authorized gadgets. |
| US08346611B2 |
Systems and methods for pre-paid futures procurement
A transaction processor can receive transaction information from a transaction between a customer and a merchant. The transaction information includes an account identifier associated with a financial account of the customer. The processor determines that the account identifier is associated with a fixed price futures contract. The transaction is completed at the current market price. Thereinafter, the processor can determine if the fixed price is lower than the current market price. If the fixed price is lower than the current market price, the process determines the difference in cost for the transaction if the fixed price were used. Then, the processor can create and send a resettlement transaction to the customer's account to reimburse the customer for the difference. As such, the customer receives a simple method for paying for commodities at a set price without having special payment instruments or special accounts. |
| US08346604B2 |
Facilitating bidding on images
Techniques are described for facilitating bidding on images. The techniques may include receiving bids includes presenting a first image and a bid associated with the first image. The first image is similar to a second image for which a bid is to be submitted for presenting sponsored content based on the second image. A bid is received for presenting a sponsored-content item based on the second image. The received bid is stored in association with second image and a sponsored-content item based to be presented based on the bid and the second image. |
| US08346602B2 |
Method of providing and tracking embedded e-mail advertising
A business model and method for providing and tracking embedded e-mail advertising, where the e-mail sender is compensated in an amount based on the volume of e-mail transmitted which contains embedded advertising. |
| US08346601B2 |
System and method for managing promotional savings using a communications platform
A system and method for processing promotional savings using existing communications platforms. A plurality of promotional codes are assigned and stored in a promotions database. These promotional codes are positioned by marketers on products, packaging, or the like, along with instructions informing consumers to transmit the promotional code to a predefined destination address, such as a phone number, a short code text number, or an email address. After a message containing the promotional code is received from the consumer, the received code is parsed from the message, validated, and a promotional savings value associated with the code is identified. That amount is communicated to an operator of at least one account associated the consumer, and applied as a savings to the operator's billing statement. |
| US08346597B2 |
Customer-level macro business performance monitoring
Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products for client/customer-centric macro (e.g., business-wide) monitoring of business performance and determination of business-wide customer impact trends associated with the client's/customer's composite relationship with the business. Additionally, embodiments provide for determining customer impact trends at other levels of the business relationship, such as at business unit/line of business levels, product/service levels and the like. Based on the determined customer impact trends, further determinations may be made regarding whether alerts are warranted based on the trends, and generating and communicating the alerts if warranted. Determining business-wide customer impact trends provides for the business to identify problems or potential problems that may adversely impact the global relationship between the overall client entity and the business implementing the performance monitoring system. |
| US08346594B2 |
Comprehensive information market exchange
Systems and techniques for collecting information as authorized by information providers and sharing the information with information recipients according to criteria specified by the information providers. Information is collected from one or more of a variety of sources and stored in a provider profile, with the provider profile also specifying criteria for sharing the information, including payment required for sharing the information with particular categories of recipients. An exchange system is maintained allowing recipients to request or to otherwise specify needs for particular categories of information and payments to be provided by the information, and needs or requests of recipients for information are matched with criteria specified by providers, with information being transferred or used to provide results for a recipient and payment being transferred from the recipient to a provider or providers when a match between information needs and criteria for sharing information is identified. |
| US08346593B2 |
System, method, and software for prediction of attitudinal and message responsiveness
The present invention provides a system, method, software and data structure for independently predicting attitudinal and message responsiveness, using a plurality of attitudinal or other identification classifications and a plurality of message content or version classifications, for a selected population of a plurality of entities, such as individuals or households, represented in a data repository. The plurality of predictive attitudinal (or identification) classifications and plurality of predictive message content (ore version) classifications have been determined using a plurality of predictive models developed from a sample population and applied to a reference population represented in the data repository, such as attitudinal, behavioral, or demographic models. For each predictive attitudinal (or identification) classification, at least one predominant predictive message content or version classification is independently determined. The exemplary embodiments also provide, for each predictive attitudinal classification, corresponding information concerning predominant communication media (or channel) types, predominant communication timing, predominant communication frequency, and predominant communication sequencing. |
| US08346592B2 |
Method and system for determining a threat against a border
A method for determining a threat against a border from objects crossing or trying to cross said border. Said method includes at least the steps of segmenting the border into border elements of uniform terrain features, infrastructure and weather conditions, collecting data of incidents occurring along a given border element, determining a threat potential for said border element, determining a protection factor for the border element, and determining a threat against the border element from the threat potential and protection factor. The method may be used for warning about an increased threat to a border, wherein the threat is compared with a threat value threshold. If the threat exceeds the threat value threshold, an alarm is issued. The method may also be used for allocating protective measures along a border. |
| US08346589B1 |
Just-in-time conference room scheduling
A method and a system for just-in-time scheduling of conference rooms based on a plurality of conference room scheduling requests, and then transmitting information concerning conference room assignments is described. One aspect of the invention involves a computer-implemented method. The method includes scheduling conference rooms just-in-time, in response to a predefined triggering event. The method includes retrieving stored conference room scheduling information corresponding to a respective conference room scheduling request. A combination of conference room assignments is selected for a plurality of conference room scheduling requests, in accordance with conference room assignment fitness scores for each of a plurality of potential combinations of conference room assignments. Conference rooms are assigned to respective requests in accordance with the selected combination. Information concerning the conference room assignment for the respective conference room scheduling request is transmitted to the requester or an invitee of the respective meeting. |
| US08346579B1 |
Systems and methods for supporting extended pay date options on an insurance policy
A recurring automatic payment date may be set for an insurance policy premium based on customer preference. A server may receive a customer-specified day of a month and/or a request for bimonthly withdrawals, such as may be entered via a user interface on an insurance company webpage. The customer specified day(s) may be analyzed against data associated with the insurance policies to determine whether the day is disallowed. The day may be disallowed, for example, because it would result in falling behind an earned premium curve and thereby require a double bill or short bill to stay ahead of the earned premium curve. |
| US08346570B2 |
Method for improving the consistency of processing pharmacy data
A method for consistent processing of pharmacy data. An order for a prescription is transmitted from a healthcare facility to a pharmacy. The pharmacy transmits a claim relating to the order from the pharmacy to a processing center. The processing center reviews the claim according to predetermined claim criteria and either accepts the claim if it conforms to the claim criteria or rejects the claim if it does not conform to the claim criteria. The processing center transmits one of an approval notification and a rejection notification to the pharmacy. For rejected claims, the processing center transmits at least one basis for the rejection to the pharmacy. The pharmacy corrects the non-conforming portion of the claim, then transmits the corrected claim to the processing center. The claim review and approval or rejection steps are then repeated until the claim conforms to the predetermined claim criteria. |
| US08346567B2 |
Efficient and secure forensic marking in compressed domain
Methods, devices, and computer program products enable the embedding of forensic marks in a host content that is in compressed domain. These and other features are achieved by preprocessing of a host content to provide a plurality of host content versions with different embedded watermarks that are subsequently compressed. A host content may then be efficiently marked with forensic marks in response to a request for such content. The marking process is conducted in compressed domain, thus reducing the computational burden of decompressing and re-compressing the content, and avoiding further perceptual degradation of the host content. In addition, methods, devices and computer program products are disclosed that obstruct differential analysis of such forensically marked content. |
| US08346566B2 |
Method for reduction of aliasing introduced by spectral envelope adjustment in real-valued filterbanks
The present invention proposes a new method for improving the performance of a real-valued filterbank based spectral envelope adjuster. By adaptively locking the gain values for adjacent channels dependent on the sign of the channels, as defined in the application, reduced aliasing is achieved. Furthermore, the grouping of the channels during gain-calculation, gives an improved energy estimate of the real valued subband signals in the filterbank. |
| US08346562B2 |
Method and apparatus for voice controlled operation of a media player
A system and methods for voice controlled operation of a media player are provided. In one embodiment, a method includes detecting user positioning of a microphone power switch to an off position, detecting user positioning of the microphone power switch to an on position within a predetermined period of time and entering a voice recognition mode, by the media player, based on the user positioning of the microphone power switch to the on position within the predetermined period of time. The method may further include detecting one or more output signals of the microphone, detecting a voice command based on the one or more output signals of the microphone, and controlling operation of the media player based on the voice command, wherein the media player outputs a graphical display associated with the voice command. |
| US08346560B2 |
Dialog design apparatus and method
A state oriented dialog design apparatus and method facilitates creation of natural language dialogs and provides data structures for voice user interfaces. The dialog design apparatus may include inputting means for receiving a user's prompt; response generating means for the user to generating at least one response; dialog structure generating means for structurally managing the user's input and response; and output means for outputting and displaying at least one dialog structure. A state used in the dialog design apparatus and method may include at least one system prompt and at least one response, and a linking unit may link a first state to a second state related to the first state, link the second state to a third state, and so on until certain system actions are achieved. A loop detecting unit in the dialog design apparatus and method detects and identifies loops in the dialog structure. |
| US08346559B2 |
Detection of conditions from sound
Disclosed are various systems, methods, and programs embodied in a computer-readable medium for sound analysis. The sound analysis involves transforming a sound print into a frequency domain in a memory to generate a frequency spectrum. A plurality of signatures are identified in the frequency spectrum. Also, a plurality of frequency ranges associated with the signatures are identified in the sound print. The frequencies associated with a physiological profile are cross-referenced with the frequency ranges to determine if the physiological profile is applicable to the sound print. |
| US08346555B2 |
Automatic grammar tuning using statistical language model generation
The present invention discloses a speech processing solution that utilizes an original speech recognition grammar in a speech recognition system to perform speech recognition operations for multiple recognition instances. Instance data associated with the recognition operations can be stored. A replacement grammar can be automatically generated from the stored instance data, where the replacement grammar is a statistical language model grammar. The original speech recognition grammar, which can be a grammar-based language model grammar or a statistical language model grammar, can be selectively replaced with the replacement grammar. For example when tested performance for the replacement grammar is better than that for the original grammar, the replacement grammar can replace the original grammar. |
| US08346550B2 |
System and method for processing speech recognition
An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system and method is provided for controlling the recognition of speech utterances generated by an end user operating a communications device. The ASR system and method can be used with a mobile device that is used in a communications network. The ASR system can be used for ASR of speech utterances input into a mobile device, to perform compensating techniques using at least one characteristic and for updating an ASR speech recognizer associated with the ASR system by determined and using a background noise value and a distortion value that is based on the features of the mobile device. The ASR system can be used to augment a limited data input capability of a mobile device, for example, caused by limited input devices physically located on the mobile device. |
| US08346548B2 |
Aural similarity measuring system for text
The aural similarity measuring system and method provides a measure of the aural similarity between a target text (10) and one or more reference texts (11). Both the target text (10) and the reference texts (11) are converted into a string of phonemes (15) and then one or other of the phoneme strings are adjusted (16) so that both are equal in length. The phoneme strings are compared (12) and a score generated representative of the degree of similarity of the two phoneme strings. Finally, where there is a plurality of reference texts the similarity scores for each of the reference texts are ranked (13). With this aural similarity measuring system the analysis is automated thereby reducing risks of errors and omissions. Moreover, the system provides an objective measure of aural similarity enabling consistency of comparison in results and reproducibility of results. |
| US08346547B1 |
Encoder quantization architecture for advanced audio coding
An advanced audio coding (AAC) encoder quantization architecture is described. The architecture includes an efficient, low computation complexity approach for estimating scalefactors in which a base scalefactor estimate is adjusted by a delta scalefactor estimate that is based, in part, on global scalefactor adjustments applied to the previously quantized/encoded frame. Using such feedback, the AAC encoder quantization architecture is able to produce scalefactor estimates that are very close to the actual scalefactor applied by the subsequent quantization and encoding process. The architecture further includes a frequency hole avoidance approach that reduces a magnitude of an estimated scalefactor to avoid generating frequency holes in quantized SFBs. The efficient, low computation complexity scalefactor estimation approach combined with the frequency hole avoidance approach allows the described AAC encoder quantization architecture to achieve high audio fidelity, with reduced noise levels, while reducing processing cycles and power consumption by approximately 40%. |
| US08346545B2 |
Model-based distortion compensating noise reduction apparatus and method for speech recognition
A model-based distortion compensating noise reduction apparatus for speech recognition, includes: a speech absence probability calculator for calculating the probability distribution for absence and existence of a speech using the sound absence and existence information for the frames; a noise estimation updater for estimating a more accurate noise component by updating the variance of the clean speech and noise for each frame; and a speech absence probability-based noise filter for outputting a first clean speech through the speech absence probability transmitted from the speech absence probability calculator and a first noise filter. Further, the model-based distortion compensating noise reduction apparatus includes a post probability calculator for calculating post probabilities for mixtures using a GMM containing a clean speech in the first clean speech; and a final filter designer for forming a second noise filter and outputting an improved final clean speech signal using the second noise filter. |
| US08346542B2 |
Apparatus and method for widening audio signal band
An audio signal band expanding apparatus (100a) includes a harmonic generator (3) that receives an input audio signal having a predetermined band and generates, based on the input audio signal, harmonic signals, and an adder (2) that adds the harmonic signals generated by the harmonic generator (3) to the input audio signal. The harmonic generator (3) simulates the input-output characteristics of a predetermined amplifier or that of a device to generate the harmonic signals from the input audio signal. |
| US08346539B2 |
System and method for indexing voice mail messages by speaker
The invention provides a system and method for indexing and organizing voice mail message by the speaker of the message. One or more speaker models are created from voice mail messages received. As additional messages are left, each of the new messages are compared with existing speaker models to determine the identity of the callers of each of the new messages. The voice mail messages are organized within a user's mailbox by caller. Unknown callers may be identified and tagged by the user and then used to create new speaker models and/or update existing speaker models. |
| US08346537B2 |
Input apparatus, input method and input program
An input apparatus which presents examples suitable to users, including an example storage module to store a plurality of example expressions; an edit storage module to store edits when a user edits the plurality of example expressions; a presentation example determining module to determine one or more presentation examples to be presented to the user from the plurality of example expressions stored in the example storage module; an edit adapting module to edit the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module based on the edits stored in the edit storage module; a display control module to present the presentation examples determined by the presentation example determining module to the user; and an entry accepting module to accept one of the presentation examples as a selected example when one of the presentation examples is selected by the user, or to receive edits from the user to one of the presentation examples and accept the edited presentation example as the selected example. |
| US08346535B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program product for identifying a language used in a document and for translating a property of the document into the document language
An information processing apparatus includes a registration unit for registering a property of document data, a document language identification unit for identifying a language used in the document data, a property language identification unit for identifying a language used in a property value entered with respect to the document data, and a translation unit for translating the property value entered with respect to the document data from the language used in the property value into the language used in the document data when the language used in the property value is different from the language used in the document data. |
| US08346532B2 |
Managing the creation, detection, and maintenance of sensitive information
A method, information processing system, and computer program storage product for managing information within an electronic file are provided. A plurality of information sets within an electronic file is analyzed. At least one of the information sets is compared to at least one statistical classification model. The statistical classification model includes one or more probabilities associated with a plurality of analyzed information sets that indicate a likelihood that a respective analyzed information set is classified sensitive information. The at least one information set is determined to substantially match at least one analyzed information set in the statistical classification model. The probability associated with the at least one analyzed information set is determined whether to be above a threshold. The at least one information set is classified as sensitive information in response to determining that the probability is above the threshold. |
| US08346530B2 |
Logic design modeling and interconnection
A dynamic reconfigurable interconnect network architecture in a logic simulation system that interconnects a plurality of simulation engines together, providing a high degree of interconnectivity in an efficient manner. The logic simulation system may create and manage linkable sub-programs for execution by a simulation engine. The logic simulation system may schedule various tasks in a design to be simulated, including horizontal and vertical partitioning of the design and determination of an order in which events such as clock edges and asynchronous signals are to be implemented by a logic simulation system. |
| US08346526B1 |
Test environment for accumulating cumulative metric data
Generating cumulative metric data for a test in a test environment includes: generating in the test environment a test for a simulation model of a system under test; generating in the test environment at least one test condition for the test, the at least one test condition determining a plurality of iterations of the simulation model; generating in the test environment at least one temporary test variable for the test; generating in the test environment at least one mapping between a metric setting for the simulation model and one of the temporary test variables; running in the test environment the test for the plurality of iterations, wherein metric data for the simulation model is generated for each mapping and for each iteration of the test; and accumulating in the test environment the generated metric data for each mapping and for each iteration of the test to obtain cumulative metric data for the simulation model. |
| US08346525B2 |
Methods of modeling physical properties of chemical mixtures and articles of use
Included are methods for modeling at least one physical property of a mixture of at least two chemical species. One or more chemical species of the mixture are approximated or represented by at least one conceptual segment. The conceptual segments are then used to compute at least one physical property of the mixture. An analysis of the computed physical properties forms a model of at least one physical property of the mixture. Also included are computer program products and computer systems for implementing the modeling methods. |
| US08346524B2 |
Interactive, internet supported health and fitness management system
A wellness system monitors the controlled progress of patients under surveillance and includes a server base station which is generally off-site, a web-site interface and a local station at the point-of-use, which is generally a health or fitness center. A unique data base is created for each user and goals and objectives may be set with progress monitored. Typically, the user will respond to a surveyor questionnaire to populate his specific database. This is combined with a professional assessment and an automated measurement of vital statistics such as weight, blood pressure and body composition as measured at the local station. Other data may be entered manually such as height, age and the like. In a more comprehensive system the invention is designed to monitor other data such as cholesterol and blood glucose, as well. The locally input data may be updated at will by the user or on behalf of the user by professional personnel. |
| US08346520B2 |
Systems and methods for dynamic process model configuration based on process execution context
Methods and systems to dynamically configure a process model based on process execution context are described. In one example embodiment, a system to dynamically configure a process model can include a context engine, a rules engine, and a business process engine. The context engine can maintain context information related to an executable business process model. The context information is dynamically extensible during execution of the executable business process model. The rules engine can obtain a relevant context form the context information. The relevant context can be associated with a step and a rule to control the step within the executable business process model. The business process engine can execute the executable business process model and can dynamically configure the executable business process model during execution based on application of the relevant context by the rules engine. |
| US08346518B2 |
Method for modeling biomechanical properties of an eye
Systems and methods are provided for predicting the results of a therapeutic intervention to an eye. An imaging system is configured to provide image data representing at least a portion of the eye of the patient. An input device is configured to permit a user to design a proposed therapeutic intervention for the eye of the patient. A finite element modeling component is configured to generate a finite element model representing the condition of the eye of the patient after the proposed therapeutic intervention according to the image data, the proposed therapeutic intervention, and at least one biomechanical property of tissue comprising the eye. The generated model is constructed as to have no a priori restraints on the motion of the corneal limbus. A display is configured to display the generated model to the user. |
| US08346514B2 |
Method and system for determining the number of wedges for a slot in a dynamoelectric machine
A method and system is provided for calculating a number of wedges for a slot in a dynamoelectric machine. The method includes the steps of providing a computer that is programmed to perform a method for calculating, which includes the steps of acquiring a length of the slot, acquiring a length of one or more wedges, and calculating a number of wedges required for the slot. The number of wedges required for the slot is displayed on a display device. |
| US08346513B2 |
Three-dimensional data generation device, method and program thereof
In three-dimensional data generation unit 120, data edition unit 122, generates a spreadsheet data that includes information relating to a plurality of node points on a continuous arrangement route of target components by interactive process with a user, and stores the data in storage unit 130. Three-dimensional data conversion unit 123, on the basis of spreadsheet data, arranges the node points in a three-dimensional space, connects node points having a predetermined relationship using line segments, and imparts cross-sectional shapes to the connected line segments, to carry out thereby conversion into target component arrangement three-dimensional data. Three-dimensional data management unit 124 stores the obtained target component arrangement three-dimensional data in storage unit 130, in a format readable by three-dimensional CAD or three-dimensional review system, and outputs the data in response to an output instruction from interface unit 110. |
| US08346511B2 |
Analysis system and method for analyzing continuous queries for data streams
Certain example embodiments concern an analysis system for analyzing at least one continuous query for at least one input data stream. The at least one input data stream includes a sequence of events captured by at least one sensor. The debugging system includes an analyzer for executing the at least one continuous query and at least one modified continuous query on the at least one input data stream, for comparing at least one output data stream produced by the at least one continuous query with at least one second output data stream produced by the at least one modified continuous query, and for indicating at least one difference between the at least one output data stream and the at least one second output data stream. The analyzer synchronizes the execution of the at least one continuous query and the at least one modified continuous query. |
| US08346509B2 |
Context switch sampling
A method for performance monitoring in a computing system is described. In some embodiments, an addressable memory stores data and instructions for performing context switch sampling. A processor includes hardware event counters, and is coupled with the addressable memory to access said instructions and in response to said instructions, the processor counts occurrences of a first hardware event in a first hardware event counter and counts occurrences of a second hardware event in a second hardware event counter. After a specified number of occurrences of the first hardware event have been counted, the second hardware event counter is sampled and hardware event counters are reset. In some embodiments the processor counts occurrences of segment register load events in the first hardware event counter and then records the sampled second hardware event counter value with a process identifier value and/or a thread identifier value. |
| US08346507B2 |
System and method for detecting fluid delivery system conditions based on motor parameters
Systems and methods for detecting various system conditions in a fluid delivery system (such as an HVAC system) based on a motor parameter are disclosed. Embodiments of the present invention relate to detecting: filter condition, frozen coil condition, register condition, energy efficiency, system failure, or any combination thereof. Embodiments of the present invention relate to detecting fluid delivery system conditions based on motor parameters including system current, system power, system efficiency, motor current, motor power, motor efficiency, and/or a change (or rate of change) in motor parameters. Techniques for responding to a clogged filter and a frozen coil are also disclosed. Also disclosed are techniques for characterizing a fluid delivery system off-site, prior to system installation. |
| US08346506B2 |
Transforming metrology data from a semiconductor treatment system using multivariate analysis
Metrology data from a semiconductor treatment system is transformed using multivariate analysis. In particular, a set of metrology data measured or simulated for one or more substrates treated using the treatment system is obtained. One or more essential variables for the obtained set of metrology data is determined using multivariate analysis. A first metrology data measured or simulated for one or more substrates treated using the treatment system is obtained. The first obtained metrology data is not one of the metrology data in the set of metrology data earlier obtained. The first metrology data is transformed into a second metrology data using the one or more of the determined essential variables. |
| US08346504B2 |
Sensor and method for the detection of local displacements and rotations
Sensor (3) and method for the detection of the movement of an encoder to be monitored with at least two sensor elements (6, 7), which are arranged in a way offset relative to each other in the direction of movement of the encoder, and with a processing circuit (10, 14, 15), which converts the element output signals (S1, S2) at the outlets of the sensor element (6, 7) to a sensor output signal (S5) that describes the movement of the encoder, with the processing circuit (10, 14, 15) including a test circuit (14), which monitors the element output signals (S1, S2) at least indirectly and disables or corrects the sensor output signal (S5) when errors of the element output signals (6, 7) are detected. |
| US08346502B2 |
Determination and wireless communication of sensed vehicle data for computing vehicle speed
The present invention is a system for determining vehicle speed. The system has a sensor mounted on a wheel rotatably mounted on the vehicle for sensing centripetal acceleration of said wheel. The sensor generates a signal indicative of the sensed centripetal acceleration, and is arranged to wirelessly transmit the signal. The system additionally has an electronic control unit mounted on the vehicle. The electronic control unit is arranged to receive the signal and determine the speed of the vehicle based on the sensed centripetal acceleration. |
| US08346500B2 |
Self check-type flame detector
A self check-type flame detector includes a casing provided with a monitoring window formed therein. A wavelength generation unit is disposed inside the casing and generates a wavelength in a direction of the monitoring window. A wavelength detection element is disposed inside the casing and detects the wavelength. A comparison unit is provided with a wavelength DB for storing intensity of a reference wavelength and determines whether the monitoring window has been contaminated. A display unit is located outside the casing and displays a state of the monitoring window. A communication unit is disposed inside the casing and configured to receive operation information for the wavelength generation unit, to provide the operation information to the wavelength generation unit, and to transmit the intensity of the wavelength, or a normal signal or a contamination signal of the monitoring window. |
| US08346498B2 |
Programmable device testing
According to some embodiments, characterization data can be loaded onto a programmable device. The characterization data can be configured to cause the programmable device to perform one or more functions if executed on the programmable device. It can then be determined whether or not loading the characterization data onto the programmable device caused the programmable device to be successfully programmed. An indication can be transmitted for receipt by an external device, the indication indicating whether or not the programmable device was successfully programmed. |
| US08346497B2 |
Method for testing semiconductor film, semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
The invention provides a method for testing a semiconductor film, a manufacturing method of a semiconductor film, a laser crystallization method, a laser crystallization device, and a laser crystallization system, for testing a laser crystallized semiconductor film, which require less time, have sufficient reliability, are excellent in cost management and applicable to mass production. In the method for testing a semiconductor film having an improved crystallinity by irradiating an energy light, the tested semiconductor film is photographed in a dark field digital image and then the luminance of the digital image is calculated by a computer in a constant direction for testing. |
| US08346493B2 |
Method for deploying climate sensor in indoor space and storage medium for storing thereof
A method for deploying at least one climate sensor in an indoor space includes: several candidate deploy points in the indoor space are obtained. Climate properties at the candidate deploy points are obtained. Deploy-point-number limit is obtained. Available deploy point sets, which conform to the deploy-point-number limit, are generated according to the candidate deploy points. Climate-property differences of the available deploy point sets are calculated according to the climate properties at the candidate deploy points. The climate-property differences of the available deploy point sets are differences between the climate properties at the available deploy point sets and those at the candidate deploy points. A target deploy point set, climate-property difference of which is the least among those of the available deploy point sets, is selected from the available deploy point sets. At least one first climate sensor is deployed at the target deploy point of the target deploy point set. |
| US08346490B2 |
Sensor-equipped bearing for wheel
There is provided a sensor equipped wheel support bearing assembly including an outer member having an inner periphery formed with a plurality of rolling surfaces defined therein, an inner member having an outer periphery formed with rolling surfaces opposed to those rolling surfaces and a plurality of rows of rolling elements interposed between those rolling surfaces. One of the outer and inner members serving as a stationary member is provided with a strain amplifying mechanism for amplifying a strain in the stationary member, which occurs when the rolling elements pass by. A strain sensor element is provided for detecting the strain amplified by the strain amplifying mechanism. A calculator is provided for calculating from an output of the strain sensor element, the load acting on the bearing assembly or the load acting between the vehicle wheel and the road surface. |
| US08346482B2 |
Integrated biosensor and simulation system for diagnosis and therapy
BioMEMS/NEMS appliance biologically monitors an individual, using biosensors to detect cellular components. Data is simulated or analyzed using systems-biology software, which provides diagnostic or therapeutic guidance. |
| US08346477B2 |
Method of contextually displaying points of interest on a personal navigation device according to travel purpose
A method of contextually displaying points of interest (POIs) on a personal navigation device according to a user's travel purpose includes storing a plurality of POIs into a memory of the personal navigation device, the POIs having corresponding POI category labels, entering a destination location into the personal navigation device and providing navigational instructions for a trip to the destination location, associating a travel category with the trip to the destination location, and displaying POIs whose corresponding POI category labels are included in the travel category associated with the trip to the destination location. |
| US08346476B2 |
Vehicle running control system
A vehicle running control system includes: a speed pattern creating unit that creates a speed pattern according to a target traveling path, a running control unit that controls running of the vehicle based on the speed pattern, a first speed condition correcting unit that correct speed conditions in a direction from a start position of the running control toward an end position of the running control on the target traveling path, and a second speed condition correcting unit that correct speed conditions in a direction from the end position of the running control toward the start position of the running control on the target traveling path. |
| US08346475B2 |
Integrated positioning apparatus and implementation method thereof
An integrated positioning apparatus includes a processing module, a satellite positioning module, an inertial positioning module, a transmission interface and a switching module. The processing module is utilized for executing a navigation program. The satellite positioning module functions to provide satellite positioning information. The inertial positioning module is used for generating inertial positioning information. The switching module is connected between the processing module and the transmission interface for receiving a control signal furnished by the processing module and is selectively switched to a first status or a second status based on the control signal. While in the first status, the switching module drives the transmission interface to connect to the satellite positioning module so as to transmit the satellite positioning information to the processing module for navigating. While in the second status, the switching module drives the transmission interface to connect to the inertial positioning module so as to transmit the inertial positioning information to the processing module for navigating. |
| US08346472B2 |
System and method for navigating a facility
Systems and methods are described for enabling the monitoring and navigation of a complex of known rooms or facilities having known objects, attributes and/or people associated therewith, wherein different locations of the objects, attributes and/or people within the facilities are related and accessible over known, well-defined alternate paths. Sensor information may be used to facilitate the monitoring and navigation of the facility. At least some systems and methods may be used to enable the navigation of a building or a set of buildings by displaying an interactive graphical map of the building on a display device carried by a user. |
| US08346466B2 |
Systems and methods for determining heading
Systems and methods for determining heading of a traveling vehicle are provided. The systems and methods employ an image system to capture and match multiple distinctive features of an image area at a first and second point in time and to determine unit-vectors associated with the multiple distinctive features. A global positioning system (GPS) provides a translation vector for the first and second point and time and a coupled processor employs the unit-vectors and the translation vector to provide a corrected heading. |
| US08346463B2 |
Driving aid system and method of creating a model of surroundings of a vehicle
In at least one embodiment of the present invention a driving aid system for mounting in a road vehicle is provided. The driving aid system comprises a detection system for detecting and storing profiles of characteristics of objects around the vehicle along a road on which the vehicle is being driven. A positioning system is for providing a current position of the vehicle. Profiles of characteristics of objects are stored in relation to the detected position of the vehicle. A processing arrangement compares currently detected profiles with earlier stored profiles and, if a match between a currently detected profile and an earlier stored profile is found, then the current position of the vehicle is determined relative to an object corresponding to the earlier stored profile, and the same or other earlier stored profiles is used to predict the future surroundings of the vehicle. |
| US08346462B2 |
Malfunction detection apparatus and malfunction detection method for an EGR system
A determination is made more simply as to a malfunction of a low pressure EGR device that supplies an EGR gas from a low pressure EGR passage connecting between an exhaust passage at a location downstream of a turbine and an intake passage. Provision is made for a high pressure EGR device that connects between the exhaust passage at a location upstream of the turbine and the intake passage, the low pressure EGR device that connects between the exhaust passage at a location downstream of the turbine and the intake passage, and a detection unit that detects a malfunction of the low pressure EGR device from the degree of opening of a high pressure EGR valve at the time when the EGR gas is supplied from both the high pressure EGR device and the low pressure EGR device, and at the time when the high pressure EGR valve of the high pressure EGR device is controlled in a feedback manner so as to direct an amount of EGR gas in a cylinder toward a target range of the amount of EGR gas, while carrying out open loop control of a low pressure EGR valve of the low pressure EGR device. |
| US08346461B2 |
Method for controlling a start-up of an internal combustion engine
Method for controlling a start-up of an internal combustion engine, an actuation of the internal combustion engine being begun and maintained by an electric machine in order to set the internal combustion engine into independent motion, thereby characterized, in that the actuation of the internal combustion engine is concluded before an initial combustion in the internal combustion engine takes place. |
| US08346460B2 |
Active vibration isolating support apparatus and method for controlling the same
When a revolution speed of the engine (crankshaft) changes faster or slower, the vibration from the engine is propagated to an occupant in the vehicle, and the occupant may feel a sense of discomfort. For this reason, the present invention provides an active vibration isolating support apparatus and method for controlling the same to suppress the propagation of the vibration from the engine to the vehicle body so that the occupant may feel less sense of discomfort even if the revolution speed of the engine changes. |
| US08346459B2 |
Oil pressure controlling apparatus and system comprising same
An oil flow control system has a flow control device and an oil accumulator controller. The flow control device includes a body, a passage extending through the body, and a flow control portion configured for selectively controlling flow through the passage. The oil accumulator controller is coupled to an actuation portion of the flow control device and is configured for receiving an engine oil pressure indicating signal from an engine oil pressure sensor, for receiving Minimum Engine Lubrication Oil Pressure (MELOP) threshold computing information for an engine comprising the engine oil pressure sensor, and for causing the actuation portion to manipulate the flow control portion in a manner resulting in the flow control portion affecting flow through the passage. Causing the actuation portion to manipulate the flow control portion is performed dependent upon the engine oil pressure indicating signal and a MELOP threshold computed using said MELOP threshold computing information. |
| US08346452B2 |
Integrated vehicle control system using dynamically determined vehicle conditions
A vehicle includes a control system that is used to control a vehicle system. The control system determines a roll condition in response to a yaw rate sensor and a pitch rate sensor without having to use a roll rate sensor. A relative roll angle, relative pitch angle, global roll angle, and global pitch angle may also be determined. A safety system may be controlled in response to the roll condition, roll angle, or the pitch angles individually or in combination. |
| US08346446B2 |
Clutchless transmission apparatus for controlling gear-position shifting and control method thereof
A clutchless transmission apparatus and control method thereof. The transmission apparatus comprises a motor (10) and a transmission (20), said motor (10) is connected to said transmission (20) and supplies power to said transmission (20) via an input shaft of the transmission (20), wherein said apparatus further comprises a control device (30), which is electrically connected to said motor (10) and said transmission (20), wherein said control device (30) is configured to determine whether a gear-position shifting is required based on rotation speed of said transmission (20), if a gear-position shifting is required, regulates torque of said motor (10) to control said transmission (20) to disengage, and then regulates the rotation speed of said motor (10) based on the rotation speed of said transmission (20) to control said transmission (20) to engage for shifting gear-position. The clutchless transmission apparatus provided in the present invention doesn't need a clutch during gear-position shifting, and therefore it is light, simple, easy to maintain and control, and can be used in a wide range of application. |
| US08346445B2 |
Method for reaching a neutral position of a gearshift fork in a shift transmission
A method for reaching a neutral position N located between two end positions of a gearshift fork in a shift transmission in a motor vehicle from a starting position of the gearshift fork. The method allows finding the neutral position of the gearshift fork without a sensor determining the position of the gearshift fork or in the alternative in case such the sensor is defect. |
| US08346442B2 |
System and method for determining ground engaging tool position based on fluid pressure
An agricultural implement is provided that includes a ground engaging tool configured to engage soil in a working position and to disengage the soil in a non-working position. The agricultural implement also includes an actuating cylinder coupled to the ground engaging tool and configured to transition the ground engaging tool between the working position and the non-working position based on a flow of fluid from a fluid supply system. In addition, the agricultural implement includes at least one sensor configured to output a signal indicative of a fluid pressure within the fluid supply system, and a controller configured to determine whether the ground engaging tool is in the working position or the non-working position based on the signal. |
| US08346439B2 |
Safety method and device for vehicle rollover prediction using estimated lateral vehicle velocity
A system and method of activating a restraint system of a vehicle is described. The method includes generating a vehicle speed signal that represents a longitudinal speed of a vehicle, generating a lateral acceleration signal that represents a lateral acceleration of the vehicle, filtering the lateral acceleration signal to generate a filtered lateral acceleration signal, comparing the filtered lateral acceleration signal to a predetermined lateral acceleration enable threshold, estimating a lateral speed of the vehicle based on the vehicle speed signal when the filtered lateral acceleration exceeds the predetermined lateral acceleration enable threshold, and activating a restraint system of the vehicle based in part on the estimated lateral velocity. |
| US08346438B2 |
Rear impact detection method and system
Method and system for deploying an occupant restraint device in a vehicle includes arranging a sensor to detect a rear impact and deploying the occupant restraint device when the sensor detects the rear impact of sufficient magnitude to require deployment of the occupant restraint device to prevent injury to the occupant. The sensor may be a crush sensor which preferably extends across a major portion of the rear of the vehicle, an inertial sensor and/or an anticipatory sensor. |
| US08346436B2 |
Driving support system
A driving support system includes a lane detecting unit for detecting lanes around a vehicle, a route correcting unit for correcting a route along which the vehicle is expected to travel taking into consideration an obstacle on the route after the route has been recognized by lanes detected by the lane detecting unit, and a control unit for controlling the vehicle on the basis of the positional relation between the corrected route determined by the route correcting unit and the vehicle. |
| US08346433B2 |
System for dynamically determining vehicle rear/trunk loading for use in a vehicle control system
A control system (18) and method for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a pitch rate sensor (37) generating a pitch rate signal, a longitudinal acceleration sensor (36) generating a longitudinal acceleration signal, and a yaw rate sensor (28) generating a yaw rate signal. A safety system (44) and the sensors are coupled to a controller. From the sensors, the controller (26) determines an added mass and a position of the added mass, a pitch gradient and/or a pitch acceleration coefficient that takes into account the added mass and position. The controller controls a vehicle system in response to the added mass and the position of the added mass, the pitch gradient and/or pitch acceleration coefficient variables. |
| US08346421B2 |
Method and system for initiating starting of an engine in a hybrid electric vehicle
A system and method is provided for initiating starting of an engine in a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) for a first time since a vehicle drive start request. Based on a predetermined fluid temperature and a powertrain fluid temperature from at least one of the powertrain elements in the HEV, it is determined whether energy from the engine is demanded. When the energy from the engine is demanded, the engine is started to provide energy for at least one of heating of a cabin compartment in the HEV and lubrication of a portion of powertrain elements in the HEV. |
| US08346419B2 |
Operation of a range extended electric vehicle
One embodiment includes a method that includes monitoring a battery state of charge circuit that is coupled to a vehicle battery, calculating an averaged value of the state of charge over a time period, charging the vehicle battery by powering a generator with a fuel burning engine that powered on and powered off according to one of a first operational mode and a second operational mode, wherein in the first operational mode the engine is powered on when the battery state of charge drops below a first state of charge and continues until the averaged value of the state of charge increases to a first preprogrammed value. |
| US08346418B2 |
Method of smoothing output torque
A method of output torque smoothing for a hybrid powertrain having an electric machine and a spark ignition engine with a first cylinder and a second cylinder includes commanding a fuel-cut transition, including consecutively initiating and completing deactivation of the first cylinder and initiating and completing deactivation of the second cylinder. The fuel-cut transition is characterized by an absence of retarding spark to the first cylinder and second cylinder. Fuel is supplied to the first cylinder until the first cylinder completes deactivation and to the second cylinder until the second cylinder completes deactivation. The electric machine captures a first torque from the first cylinder by generating electricity until the first cylinder completes deactivation and captures a second torque from the second cylinder by generating electricity until the second cylinder completes deactivation. |
| US08346411B1 |
Integrated system for providing a journey log display and the automatic reporting thereof
An integrated system for providing a reporting point journey log display in an aircraft and for providing the automatic transfer and installation of a reporting point journey log in a ground retention application. The integrated system includes means for procuring and aggregating reporting point on-board aircraft data from aircraft systems. Means are provided for generating a reporting point cockpit message and readback script from the aggregated reporting point onboard aircraft data. The aggregated reporting point onboard aircraft data is automatically transmitted to a receiving ground application for assembling the data into the form of a reporting point journey log. The reporting point journey log is installed into a ground storage application. |
| US08346410B2 |
Method for improving maneuverability and controllability by simultaneously applying both reaction wheel-based attitude controller and thruster-based attitude controller
Provided are an attitude control system and method of a spacecraft of an artificial satellite that may enhance a maneuverability and a controllability by simultaneously applying a reaction wheel and a thruster among drive units used to maneuver an attitude of the spacecraft of the artificial satellite. The attitude control system may include: a thruster-based attitude controller which control firing time of thrusters mounted on the spacecraft; and a reaction wheel-based attitude controller controlling driving of a reaction wheel mounted on the spacecraft. The spacecraft may include a plurality of reaction wheels. When a defect occurs in the spacecraft due to a partial malfunction of the reaction wheels, an attitude maneuverability of the spacecraft may be corrected by simultaneously applying the thruster-based attitude controller and the reaction wheel-based attitude controller. |
| US08346408B2 |
Fault tolerant flight control system
A method, apparatus, and computer program product for identifying a number of air states for a vehicle. A deflection of a control surface associated with an actuator is identified to form an identified deflection. A current in the actuator is identified to form a measured current. The number of air states for the vehicle is estimated using the identified deflection and the measured current. |
| US08346406B2 |
Electronic control unit for use in a vehicle
A first microcomputer in an ECU outputs a CID of the ECU in response to a request from a scan tool when the ECU has multiple microcomputers implemented therein. Each of the multiple microcomputers has an additive value stored therein for counting an update of the software. The additive values from the multiple microcomputers are added as a sum total of the ECU that is further added to a CID base value. The sum total of the ECU added to the CID base value is then output as the CID of the ECU from the first microcomputer to the scan tool. Therefore, information stored in the first microcomputer is not necessarily changed for outputting an updated CID (e.g., software product number information) from the ECU. |
| US08346405B1 |
Map interface for electrical system discharge trace playback
A diagnostic instrument for sources of electrical system discharges provides a map interface for controlling playback of collected signal traces. A map pane of the interface displays a map of an area illustrating a path along which signal data was collected. A double click input selecting a location on the path causes playback of a waveform for the recorded signal in a signal pane commencing from the selected location. |
| US08346400B2 |
System and method for power management in a photovoltaic installation
A power-management system and method for photovoltaic installations connecting to the grid incorporates monitoring active and/or reactive power, account being taken at all times of grid requirements, in order to allow temporary demand arising in the grid to be addressed, thereby contributing to regulation of the grid and to the stability and quality thereof. |
| US08346399B2 |
Programmable insulin pump
An apparatus for delivering a bolus of a medical agent to a patient. The apparatus comprises a pump mechanism, a data input device, and a processor in data communication with the keypad and arranged to control the pump mechanism. The processor is programmed to receive data specifying a bolus amount through the data port, receive data regarding duration through the data port, receive a percentage through the data port, the percentage defining a portion of the bolus amount to deliver immediately upon executing a deliver command and a remainder of the bolus amount to deliver over the duration upon executing a deliver command, and execute the deliver command thereby controlling the pump mechanism to deliver the bolus. Also a method of temporarily adjusting the delivery rate of an infusion pump. The infusion pump is programmed to deliver a basal rate. The method comprises prompting a user to select whether to enter the temporary rate as a percent of the current delivery rate or as a new delivery rate; entering into the pump a period of time having a beginning and an end; entering into the pump a temporary basal rate; and delivering the therapeutic agent at a delivery rate substantially equal to the temporary basal rate during the period of time. |
| US08346396B2 |
HVAC controller with parameter clustering
An HVAC controller is described that is configured to be more intuitive and user friendly to program and operate than convention HVAC controllers. In some instances, the HVAC controller may include a touch screen interface that provides greater flexibility in displaying information to the user and/or soliciting information from the user. |
| US08346389B2 |
Cleaning robot having carpet detector and method of detecting carpet boundary using the same
A cleaning robot having a carpet detector and a method of detecting a carpet boundary using the same, in which the presence of the carpet on a floor is detected. The cleaning robot having a carpet detector includes a main body, a driver fixed to the main body to move the robot, and the carpet detector detecting a carpet when the robot is driven by the driver. The method of detecting a carpet boundary includes detecting a carpet using respective carpet detectors fixed to both wheels of a robot, obtaining a moving distance of the robot for an interval between times at which the respective carpet detectors detect the carpet, and calculating a boundary direction of the carpet with respect to a moving direction of the robot using the moving distance and the interval between the times at which the respective carpet detectors detect the carpet. |
| US08346375B2 |
Pinch case for defibrillator electrode pads and release liner
A defibrillator electrode assembly with a slot-like storage case is described which protects the pads prior to use and retains them in either an electrically connected or electrically disconnected configuration. When the electrode assembly is slidably inserted into the case, an optional pinch clip within the case presses electrodes on opposite sides of a thick release liner into electrical contact with each other. |
| US08346373B2 |
Method and apparatus for delivering a lead to a heart
A method and apparatus for creating and accessing an anatomic space between a heart and a pericardial sac. The apparatus includes a catheter having a cryoadhesion member situated on the distal tip of the catheter. The cryoadhesion member is utilized to adhere to the pericardial sac and to retract the sac to create a tent like structure. The catheter allows introduction of an instrument to access the pericardial sac by puncture. The access to the pericardial sac allows delivery of a device, a drug, a biologic or other substance to the heart or the space around the heart. |
| US08346371B2 |
Electrode unit for carrying current or voltage between an implantable electromedical device and a treatment and/or diagnosis site in the human body
An electrode unit for carrying current or voltage between an implantable electromedical device and a treatment and/or diagnosis site in the human body comprises at least one current-/voltage-carrying feed line (1) and at least one electric contact pole to the body part. The feed line (1) is associated with at least one section (4) having frequency-dependent transmission behavior, wherein this at least one frequency-dependent transmission section (4) at least partially filters out therapeutically and/or diagnostically undesirable signals in at least one defined frequency range. |
| US08346370B2 |
Delivered energy generator for microwave ablation
A microwave system for generating microwave energy to tissue according to an energy control algorithm is disclosed. The system includes a microwave generator configured to select an energy control algorithm, programmed in the microwave generator that corresponds to a microwave energy delivery device connected to the generator. |
| US08346368B2 |
Sound processing method and system
Coding of received audio signals and the resulting application of electrical stimuli applied to electrodes used in a cochlear implant system are disclosed together with a method of fitting this new coding strategy. One of the aims is to improve place specific stimulation representing pitch by applying near threshold electrical stimuli with limited and focused excitation fields. A range of stimulation rates and a minimal range of current levels above threshold are used for creation of a dynamic loudness percept for a cochlear implant recipient. Another aim is to disclose a coding scheme based on a model of physiological measures (i.e. refractoriness, adaptation, spread of activation field, spatiotemporal acoustical cochlear activation patterns and spontaneous activity) to estimate the proportions of available excitable auditory neurons close to the electrodes available for stimulation. The spectral bands formed from the pre-processing of incoming audio signals are weighted by these proportions of excitability to control place, timing, rate and current level of electrical stimuli applied to the electrodes available in the array. |
| US08346367B2 |
Apparatus and method for stabilizing, improving mobility, and controlling cartilage matrix degradation of weight-bearing articular joints
An apparatus and method for improving mobility and/or the quality of synovial fluid of an affected articular joint are disclosed, wherein the joint is associated with at least a first muscle group and at least a second muscle group each having an antagonistic relationship for effecting mobility of the joint through a range of motion when recruited by natural neural impulses. The apparatus and method include an electro-medical device configured to apply motor-level electrical stimulation in a multiphasic pattern via at least a first channel and at least a second channel, the multiphasic pattern being programmed into the electro-medical device and corresponding to the sequence of an electromyographic output for the joint; at least two first electrodes connected to the at least first channel of said electro-medical device, the at least two first electrodes being positioned proximate to the at least first muscle group; at least two second electrodes connected to the at least second channel of said electro-medical device, the at least two second electrodes being positioned proximate to the at least second muscle group; and an applicator configured to be worn on the articular segment such that the at least two first electrodes and the at least two second electrodes are disposed between the applicator and the articular segment, the applicator being further configured to reduce compressive forces on at least one compartment of the affected joint. |
| US08346365B2 |
Cognitive function within a human brain
Methods and apparatus for improving cognitive function within a human. The invention utilizes an implanted device, such as an implantable signal generator or an implantable pump, to affect tissue elements within a Papez circuit of the human brain as well as tissue upstream or downstream from the Papez circuit. The implanted device delivers treatment therapy to thereby improve cognitive function by the human. A sensor may be used to detect various symptoms of the cognitive disorder. A microprocessor algorithm may then analyze the output from the sensor to regulate delivery of the stimulation and/or drug therapy. |
| US08346364B2 |
Evoked spinal cord potential monitoring apparatus and evoked spinal cord potential monitoring system
The evoked spinal cord potential monitoring apparatus of the present invention includes: a pair of electrodes 14; and a holding section 12 for holding the pair of electrodes 14, a tip section of each of the electrodes 14 being extended outwards from an end of the holding section 12, and the electrodes 14 being movable relative to the holding section 12. A hook section 15 engageable to an intercostal nerve is provided at the tip section of each of the electrodes 14, and the electrodes 14 or the holding section 12 is moved while the hook section 15 is coupled to the intercostal nerve such that the hook section 15 and the holding section 12 are able to hold the intercostal nerve therebetween. The apparatus requires no preoperative preparation, is capable of coping with an emergency case, and further, is unsusceptible to the influence of anesthetics. |
| US08346360B2 |
Heart failure management system
Various system embodiments comprise a stimulator adapted to deliver a stimulation signal for a heart failure therapy, a number of sensors adapted to provide at least a first measurement of a heart failure status and a second measurement of the heart failure status, and a controller. The controller is connected to the stimulator and to the number of sensors. The controller is adapted to use the first and second measurements to create a heart failure status index, and control the stimulator to modulate the signal using the index. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein. |
| US08346359B2 |
Systems and methods for optimizing ventricular pacing delays during atrial fibrillation
Techniques are provided for use by implantable medical devices for controlling ventricular pacing, particularly during atrial fibrillation. In one example, during a V sense test for use in optimizing ventricular pacing, the implantable device determines relative degrees of variation within antecedent and succedent intervals detected between ventricular events sensed on left ventricular (LV) and right ventricular (RV) sensing channels. Preferred or optimal ventricular pacing delays are then determined, in part, based on a comparison of the relative degrees of variation obtained during the V sense test. In another example, during RV and LV pace tests, the device distinguishes QRS complexes arising due to interventricular conduction from QRS complexes arising due to atrioventricular conduction from the atria, so as to permit the determination of correct paced interventricular conduction delays for the patient. The paced interventricular conduction delays are also used to optimize ventricular pacing. Biventricular and monoventricular pacing regimes are provided. |
| US08346357B2 |
Method and devices for performing cardiac waveform appraisal
Implementations of various technologies described herein are directed toward a sensing architecture for use in cardiac rhythm management devices. The sensing architecture may provide a method and means for certifying detected events by the cardiac rhythm management device. Moreover, by exploiting the enhanced capability to accurately identifying only those sensed events that are desirable, and preventing the use of events marked as suspect, the sensing architecture can better discriminate between rhythms appropriate for device therapy and those that are not. |
| US08346356B2 |
Method for preparing an implantable controlled gene or protein delivery device
An implantable system which includes a gene/protein delivery device and a pulse generator, as well as method of preparing the gene/protein delivery device and using the system, are provided. In one embodiment, the implantable system detects a predetermined condition or event and, in response, delivers gene(s) and/or protein(s) in conjunction with delivering pacing and/or defibrillation pulses. |
| US08346355B2 |
Capacitor reformation method and apparatus
A method of reforming a wet-tantalum capacitor includes providing a medical device comprising a wet-tantalum capacitor. The capacitor has a rated voltage and including a hydrated anodic deposit. The method further includes charging the capacitor to a voltage that is less than approximately seventy-five percent of the rated voltage and at least partially discharging the capacitor after the charging step. The charging step is performed at a sufficient voltage to dehydrate the anodic deposit while not significantly decreasing the service life of the capacitor. |
| US08346352B2 |
Sleepiness judging device
The object is to provide a drowsiness detecting device for detecting strong drowsiness to become a dozing state. A drowsiness detecting device comprises a sympathetic parameter acquiring unit for acquiring a parameter concerning a sympathetic nerve of a subject, a parasympathetic parameter acquiring unit for acquiring a parameter concerning a parasympathetic nerve of the subject, a sympathetic increase determining unit for determining whether the sympathetic parameter is greater than a sympathetic threshold or not, and a drowsiness determining unit for determining drowsiness of the subject according to an increase/decrease relationship between the sympathetic and parasympathetic parameters when the sympathetic increase determining unit determines that the sympathetic parameter is greater than the sympathetic threshold. |
| US08346351B2 |
Methods for quantifying QT-RR
Methods and apparatus for determining a patient specific QT-RR curve. One embodiment of a method in accordance with the technology comprises providing electrophysiological data for a specific patient. The method can further include: (a) determining QT durations and RR values for a plurality of heart beats of the specific patient from the electrophysiological data; (b) ascertaining effective RR intervals for the plurality of heart beats by weight-averaging the RR values according to the equation Effective RRi=C×Effective RRi−1+(1−C)×[RRweighted], where C is a number between 0 and 1, and where RRweighted is based on an observed RRi value and a trend predicted RR value; and (d) finding a value Cf defined by a value of C where a curve fitted to the QT durations and the ascertained effective RR intervals is within a desired standard deviation. |
| US08346348B2 |
Optical coherent cross-sectional image forming apparatus and control method for controlling such apparatus
An optical coherent cross-sectional image forming apparatus in which light outputted from a light source is divided into a measurement light and a reference light inside the apparatus and in which a cross-sectional image is formed based on a coherent light, produced from a reflected light obtained by emitting the measurement light to a biological tissue through a probe inserted into a body lumen, and the reference light, wherein the apparatus includes a detector for detecting that a transmitting and receiving unit entered inside a guiding catheter for guiding the probe by using data during the axial-direction movement and a controller for stopping at least a portion of a process associated with from generation to holding of the cross-sectional image based on the optical coherence in a case in which it is detected by the detector that the transmitting and receiving unit entered inside the guiding catheter. |
| US08346347B2 |
Skin optical characterization device
The present invention is generally directed to dermatological devices and methods in which one or more skin characteristics, such as the melanin index, are determined by analyzing radiation backscattered from a skin region illuminated by at least one, and preferably, two or more wavelengths, e.g., in a range of about 600 nm to about 900 nm. In many embodiments, the radiation is coupled to the skin via a waveguide, and an optical sensor is employed to ascertain contact between the waveguide (e.g., a waveguide surface adapted for contact with the skin) and the skin. |
| US08346341B2 |
Method for determining an item of positioning information for ECG electrodes during an examination with a magnetic resonance facility and magnetic resonance facility
A method for determining an item of positioning information for ECG electrodes during an examination with a magnetic resonance facility is provided. An image data record of a region surrounding the heart of a patient and the electrodes arranged on the surface of the patient is recorded. A position of the longitudinal heart axis and a position of the electrodes in the image data record are determined. A target position suited to determining evaluable ECG signals is automatically calculated for each of the electrodes by considering the position of the longitudinal heart axis and a displacement from the position of the electrodes to the target position. An item of positioning information for the electrodes is displayed by taking the displacements into consideration. |
| US08346340B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging method
A apparatus includes a collection unit which collects a magnetic resonance signal, a unit which controls the collection unit in such a manner that pre-scan is executed in regard to pre-scan slices determined as some of main scan slices, a calculation unit which calculates correction amounts based on data concerning the pre-scan slices obtained by the pre-scan, an estimation unit which estimates a correction amount concerning each slice other the pre-scan slices in the main scan slices based on the correction amounts, and a unit which controls the collection unit in such a manner that each of the main scan slices is scanned while involving correction of each slice that is the pre-scan target with the correction amount thereof calculated by the calculation unit and while involving correction of each slice that is not the pre-scan target with the correction amount thereof estimated by the estimation unit. |
| US08346339B2 |
Basket style cardiac mapping catheter having a flexible electrode assembly for detection of cardiac rhythm disorders
A system for sensing multiple local electric voltages from endocardial surface of a heart, includes: an elongate tubular member; a plurality of flexible splines having proximal portions, distal portions and medial portions therein between; an anchor for securably affixing the proximal portions of the splines; a tip for securably affixing the distal portions of the splines; and a polymeric member including opposed a first open end and a second open end defining an open lumen therein between and an inner member surface and an outer member surface, wherein at least one of the plurality of flexible splines is at least partially disposed within the lumen of the polymeric member; a flexible electrode assembly strip with one or more exposed electrodes disposed on at least a portion of the outer surface of the polymeric member. |
| US08346338B2 |
System and methods for replacing signal artifacts in a glucose sensor data stream
Systems and methods for minimizing or eliminating transient non-glucose related signal noise due to non-glucose rate limiting phenomenon such as ischemia, pH changes, temperatures changes, and the like. The system monitors a data stream from a glucose sensor and detects signal artifacts that have higher amplitude than electronic or diffusion-related system noise. The system replaces some or the entire data stream continually or intermittently including signal estimation methods that particularly address transient signal artifacts. The system is also capable of detecting the severity of the signal artifacts and selectively applying one or more signal estimation algorithm factors responsive to the severity of the signal artifacts, which includes selectively applying distinct sets of parameters to a signal estimation algorithm or selectively applying distinct signal estimation algorithms. |
| US08346329B2 |
Apparatus and method for noninvasive human component measurement with selectable optical length
A method and apparatus for noninvasive measurement of a human body component, such as glucose, in vivo, include near infrared spectroscopy based laser sources driven at a carrier frequency lying within the characteristic absorption of the component. The apparatus also drives the laser diodes with a modulation frequency to generate a frequency difference between the measuring light and reference beam, and the interference of the two beams results in a beat frequency signal, which frequency is proportional to the optical path difference between the measuring light and the reference beam. The scattering lights from human tissue with different optical lengths are simultaneously detected and selected based on the beat frequency. The method is a convenient embodiment of the floating reference principle, which takes advantage of optical length selection. |
| US08346328B2 |
Medical sensor and technique for using the same
Embodiments disclosed may include a sensor which may be adapted to provide information related to its position on a patient's tissue. A sensor may be provided with tissue contact sensors which may relay a signal related to the sensor's proper placement adjacent a patient's tissue. Such a sensor may be useful for providing information to a clinician about the status of a sensor, such as if a sensor may be located more closely to the tissue in order to provide improved measurements. |
| US08346326B2 |
Superconductive wire, processes of manufacture and uses thereof
An electrical component comprises a superconductive wire, the wire comprising a first wire segment joined to a second wire segment, wherein the first wire segment and the second wire segment differ in at least one property selected from the group consisting of magnetic field tolerance, temperature tolerance, ac loss, and strain tolerance, and wherein the magnetic field tolerance is measured by the relationship of critical current Ic to magnetic field H at a given temperature T below critical temperature Tc, the temperature tolerance is measured by the relationship of critical current Ic to temperature T at a given magnetic field below critical magnetic field Hc, the ac loss is measured by the amount of ac loss versus the frequency and magnitude of applied ac currents and fields, and the strain tolerance is measured by critical current Ic degradation with strain. |
| US08346316B2 |
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant includes a body, and a touch panel. The body includes a display screen. The touch panel is located on a surface of the display screen. The touch panel includes at least one transparent conductive layer including a carbon nanotube layer. |
| US08346313B2 |
Dynamic warm-up time for a wireless device in idle mode
Techniques for dynamically selecting warm-up time for a wireless device operating in the idle mode are described. At each active interval, conditions affecting warm-up of the wireless device at a next active interval are determined. The conditions may pertain to channel conditions, operating conditions, and/or hardware configuration. A warm-up time is selected based on the determined conditions. A wake-up time for the next active interval is determined based on the selected warm-up time. The wireless device then goes to sleep until the wake-up time. In one scheme, the strongest pilot acquired in each active interval is identified, and its pilot strength is averaged to obtain an average pilot strength. The average pilot strength is compared against at least one threshold, and one of at least two possible time durations is selected for the warm-up time based on the comparison result. |
| US08346310B2 |
Method and apparatus for communication between a vehicle based computing system and a remote application
A vehicle-based computing apparatus includes a computer processor in communication with persistent and non-persistent memory. The apparatus also includes a local wireless transceiver in communication with the computer processor and configured to communicate wirelessly with a wireless device located at the vehicle. The processor is operable to receive, through the wireless transceiver, a connection request sent from a nomadic wireless device, the connection request including at least a name of an application seeking to communicate with the processor. The processor is further operable to receive at least one secondary communication from the nomadic device, once the connection request has been processed. The secondary communication is at least one of a speak alert command, a display text command, a create phrase command, and a prompt and listen command. |
| US08346309B2 |
Mobile terminal
A mobile terminal is provided. The mobile terminal includes a case forming an outer appearance of the mobile terminal, a window formed at one surface of the case, a touch sensor located at the window, the touch sensor being configured to detect a touch input through the window, at least one pattern formation unit disposed in the case, the at least one pattern formation unit being configured to project a light pattern in one direction when the touch sensor is activated, and a path variation unit configured to vary the direction of the projected light such that the projected light pattern is directed toward the window. |
| US08346308B2 |
Communication device
A wireless device having a microprocessor for controlling the operation of the device, the device including an upper casing including an interior surface having a primary display and an exterior surface having a secondary display, the primary display being active when the device is in an open configuration and the secondary display being active when the device is in a closed configuration, a lower casing including a keypad, a hinge assembly connecting the upper casing to the lower casing and enabling the device to alternate between the open and closed configurations, and a switch assembly including a switch provided in the upper casing and an actuator provided in the lower casing in alignment with the switch, the switch and actuator configured for engaging each other to perform an action when the upper and lower casings are pressed together. |
| US08346307B2 |
Method of displaying contact information
A method of displaying contact information on a communication device includes storing a plurality of contacts and corresponding statistical information pertaining to communications on a communication device. Input is received relating to the statistical information. The contacts are displayed based on the input and the statistical information. |
| US08346306B2 |
SIM-card suspend control apparatus, SIM-card suspend control method, and information processing apparatus
A suspend control apparatus, disposed in an electronic device having a SIM card, includes a control unit that switches the state of the SIM card between a suspended state and a resumed state. The control unit determines, based on the state of SIM card access for data communication and the state of the SIM card when the data communication occurs, whether to give priority to SIM card access or switching to the suspended state, and sets the state of the SIM card accordingly. |
| US08346304B1 |
Communication device
The communication device comprising a voice communicating implementer, a font formatting implementer, a stereo audio data output implementer, and a multiple language mode implementer. |
| US08346302B2 |
Portable electronic device having directional proximity sensors based on device orientation
A portable electronic device having one or more proximity sensors. The portable electronic device comprises a housing, one or more signal emitters to direct source signal(s) based on the orientation of the housing, and one or more signal receivers to receive return signals corresponding to the source signal(s). The device may include multiple signal emitters and a sensor to identify an orientation of the housing. The appropriate signal emitter may be selected based on the orientation of the housing as identified by the sensor. |
| US08346298B2 |
Mobile terminal and process control method thereof
A mobile terminal includes a first controller controlling an overall operation of the mobile terminal, a memory storing data including first data, an interface connecting with an external terminal, a second controller performing synchronization between the first data previously stored in the memory and second data stored in the external terminal in response to a synchronization request received from the external terminal, and a wireless communication unit configured to receive a call signal. The second controller performs the synchronization as a background process and the first controller processes the call signal upon receiving the call signal while the synchronization is performed as the background process. |
| US08346297B2 |
Multi-tap keyboard user interface
There is provided a multi-tap keyboard user interface with auditory feedback. In one embodiment, there is provided a method for controlling operation of a mobile device having a plurality of input devices, comprising associating groups of one or more keys of the input devices to define at least one input region and in response to an input received from said input devices, performing an associated action for operating the device, responding equally to any input from a same input region. A repeated input (multi-tap) to a same input region cycles through a plurality of actions associated with the input region. Auditory feedback comprising a vocalized description of the action is provided. The multi-tap keyboard user interface with auditory feedback may adapt a mobile device (e.g. PDA or smart phone) for use by visually impaired users. |
| US08346295B2 |
Dual-mode keypad for a mobile device
In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for implementing a dual-mode keypad for a mobile device. The keypad may operate in a telephony mode and a text-entry mode. The keypad may include a plurality of dual-mode keys that each include an associated telephony character and at least one associated text-entry character. The dual-mode keys may include one or more toggle keys, with each toggle key having a plurality of associated text-entry characters and one associated telephony character. The dual-mode keys may be partially covered by the keypad surface so that a plurality of key surfaces extend from the key and protrude through the keypad surface. In text-entry mode, the dual-mode keys are operable to input text-entry characters. In telephony mode, the dual-mode keys are operable to input telephony characters. |
| US08346294B2 |
Appearance adaptable keypad for a handheld communication device
A handheld communication device configurable between a telephone mode and an email mode is described. The handheld communication device has a body with a front face at which a user input is located. The user input includes an appearance-adaptable keypad configurable between a telephone keypad when the device is in the telephone mode, and a text entry keypad when the device is in the email mode. The telephone keypad includes a plurality of alphanumeric input keys. The telephone keypad is arranged in a standard telephone keypad layout when the device is in the telephone mode. The text entry keypad includes a plurality of alphabetic input keys. The text entry keypad is arranged in a standard text entry keyboard layout when the device is in the email mode. |
| US08346291B2 |
Power control in a coordinated multipoint system
A Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) controller advantageously reduces the transmit powers of transmissions coordinated across a plurality of sub-cells within a CoMP cell. The CoMP controller determines serving sub-cell path gains and interfering sub-cell path gains for a set of mobile terminals to be served by distinct sub-cells. The CoMP controller then evaluates an objective function that expresses an aggregate throughput of concurrent transmissions to be sent to or received from the set of mobile terminals as a function of the serving sub-cell path gains, the interfering sub-cell path gains, and the individual transmit powers of those transmissions, to determine the combination of individual transmit powers that maximizes the aggregate throughput while meeting minimum quality of service requirements for the mobile terminals. The combination of individual transmit powers will necessarily require less power than if the concurrent transmissions were each sent at maximum transmit power. |
| US08346289B2 |
Base transceiver station, MBMS base transceiver station system, method of determining transmit power, and method of controlling transmit power
A base transceiver station (200) that transmits same data through a common channel shared by a transmission path includes a cell total transmit power detector (41) that detects, with respect to each of a plurality of cells, a total amount of the transmit power for transmitting the data to mobile stations (300) located inside each of the cells, a relative value information receiver (42) that receives relative value information for relatively correcting the total transmit power, from the base transceiver station controller, and a weight adjustment and power determination unit (43) that corrects the total transmit power for transmitting the data with respect to each cell, based on the relative value information received by the relative value information receiver and the total transmit power detected by the cell total transmit power detector, and determines a modified total transmit power. |
| US08346287B2 |
Provisioning mobile terminals with a trusted key for generic bootstrap architecture
Mobile terminals may be authenticated separately from a smart card used by the mobile terminal. In one implementation, a mobile terminal may query a remote server, based on a value identifying the mobile terminal, for security information relating to the mobile terminal, where a copy of the security information is stored in the mobile terminal as part of the manufacture of the mobile terminal. A smart card may receive the security information in response to the query. The security information may be received in an encrypted format that is not accessible by the mobile terminal. The smart card may communicate with the mobile terminal to authenticate the mobile terminal based on the security information received in response to the query and the copy of the security information that is stored in the mobile terminal. |
| US08346286B2 |
Paging method in broadband wireless communication system
Provided is a paging method in a broadband wireless communication system. In order to provide a paging service to a terminal in a wireless communication system in which a macrocell base station and a femtocell base station coexist, the femtocell base station receives a deregistration request message from the terminal, and checks whether the femtocell base station can provide a paging service to the terminal. When failing to provide a paging service to the terminal, the femtocell base station receives paging service information from a paging controller, includes paging service information in a deregistration confirmation message, and transmits it to the terminal, and the macrocell base station provides a paging service to the terminal. |
| US08346282B1 |
Method and system for locating mobile stations using call measurement data
A location of a mobile station is estimated based on wireless communications between the mobile station and a wireless telecommunications network. Call measurement data is obtained for a call involving the mobile station and a plurality of base station antennas. The call measurement data includes round-trip delay (RTD) measurements and received signal strength (RSS) measurements. The most significant one or more base station antennas involved in the call are identified. An expected signal strength is calculated for each significant base station antenna, according to a wireless propagation model that accounts for terrain around the base station antennas. For each significant base station antenna, the corresponding expected signal strength, RTD measurement, and RSS measurement are used to calculate an adjusted RTD value. The one or more adjusted RTD values calculated for the one or more significant base station antennas are used to estimate the mobile station's location. |
| US08346280B2 |
Assignment scheme for wireless node identifiers and location codes
A method including receiving a geographic area value limit that segments a geographic region associated with a network into geographic areas; receiving a geographic area-level evolved Node B (eNB) value limit that indicates a maximum number of eNBs to reside in each geographic area; calculating eNB identifiers based on the geographic area value limit and the geographic area-level eNB value limit; assigning the eNB identifiers to eNBs associated with the network; receiving a tracking region value limit that segments the geographic region associated with the network into the geographic areas; receiving a tracking area value limit that indicates a maximum number of tracking areas within each geographic area; calculating tracking area codes based on the tracking region value limit and the tracking area value limit; and assigning the tracking area codes to the tracking areas within each geographic area. |
| US08346278B2 |
Systems and methods for mobile phone location with digital distributed antenna systems
Methods and systems for mobile phone location within a digital distributed antenna system (DAS) are provided. In one embodiment, a method comprises: receiving a request for location services from a subscriber unit located within a digital DAS, the digital DAS including a first partition of bandwidth for transporting digitized RF signals of one or more modulated signals and a second partition of bandwidth for an Ethernet pipe transporting IP formatted data; routing the request for location services to a subscriber locator center; instructing locator receivers within a geographical area of the digital DAS to listen for a signal from the subscriber unit; listening for the signal at a first locator receiver; when the signal is observed, recording a time the signal was received and generating subscriber unit ranging data; and transmitting subscriber unit ranging data back to the subscriber locator center in an IP formatted message via the Ethernet pipe. |
| US08346275B2 |
System and method for controlling access point load
A plurality of access points enables communication between a higher network and a terminal, and also transmits a connection notice for notifying a connection with the terminal by establishing a wireless connection with the terminal within the coverage area. A policy control apparatus manages load state of each of the access points based on the connection notice transmitted from the access point, and instructs the over loaded access point to limit a connection with the terminal. |
| US08346271B2 |
Method for implementing a business of communication service level based on a user request
The present invention relates a method for implementing a business of communication service level based on a user request. A calling user initiates a call request at least including the user's requirement information for the current communication service level; a network equipment receives the call request, detects the requirement information for the current communication service level in the call request, determines whether the user-network interface on the calling side has the capability of providing the communication service level; if yes, the network equipment analyzes the requirement information for the current communication service level and the utilization status of the network resources, obtains the strategy information relevant to the communication service level of the current call; said network equipment allocates user-network resources for the calling side according to the relevant strategy information and then the calling terminal and the called terminal establish call connection; if no, it doesn't respond to the requirement information for the current communication service level. The present invention implements the different requirements for the communication service level by the call request as the same calling user under different circumstances. It's convenient and simple to operate. |
| US08346269B2 |
Mobile network system and guidance message providing method
A mobile network system includes a guidance message control server, a call control server and access gateways. The call control server receives a call request notification from a first access gateway, determines whether a second access gateway is connected to a second mobile terminal, transmits a message transmission instruction to the guidance message control server and transmits a response message including a same group specifying information. The guidance message control server receives the message transmission instruction from the call control server, acquires guidance message data specified by a message specifying information and multicast transmits the guidance message data to a multicast group specified by the group specifying information. The first access gateway receives a call connection request from the first mobile terminal and transmits the call request notification to the call control server, performs multicast group participation processing for participating in the multicast group and transmits the guidance message data. |
| US08346265B2 |
Secure communication network user mobility apparatus and methods
Secure communication network user mobility apparatus and methods are disclosed. A mobile user that is locally connected to a first communication network in which a service is provided, but is associated with an independently controlled second secure communication network, may be authenticated for access to the service by the second communication network. This allows seamless user mobility between networks in a partner extranet or other collection of trusted networks based on existing inter-network user mobility relationships. Access control, monitoring, and reporting, for example, and possibly other functions, may also be provided. |
| US08346264B2 |
Transmission of data in a communication system
A node, such as a session node including any network node, located in a first network transmits data to one of a plurality of devices located in a second network. A determination is made that another device connected to the node is located in the second network. The node transmits to the other device located in the second network a message addressed to the one of said plurality of devices via the connection between the node and the other device effective to cause the message to be forwarded from the other device to the one of said plurality of devices via a connection established within the second network. |
| US08346263B2 |
Radio interoperability system and method
A method, system and memory are provided for enabling interoperability. A communication session between different communication systems, such as radio systems, operating using different protocols is initiated by receiving a scenario identifier from one of the user devices. An interoperability server receives the scenario identifier and accesses interoperability data to obtain the connection information corresponding the scenario matching the scenario identifier. The data includes scenarios for communication sessions and the connections required for each scenario. Once the interoperability server obtains the connection information, the communication session is initiated. |
| US08346262B2 |
Method and system for utilizing tone grouping with givens rotations to reduce overhead associated with explicit feedback information
Aspects of a method and system for utilizing tone grouping with Givens rotations to reduce overhead associated with explicit feedback information are presented. In one aspect of the invention, Givens matrices may be utilized to reduce a quantity of information communicated in explicit feedback information via an uplink RF channel. The explicit feedback information may include specifications for a feedback beamforming matrix that may be utilized when transmitting signals via a corresponding downlink RF channel. The feedback beamforming matrix may represent a rotated version of an un-rotated matrix. The Givens matrices may be utilized to apply one or more Givens rotations to un-rotated matrix. The rotated matrix may reduce the quantity of information communicated in the explicit feedback information. The quantity of information communicated in the explicit feedback information may be further reduced by utilizing tone grouping. |
| US08346261B2 |
Mobile communication method and switching center
In a procedure for a mobile station (UE) to perform handover from a cell under the control of a radio base station (NB) of an UTRAN scheme to a cell under the control of a radio base station (eNB) of an E-UTRA scheme, a switching center (MME) of the E-UTRA scheme receives, from and the radio base station (eNB) of the E-UTRA scheme, a handover request acknowledge message including a transparent container including a security algorithm of an AS used in a communication between the mobile station (UE) and the radio base station (eNB) of the E-UTRA scheme; and the switching center (MME) of the E-UTRA scheme transmits, to a switching center (SGSN) of the UTRA scheme, a NAS PDU including the transparent container, a security algorithm of a NAS and a security processing parameter of the NAS. |
| US08346255B2 |
Method and apparatus for using a wireless communication device with multiple service providers
Configuring a mobile wireless communication device using a carrier service configuration profile selected from a set of stored carrier service configuration profiles. Carrier service configuration profiles are selected based on one or more combinations of identifier values stored in the mobile wireless communication device. Carrier service configuration profiles are priority ranked based on a specificity of the one or more combinations of identifier values. |
| US08346252B2 |
Method and apparatus for best service rescan scheduling for mobile device operating in an EVDO hybrid mode
A method and apparatus for best service rescan scheduling on a mobile device operating in an EVDO hybrid mode, the method comprising the steps of: blocking a best service rescan on the mobile device if the mobile device in an EVDO traffic state, the mobile device characterized by blocking means, the blocking means enabled to block a best service rescan on the mobile device if the mobile device in an EVDO traffic state. |
| US08346250B1 |
Method and system for enhanced simultaneous hybrid dual receive switching
A method and system is disclosed for enhanced Simultaneous Hybrid Dual Receive operation. A hybrid access terminal engaged in an IS-856 data communication in a hybrid IS-2000/IS-856 wireless communication system will use its high-gain antenna to conduct IS-2000 tuneaway scans when the access terminal determines that the IS-2000 signal received from its serving base station is below a level that can be reliably detected by its low-gain antenna. At the same time, the access terminal will continue to use its low-gain antenna to engage in the ongoing IS-856 communication, thereby avoiding interruption of the IS-856 communication by IS-2000 tuneaway scans, even when RF conditions are sub-optimal. The access terminal may apply a DRC offset to its DRC request when using just its low-gain antenna for IS-856 communications. |
| US08346245B2 |
Wireless communication obstacles for improving wireless communications
The present disclosure generally relates to methods for improving wireless communications. Example embodiments include placing a wireless communication obstacle at an optimal or approximately optimal position to improve one or more characteristics of a wireless communication link between two wireless communication devices. The wireless communication obstacle may be adapted to absorb or reflect one or more wireless communications from other wireless communication devices to prevent and/or reduce interference with the wireless communication link between the two wireless communication devices. |
| US08346244B2 |
Method and device for testing a mobile station's capability of processing at least one second channel and communication system comprising such device
A method and a device are provided for testing a mobile station's capability of processing at least two channels in a resource unit is provided, wherein a base station provides a test message to the mobile station; wherein the mobile station's capability of processing the at least two channels is determined based upon the mobile station's feedback. Further, a communication system comprising such a device is suggested. |
| US08346238B2 |
Mesh communication network and devices
A method for communicating in a wireless communication network includes establishing a first direct communication link with a base transceiver station and communicating data associated with a communication session over the first direct communication link. The method also includes establishing a mesh connection to the base transceiver station. The mesh connection includes at least one mesh communication link with at least one intermediate communication device of a plurality of communication devices in the wireless network, the at least one intermediate communication device communicating with the base transceiver station over a second direct communication link with the base transceiver station. The method further includes switching between communicating data associated with the communication session over the first direct communication link and communicating data associated with the communication session over the mesh connection. |
| US08346237B2 |
Communications device having a commute time function and methods of use thereof
Apparatuses and methods to operate a commute time function of a communications device are described herein. In one embodiment, the commute time function is automatically activated based on an event and is then performed by (i) determining an up-to-date commute time based on commute information and (ii) displaying or speaking the up-to-date commute time on the device. In one embodiment, triggered by and before the occurrence of a calendar event, a device obtains a current commute time (based on the commute information and based on current traffic conditions1). In this embodiment, the device reschedules the calendar event based on the current commute time, by sending an update to the contacts with whom the user is to meet that indicates a change to the calendar event. Other embodiments are also described. |
| US08346234B2 |
Secure platform management with power savings capacity
An electronic device, for example, a laptop computer includes a processor, a transceiver module, for example, a Bluetooth module and a memory. The memory includes a platform proximity agent, which may be implemented as a series of instructions, which when executed by the processor, causes the processor to receive a Bluetooth signal from a corresponding provisioned Bluetooth device, for example, a cellular telephone. Next, determine whether the received signal exceeds both a strength threshold level and a predetermined time threshold level, where the signal strength and time threshold levels are established when the laptop and a corresponding cell phone are paired during a provisioning process. When the received signal strength and duration both exceed the corresponding policy based thresholds, the laptop enters (or remains in) a full power state with full access to the monitor and the platform. On the other hand, when the received signal strength and duration both fall below (or are less than) the corresponding policy based threshold, the laptop enters (or remains in) a reduced power, or locked state. |
| US08346226B2 |
Method and system for creating a web listing using a mobile phone
A method and system for creating a web listing using a mobile phone whereby a user, typically a business owner or a representative of the business, provides information/data associated with the business to a mobile application including an on-line directory service using a merchant mobile phone, or other mobile computing system, associated with the user and/or the business and/or a mobile application, and/or an SMS and/or another mobile communications network. The information associated with the business provided via the merchant mobile phone, or other mobile computing system, is then used by the on-line directory service to create an on-line presence for the business such as, but not limited to, an on-line web-listing for the business in the on-line directory that includes at least part of the information associated with the business provided via the merchant mobile phone, or other mobile computing system. |
| US08346223B1 |
Delivering a customized service to a mobile device using a link
A method of delivering a user specific customized service to a mobile user device is disclosed. User specific customized service information is received over a first channel. An identifier for the user specific customized service is generated. A link is sent that includes the identifier of the user specific customized service over a second channel. The user specific customized service identifier is received. The user specific customized service over a third channel is sent. |
| US08346221B2 |
Message transmitter and response message transmitting method in cellular mobile telephone apparatus and recording medium recording program for executing the method
A cellular mobile telephone apparatus has circuits for generating messages, a storage circuit for storing messages, and transmitter/receiver circuit for transmitting a message. When the user of the cellular mobile telephone apparatus cannot immediately respond to an incoming call, a desired one of a plurality of previously generated and stored messages can be transmitted to a calling party through simple key manipulations or by other means. |
| US08346218B2 |
Avoiding redundant transmissions of data during multimedia mobile phone communications
A method, apparatus, and computer product for avoiding redundant data transmissions during communication via multimedia mobile phones. In operation, a sending party inquires whether intended for transmission data already resides in a mobile phone of a receiving party Depending on a content of the response from the receiving party, the sending party transmits the data or a request for displaying the already available data. |
| US08346215B2 |
Retrospective implementation of SIM capabilities in a security module
The invention relates to a method for subsequently implementing a SIM functionality, with the help of which a mobile telephone (1) is enabled to use a mobile radio network, in a security module (3). Within the context of the method according to the invention the SIM functionality is realized in the form of an application, of which at least a first part is loaded into the security module (3). Furthermore, personalizing data, which are required for a use of the mobile radio network by the mobile telephone (1), are transmitted from a provider (2) to the security module (3) in encrypted form on the direct or indirect way. The encrypted personalizing data are decrypted by the security module (3) by means of a secret key of a user stored in the security module (3). The security module (3) is personalized by means of the decrypted personalizing data. |
| US08346206B1 |
Customizable media feedback software package and methods of generating and installing the package
A method for loading a customizable keypress tone package on a desired electronic device includes defining a customizable keypress tone package. The customizable keypress tone package can include one or more customizable keypress tones and can optionally include one or more customizable visual aids. A user requests installation of the defined customizable keypress tone package on the electronic device and the network sends the defined customizable keypress tone package to the electronic device. Once the device receives the package, the device installs the defined customizable keypress tone package on the electronic device. |
| US08346205B2 |
Method and system for wireless communications between base and mobile stations
A method and system for wireless communications between base and mobile stations use reference signals transmitted from base stations prior transmission of data signals. The reference signals are used to determine propagation characteristics of communication channels between the base and mobile stations and optimize, in real time, parameters of receivers of the mobile stations for processing the following data signals. Applications of the invention include wireless communication systems compliant with OFDMA, 3GPP LTE, RFN-OFDMA, OFDM, TDMA, and the like communication protocols. |
| US08346199B2 |
Mobile wireless communications device with reduced microphone noise from radio frequency communications circuitry
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board in the housing and having radio frequency (RF) circuitry and a power amplifier and microphone mounted thereon. An antenna is carried within the housing and operative with the RF circuitry. An RF shield surrounds and isolates the microphone from the RF circuitry, power amplifier and antenna and shields the microphone from radiated energy generated from the RF circuitry, antenna or power amplifier. |
| US08346192B2 |
Apparatus for transmitting a signal below a current transmit power in a network
A transmitter includes a detection element to determine when a current power requirement of a communication link is less than the standard transmit power. The current power requirement may be determined by a current operation condition of the communication link, for instance. The transmit power of the transmitter may be set to be less than the standard power in any of a variety of ways. For example, a center tap voltage of the transmitter may be reduced. In another example, a class of operation of the transmitter may be changed. In yet another example, the transmitter may include a current mirror having a plurality of diode-connected transistors coupled in parallel, thereby reducing the current at output terminals of the transmitter. Reducing the current at the output terminals decreases the output power of the transmitter, which may reduce the power consumed by the transmitter. |
| US08346186B1 |
Method and apparatus for dynamic configuration of multiprocessor system
A multiprocessor system used in a car, home, or office environment includes multiple processors that run different real-time applications. A dynamic configuration system runs on the multiple processors and includes a device manager, configuration manager, and data manager. The device manager automatically detects and adds new devices to the multiprocessor system, and the configuration manager automatically reconfigures which processors run the real-time applications. The data manager identifies the type of data generated by the new devices and identifies which devices in the multiprocessor system are able to process the data.A communication system for a mobile vehicle, home, or office environment includes multiple processors. The multiple processors each run an Open Communication system that controls how data is transferred between processors based on data content as opposed to the links that connect the processors together. The open communication system enables data or messages to be effectively transferred and processed for real-time applications or other server based applications that may be running on the multiple processors in a secure environment regardless of processors, locations, or data links. |
| US08346185B2 |
Method and system for enhancing efficiency by modulating power amplifier gain
Aspects of a method and system for enhancing efficiency by modulating power amplifier (PA) gain are presented. Aspects of the system may comprise a PA gain modulator that enables modification of an amplitude of a digital baseband signal. A baseband processor may enable computation of a first gain value based on the modification. The baseband processor may enable computation of a second gain value based on the first gain value. A PA may enable generation of an RF output signal based on the modified digital baseband signal and the second gain value. |
| US08346184B2 |
Multi-functional container for electric and/or electronic apparatuses
Multi-functional container for electric and/or electronic apparatuses comprising a front face, with a first compartment, to house at least one component (16) of the electric and/or electronic apparatus. The container comprises an opposite rear face having first attachment means (34) suitable to attach the container on guide means of a standardized type (36) in a first installation configuration. The multi-functional container also comprises second attachment means (42), suitable to attach the container in a second installation configuration inserted, at least partly, in a housing seating with the front face disposed toward the inside of the housing seating, and a second compartment, suitable to house the component (16) and disposed on the rear face. |
| US08346181B2 |
Wireless communications chip with multi-port distributed antenna
Methods and systems for power combining in a multi-port distributed antenna are disclosed and may include power combining signals from power amplifiers (PAs) on a chip. The PAs may be coupled to a single distributed antenna via antenna ports. A phase of each of the signals may be matched at the antenna ports via phase-matching circuitry. A characteristic impedance may be configured at the ports based on a location of the ports. The PAs may be impedance matched to the antenna ports via impedance matching elements. A power level of the power-combined signals may be monitored via a power detector coupled to the distributed antenna. The power detector may include an envelope detector, such as a diode. The antenna may be integrated on the chip or may be located external to the chip. The signals may include RF signals and the antenna may include a microstrip antenna. |
| US08346173B2 |
Apparatus and methods for intercell interference cancellation via RNTI
A method and system facilitate inter-cell interference cancellation in a wireless network. An RNTI component manages a set of radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) for a plurality of user equipment (UE). The RNTI component determines whether the UEs will likely cause interference with a neighboring cell and/or experience interference from a neighboring cell, based on a respective attribute of the UEs. The RNTI component includes a space splitting component that divides the set of RNTIs into at least two subsets based on the determination, and allocates a first group of the UEs that are determined to likely cause interference and/or experience interference to a first subset of the divided RNTIs, such that the UEs in the first group are allocated a corresponding one of the RNTIs among the first subset of RNTIs. An implicit broadcast component can implicitly broadcast the first subset of RNTIs to facilitate cancellation of interference possibly caused by the first group of UEs. |
| US08346168B2 |
Mobile terminal and call connection method thereof
A method of communicating with short range wireless devices using a mobile terminal includes selectably communicating with a plurality of portable wireless devices to support at least one operating mode. The mobile terminal includes a short range communication module configured to be connected to and communicate with a plurality of paired short range portable wireless devices, an input unit for recognizing an external input received to configure the mobile terminal to support at least one operating mode with at least one portable wireless device, and a controller configured to support the at least one operating mode with the at least one portable wireless device, the controller controlling the short range communication module such that the short range communication module selectively communicates with the plurality of portable wireless devices to support a first operating mode. |
| US08346167B2 |
Adaptive inductive power supply with communication
An adaptive inductive ballast is provided with the capability to communicate with a remote device powered by the ballast. To improve the operation of the ballast, the ballast changes its operating characteristics based upon information received from the remote device. Further, the ballast may provide a path for the remote device to communicate with device other than the adaptive inductive ballast. |
| US08346166B2 |
Adaptive inductive power supply with communication
An adaptive inductive ballast is provided with the capability to communicate with a remote device powered by the ballast. To improve the operation of the ballast, the ballast changes its operating characteristics based upon information received from the remote device. Further, the ballast may provide a path for the remote device to communicate with device other than the adaptive inductive ballast. |
| US08346165B2 |
Diver audio communication system
An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver that has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text/audio/visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio/visual/text entry mechanisms. |
| US08346162B1 |
System and method for reducing VSAT apertures via satellite MIMO
A system and method of reducing VSAT apertures via satellite MIMO is disclosed. The system and method comprise a first hub antenna configured to receive a first return signal from and to transmit a first forward signal to a first adjacent satellite, a second hub antenna configured to receive a second return signal from and to transmit a second forward signal to a second adjacent satellite, and a hub station configured to determine time delay and frequency shift between the first return signal and the second return signal after they are received by the first hub antenna and the second hub antenna, and to apply the determined time delay and frequency shift to one of the first forward signal and the second forward signal prior to transmitting them so the first forward signal and the second forward signal are time- and frequency-aligned when received at the remote ground terminal via the first adjacent satellite and the second adjacent satellite, wherein the first return signal and the second return signal are transmitted from the remote ground terminal to the first hub antenna and the second hub antenna via the first adjacent satellite and the second adjacent satellite. Similar time- and frequency-aligning can be achieved at the remote ground terminal using polarized signals transmitted from the remote ground terminal. |
| US08346155B2 |
Sheet processing apparatus having punch unit, and image forming apparatus
After a sheet has once passed through a punching position where punching processing is performed, a conveyance roller pair conveys the sheet backward to the punching position. A lateral registration detection sensor detects a side edge position of the sheet in a width direction. When a sheet processing apparatus corrects the side edge position of the sheet by controlling a shift unit configured to move the sheet in the width direction so as to correct the side edge position of the sheet, the sheet processing apparatus sets a shifting amount of the sheet to a value that is a predetermined amount greater than a shifting amount required to correct the side edge position of the sheet according to the side edge position of the sheet detected by the lateral registration detection sensor. After the sheet has passed through the die hole in the backward movement toward the punching position, the sheet processing apparatus sets the shifting amount to the required value. |
| US08346143B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus capable of effectively circulating and applying oil for fixing
A fixing device includes a rotatable first nip formation member, a rotatable second nip formation member, and an oil applier. The second nip formation member is provided under the first nip formation member to contact the first nip formation member. The oil applier includes an oil pan, an oil receiver, and an oil filter. The oil pan is provided under the second nip formation member to contain oil in which the second nip formation member is dipped. The oil receiver holds the oil pan. The oil filter is provided between the oil pan and the oil receiver to filter oil overflowing the oil pan. |
| US08346142B2 |
Image forming apparatus configured to eject air toward a gap between the top end of a sheet having passed through a nip portion and the circumference of a fixing rotating member of the nip portion
An image forming apparatus includes an air ejecting portion that ejects air toward a gap between the top end of a sheet having passed through a nip of the heating roller and a pressure roller, and the circumference of the heating roller. The air ejecting portion includes a plurality of air nozzles and a plurality of electromagnetic valves being respectively connected thereto and ejects air selectively from a plurality of air ejection positions arranged in the width direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction. |
| US08346140B2 |
Belt member driving apparatus and image forming apparatus having belt member driving apparatus
A belt driving apparatus for rotationally driving a belt member, the belt driving apparatus includes a stretching member for stretching the belt member; a steering section including a steering member having a rotatable portion which is rotatable with rotation of the belt member, a frictional portion slidable relative to the belt member and provided at each of longitudinal outsides of the rotatable portion, and further including a supporting section supporting the steering member, and a rotation shaft rotatably supporting the supporting section, the steering section being effective to steer the belt member by inclining the steering member by a force produced by sliding between the frictional portion and the belt member; and a resisting force applying section for applying a resisting force against inclination of the steering member, the resisting force increasing with increase of a rate of change of an inclination angle of the steering member with respect to time. |
| US08346138B2 |
Intermediate transfer unit, transfer device and image forming apparatus
An intermediate transfer unit includes first to third movement controllers. When a first image carrier is used, the first movement controller moves a first moving member to a first position. When the first image carrier is not used, the first movement controller moves the first moving member to a second position. When second image carriers are used, the third movement controller moves a third moving member to a fifth position. When the second image carriers are not used, the third movement controller moves the third moving member to a sixth position. When any of the first and second image carriers is used, the second movement controller moves a second moving member to a third position. When the first and second image carriers are not used, the second movement controller moves the second moving member to a fourth position. |
| US08346137B2 |
Developing device and image-forming apparatus provided therewith
A developing device includes a developing container for accommodating a two-component developer; a developer bearing member for bearing and conveying the developer, a fixed magnet including a release pole for releasing the developer from the developer bearing member, being fixed to the inside of the developer bearing member; and a backflow prevention member that is a sheet-shaped member disposed along the entire length in the longitudinal direction of the developer bearing member so as to be upstream in the direction of rotation of the developer bearing member as viewed from the release pole, the backflow prevention member being disposed so that a proximal end portion thereof is fixed to an inside surface of the developing container, and a distal end portion thereof is in contact with or adjacent to the developer bearing member and facing downstream in the direction of rotation of the developer bearing member. |
| US08346135B2 |
Powder conveyance device having a powder conveyance pipe with first, second, and third conveyance sections
A powder conveyance device includes a powder conveyance pipe having a first conveyance section communicating with the powder container section and having a supply inlet to receive powder from a powder container. A second conveyance section is provided in the powder conveyance pipe to communicate downstream with the first conveyance section via a first bending section. The second conveyance section downwardly extends to the conveyance destination being inclined from a horizontal at a larger angle than the first conveyance section. A third conveyance section is also provided in the powder conveyance pipe to communicate downstream with the second conveyance section via a second bending section. The third conveyance section extends toward the conveyance destination being inclined from the horizontal at a smaller angle than the second conveyance section. The third conveyance section has a replenishment outlet for replenishing the powder from the powder conveyance pipe to the powder conveyance destination. |
| US08346134B2 |
Developing device and image forming apparatus that include a developer transport amount regulation part
A developing device that can discharge developer by an amount of developer in the developing device increased by a carrier supplemented into the developing device includes a supply transport screw and a receiving transport screw in a top and bottom positional relationship, the rotational axes of the supply transport screw and the receiving transport screw are mutually parallel in relation to an image support member. The developing device also includes an inclined transport screw arranged at an incline between one end of the supply transport screw and an other end of the receiving transport screw. The developing device also includes a supply unit for supplying new carrier into a casing and a discharge port and discharge unit for discharging part of the developer housed in the casing to the outside, the discharge port provided on a part of the casing corresponding to an upper part of the inclined transport screw. |
| US08346132B2 |
Image forming unit and image forming device
An image forming unit has a rotatable electrostatic latent image carrier, a charge member positioned to contact the electrostatic latent image carrier and charge a surface of the electrostatic latent image carrier, and a developing part, which supplies a developer to the electrostatic latent image carrier for obtaining a developer image. The charge member includes a conductive elastic layer and a surface layer formed on a circumferential surface of the conductive elastic layer. The surface layer contains particles having an average particle size of 5 μm-20 μm; and a ratio of a surface area per unit area of the surface layer is in a range from 1.5 to 3.0. |
| US08346119B2 |
Cleaning device, charging device, and image forming apparatus
A cleaning device includes: a brush that has numerous bristles rotating and contacting to the surface of an image carrier, a removing member disposed so as to contact to the numerous bristles and removes a developer adhering to the numerous bristles by elastically deforming the numerous bristles and further returning the numerous deformed bristles back to normal, and a transport member disposed lower than the removing member in the gravitational direction and transports the developer removed with the removing member by rotating on an axis, wherein at least a part of the developer removed from the numerous bristles falls to a farther position than the axis of the transport member from the brush in the horizontal direction. |
| US08346118B2 |
Method for attaching charging wire, method for manufacturing process cartridge, and process cartridge
The disclosed is a method for attaching a charging wire. At first, a first end of a charging wire is locked to a wire locking portion of a process frame, and portion of a torsion spring shaped wire electrode is engaged with a second end of the charging wire. Thereafter, a coil portion of the wire electrode is attached to a coil support portion of the process frame in a state in which a tension less than a set value is applied to the charging wire. Thereafter, a second spring leg portion of the wire electrode is moved to a fixed position fixed to an electrode support portion of the process frame in a direction in which a deformation amount of the wire electrode increases, without exceeding the fixed position in the first direction. |
| US08346117B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus using same
A fixing device includes a heating source; a heating member heated by the heating source; a pressing member contacting the heating member to form a fixing nip therebetween, at which an unfixed image of toner on a recording sheet is fixed to the recording sheet; a first charging member located at an entrance of the fixing device, from which the recording sheet bearing the unfixed toner image enters the fixing device, so as to face the unfixed toner image. The first charging member is not contacted with the heating member and pressing member, and has a charge with a polarity opposite to a polarity of a charge of the toner to collect floating particles of the toner. |
| US08346112B2 |
Cooling member included fixing device and image forming apparatus
A fixing device includes a heating member that heats an unfixed toner image on a printing medium, a conveyance device that conveys the printing medium launched from the heating member after the heating member heats the unfixed toner image, and a heat temperature detection device that detects heat temperature of the heating member. An excessive temperature rise prevention device is provided to forcibly cut off power distribution to the heating member when the heat temperature reaches an abnormal level. A cooling device is provided to cool the excessive temperature rise prevention device. Further provided is a cooling device use control device that controls the cooling device to cool the excessive temperature rise prevention device when the conveyance device stops a conveyance operation. |
| US08346109B2 |
Image forming apparatus with reset operation processing unit
An image forming apparatus includes an image supporting member; a developer supporting member for attaching developer to a static latent image formed on a surface of the image supporting member; a developer layer forming member for forming a developer layer on the developer supporting member; a developer supply member for supplying developer to the developer supporting member; a developer supporting member voltage applying unit for applying a voltage to the developer supporting member; a developer supplying member voltage applying unit for applying a voltage to the developer supplying member; and a reset operation processing unit for setting a reset mode over a specific period of time, so that a bias difference in the reset mode between the voltage applied with the developer supporting member voltage applying unit and the voltage applied with the developer supplying member voltage applying unit becomes smaller than that in a printing mode. |
| US08346108B2 |
Image forming apparatus
Disclosed herein is an image forming apparatus capable of avoiding positional interference between an electrical potential sensor and a developing device during the installation or separation of the developing device. The positional interference is prevented by moving the electrical potential sensor out of the movement path of the developing device in association with the opening/closing movement a cover for an access opening in the body of the image forming apparatus for the installation/separation of the developing device. A link device connects the cover and the electrical potential sensor to each other so as to cause the movement of the electrical potential sensor in linkage with the opening/closing of the cover. The link device serves as an anti-interference device that prevents the positional interference between the developing device and the electrical potential sensor. |
| US08346105B2 |
Information storage device, removable device, developer container, and image forming apparatus
An information storage device installed in a removable device configured to be removably installed in an image forming apparatus body, includes: an information storage unit that stores information communicated between the image forming apparatus body and the removable device; a terminal that comes in contact with a body side terminal; and a substrate that holds the information storage unit and the terminal and includes a hole configured to be engaged with a protruding section installed in the image forming apparatus body. The terminal includes a plurality of terminals each including one of a plurality of metallic plates arranged in a transverse direction thereof. An earth terminal, which comes in contact with a body side earth terminal formed in the protruding section, is formed in the hole. The hole is disposed at a position sandwiched between two metallic plates among the plurality of metallic plates. |
| US08346104B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a process cartridge. In the case where the process cartridge is a fresh cartridge, after toner (developer) is sufficiently fed to a developer carrying member in the entire longitudinal area of the developer carrying member, an initializing operation for depositing the toner on a contact portion between an image bearing member and a cleaning blade. |
| US08346103B2 |
Destination dedicating apparatus, printing apparatus, print kiosk apparatus, destination dedicating method, and program
The present invention provides a destination dedicating apparatus including a destination information reading section and a destination information recording section. The destination information reading section is configured to read destination information from a storage area mounted on a consumable good when the consumable good is first mounted into a printing apparatus. The destination information recording section is configured to record the destination information read above into a storage area provided in the printing apparatus to thereby set the printing apparatus to a dedicated machine for the consumable good having the specific destination information. |
| US08346101B2 |
Systems and methods for diagnostic monitoring of optical modulation amplitude at an optical receiver using automatic gain control
Optical receivers and a method for providing a diagnostic measurement of optical modulation amplitude at other than a signal output of an optical receiver are invented and disclosed. The method includes the steps of applying a representation of an output of an optical detector to a circuit that determines a difference between a first signal level and a second signal level that is different from the first signal level and buffering the difference between the first signal level and the second signal level received from the circuit. The optical receivers include an optical detector, a transimpedance amplifier that applies automatic gain control, a circuit that determines a difference between two signal values and a limiting post amplifier. The receivers provide a diagnostic measure that can be compared to certain thresholds relating to known bit error rates or applied in a calculation to generate an absolute optical modulation amplitude value. |
| US08346100B2 |
Apparatus and method for monitoring received optical power in an optical receiver over a wide range of received power with high accuracy
A method and apparatus for use in an optical receiver are provided for monitoring the received optical power in the optical receiver over wide range of optical power levels with high accuracy. An adjustable resistor circuit of the apparatus has a first resistor and one or more second resistors that may be switched into and out of parallel with the first resistor to vary the resistance of the adjustable resistor circuit. A controller of the optical receiver controls the switching of the one or more second resistors into and out of parallel with the first resistor. Varying the resistance of the adjustable resistor circuit in this manner causes the value of the analog voltage signal representing the received optical power to be varied prior to being input to the ADC of the controller. In this way, the amplitude of the analog voltage signal is reduced when it is at the high end of the received power range so as not to exceed the input range of the ADC of the controller IC. When the amplitude of the analog voltage signal is at the lower end of the input range of the ADC, the amplitude of the analog voltage signal is not reduced. In this way, a wide range of received power is monitored with high accuracy. |
| US08346098B2 |
Receiving apparatus and receiving method
A receiving apparatus is provided, which includes: a photoelectric detector (PD), adapted to generate current signals according to optical signals projected on the PD and digitally modulated at a high or low rate; a first switch, adapted to switch to output the high-rate or low-rate current signals; a first transimpedance amplifier (TIA), adapted to amplify the high-rate current signals into high-rate voltage signals; and a second TIA, adapted to amplify the received low-rate current signals into low-rate voltage signals. Therefore, in the present invention, high-rate and low-rate receiving paths are completely separated. This provides signals with good quality and avoids signal deterioration; and switching between the high-rate and low-rate receiving paths simplifies the structure and lowers costs. |
| US08346095B2 |
System and method for providing multi-provider telecommunications services over a passive optical network
A method for providing access to a passive optical network for services to homes or businesses from two or more telecommunications service providers and a billing means is described. A first service provider connects to a point of presence at one side of passive optical network. The provider transmits the appropriate services through this network to an authorization receiver. The authorization receiver is used to receive a periodic authorization code from the network provider to enable the appropriate services from the service provider to be transmitted to a subscriber at a home or business. The authorization receiver enables an optical fiber path to be established for the services to flow to and from the home or business. The authorization code that is transmitted through the network also provides an unambiguous means to provide a billing record such that the service provider can be billed by the network provider on an individual service address connected basis in conjunction with a record of houses passed and not yet connected. |
| US08346092B2 |
Antenna device
An antenna device is provided, which includes a first antenna unit and a second antenna unit. The first antenna unit includes a first radiation module, a power divider/combiner network connected to the first radiation module, and a feeder interface connected to the power divider/combiner network. The feeder interface is connected to a radio remote unit (RRU) or a macro base station through a feeder. The second antenna unit includes a second radiation module, a transceiver array connected to the second radiation module, a baseband processing unit (BPU) connected to the transceiver array, and an optical fiber interface connected to the BPU. The optical fiber interface is connected to a baseband unit (BBU) through an optical fiber. Therefore, after the existing passive antenna is replaced by the provided antenna device, the RRU or macro base station in the original network can still be used, which reduces waste of resources. |
| US08346089B2 |
Methods for expanding cross-connect capacity in a ROADM optical network
A reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) transport network comprising a plurality of optical fan-out devices and a first plurality and a second plurality of demultiplexers for locally dropping selected wavelengths; and first plurality and a second plurality of multiplexers for locally adding selected wavelengths, the first and second plurality disposed in a cascaded relationship to enable selective coupling between network degrees. |
| US08346088B2 |
Controllable optical add/drop multiplexer
The inventions relate to a method for operating a controllable selective optical add/drop channel for fiber-optic communication system provided with 2N of wavelength-division multiplexing channels, whose optical frequencies are retunable at a constant frequency separations Δv between adjacent channels, with the aid of the inventive controllable optical add/drop multiplexers (70, 80, 90) that comprise multi-stage structures of optical filters ({75-i}, {85-i}, {95-i}), that are connected in different manner and provided with devices, for example electro-optical and thermo-optical phase shift devices, for controllable tuning the transmissions characteristics thereof. The optical filters are embodied in the form of single-stage (20), two-stage (40) and/or multi-stage (60) asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometers. The controllable optical add/drop multiplexer can be produced according to integrated optic technique in the form of monolithic solid-state device. |
| US08346085B2 |
Dual-filter optical network interface unit and method of removing noise using same
A network interface unit includes an input for receiving downstream signals from an optical fiber, an optical pathway leading from the input, a laser connected to the optical pathway for transmitting upstream signals in a first wavelength band, and a receiver for receiving downstream signals in a second wavelength band that doesn't overlap with the first wavelength band. A first filter is provided for filtering signals in a third wavelength band from the optical pathway before signals in the third wavelength band reach the receiver, and a second filter is provided between the input and the laser for filtering signals in a fourth wavelength band from the optical pathway, the fourth wavelength band not overlapping with the first wavelength band or the third wavelength band, and an arrangement is also provided for preventing processing of the fourth wavelength band downstream of the second filter. Also a filtering method. |
| US08346083B2 |
Bandwidth allocation method and passive optical network system
An optical line terminal calculates a requirement threshold for each optical subscriber unit based on a difference between the time average allocated bandwidth of each optical subscriber unit and the target bandwidth, and notifies a corresponding optical subscriber unit of the calculated requirement threshold. The corresponding optical subscriber unit then notifies, based on the data amount accumulated in a buffer, the optical line terminal of a data amount, as a transmission requirement, up to a data separation that is less or equal to the notified requirement threshold and in which a maximum transmission amount can be transmitted. The optical line terminal then notifies the corresponding optical subscriber unit of a transmission permission amount in which the data equal to the transmission requirement of which the optical line terminal is notified can be transmitted. The corresponding optical subscriber unit then transmits the data amount corresponding to the transmission permission amount. |
| US08346076B2 |
Image sensor inspection device
An inspection device for visually inspecting an image sensor of a digital recording device, such as a digital camera. The inspection device includes a tubular housing and a lens mounted therein. The housing is configured to engage a lens interface of a camera body. A lighting assembly is provided that is configured to illuminate the image sensor when the inspection device is coupled to a digital camera body so that the image sensor may be visually inspected for contamination. |
| US08346073B2 |
Image taking apparatus
According to an aspect of the present invention, once the mode setting device sets the person photographing mode, and the face zooming instruction device instructs zooming to the face of the person, the detection device detects the size of the face of the person captured by the image pickup device. The zooming device is then controlled so as to capture the face of the person in a certain size based on the detection result. Subsequently, the photographer instructs zooming in the telephoto direction or the wide direction using the zooming instruction device as necessary to thereby allow fine adjustment of the composition. This enables to easily and quickly photograph an image in a user's desired composition. |
| US08346072B2 |
Camera-steady focus requirements for preventing inconspicuous use of cameras on handheld mobile communication devices
Methods and devices for implementing a camera restriction on a wireless handheld communication device. As more handheld devices incorporate camera functionalities, organizations and individuals with privacy concerns are more vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure. The camera restriction prevents a user from taking a picture of a subject if the device has not been steadily focused on the subject in question for a predetermined period of time. In short, this process extends the normal camera-taking procedure and thus requires the camera user to take pictures in a conspicuous manner—the rationale being that a camera user would be less likely to take unauthorized pictures if such actions could be easily recognized. The camera restriction can be communicated to the device via a wireless communication network. Additionally, the restrictions and boundaries can be communicated to the device as part of an IT security policy. |
| US08346069B2 |
Water heating apparatus
A water heating apparatus includes a water tank and at least one heating member mounted inside the water tank. The heating member includes a heating body, at least a multi-layer conductive coating of nano-thickness deposited on the heating body, and electrodes coupled to the multi-layer conductive coating. The multi-layer conductive coating includes a structure and composition which stabilize performance of the heating member at high temperature. The heating body can be made of ceramic glass in the form of a flat plate. |
| US08346068B2 |
Substrate rotating and oscillating apparatus for rapid thermal process
Disclosed is a substrate rotating and oscillating apparatus for a rapid thermal process (RTP), that oscillates an oscillation plate using an oscillation motor moved by an elevating unit. Rotational shafts of the oscillation motor comprise lower and upper center rotational shafts mounted on a central axis of the motor, and an eccentric shaft mounted between the lower and the upper center rotational shafts as deviated from the central axis. An oscillation cam is mounted to the eccentric cam. The oscillation plate has an oscillation hole for inserting the oscillation cam therein. A bearing is mounted between the oscillation cam and the eccentric shaft such that the oscillation cam rotates independently from the eccentric shaft. The oscillation plate supports the whole multipole-magnetized magnetic motor or maglev motor. Accordingly, the substrate can be uniformly heated by both rotating and all-directionally oscillating the substrate. |
| US08346064B2 |
Recording apparatus, recording method, program and computer-readable recording medium
On a recording medium, there are recorded content files and an index file. The index file is constituted by attribute information of the content files (title text data, thumbnail-image data or the like). In the case of changing (recording or deleting) the content file, the index file is updated after the change. A computer sets up, in a nonvolatile memory, status information indicative of being in a predetermined process stage, during the predetermined process stage from a start of changing the content file to a termination of updating the index file. The computer, at turning on power, determines the matching/mismatching between the content and index files recorded on the recording medium utilizing the status information, thus repairing the index file as required. |
| US08346062B2 |
Information processing device, information recording medium manufacturing device, information recording medium, methods thereof, and computer program
An information processing device includes: a modified data generating unit for generating modified data obtained by modifying content configuration data; a fix-up table generating unit for generating a fix-up table in which transformation data serving as an object to be replaced with the modified data is registered; and a data recording unit for recording content including the modified data and the fix-up table in an information recording medium; wherein the modified data generating unit is configured so as to execute data modification processing with the configuration units of MPEG encoded data included in a TS packet making up content as data modification processing units. |
| US08346052B2 |
Data transmission and reception system, data repeating apparatus, data receiving apparatus, data repeating method, and data receiving method
In an HDMI-connected AV system, bidirectional data transmission between two devices is implemented at low cost. An audio amplifying device serving as an HDMI source and a display device as an HDMI sink are connected additionally using an auxiliary transmission path such as IEEE 1394, so that the data received by the display device 3 from another device is transmitted to the audio amplifying device 2 over the auxiliary transmission path. In this setup, the display device 3 generates a CTS based on a clock regenerated by ACR and on a TMDS clock received from the audio amplifying device 2 via the HDMI, and transmits the CTS over the auxiliary transmission path along with a frequency dividing ratio N. The audio amplifying device generates an audio signal clock from the CTS and N thus received. |
| US08346051B2 |
Recording apparatus and recording method
A recording and reproducing apparatus (100) can record information on a recording memory (111) having a recording region where a smallest unit for erasing recorded information is a block, on a unit of a cluster that is a unit smaller than the block. The recording and reproducing apparatus (100) includes: an input unit (130) that receives a request for starting or ending recording a file; and a system control unit (101) that records a header section of the file and a data section following the header section, from the beginning of the block in the recording region, when the request for starting recording is received; and updates the header section and records the updated header section on another cluster different from the cluster on which the header section before update is recorded when the request for ending recording is received. The system control unit (101) further corrects management information indicating a connection order of information recorded on each of the clusters included by the recording medium so that the updated header section is followed by the data section, when the updated header section is recorded on the other cluster. |
| US08346048B2 |
Front light devices and methods of fabrication thereof
A illumination device comprises a light guide having a first end for receiving light and configured to support propagation of light along the length of the light guide. A turning microstructure is disposed on a first side of the light guide configured to turn light incident on the first side and to direct the light out a second opposite side of the light guide, wherein the turning microstructure comprises a plurality of indentations. A cover is physically coupled to the light guide and disposed over the turning microstructure. An interlayer is between the cover and the light guide, wherein the interlayer physically couples the cover to the light guide. A plurality of open regions is between the interlayer and the plurality of indentations. Various embodiments include methods of coupling the cover to the light guide while preserving open regions between the cover and plurality of indentations. |
| US08346045B2 |
Fiber optic splitter module
A telecommunications assembly includes a chassis and a plurality of fiber optic splitter modules mounted within the chassis. Each splitter module includes at least one fiber optic connector. Within an interior of the chassis are positioned at least one fiber optic adapter. Inserting the splitter module through a front opening of the chassis at a mounting location positions the connector of the splitter module for insertion into and mating with the adapter of the chassis. The adapters mounted within the interior of the chassis are integrally formed as part of a removable adapter assembly. A method of mounting a fiber optic splitter module within a telecommunications chassis is also disclosed. |
| US08346041B2 |
Optical communications system
The present invention relates to an optical communications system that allows improving OSNR while suppressing the power increase of pumping light for distributed Raman amplification. In the optical communications system, an optical fiber is laid in a transmission section between a transmitter station (or repeater station) and a receiver station (or repeater station), and optical signals are transmitted from the transmitter station to the receiver station via the optical fiber. In the optical communications system, pumping light for Raman amplification, outputted by a pumping light source provided in the receiver station, is fed into the optical fiber via an optical coupler, and the optical signals are distributed-Raman-amplified in the optical fiber. The transmission loss and the effective area of the optical fiber satisfy, at the wavelength of 1550 nm, a predetermined relationship. |
| US08346038B2 |
Method and device for optically coupling optical fibres
An optical coupler, the optical coupler being usable with a first optical fibre and a second optical fibre. The second optical fibre defines a second fibre coupling section and a second fibre transmitting section extending from the second fibre coupling section. The second fibre coupling section defines a radially outwardmost peripheral surface, the radially outwardmost peripheral surface defining a peripheral surface coupling portion. The optical coupler includes a coupler first end section and a substantially opposed coupler second end section, the coupler first end section defining a first coupling surface. The optical coupler defines a second coupling surface extending along the coupler first and second end sections. The first coupling surface is optically couplable with the first optical fibre and the second coupling surface is positionable so as to extend substantially parallel to the peripheral surface coupling portion and to be optically coupled with the peripheral surface coupling portion. The optical coupler has optical and geometrical properties such that substantially all the light guided to the first coupling surface by the first optical fibre is directed towards the second coupling surface and into the second optical fibre through the peripheral surface coupling portion so as to be guided into the second fibre coupling section for transmission into the second fibre transmitting portion. |
| US08346036B2 |
Confocal optical system
A confocal optical system comprising a scanning fiber is provided. The scanning fiber is a single-mode fiber of which a first end is shaped as a curved surface. The scanning fiber transmits illumination light to the first end. The illumination light is emitted toward an observation area. The illumination light emanates from the first end. The illumination light emanates from the first end striking a target area within the observation area. The first end receives at least one of reflected light and fluorescence from the target area. The reflected light is the illumination light reflected from the target area. The fluorescence is induced at the target area by illumination from the illumination light. |
| US08346035B2 |
Two stage integrator assembly
A modular radiation integrator assembly including a radiation source that emits radiation, a first integrator module including a first input port and a first output port, an adjust tube configured to partially receive the first integrator module and engage the radiation source in a manner such that the radiation emitted by the radiation source travels to and enters the first input port, and a second integrator module including a second input port and second output port, the second integrator module couplable to the first integrator module outside the adjust tube in a manner such that the radiation exits the first output port and enters the second input port. |
| US08346034B2 |
Optical selector switch and signal-processing apparatus
An optical selector includes: an optical waveguide which includes a first light guide section having a first refractive index, a second light guide section having a second refractive index provided to the side of and along the entire circumference of the first light guide section, and a reflector provided at opposing positions on both surfaces of each of the first and second light guide sections while exposing the outer circumferential surface of the second light guide section; a single or plurality of LDs that are placed on the outer circumference of the optical waveguide, and emit light toward the first light guide section; and a single or plurality of photodetectors that are placed on the outer circumference of the optical waveguide, and receive light emitted from the outer circumference of the optical waveguide. |
| US08346033B2 |
Optical coupler and producing method thereof
A method for producing the optical coupler includes mounting a first conversion element on an upper surface of a first terminal plate, mounting a second conversion element on an upper surface of a second terminal plate, supplying a translucent primary mold resin in a fluidized state to the upper surfaces of the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate such that the first conversion element and the second conversion element are covered with the primary mold resin, curing the primary mold resin while inverting vertically the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate to retain the primary mold resin in a state in which the primary mold resin hangs from the first terminal plate and the second terminal plate, and covering a surface of the primary mold resin with a secondary mold resin having a refractive index lower than that of the primary mold resin. |
| US08346031B2 |
Micro-resonator sensor using evanescent wave of total reflection mirror
A micro-resonator sensor uses an evanescent wave of a total reflection mirror. The sensor includes an input waveguide for guiding inspection light incidented on one end section to the other section. A total reflection mirror is disposed at the other section of the input waveguide such that an incident angle made with the input waveguide is larger than a total reflection threshold angle at which the inspection light is totally reflected, and includes a receptor provided on the other side from the side on which the inspection light is incidented and combined with a measurement-subject material. An output waveguide is disposed at a certain output angle relative to the total reflection mirror for outputting a reflection light whose intensity changes according to the measurement-subject material due to an interaction between the evanescent wave generated by the inspection light incidented to the total reflection mirror and the measurement-subject material. |
| US08346030B2 |
Polarization-independent waveguide-type optical interference circuit
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit (700) is provided with two couplers (722, 724) and two arm waveguides (706, 708) connecting the couplers with each other, each fabricated on a substrate, in which a polarization rotation device (732) is disposed in a groove dividing each of the two arm waveguides into two, the polarization rotation device (732) for converting vertically polarized light into horizontally polarized light, and birefringence is adjusted by performing laser irradiation or the like partially into at least one of the two arm waveguides such that a difference between birefringence values divided by an optical wavelength to be used is within a range of 2 m-0.2 to 2 m+0.2 (m is an integer including zero), the birefringence values being those integrated linearly along the respective two arm waveguides in an optical signal travelling direction. |
| US08346028B2 |
Optical device having modulator employing horizontal electrical field
The optical device includes a waveguide on a base. The device also includes a modulator on the base. The modulator includes an electro-absorption medium configured to receive a light signal from the waveguide. The modulator also includes field sources for generating an electrical field in the electro-absorption medium. The electro-absorption medium is a medium in which the Franz-Keldysh effect occurs in response to the formation of the electrical field in the electro-absorption medium. The field sources are configured so the electrical field is substantially parallel to the base. |
| US08346021B2 |
Content adaptive scaler based on a farrow structure
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an image processing system. The image processing system may comprise a content detection module having an input to receive a sequence of input pixels and configured to generate an adjustable parameter based on detected differences between adjacent pairs of input pixels, and a digital filter having an input for the sequence of input pixels and a control input coupled to an output of the content detection module. The digital filter may adjust filtering coefficients according to the parameter. |
| US08346014B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method and program
An image processing apparatus includes the following elements. An image storing section stores a plurality of images related to time information. A feature extracting section extracts feature amounts of each image stored in the image storing section. An image selecting section that selects at least one of images included in each overlap portion set of several or all of the images, stored in the image storing section, on the basis of the feature amounts associated with the respective images included in the overlap portion set, the overlap portion set including overlap portions of several or all of the images overlapping with respect to shooting time. A digest-image generating section generates a digest image of the images stored in the image storing section on the basis of the selected images. |
| US08346012B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method and program
An image processing apparatus includes a plurality of addition means and an image processing means. The addition means performs addition processing of adding pixels of a differential image at a second resolution representing a difference between an inputted image at a first resolution and an image at the second resolution higher than the first resolution as pixels of an inputted image at the second resolution. The image processing means is configured to perform second and subsequent addition processing, and generate an image of the second resolution as a processing result by performing the addition processing for a predetermined number of times. The addition processing is performed with inputs of an image at the first resolution and an image at the second resolution obtained by an immediately preceding addition processing, which are different from each other. |
| US08345999B2 |
System and method for monochrome binary compression on legacy devices
Disclosed is a system and method for monochrome or binary compression, and more particularly compression of binary images segmented in a binary domain into at least two regions of different image types, where the regions are compressed using different compression techniques. |
| US08345998B2 |
Compression scheme selection based on image data type and user selections
Disclosed is a processor-implemented method for processing image data comprising a plurality of pixels and system for performing the method. The method includes the following acts: determining at least one type of data represented by the plurality of pixels, determining, for each type of data, a number of pixels from the image data representing that type of data in the image data, and determining a compression scheme for compressing the image data based on a relative or absolute amount of each type of data in accordance with a predetermined scheme. The type of data may be determined by received input (e.g., user selected type and compression quality) or by analyzing its pixels and comparing it to thresholds. Basing the compression technique on the data type allows for better selection of a compression technique (e.g., MRC or JPEG), and thus greater image quality, compression ratios, and file size. |
| US08345997B2 |
Method of compressing sequence of strokes
A method of compressing a sequence of strokes input at an input device of a processing system is provided in which each stroke input at the input device is represented as a series of digital words representing x and y co-ordinates, and a co-ordinate is expressed as an offset from a preceding co-ordinate by combining a residual error value and an estimate calculated from the previous m co-ordinates using the formula: a ~ n = ∑ i = 1 m c i α n - i where ci are coefficients selected to model characteristics of the input strokes, and α represents either an x or a y co-ordinate. |
| US08345996B2 |
Determination of a field referencing pattern
Several methods and a system to perform determination of a field referencing pattern are disclosed. In one aspect, a method is disclosed. A motion vector of a previously coded frame is analyzed using a processor and a memory. A statistic is updated based on whether the motion vector includes one or more of a fractional pel vertical component, a half pel vertical component, and an integer pel vertical component. A field referencing pattern of a target field is determined based on the statistic and an exception protocol. |
| US08345991B2 |
Content-based image compression
A technique for selecting portions of a multi-resolution medical image data set to be stored and the portions of the multi-resolution medical image data set to be discarded in order to reduce the overall amount of image data that is stored for each image data set. The selection is based on the clinical purpose for obtaining the medical image data. The clinical purpose for obtaining the medical image is used to select a segmentation algorithm to segment the image data into several regions based on their relevance to the purpose for obtaining the image data. A mask is created from the segmented data. The mask is used to assign data compression quality factors to corresponding regions in the image data. The image data in each region is compressed based on their assigned quality factor. The image data that is highly relevant is compressed with lossless data compression. The image data in regions of lesser relevance are compressed with lossy data compression. The image data that is of no relevance for the purpose that the image data was obtained is discarded. |
| US08345990B2 |
System for creating a capsule representation of an instructional video
A method is provided that creates a lecture video capsule containing highlights of an original instructional video based on visual quality and content. The method includes segmenting and recognizing activities in the instructional video using a hidden Markov model (HMM). The activities are classified into three categories: talking head, writing hand and slideshow. The talking head frames are classified as non-content frames, while the writing hand and slideshows are classified as content frames. A non-reference based objective quality assessment of the non-content frames may be performed to detect high quality frames. Statistical parameters of an intensity histogram and a horizontal projection profile (HPP) of the content frames may be used to derive an objective quality measure of the content frames that is used to extract high quality content frames. The selected high quality non-content and content frames form a video clip or capsule, which is a temporally compressed representation of the video. |
| US08345983B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, image processing system and computer readable medium
An image processing apparatus includes a characteristic region detecting section that detects a characteristic region in an image, an image dividing section that divides the image into the characteristic region and a background region other than the characteristic region, and a compressing section that compresses a characteristic region image which is an image of the characteristic region and a background region image which is an image of the background region at different strengths from each other. The characteristic region detecting section detects the characteristic region in a plurality of moving-image-component images included in a moving image, the image dividing section divides each of the plurality of moving-image-component images into the characteristic region and the background region, and the compressing section compresses a characteristic region moving image including a plurality of characteristic region images and a background region moving image including a plurality of background region images at different strengths from each other. |
| US08345980B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable storage medium to determine whether a manuscript is an original by using paper fingerprint information
According to the present invention, authenticities of paper fingerprint information and of document information are collectively determined through formation of an original that is given an encoded image in which both paper fingerprint information and document information are encoded. By collectively guaranteeing identities of the paper form and of the document, it becomes possible to realize the more reliable authenticity guarantee. |
| US08345978B2 |
Detecting position of word breaks in a textual line image
Line segmentation in an OCR process is performed to detect the positions of words within an input textual line image by extracting features from the input to locate breaks and then classifying the breaks into one of two break classes which include inter-word breaks and inter-character breaks. An output including the bounding boxes of the detected words and a probability that a given break belongs to the identified class can then be provided to downstream OCR or other components for post-processing. Advantageously, by reducing line segmentation to the extraction of features, including the position of each break and the number of break features, and break classification, the task of line segmentation is made less complex but with no loss of generality. |
| US08345975B2 |
Automatic exposure estimation for HDR images based on image statistics
A method of segmenting regions of an image wherein a number of partitions are determined based on a range of an image histogram in a logarithmic luminance domain. Regions are defined by the partitions. A mean value of each region is calculated by K-means clustering wherein the clustering is initialized, data is assigned and centroids are updated. Anchor points are determined based on the centroids and a weight of each pixel is computed based on the anchor points. |
| US08345973B2 |
Adaptive light method and system for low power architectures
Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method are described for an adaptive light method for low power architecture. A histogram with a plurality of bins may be determined based on luminance for an image. A tone differential may be decreased based on a sum of pixel counts from adjacent bins. The image may be displayed based at least in part on a tone differential of a bin. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08345972B2 |
Method for processing color component values of pixel
A method for processing a pixel having a plurality of color component values includes: utilizing a processing circuit to generate elements of a skin color correction matrix according to elements of a global color correction matrix and a predetermined value corresponding to the pixel; utilizing the processing circuit to generate elements of a current color correction matrix according to elements of the global color correction matrix, the skin color correction matrix and the color component values of the pixel; and adjusting the color component values of the pixel according to the elements of the current color correction matrix. |
| US08345971B2 |
Method and system for spatial-temporal denoising and demosaicking for noisy color filter array videos
A method for spatial-temporal denoising and demosaicking for noisy color filter array (CFA) video, the method including applying spatial-temporal CFA video denoising (11) to the CFA video in order to generate a denoised CFA, applying initial color demosaicking (CDM) (19) to the denoised CFA video in order to generate a demosaicked video, and applying spatial-temporal post-processing (26) to the demosaicked video in order to reduce CDM artifacts and CDM errors and enhance the quality of the video. |
| US08345969B2 |
Method for efficient compression and decoding of single sensor color image data
A method is described to greatly improve the efficiency of and reduce the complexity of image compression when using single-sensor color imagers for video acquisition. The method in addition allows for this new image compression type to be compatible with existing video processing tools, improving the workflow for film and television production. |
| US08345965B2 |
Method and apparatus for positioning edges of photograph
A method for positioning edges of a photograph, includes flowing steps. A photograph taken by a camera module of an electronic device is obtained. RGB values of the pixels of the photograph are processed to get corresponding RGB modification values of the pixels of the photograph. Positions of vertexes of the photograph are computed according to the RGB modification values. The vertexes are connected to form edges of the photograph. |
| US08345963B2 |
System for image analysis in a network that is structured with multiple layers and differentially weighted neurons
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for facilitating the usage of an online workforce to remotely monitor security-sensitive sites and report potential security breaches. In some embodiments, cameras are configured to monitor critical civilian infrastructure, such as water supplies and nuclear reactors. The cameras are operatively connected to a central computer or series of computers, and images captured by the cameras are transmitted to the central computer. After initially registering with the central computer, Guardians “log on” to a central website hosted by the central computer and monitor the images, thereby earning compensation. Site owners compensate the operator of the computer system for this monitoring service, and the operator in turn compensates Guardians based on, for example, (i) the amount of time spent monitoring, and/or (ii) the degree of a given Guardian's responsiveness to real or fabricated security breaches. |
| US08345962B2 |
Transfer learning methods and systems for feed-forward visual recognition systems
A method and system for training a neural network of a visual recognition computer system, extracts at least one feature of an image or video frame with a feature extractor; approximates the at least one feature of the image or video frame with an auxiliary output provided in the neural network; and measures a feature difference between the extracted at least one feature of the image or video frame and the approximated at least one feature of the image or video frame with an auxiliary error calculator. A joint learner of the method and system adjusts at least one parameter of the neural network to minimize the measured feature difference. |
| US08345957B2 |
Data processing apparatus, X-ray apparatus, and data processing method
An example of the present invention is a data processing apparatus including, a saving part configured to save three-dimensional data of a subject, a two-dimensional image display part configured to display three-dimensional data of the subject as a two-dimensional image, a designation part configured to designate coordinate information associated with a specific coordinate point on the two-dimensional image, a specifying part configured to specify, based on the coordinate information designated on the two-dimensional image, coordinate information on the corresponding three-dimensional data, and a calculation part configured to calculate a view angle of the subject on the basis of the coordinate information on the three-dimensional data. |
| US08345955B2 |
Characterizing thermomechanical properties of an organic substrate using finite element analysis
A method for characterizing thermomechanical properties of an organic substrate is provided. The method includes the steps of: receiving an image of the organic substrate, the image including a geometric description of the plurality of circuit layers of the substrate; selecting a given one of the plurality of circuit layers for processing; converting the image to a two-dimensional finite element model (FEM) image of the given one of the circuit layers; determining at least one of a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), modulus and Poisson's ratio of the FEM image of the given one of the circuit layers; repeating the steps of selecting a given one of the plurality of circuit layers, converting the image to a two-dimensional FEM image, and determining at least one of a CTE, modulus and Poisson's ratio of the FEM image for all of the plurality of circuit layers corresponding to at least a portion of the organic substrate; and constructing a three-dimensional representation of at least a portion of the organic substrate including the plurality of circuit layers as a function of at least one of the CTE, modulus and Poisson's ratio of each of the plurality of circuit layers. |
| US08345951B2 |
Image binarizing method, image processing device, and computer program
A binarizing method for binarizing an original image of an electrode pad on a substrate. The method includes the steps of processing an electrode image to generate a binary image of the electrode by binarzing the original image with a first threshold value, calculating a contact trace area to calculate the contact trace area including a portion that is predicted to be a trace of an object that contacted the electrode from the binary image of the electrode, processing a contact trace image to generate the contact trace area binary image by binarizing the original image of the area extracted by the contact trace area extracting unit with a second threshold value different from the first threshold value, and synthesizing the images to synthesize the binary image of the electrode and the contact trace area binary image by taking a logical sum on a corresponding pixel to pixel basis. |
| US08345950B2 |
System and method for testing a multimeter
A system and method for testing a multimeter provides a mechanical arm to set a gear of the multimeter. Values displayed on the multimeter are captured by a camera. The computer obtains the displayed values from captured images using a difference image method. If a difference between each two obtained values is in an allowable error range of the multimeter, the computer displays that the gear is qualified. If the difference between each two obtained values is not in the allowable error range, the computer displays that the gear is out of tolerance. |
| US08345949B2 |
Sequential approach for automatic defect recognition
A method of automatic defect recognition includes receiving a initial set of inspection image data of a scanned object from a scanning machine; applying a first image analysis algorithm to this set of inspection image data; then removing from the set of inspection image data any defect-free image regions, so as to retain a set of analyzed inspection image data; applying an additional image analysis algorithm(s) to the set of analyzed inspection image data, wherein the additional algorithm(s) has a higher computational cost than the first image analysis algorithm; and based on the applying of the additional image analysis algorithm(s), removing from the first set of inspection image data a second set of defect-free image regions, thereby retaining a set of twice-analyzed inspection image data. |
| US08345945B2 |
Motion artifact compensation
A technique for correcting translational and rotational motion of an object, such as an object in a magnetic field, utilizes the k-space representation of the object. An initial region in the k-space representation is used as a motion-free reference region, indicative of the motion-free object. Motion-free data adjacent to the initial region are then estimated by extrapolating from the initial region, and the extrapolated data are subsequently used to estimate motion by correlating it with actual data. Segments adjacent to the initial region are then motion corrected and incorporated into an expanding base region. The expanded base region is used in subsequent correction steps. This process is continued until the entire k-space is motion-corrected. Two different extrapolation methods were used for the purpose of motion estimation: edge enhancement and finite-support solution. One technique is utilized near the k-space center and the other is utilized in the outer k-space regions. |
| US08345943B2 |
Method and apparatus for registration and comparison of medical images
Methods and apparatuses disclosed herein process medical images, for comparison and analysis of the images. The method according to one embodiment accesses digital image data representing a first medical image and a second medical image; registers the second image to the first image using a specific region preserving registration or specific regions preserving registration, to obtain a registered second image; and compares the first image and the registered second image. |
| US08345942B2 |
Method and apparatus for detection of caries
A method for obtaining an image of tooth tissue directs incident light toward a tooth, wherein the incident light excites a fluorescent emission from the tooth tissue. Fluorescence image data is obtained from the fluorescent emission. Back-scattered reflectance image data is obtained from back-scattered light from the tooth tissue. The fluorescence and back-scattered reflectance image data are combined to form an enhanced image of the tooth tissue for caries detection. |
| US08345941B2 |
Biological imaging device
Optical waveguide paths to observe a sample on a sample holder from a plurality of directions while guiding an image of light in each direction which is emitted out of the sample toward a direction of a two dimensional detector via a main imaging lens include an optical waveguide path which never receives the light directly from the sample. The optical waveguide path which never receives the light directly from the sample forms an image of the sample within a substantial focus range of the main imaging lens, and includes optical elements arranged such that a light beam after formation of the image proceeds toward a direction of the main imaging lens. Optical elements on at least one optical waveguide path are those for forming real images. Therefore, the main imaging lens images the sample and those real images in block on the two dimensional detector. |
| US08345940B2 |
Method and system for automatic processing and evaluation of images, particularly diagnostic images
Method for automatic processing and evaluation of images, particularly diagnostic images, comprising an image processing tool in the form of a software program which is executable by the computer hardware and which image processing tool processes image data of a digital input image generating a modified digital output image whose image data are outputted in a graphical and/or alphanumerical format highlighting certain predetermined features or qualities of the corresponding regions of an imaged body or object, characterized in that the image processing tool comprises a first image detecting module which is an image processing module based on image processing non expert algorithms and which furnishes at its output a modified image file which modified image data are further processed by a classification or evaluation module which is a second image processing module comprising an image processing tool consisting in an expert image processing algorithm such as a classification or prediction algorithm the output of which is a further modified image file in which the pixels or voxels are highlighted corresponding to imaged object having a predetermined feature or quality. |
| US08345936B2 |
Multispectral iris fusion for enhancement and interoperability
A multispectral iris recognition system includes a multispectral camera adapted to acquire spatially registered iris images simultaneously in at least three wavelengths and a database adapted to store the acquired iris images. A texture analysis section identifies an area within each acquired iris image having a maximum texture at each of the wavelengths. The identified areas are combined to generate an enhanced iris image. Additionally, a visible light iris image is acquired and stored along with a set of transformation mappings in a database. The acquired visible light iris image is modeled in a texture model, which clusters textures from the acquired visible light iris image. A mapping is selected from the database for each of the clusters. The selected mappings are applied to the acquired visible light iris image to generate a Near-Infrared equivalent. |
| US08345933B2 |
Procedure for identifying a person by eyelash analysis
A procedure for identifying a person with a data acquisition device (202) that is configured for capturing the image of their eyelashes (102, 104). The captured image is compared with eyelash images in a database. |
| US08345930B2 |
Method for computing food volume in a method for analyzing food
A computer-implemented method for estimating a volume of at least one food item on a food plate is disclosed. A first and second plurality of images are received from different positions above a food plate, wherein angular spacing between the positions of the first plurality of images is greater than angular spacing between the positions of the second plurality of images. A first set of poses of each of the first plurality of images is estimated. A second set of poses of each of the second plurality of images is estimated based on at least the first set of poses. A pair of images taken from each of the first and second plurality of images is rectified based on at least the first and second set of poses. A 3D point cloud is reconstructed based on at least the rectified pair of images. At least one surface of the at least one food item above the food plate is estimated based on at least the reconstructed 3D point cloud. The volume of the at least one food item is estimated based on the at least one surface. |
| US08345928B2 |
Localizing a surveying instrument in relation to a ground mark
A method is disclosed for localizing, in relation to a mark located at a ground level, a surveying instrument having a housing including at least one camera. In at least one embodiment, the method includes aligning the vertical rotational axis of the surveying instrument with the mark using a pointing device; capturing an image of the ground below the housing with the camera arranged in a known camera position and orientation, wherein the camera position is eccentric to the rotation center of the surveying instrument; identifying an object point corresponding to the mark in the captured image; measuring image coordinates of the object point in the captured image; and determining the height of the rotation center of said instrument above the ground based on the image coordinates and camera calibration data. Furthermore, a surveying instrument for performing at least one embodiment of the method is disclosed. |
| US08345927B2 |
Registration processing apparatus, registration method, and storage medium
A registration processing apparatus generates a polynomial to calculate a value corresponding to a distance from the surface of a target object in a first image, and acquires a plurality of position coordinates on the surface of the target object in a second image. Then the apparatus respectively calculates a value corresponding to the distance from the surface of the target object in the first image using the polynomial, for position coordinates obtained by coordinate conversion of the plurality of position coordinates. The apparatus coordinate-converts the position coordinates of the second image by a coordinate conversion method for the plurality of position coordinates determined based on the calculated values. |
| US08345926B2 |
Three dimensional scanning arrangement including dynamic updating
A three dimensional machine scanning arrangement for a machine traveling over a worksite includes a pair of scanners that are mounted on the machine. Each of the pair of scanners measures distances to a number of points on the ground at the worksite. One of the pair of scanners faces rearward and the other of the pair of scanners is faces forward. A control is responsive to the pair of scanners. The control determines the contour of the worksite. A display, mounted on the machine, is responsive to the control for displaying the contour of the worksite. |
| US08345918B2 |
Active subject privacy imaging
A method of surveilling a subject including a person's body may include or an imaging system may provide interrogating the subject with electromagnetic radiation, and generating, from the interrogating, image data representative of at least a first image of at least a portion of the person's body. In some examples, a first portion of the body may be identified, and a first feature of the image may be determined based at least partially on the identified portion of the body. In some examples, the orientation of the person's body may be determined from one or more features of one or more image portions. In some examples, a portion of the image of the person's body may be replaced with a substitute image portion that may be a modified portion of the first image. |
| US08345914B2 |
Voice coil bobbin and loudspeaker using the same
A loudspeaker includes a frame, a magnetic circuit, a voice coil bobbin, and a voice coil. The frame is mounted on a side of the magnetic circuit. The magnetic circuit defines a magnetic gap. The voice coil bobbin is disposed in the magnetic gap. The voice coil is wound around the voice coil bobbin. The voice coil bobbin includes a carbon nanotube layer structure. The carbon nanotube layer structure includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes. |
| US08345910B2 |
Microphone devices and methods for tuning microphone devices
The present invention relates generally to microphone devices useful, for example, in hearing aid devices. The present invention relates more particularly to tunable microphone devices, and methods used to tune them. One aspect of the present invention is a microphone device that includes at least one microphone element. Each microphone element comprises a diaphragm suspended by a substrate; a solid electrolyte disposed on the diaphragm; an anode electrically coupled to the solid electrolyte; and a cathode electrically coupled to the solid electrolyte. The solid electrolyte is disposed between the anode and the cathode, such that ions flowing from the anode to the cathode travel through the solid electrolyte and electrons can flow in the opposite direction. |
| US08345902B2 |
Hearing aid with means for decorrelating input and output signals
A hearing aid includes a microphone for converting sound into an audio input signal, a hearing loss processor configured for processing the audio input signal or a signal derived from the audio input signal in accordance with a hearing loss of a user of the hearing aid, a synthesizer configured for generation of a synthesized signal based at least on a sound model and the audio input signal, the synthesizer comprising a noise generator configured for excitation of the sound model for generation of the synthesized signal including synthesized vowels, and a receiver for generating an output sound signal based at least on the synthesized signal. |
| US08345896B2 |
Thermoacoustic device
A thermoacoustic device includes a thermoacoustic module, a first protection component, a second protection component, and an infrared-reflective film. The thermoacoustic module includes a sound wave generator, at least one first electrode and at least one second electrode. The at least one first electrode and the at least one second electrode are electrically connected to the sound wave generator. The sound wave generator includes a carbon nanotube structure, and the first and second protection components are located on opposite sides of the sound wave generator. The infrared-reflective film is located on the first protection component. |
| US08345894B2 |
Impedance converter for microphone and microphone
Vacuum tubes that receive output signals from microphone units through grids and with which the signals are output as outputs from cathode followers; FETs in cascade connection with the corresponding vacuum tubes and that define currents flowing in the vacuum tubes; and bias circuits that apply a bias voltage to the grids of the corresponding vacuum tubes are included. Pairs of such vacuum tubes, FETs, and fixed bias circuits are each symmetrically connected so that a balanced signal can be output from two cathode followers, and an adjuster is provided between the pair of fixed bias circuits, the adjuster adjusts currents flowing in the pair of vacuum tubes to achieve a balanced output. |
| US08345892B2 |
Front surround sound reproduction system using beam forming speaker array and surround sound reproduction method thereof
A front surround sound reproduction system using a speaker array, a front surround sound reproduction system to perform stereo localization using a beam forming speaker array, and a surround sound reproduction method thereof. A front surround sound reproduction apparatus using a plurality of speakers includes a first signal processing unit to adjust a frequency characteristic of each first and second channel signal and to output the adjusted signals to left and right speakers assigned according to a frequency band, a second signal processing unit to generate a plurality of channel signals by copying the first and second channel signals, to adjust a signal characteristic of each of the plurality of channel signals, and to output the adjusted signals to a speaker array in the center, and a speaker unit having a plurality of speakers to reproduce the signals output from the first signal processing unit and the second signal processing unit. |
| US08345882B2 |
Method for safeguarding data traffic between a first terminal and a first network and a second terminal and a second network
To safeguard data transmission, a first terminal communicates in a first network with the aid of at least one session key and a second terminal communicates in a second network with the aid of at least one session key. The first terminal is connected to the second terminal through a local interface. In the first terminal, at least one first session key is determined and at least one second session key is derived from the first session keys. At least one second session key is transmitted to the second terminal through the local interface by a safety protocol. The second terminal is authenticated to the second network by at least one second session key or by the key derived from the second session key(s) through an authentication protocol. |
| US08345878B2 |
Method for distributing cryptographic keys in a communication network
A method for generating one or more cryptographic keys between users A and B, in which A generates a public value sensitive to a MIM attack and decomposes it into m segments of redundancy o, and transmits this concatenated information with a reference message Na over the network via k routing paths and vice versa for B, A and B regenerate the common secret by recalculating the inverse transform of all the combinations of o segments and by choosing the value that is statistically most represented, gab˜ for A, and g˜ab for B, A sends a verification message corresponding to Nb from B encrypted with gab˜ and sends it to the party B, B decrypts the message from A with g˜ab and checks consistency with Nb, then refers to the acknowledgment message in the same way: {Na} g˜ab to validate the common secret between the two entities. |
| US08345877B2 |
Key management system
In a transmitter, data is encrypted by use of a data key, the data key is encrypted based on a first modification key, and the first modification key is encrypted based on a second modification key such that the first and second modification keys are different keys. The encrypted data, the encrypted data key, and the encrypted first modification key are transmitted to a receiver. In the receiver, the encrypted first modification key, the encrypted data key, and the encrypted data are received from the transmitter. The encrypted first modification key is decrypted based on the second modification key, the encrypted data key is decrypted based on the decrypted first modification key, and the encrypted data is decrypted by use of the decrypted data key. |
| US08345876B1 |
Encryption/decryption system and method
A method of encrypting a plain text message that is m characters in length is described. A one off random key having a length of m characters is generated. The random key uses a character set and modulus that is compatible with the plain text message. A first substitution encryption of the plain text message is performed using the generated random key. A string of random fill characters that is f characters in length, f being a number between zero and infinity is generated. The generated random key and the string of random fill characters is concatenated to the encrypted plain text message to generate an encrypted message string. The encrypted message string has a length 2m+f. The encrypted message string is transmitted to a receiver. |
| US08345875B2 |
System and method of creating and sending broadcast and multicast data
A method of encrypting broadcast and multicast data communicated between two or more parties, each party having knowledge of a shared key, is provided. The key is calculated using values, some of which are communicated between the parties, so that the shared key is not itself transferred. Avoiding the transfer of the key offers several advantages over existing encryption methods. |
| US08345874B2 |
Method and system for providing users with information relating to a position
The invention relates to a system for providing information to a user, comprising: a first database; a first module configured to receive information to be entered in said first database from an information provider, said information including at least data representative of a plurality of geographical codes and data representative of at least one categorical code; a second module configured to receive an information request from a user, said information request including at least data representative of a geographical position and data representative of a categorical preference; and a third module configured to enter information received by said first module in said first database, and to search said first database based on requests received by said second module, retrieve entries where a geographical code corresponds with said geographical position and a categorical code corresponds with said categorical preference, and transmit a presentation of retrieved entries to said user. |
| US08345872B2 |
Digital local network, notably digital home network, and method for creating and updating such a network
The local digital network comprises: access devices (1), for receiving data originating from outside the network and transmitting them at a point of the network; and presentation devices (2,3) for receiving the data flowing in the network and presenting them at a point of the network. The data flow in the network in encrypted form and all the devices of the network use a single key, the local key of the network, for the encryption and decryption of the data. Preferably, the local key of the network is formed by a pair of public and private keys. The purpose of this network is to make it possible to copy data in the local network whilst preventing pirate copies destined for other local networks. |
| US08345866B2 |
Secure data transfer on a handheld communications device
A handheld communications device comprises a display device, and a data processor that is in communication with the display device. The data processor is configured to generate an encryption key, and vary a visual output of the display device in accordance with a bit sequence of the encryption key. The varying visual output comprises a sequence of colors rendered on the display device and/or brightness levels output by the display device. |
| US08345864B1 |
Elliptic curve cryptography scalar multiplication with on demand acceleration table generation
An improved technique involves dynamic generation of at least a portion of an acceleration table for use in elliptic curve cryptography. Such dynamic generation is capable of providing savings with regard to carrying out elliptic curve cryptography without an acceleration table. Furthermore, once the portion of the acceleration table is dynamically generated and stored (e.g., in a high speed cache), the portion of the acceleration table is capable of being used on subsequent elliptic curve cryptography operations as well thus enabling the cost of dynamically generating the acceleration table to be amortized across multiple elliptic curve cryptography operations. |
| US08345862B2 |
Method of sharing a strong secret between two parties, one of whom has little processing power
The invention relates to a method of sharing a strong secret F between two parties (A, B) previously sharing a weak secret F, this method of sharing combining a symmetric algorithm and an asymmetric algorithm, and consisting in using a fixed exponent e of small size, and in encrypting not the exponent e, but the modulus n, by means of the weak secret f. |
| US08345858B2 |
Adaptive, context-driven telephone number dialing
A technique is disclosed that enables a context-driven, adaptive technique for generating a list of telephone numbers. The technique of the illustrative embodiment of the present invention seeks to dynamically anticipate what telephone numbers a user might want to dial—even before the user knows—and presents the names of the parties and their telephone numbers to the user at his or her terminal. In particular, the technique monitors a user, the user's locale, and one or more terminals in that locale; selects one or more telephone numbers from a master set of numbers, based on the monitored information; and presents the selected numbers to the user—for example, in the form of a speed-dial list or a one-touch dial list. The user can then examine the presented telephone numbers and decide if he or she wants to call one of them. The technique can be implemented at the user's computer, telephone, private branch exchange, or other device in the relevant telecommunications system. |
| US08345856B1 |
Method for estimation impact of calls in dialer for predictive dialing
A method for determining a number of calls to generate in an automated contact center, wherein the automated contact center comprises a dialer for dialing generated calls and an agent pool where successfully connected dialed calls are handled by agents. The method collects empirical data on durations in which calls spend in the dialer and agent handling times. The collected data is used to generate discrete density or discrete distribution functions. Using the discrete density or distribution functions, an individual impact is calculated for each call presently in the dialer. The method uses the individual impacts to calculate a dialer impact, which is used to predict a future agent occupancy. Based upon the prediction, a number of calls to generate is determined. Calls are generated based upon the number of calls to generate. |
| US08345855B2 |
Method, device and program for calculating number of necessary agents
The optimum number of agents necessary for contact-center jobs is dynamically calculated in accordance with actual operations. A method of making the same controllable and a computer program to realize such calculation and method are provided. A necessary number-of-people calculating means (4) theoretically calculates the necessary number of people in response to the number of calls varying from time to time and average handling time (“AHT”) for agents by using the well known Erlang C equation. Further, an operation-rate adjusting means (6) adjusts such theoretically calculated data of the necessary number of people by using a predicted operation data based on managers' practically experienced data and a control means (9) provides the calculated result to an output means (7). |
| US08345853B2 |
Method for processing an incoming call
A method for processing an incoming call, includes: an accessing call mark being preset in a called terminal; the called terminal, on receiving a call initiated by a calling party, determining whether the call contains the accessing call mark of the called terminal; if the call contains the accessing call mark of the called terminal, the called terminal putting through the call; otherwise, the called terminal terminating the call. The invention may solve the problems caused by various methods used in the prior art to avoid being disturbed by phone calls, such as missing important calls, extra service fee, partial protection against harassing telephone calls, and etc. The solution may ensure that the called user will not be disturbed by unimportant calls or harassing calls when the called user does not want to be disturbed, while ensuring that the called user will not miss any important call. |
| US08345852B2 |
System to estimate best time to contact a contact center
In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a call from a caller, and determining whether to offer a first callback time to the caller. The first callback time is a future time for a contact between the caller and the call center. The method also includes providing the first callback time to the caller, obtaining a response from the caller, and scheduling the contact at the first callback time if the response indicates that the caller desires a contact at the first callback time. Providing the first callback time to the caller includes soliciting the response from the caller which indicates whether the caller desires the contact at the first callback time. |
| US08345850B2 |
System and method for detecting three-way call attempts
Embodiments of this disclosure include methods in which a three-way call attempt is detected. Methods include monitoring the active communications of a telephone management system for pulses of energy indicative of a three-way call. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is computed for each pulse of energy with time domain characteristics consistent with a click. Phases of each component for the pulse are also analyzed. If the phases are generally linear (i.e., if the phases have a common group delay or phase delay), then the pulse is a three-way call click and appropriate action (e.g., monitoring the call, terminating the call, warning the caller, etc.) is initiated. |
| US08345848B1 |
Multi-channel telephony
Techniques for providing multi-channel telephony are described herein. In different aspects, a multi-channel telephony apparatus may include a sound interface configured to process a multi-channel sound signal including at least one of causing speakers to emit multi-channel sound or receiving multi-channel sound from microphones and a network interface configured to transmit the multi-channel sound signal from the sound interface to one or more communication lines of a telephone network. In some aspects, a dialer may be configured with the network interface to establish a connection with the telephone network. |
| US08345847B2 |
System and method for call hibernation
A call hibernation method may include releasing resources allocated to a first call between a calling party and a called party in response to a hibernate message from the called party. The hibernate message may indicate to hibernate the first call, and/or the hibernate message may include reestablishment information for reestablishing communication between the calling party and the called party. A second call may be established between the calling party and the called party in response to a deactivate-hibernated message from the called party. The deactivate-hibernated message may indicate the called party desires to reestablish communication with the calling party, and/or the deactivate-hibernated message may include at least a portion of the reestablishment information. |
| US08345846B2 |
Gate intercom with a wireless telephony interface
The present invention is directed to a telephony communication interface device. The device includes a communication transceiver configured to communicate with a remote system via a predetermined communication channel. A control circuit is coupled to the communication transceiver. The control circuit is configured to determine a device operating mode status based on communication transceiver activity. The device operating mode status includes a telephonic communications mode and a remote system communications mode. An interface circuit is coupled to at least one telephone set. The interface circuit is configured to propagate voice telephony signals between the at least one telephone set and a telephony network in a telephonic communications mode and propagate voice intercom signals between the at least one telephone set and the communication transceiver in the remote system communications mode. |
| US08345845B2 |
Public communications intercom system
An improved public intercom system is described which has a sealed enclosure including an extruded chassis having a front wall and a rear wall. The front wall has an interface panel and a viewing panel mounted within cutouts. A plurality of axially aligned module cover plates supporting system components are mounted over cutouts in the rear wall. The interface includes a speaker, a microphone, a call initiation means, and a camera positioned to acquire images of the area in front of the interface panel. One of the cover plates including an outer surface with heat dissipation protrusions, with a blower located on said rear wall being oriented to direct air across the protrusions to extract heat from the chassis interior. A two-way communication means is mounted on a module plate and programmed to initiate a call to a pre-programmed receiver responsive to a command from the call initiation means. |
| US08345844B2 |
Caller ID call memo system
A system and method of saving and delivering a voice memo or text memo to identify incoming calls is provided. A user of the system of the invention is given the option of recording a memo on the calls he or she has received through a prompt on a telecommunication device. The user can choose to record a voice memo or text memo after each call. The memos are saved in connection with caller id information pertaining to the number from which the call was placed. When a user of the system receives a call from a number that has a memo saved in relation thereto, the user will be prompted to hear, and may listen to, the voice memo before answering the call. If the memo is in text form, the user can configure the system to provide various processing options. In one processing option, a text to speech audio presentation of the text of the memo is made available to permit the message to be heard over a telephone or networked audio capable PDA device. In other processing options, the user has the text of the message sent to the user's PC or emailed or sent by instant message to the user's PDA device. |
| US08345842B2 |
System, method, and computer-readable storage medium for telecom billing outsourcing
A system, method, and computer-readable storage medium for outsourcing telecom billing are disclosed for issuing one or more first billing statements and one or more second billing statements from a first telecom network; and transmitting at least the one or more first billing statements to a second telecom network. The one or more first billing statements may reflect one or more charges from the first telecom network to the second telecom network, and the one or more second billing statements may reflect one or more charges from the second telecom network to one or more customers thereof. The one or more charges of the first and second billing statements may reflect the same service(s). |
| US08345841B2 |
Subscriber partitioning in a charging system
A charging device (100) and method (600) are described herein that can segment subscribers on a service class level and then can further segment those subscribers on an account level by using a service offerings parameter (105). The subscribers use communication services such as circuit switched voice, SMS, MMS and/or GPRS. |
| US08345838B2 |
Universal linking gateway between telephonic devices
A universal linking gateway interfaces between a local network of one or more local phones, such as analog phones or PBX phones, a plurality of cell phones and multiple service lines, including a public switched telephone network. Implementation of industry standard protocols such as hookflash signals enable a simplistic local phone to access enhanced calling features including answering calls on multiple service lines, to select and make calls on any desired service line as well as handle simultaneous calls on either an active service line or multiple service lines. Further, the gateway interfaces between a variety of other telephonic devices including PSTN, VoIP, and telephonic intercoms. Wireless communications are controlled by the gateway for proper pairing management. |
| US08345833B1 |
Methods and systems for telephony call completion
The present invention is directed to processing calls to busy telecommunications lines. In one embodiment, the presence of a subscriber accessing a computer network over a first telephone line via a first computer terminal is detected, wherein the subscriber also has a first telephone station connected to the first line. When a caller calls the first line and the first line is busy, the call is forwarded to a second telephone line associated with a call manager system. The call manager system determines when the subscriber is no longer accessing the computer network. At least partly in response to determining that the subscriber is no longer accessing the computer network, the call manager system transmits a text message to the caller, the message including the subscriber's phone number. The caller can then call back the first line using the transmitted phone number. |
| US08345832B2 |
Enhanced voicemail usage through automatic voicemail preview
Textual preview of a voicemail is generated and provided through email or similar media to users along with the audio version. Transcription of the textual version, as well as additional capabilities such as actionable terms, playback-jump, switching between text and audio versions, direct or metadata based searchability, and enhanced response capabilities are provided based on contextual data obtained from voicemail metadata and user associated data stores such as contact list, email history. |
| US08345830B2 |
Method and apparatus for voice interactive messaging
An audio indication of a recipient for a message is received, the message to be sent by a user to the recipient. An electronic database is searched for the recipient. When the recipient is found in the electronic database, information is determined from the electronic database concerning the recipient. An audio prompt is formed including at least some of the information concerning the recipient that was obtained from the electronic database. |
| US08345829B2 |
Authentication of a user to a telephonic communication device
The invention provides a method, system, and program product for authenticating a user to a telephonic communication device. In one embodiment, the invention includes obtaining a reference sample of an authorized user's voice, storing the reference sample of the authorized user's voice, collecting a sample of the voice of a user of the telephonic communication device, comparing the sample of the voice of the user to the reference sample of the authorized user's voice, determining whether the user is the authorized user, and in the case that the user is determined not to be the authorized user, prohibiting use of the telephonic communication device. |
| US08345827B2 |
Sign language public addressing and emergency system
A public addressing and emergency system has a person or message signal generator for generating a message whose contents comprise at least one of a sign language message, a voice message, and a text message and a transmitting system for transmitting the message signal to at least one of a mobile unit and at least one fixed display unit in at least one location. The message signal transmitting system is bi-directional enabling bi-directional message communication and may include a device such as a splitter for generating multiple signals and/or a device such as a booster for increasing or maintaining the power of the signals. The public addressing system can be independent, or tied in with internal processing of commercial entities and their electronic displays to present advertising and educating the public about the emergency system. |
| US08345824B2 |
X-ray metering apparatus, and X-ray metering method
An X-ray waveform is generated by validating detection data corresponding to when an X-ray (4) is generated at a collision point (9) among X-ray detection data and invalidating other data. For example, when laser light (3) is pulse laser light and an electron beam (1) is a continuous electron beam or a pulse-like electron beam having a pulse width equal to or greater than that of the pulse laser light, the X-ray waveform is generated by detecting the laser light (3) and multiplying the X-ray detection data by laser light detection data after making time axes coincident with respect to the collision point (9). |
| US08345823B2 |
X-ray image diagnosing apparatus, and controlling method of X-ray image diagnosing apparatus
An X-ray image diagnosing apparatus has a radiating unit, a placement unit, a detecting unit, a supporting unit, a moving control unit, an obtaining unit, a calculating unit, and a frame rate control unit. The placement unit is placeable an object. The supporting unit supports the radiating unit and the detecting unit in opposing relationship across the placement unit. The moving control unit relatively moves the supporting unit and the object on a longwise direction of the placement unit so as to perform an X-ray imaging at different imaging positions along the longwise direction. The obtaining unit obtains X-ray image by performing the X-ray imaging. The calculating unit calculates blood-vessel data on the basis of the X-ray image and calculates a frame rate on the basis of the blood-vessel data. The frame rate control unit configured to change the frame rate on the X-ray imaging. |
| US08345820B2 |
Radiographic image capturing apparatus and radiographic image capturing method
A radiographic image capturing apparatus includes a radiation source device housing therein a radiation source for outputting a radiation, a cassette housing therein a radiation detector for detecting the radiation which is transmitted through a subject when the subject is irradiated with the radiation by the radiation source, and converting the detected radiation into a radiographic image, and a joining mechanism for selectively integrally joining the radiation source device and the cassette to each other and separating the radiation source device and the cassette from each other when the radiation source outputs the radiation. |
| US08345819B2 |
Top-down X-ray inspection trailer
A system and method for inspecting a vehicle by means of one or more sources and detectors of penetrating radiation. The source(s) and detector(s) are carried on a mobile conveyance and deployed at a point of operation. One source swings away from the conveyance on a deployable member, such as a boom, such that the source can irradiate a vehicle from above or below. A detector deploys outwardly from the mobile conveyance, remaining mechanically coupled to the mobile conveyance in a position in a horizontal plane, such that the detector intercepts penetrating radiation from the source positioned above the inspected vehicle, which penetrating radiation has interacted with the inspected vehicle. A ramp may be provided to allow the inspected vehicle to be driven to a position between the vertically irradiating source and a transmission detector. |
| US08345817B2 |
Apparatus and method for non-rotational computer tomography
A multi-dimensional representation of an object is obtained in that first and second pictures of the object illuminated using an X-ray source are created using a sensor that is located, in relation to the X-ray source, behind the object in a preferential direction defined by the relative positions of the object and of the sensor. A distance in the preferential direction between the X-ray source and the object is different in the first picture than in the second picture. The multi-dimensional representation of the object is obtained by combining the first and second pictures. |
| US08345811B2 |
Digital radio processor architecture with reduced DCO modulation range requirement
A method of achieving reduced modulation range requirement in a Digitally Controlled Oscillator (DCO) which is deployed as part of a DRP (Digital Radio Processor) and tuned to a tuning frequency range having operating-channel center-frequencies, wherein phase difference between consecutive samples is termed as FCW (Frequency Control Word), uses the steps of digitally modifying and limiting the FCW so that the FCW does not exceed known FCW thresholds, e.g., chosen from π/2, π/4, π/8, and redistributing the FCWs while maintaining a cumulative sum of phases and without significant EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) degradation. The FCW threshold can be chosen arbitrarily and need not be in the form of π/2n. The method uses a FCW limiting algorithm which reduces supply voltage sensitivity of the DCO and enables significant reduction in area of capacitor bank which would be otherwise needed. |
| US08345809B2 |
Receiver apparatus for receiving a multicarrier signal
In time varying OFDM systems, the effect of a non-ideal time synchronization may lead to a poor performance in terms of decoded average bit error rate versus the signal-to-noise ratio. The receiver apparatus (3) of the transmission system (1) estimates a subcarrier-dependent channel frequency response and determines an intercarrier interference spreading on the basis of a cyclic shift in symbols carried by the subcarriers. Therewith, an intercarrier interference included in an OFDM signal can be canceled, even in case of a non-ideal time synchronization. |
| US08345805B2 |
Receiving circuit
A receiving circuit includes a frame memory to store received data of one frame, a de-rate matching circuit to generate data before encoding by reading the received data from the frame memory and performing de-rate matching in a reverse manner to rate matching performed on the received data at a transmitting end, and a TTI memory to store the data before encoding. |
| US08345799B2 |
Channel estimating method and channel estimator
There is provided a channel estimating method of performing frequency conversion by a first fast Fourier transformation on a reception signal and extracting a desired signal after demodulating the reception signal, and deriving electrical energy against time delay of a channel by inverse fast Fourier transformation of the extracted result, wherein: values of a low pass filter, having an output from oversampling the input to the first fast Fourier transformation, are thinned by a plurality of thinning circuits with the same synchronization and different discrete times, and based on the outputs of the plurality of thinning circuits, the electrical energy against time delay related to the reception signal arrival time position is derived by respectively performing the first fast Fourier transformation and the inverse fast Fourier transformation. |
| US08345796B2 |
Communication system and method for improving efficiency and linearity
A communication system and method is provided that modifies a signal for transmission at a transmitter to reduce peaks associated with the signal. The signal can be modified employing signal shaping, signal clipping, signal decomposition or other techniques to remove peaks associated with the signal. The communication system can also correct the modified signal at a receiver to reconstruct the originally wanted signal. |
| US08345795B1 |
System and method of beamforming with reduced feedback
A system and method of beamforming may reduce feedback requirements. In some implementations, a beamforming technique may employ a diagonal matrix as a beamforming matrix along with a stream-to-transmit antenna mapping matrix. In some antenna phase beamforming strategies, a diagonal beamforming matrix in which the diagonal elements have a constant magnitude may be employed. Accordingly, a beamforming system may be utilized with few feedback information bits being transmitted from the beamformee; such a system may also minimize or eliminate power fluctuations among multiple transmit antennae. |
| US08345789B2 |
Method and systems for receiving plural information flows in a MIMO system
In a communication system, such as a Multiple Input Multiple Output system operating in a spatial multiplexing mode, for use, e.g., in a WLAN or HSPDA device, a plurality of information flows are received via a set of receive antennas by deriving from at least some, and possibly all, of the receive antennas, respective RF signals, and producing from the RF signals thus derived, a plurality of receive signals, each receive signal to be demodulated to recover one of the information flows transmitted. The receive signals are produced as combinations of the RF signals having applied thereto relative RF phase shift weights. |
| US08345786B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving preamble signal and estimating channel in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication systems using multiple input multiple output scheme
A signal reception apparatus of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system using a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) scheme. The signal reception apparatus, when it uses the NR receive antennas, receives a time-domain preamble signal transmitted by a signal transmission apparatus corresponding thereto via each of the NR receive antennas, and estimates a channel according to a channel estimation scheme using the time-domain preamble signal received via each of the NR receive antennas. When the signal transmission apparatus uses NT transmit antennas, the time-domain preamble signal is a signal transmitted by the signal transmission apparatus via each of the NT transmit antennas for a second time period which is set according to a corresponding transmit antenna within a first time period. |
| US08345785B2 |
Wireless data communication system and wireless data communication method
In MIMO transmission between M transmission antennas and N reception antennas, a transmission signal vector is set as a vector having 2M elements comprising in-phase components and quadrature components of M complex signals, a reception signal vector is set as a vector having 2N elements comprising in-phase components and quadrature components of N complex signals, and a transfer matrix is set as a real matrix comprising 2N rows and 2M columns. Then, a transfer matrix containing IQ mismatch is obtained based on a training signal, thereby executing MIMO encoding and decoding. For learning of the transfer matrix, a training signal which has two linearly-independent signal points on a constellation for each of the transmission antennas is used. With such an arrangement, in MIMO transmission, IQ mismatch in a quadrature modulator and a quadrature demodulator can be compensated and a bit error rate can be improved. |
| US08345784B2 |
Reduced-complexity equalization with sphere decoding
Techniques for spherical decision-feedback sequence estimation are disclosed. A received signal is equalized by forming a trellis comprising a plurality of stages, each stage corresponding to a symbol time and comprising a plurality of nodes, each having a node state. A most likely received symbol sequence is identified by evaluating cumulative state metrics for the nodes according to MLSE or DFSE criteria. The trellis is formed by selecting a set of fan-out branches for each node by identifying, of all possible state transition branches from the node to successor nodes in the succeeding stage, those state transition branches that have a spherical branch metric less than a pre-determined metric limit, and determining the cumulative state metric for each node as a function of the cumulative state metrics for predecessor nodes in the preceding stage and the spherical branch metrics for fan-out branches connecting the predecessor nodes to the node. |
| US08345783B1 |
Phase tracking system and method
Phase tracking in an OFDM symbol comprises determining a sufficient statistic for CFO and SFO estimation from a differential metric between a current OFDM symbol and a previous OFDM symbol transmitted on the same frequency band. The sufficient statistics corresponding to positive pilot tones are combined with those corresponding to negative pilot tones to estimate the CFO and SFO. |
| US08345782B2 |
Method and apparatus for channel estimation
The invention relates to DVB-T system, and in particular, to a channel estimation method for OFDM symbols. A plurality of symbols are received to generate a pilot response. A finite impulse response is generated from the pilot response. A coefficient table is selected based on the characteristics of the finite impulse response. The channel is estimated by interpolating the pilot response based on the coefficient table. |
| US08345776B2 |
System and method of error control for video coding
A system and method for video coding include an encoder and decoder. The encoder/decoder respectively include a base layer encoding/decoding apparatus, at least one enhancement layer encoding/decoding apparatus, and an encoder/decoder drift control apparatus. The encoder drift control apparatus is configured to determine the amount of local error drift for the encoder according to local information of the base layer encoding apparatus and the enhancement layer encoding apparatus and control the value of an encoder leaky factor according to the amount of error drift. The decoder drift control apparatus is configured to determine the amount of local error drift for the decoder according to local information of the base layer decoding apparatus and the enhancement layer decoding apparatus and control a decoder leaky factor according to the amount of error drift. |
| US08345771B2 |
Image coding and decoding method and apparatus considering human visual characteristics
An image coding method and apparatus considering human visual characteristics are provided. The image coding method comprises (a) modeling image quality distribution of an input image in units of scenes such that the quality of an image input in units of scenes is gradually lowered from a region of interest to a background region, (b) determining a quantization parameter of each region constituting one scene according to the result of modeling of image quality distribution, (c) quantizing image data in accordance with the quantization parameter, and (d) coding entropy of the quantized image data. |
| US08345763B2 |
Motion compensation method and integrated circuit utilizing the same
An integrated circuit capable of motion compensation and a method thereof. The integrated circuit includes a partition unit and a motion compensation unit. The partition unit receives a video block having a predetermined block dimension, and partitions the video block into sub-blocks with a sub-block dimension less than the predetermined block dimension when the video block is on a frame boundary of a video frame. The motion compensation unit, coupled to the partition unit, performs motion compensation on the sub-blocks. |
| US08345762B2 |
Method for deriving coding information for high resolution pictures from low resolution pictures and coding and decoding devices implementing said method
The invention relates to spatially scalable encoding and decoding processes using a method for deriving coding information. More particularly, it relates to a method for deriving coding information for high resolution pictures from the coding information of low resolution pictures. The method mainly comprises the following steps: Computing geometrical parameters characterizing the position of said high layer macroblock relatively to the corresponding base layer macroblocks and deriving from these parameters a macroblock class; Deriving a partition and possibly sub-partitions for each partition of said high layer macroblock from corresponding base layer macroblocks partition and sub-partitions on the basis of the geometrical parameters and HL MB class; and Deriving motion information for said high layer macroblock from motion information of corresponding base layer macroblocks. |
| US08345759B2 |
Motion vector encoding device and decoding device
A prediction error generating unit generates a predictive vector from the motion vectors of a plurality of adjacent blocks, and obtains a difference from a target vector. A plurality of variable-length coding units respectively encode the output of the prediction error generating unit with different encoding methods. A determining unit estimates the accuracy of the predictive vector generated by the prediction error generating unit based on the degrees of non-uniformity of the motion vectors of the plurality of adjacent blocks. A selecting unit selects one of the encoding results obtained by the plurality of variable-length coding units. |
| US08345755B2 |
Inter-layer prediction method for video signal
The present invention relates to a method for using interlaced video signal of a base layer in interlayer texture prediction. The present method constructs a pair of frame macro blocks from vertically-adjacent two field macro blocks pertaining to interlaced video signal of a base layer, separates video signal containing the pair of frame macro blocks into even-field and odd-field components, interpolates the even-field and the odd-field components respectively in vertical and/or horizontal direction, and constructs a combined video data by interleaving the interpolated even-field and odd-field components. |
| US08345753B2 |
Method, medium, and system visually compressing image data
A method, medium, and system compressing and/or reconstructing image data. The data compression method includes compressing current data according to a plurality of modes for compressing current data, determining whether the current data compressed according to the plurality of modes can be represented by a fixed length of bits, selecting a mode from among modes in which the compressed current data can be represented by the fixed length of bits, and outputting the compressed current data according to the selected mode. Accordingly, it is possible to significantly lower the complexity of an image encoder/decoder system, and exactly meet a picture-based Control Bit Rate (CBR) suitable for a Liquid Crystal Display Dynamic Capacitance Compensation (LCD DCC) device/system. |
| US08345751B2 |
Method and system for encoding a 3D video signal, enclosed 3D video signal, method and system for decoder for a 3D video signal
In a method for encoding and an encoder for a 3D video signal, center view frames, a depth map for center view frames and an occlusion data frame are encoded. On the basis of the depth map for the center view frame a distinction is made between functional and non-functional data in an occlusion data frame. This allows a strong reduction in bits needed for the encoded occlusion data frame. In the decoder a combined data stream is made of functional data in the encoded occlusion data frames and the center view frames. Preferably the center view frames are used as reference frames in encoding the occlusion data frames. |
| US08345750B2 |
Scene change detection
Scene change detection in encoding digital pictures is disclosed. A statistical quantity μM is calculated for a given section in a current picture. A window of one or more sections is defined around a co-located section in a previous picture. A statistical sum E is calculated over the sections in the window. A difference between the statistical sum E and the statistical quantity μM is calculated. The difference between E and μM is used to determine whether the given section is a scene-change section. Whether the current picture is a scene-change picture may be determined from the number of scene change sections. Information indicating whether or not the current picture is a scene-change picture may be stored or transferred. |
| US08345748B2 |
Image encoding and decoding apparatus and method
An image encoding and decoding apparatus and method, the image encoding and decoding apparatus includes: an encoding unit adjusting at least one weight value adaptively to the number of bits expressing each pixel of a current image, predicting a pixel value of a block of interest by performing an operation on a pixel value of at least one block having a pixel value similar to the pixel value of the block of interest among blocks included in a previous image and the at least one adjusted weight value, and encoding the pixel value of the block of interest using the predicted pixel value of the block of interest; and a decoding unit adjusting the at least one weight value adaptively to the number of bits, restoring the predicted pixel value of the block of interest by performing an operation on the pixel value of the at least one block having the pixel value similar to the pixel value of the block of interest among blocks included in the restored previous image and the at least one adjusted weight value, and decoding the pixel value of the block of interest using the restored pixel value, wherein the previous image refers to an image displayed prior to a current image, and the block of interest is a target block of interest among blocks belonging to the current image. |
| US08345746B2 |
Video quantizer unit and method thereof
A quantizer and method are disclosed. |
| US08345745B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding and/or decoding moving pictures
A method of encoding moving pictures using a plurality of quantization matrices. The method involves selecting one of the plurality of quantization matrices in consideration of an at least one characteristics of an input image; transforming the input image; and quantizing the transformed input image using the selected quantization matrix. |
| US08345736B2 |
Sampling point detection circuit, transmission system, pre-emphasis intensity adjustment method, logic analyzer, and evaluation method for evaluating transmission path
A sampling point detection circuit 1 comprises: means 11 for setting amplitude division lines along a time axis and time division lines along an amplitude axis of an eye diagram; means 12 for calculating a virtual circle that is inscribed in a divided region having the smallest area among divided regions obtained when a region that is defined by segments each connecting intersections of a bit error rate contour line of the eye diagram and the amplitude division line and intersections of the bit error rate contour line and the time division line and that contains an intersection of the amplitude division line and the time division line is divided by the amplitude division line and time division line; and means 13 for determining, as a sampling point, the intersection of the time division line and the amplitude division line that are set when the largest virtual circle among the virtual circles is calculated. |
| US08345735B2 |
Modulation and demodulation apparatus using frequency selective baseband and transmission and reception apparatus using the same
There is provided a communication method using a human body as a medium. A modulation apparatus using a frequency selective baseband according to an aspect of the invention may include: a serial-to-parallel conversion unit converting serial data supplied from an upper layer into parallel data consisting of M+1 number of data input bits; and a frequency selective spreader selecting one subgroup among a plurality of subgroups obtained by dividing 2N number (where N is a positive integer) of spreading codes used for frequency spreading by 2M (where M is a positive integer, and M |
| US08345734B2 |
Time error estimation for data symbols
The invention relates to a method and a system for estimating a symbol time error in a broadband transmission system, comprising: - determination a timing error signal of an input-signal of a discrete Fourier-transformation block (5) in a data symbol stream on the basis of intersymbol correlation using a predetermined period in each received symbol, - selecting as a predetermined period a number of samples of different useful data parts of a symbol, - determining the time error value (ε) based on the intersymbol interference of the selected samples of the different parts of said symbol. |
| US08345733B2 |
Method and apparatus for equalizing signals
A system and apparatus are disclosed for a method and apparatus for equalizing signals. An apparatus that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an equalizer (100) having a channel estimation calculator (102) for calculating a time domain channel estimation from a baseband signal, an FFT processor (104) for translating the time domain channel estimation to a frequency domain channel estimation, a tap weight calculator (106) for calculating a frequency domain tap weight according to the frequency domain channel estimation, an inverse FFT processor (108) for translating the frequency domain tap weight calculation to a time domain tap weight calculation, and a filter (110) for equalizing the baseband signal according to the time domain tap weight calculation. |
| US08345732B2 |
Feedback of channel information in a closed loop beamforming wireless communication system
A method for feeding back transmitter beamforming information from a receiving wireless communication device to a transmitting wireless communication device includes a receiving wireless communication device receiving a preamble sequence from the transmitting wireless device. The receiving wireless device estimates a channel response based upon the preamble sequence and then determines an estimated transmitter beamforming unitary matrix based upon the channel response and a receiver beamforming unitary matrix. The receiving wireless device then decomposes the estimated transmitter beamforming unitary matrix to produce the transmitter beamforming information and then wirelessly sends the transmitter beamforming information to the transmitting wireless device. |
| US08345729B2 |
Radio communication device and response signal diffusion method
Provided is a radio communication device which can surely prevent inter-code interference while maintaining the use efficiency of an upstream line control channel and suppress separation characteristic of a response signal. The device includes: a control unit (209) which controls a cyclic shift amount of a ZC sequence used for a primary diffusion in a diffusion unit (214) and a Walsh sequence used for secondary diffusion in a diffusion unit (217) according to a PUCCH number inputted from a judgment unit (208); the diffusion unit (214) which performs primary diffusion of the response signal by the ZC sequence set by the control unit (209); and the diffusion unit (217) which performs secondary diffusion of the response signal by the Walsh sequence set by the control unit (209). The diffusion unit (214) performs primary diffusion of the response signal by using the ZC sequence having such a cyclic shift amount that the guard interval at the both ends of the detection window section is maximum in the ZC sequences having different cyclic shift amounts. |
| US08345725B2 |
Hidden Markov Model detection for spread spectrum waveforms
Systems (100) and methods (700) for processing a data signal in a communications system. The methods involve generating a first chaotic sequence at a transmitter (102). The methods also involve performing first basis function algorithms using the first chaotic sequence to generate first statistically orthogonal chaotic sequences. At least one sequence is selected from the first statistically orthogonal chaotic sequences for combining with a first data signal. The selected sequence is combined with a second data signal to obtain a modulated chaotic communication signal. The modulated chaotic communication signal is transmitted to a receiver (104). At the receiver, the received modulated chaotic communication signal is processed to obtain data therefrom. Notably, the signal processing generally involves performing a deterministic process (e.g., a Hidden Markov Model deterministic process). |
| US08345723B2 |
Gas laser
A TE gas laser contains a gas contour with the following elements arranged in succession: a discharge gap formed by two elongated electrodes; a diffuser; a heat exchanger; a cross-flow fan; and an additional converging channel, the inlet opening of which is situated on the discharge side of the fan, while the outlet opening is oriented towards the fan impeller on the intake side of the fan. The proposed technical solution makes it possible to produce a compact TE gas laser with a high pulse repetition rate. |
| US08345722B2 |
Method of driving semiconductor laser
The present invention provides a method of driving a semiconductor laser, where the method can control changes in the internal temperature of a device as well as control optical output using a driving current. A method of driving a semiconductor laser includes steps of: preliminary driving the semiconductor laser by preliminary activating at a current value larger than a threshold value; de-activating the semiconductor laser, after the step of preliminary driving; and starting a formation of a latent image on a photosensitive drum based on a latent image formation signal, after the step of de-activating. |
| US08345721B2 |
Method for driving optical transmitter
A method to control an LD (laser diode) is disclosed. The method compares the operating temperature of the LD with a transition temperature. When the former temperature exceeds the latter, the modulation current is set based on the bias current, which is independently determined by the APC loop. On the other hand, the operating temperature is less than the transition temperature; the modulation current is determined by the operating temperature. |
| US08345720B2 |
Laser diode ceramic cooler having circuitry for control and feedback of laser diode performance
A laser diode package includes a laser diode, a cooler, and control circuitry, such as an integrated circuit. The laser diode is used for converting electrical energy to optical energy. The cooler receives and routes a coolant from a cooling source via internal channels. The cooler includes a plurality of ceramic sheets. The ceramic sheets are fused together. The ceramic sheets include traces or vias that provide electrically conductive paths to the integrated circuit. The control circuitry controls the output of the laser diode, e.g. the output at each of the laser diode's emitters. Multiple laser diode packages are placed together to form an array. |
| US08345719B2 |
Wavelength-controlled semiconductor laser device
A semiconductor laser device comprising a laser diode with an integrated photodiode, wherein one of the components of the laser diode with the integrated photodiode is also used for heating the laser diode. A simpler design of a wavelength-controlled semiconductor laser is thus obtained. |
| US08345718B2 |
Pulse shaper and laser with pulse shaper
A pulse shaper for compensating group runtime effects is provided. The pulse shaper comprising a first and a second dispersive element. An optical pulse can be coupled to the pulse shaper along a coupling direction such that said pulse exits from the pulse shaper after passing through the first and the second dispersive element along an exit direction. The first and the second dispersive element are formed and arranged to be movable relative to each other such that the path length to be traversed by the optical pulse through the first and the second dispersive element after coupling to the pulse shaper can be adjusted without any change in an offset between the coupling direction and the exit direction. The first and the second dispersive element are arranged in such a way that the shape of the optical pulse experiences a change as the pulse travels through the pulse shaper. |
| US08345710B2 |
FDT for EDDL-based field devices
A Field Device Tool (FDT)-based application is provided. The FDT-based application includes at least one communication Device Type Manager (communication DTM) and a router Device Type Manager (DTM). The communication DTM corresponds with a type of communication protocol that an at least one plant asset follows. The communication DTM is configured to provide an interface for communication between the FDT-based application and the communication protocol that the plant asset follows. The router DTM is coupleable to an asset optimization device manager that includes electronic device description language (EDDL), the router DTM is configured to transfer data from the asset optimization device manager to the at least one communication DTM for communication with the plant asset. |
| US08345705B2 |
Method and apparatus for conducting analog communication over a data cable
A method and apparatus for conducting analog communication are provided. A first set of wires carrying a data signal is coupled to a data network. A second set of wires carrying an analog signal is coupled to an analog communication network. A single connector is coupled to the first and second sets of wires. A port in a communication device is coupled to the connector. The communication device communicates the data signal and the analog signal over the first and second sets of wires respectively. The second set of wires may be separate from the first set. The second set of wires may be a subset of the first set, in which case, a filter filters an incoming analog signal from an incoming signal on the second set of wires. A multiplexer multiplexes an outgoing analog signal with an outgoing data signal on the second set of wires. |
| US08345702B2 |
Method and apparatus for flexible interface bypass options in switches
A network switching module includes first ports to send and receive packets, and second ports each configured to send and receive packets using a respectively different interface. A mode switch designates a selected port of the second ports in response to an interface control signal. A bypass switch, in response to a bypass mode being activated, connects an additional port to the selected port. A switch core module, in response to the bypass mode not being activated, routes the packets among the first ports, the selected port, and the additional port. A multiplexer, in response to the bypass mode not being activated, connects the additional port and the selected port to the switch core module. The switch core module, in response to the bypass mode being activated, routes the packets only among the first ports. |
| US08345701B1 |
Memory system for controlling distribution of packet data across a switch
A memory system for ingress processing is arranged to access multiple banks in a time interleaved fashion. Each memory bank has an associated memory bank manager, which is arranged to track the contents and egress ports associated with data stored in the memory bank. Incoming data from ingress traffic is evaluated and segregated based on criteria. One of the memory banks is identified based on the criteria, and the incoming data is stored in the identified memory bank in the next available write cycle timeslot. Data constructs in the memory bank manager are updated to indicate the location and egress port associated with the stored data. The memory bank managers submit egress transmit bids to a master scheduler, which controls access to the memory banks. The memory banks are readout in interleaved fashion such that the effective average traffic arrival rate is increased and memory bandwidth requirements are reduced. |
| US08345700B2 |
Embedding of MPLS labels in IP address fields
MPLS labels may be inserted in IPv6 source or destination IP address fields, potentially reducing network overhead bandwidth. In one implementation, a network device may receive a packet; determine whether the packet is an ingress packet for a MPLS LSP; determine an MPLS label for the packet when the packet is an ingress packet; insert the MPLS label in a portion of a source IP address field or a destination IP address field of the packet, when the packet is an ingress packet; and output the packet to the LSP. |
| US08345699B2 |
System and method for enabling a remote instance of a loop avoidance protocol
A system and method which enables a provider network to run a loop detection protocol in a customer network communicably coupled to it. The provider network runs a loop detection protocol and the customer network either runs a different protocol or none. The provider network determines its root bridge, or designated customer bridge, which is used to control loop detection decisions for the customer network. A BPDU or other protocol packet received from the customer network is tunneled through the provider network to the designated customer bridge. The designated customer network then processes the received BPDU in accordance with a loop detection instance for the customer network. The designated customer bridge then produces control messages in response to the processing and forwards those messages to the customer network. The control messages may include port state controls for ports in the customer network. |
| US08345698B2 |
Wireless communication subsystem with a digital interface
Systems and methods are disclosed which provide wireless communication systems implementing subsystems adapted for flexible deployment configurations and to resist the introduction of interference. Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a wireless communication system configuration in which an ODU subsystem is coupled to an IDU subsystem using a fiber optic link. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an ODU subsystem is adapted to provide conversion between digital and analog to thereby facilitate the use of a digital link between the ODU subsystem and a corresponding IDU subsystem. Embodiments of the present invention utilize a plurality of ODU subsystems configured according to the present invention to provide wireless communication coverage of a service area, such as to provide a wireless application termination system (WATS) hub for use in providing wireless communication links with respect to a plurality of subscriber units. |
| US08345697B2 |
System and method for carrying path information
A routing bridge in a Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) domain includes a link coupled to a device in the TRILL domain, and an Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) Traffic Engineering (TE) module that receives configuration information from the device, and that determines that data packets received by the routing bridge need to be routed to the device based upon the configuration information. The routing bridge receives a data packet, and routes the data packet to the link in response to the IS-IS TE module determining that the data packet needs to be routed to the device. |
| US08345691B2 |
Scheduling with quality of service support in wireless system
Systems and methods for scheduling wireless communications of a base station with multiple user mobile stations involve grouping the user mobile stations in clusters based on a predetermined criterion, such as a Quality of Service (QOS) profile of a user mobile station. Each cluster is assigned with a cluster weight factor that defines a priority level of the cluster. For each user mobile station in each cluster, a priority index may be determined based on the cluster weight factor of a respective cluster, and throughput and fairness factors respectively selected to maximize throughput and provide fairness to user mobile stations. The user mobile stations may be served in an order based on their priority indexes. |
| US08345690B2 |
Selective combining method and apparatus in a mobile communication system
An apparatus and method for performing duplicate avoidance of broadcast data packets in a (UE). The includes receiving a broadcast data packet from a plurality of cells; storing, if a sequence number of the received broadcast data packet does not fall within a reception window, the broadcast data packet in a buffer and updating the reception window based on the sequence number; determining, if the sequence number of the received broadcast data packet falls within the reception window, whether a broadcast data packet having the sequence number has previously been stored in the buffer; discarding the broadcast data packet, if the broadcast data packet has previously been stored in the buffer; and storing the broadcast data packet in the buffer, if the broadcast data packet has not previously been stored in the buffer. |
| US08345680B2 |
Handling out-of-sequence packets in a circuit emulation service
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node having a playout buffer including one or more of the following: receiving a first packet, a second packet, a first set of at least one subsequent packet, wherein each packet includes a sequence number (SN); determining that the second packet is not in sequence with the first packet by determining that the SN of the second packet is not equal to the SN of the first packet plus an expected increment value; determining whether the second packet represents a jump in SNs by determining whether the SN of a first subsequent packet is equal to the SN of the second packet plus the expected increment value; and when the second packet represents a jump in SNs, gradually normalizing the playout buffer upon receipt of each subsequent packet. |
| US08345679B2 |
Providing session initiation protocol request contents method and system
An embodiment provides a user equipment that includes a processor configured to receive a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) NOTIFY message transmitted by a network component as a result of a registration event. The SIP NOTIFY message contains at least a portion of information included in a first SIP message sent between a first user equipment and the network component. Another embodiment provides method and apparatus for a network node to determine whether filter criteria include one or more indicators that specify the need for information, and including in a second SIP message the information specified by the one or more indicators. |
| US08345675B1 |
Orderly offlining in a distributed, multi-stage switch fabric architecture
A network device having a distributed, multi-stage forwarding architecture uses a two-stage process for planned orderly offlining of switch fabric components. The process includes a prepare stage in which preparations are made from downstream components to upstream components for offlining and new spray weights are calculated but not applied, and a commit stage in which new spray weights are committed and applied to traffic from upstream components to downstream components. |
| US08345673B1 |
Physical-layer device (PHY) having a serial interface and a magic packet circuit
Apparatus having corresponding methods comprise: a physical-layer input circuit to receive first signals representing first data; a first serializer to transmit a serial stream of the first data; and a magic packet circuit to generate a magic packet signal when the first data includes a magic packet. |
| US08345670B1 |
Call transfer determination based on a geographic area served by a communication network
A call control system to route a voice over internet protocol call between a wireless communication device and a destination device comprises a communication interface and a processing system, wherein the destination device is located in a geographic area served by a communication network. The communication interface is configured to receive an authorization response from an authorization system located in a home wireless network of the wireless communication device, wherein the authorization response comprises a destination identifier of the destination device and a location identifier of the wireless communication device. The processing system is configured to process the destination identifier and the location identifier to determine if the wireless communication device is located in the geographic area, and if so, the processing system is configured to direct the communication interface to transfer the call over a source port associated with the geographic area served by the communication network. |
| US08345665B2 |
Text to speech conversion of text messages from mobile communication devices
A method includes providing a user interface, at a mobile communication device, that includes a first area to receive text input and a second area to receive an identifier associated with an addressee device. The text input and the identifier are received via the user interface. A short message service (SMS) message including the text input is transmitted to a Text to Speech (TTS) server for conversion into an audio message and for transmission of the audio message to the addressee device associated with the identifier. An acknowledge message transmitted from the TTS server permits the addressee device to allow delivery of the audio message or to decline delivery of the audio message. The TTS server transmits the audio message in response to the addressee device allowing delivery of the audio message. A confirmation message is received from the TTS server that indicates that a reply voice message has been received from the addressee device in response to the audio message. |
| US08345660B2 |
Wireless mesh network controller synchronization
A set sleep period is coordinated among a plurality of mesh network nodes to conserve power. A controller is synchronized with an existing wireless mesh network by sending a network synchronization signal from the controller indicating that sleep timing information is lost, and receiving a reply from one or more wireless mesh network nodes within the existing wireless mesh network comprising sleep timing information for the wireless mesh network. |
| US08345657B2 |
Method and device of transmitting and parsing data in wireless communication network
The present invention provides a method and corresponding device of processing and parsing a to-be-transmitted data packet in a communication network, such as a LTE system. A sub-header that is used for a header portion of a transmitted data packet is generated for each component data packet constituting the transmitted data packet, containing: original data packet ID for indicating an original data packet which the component data packet belongs to; segmentation processing ID for indicating times of segmentation happened to the original data packet in order to the component data packet, and a data segment which said component data packet belongs to after each segmentation; data amount IF for indicating a data amount of a data portion of the data packet. With the technical solution provided by the present invention, the header structure definition of a data packet is optimized, and the transmission resource utilization efficiency is improved. |
| US08345655B2 |
Techniques for improving control channel acquisition in a wireless communication system
A technique of operating a wireless communication system includes determining respective geometries of multiple subscriber stations, which include a first subscriber station and a second subscriber station, with respect to a serving base station. Respective control channels, which include a first control channel associated with the first subscriber station and a second control channel associated with the second subscriber station, for the multiple subscriber stations are then scheduled based on the respective geometries. The first control channel is scheduled to be encountered earlier in a control channel search procedure, of the one or more control channel symbols, than the second control channel. The first subscriber station has a lower geometry than the second subscriber station. |
| US08345654B2 |
Method for reducing intra-cell interference between cell phones performing random access
A method in a network node in control of a cell in a cellular telecommunication network for reducing intra-cell interference between user equipments (UE) residing in said cell and performing random access (RA). The method comprises the steps of arranging groups of preamble sequences where the sequences within each group are orthogonal to each other, assigning one such group to the cell, from which group the UEs performing RA randomly selects a preamble, and assigning one or more additional group(s) of preamble sequences to said cell if the RACH or traffic load exceeds a certain threshold. The invention further relates to a radio network node in a cellular telecommunication system, capable of carrying out said method. |
| US08345653B2 |
Wireless RFID networking systems and methods
Embodiments of the present invention include a wireless access point that acquires and processes radio frequency identification (RFID) information. The wireless access point may be coupled to a network of RFID readers over a wireless network. The RFID readers may read a plurality of RFID tags and transmit information to one or more readers. The readers may, in turn, transmit the RFID information to a wireless access point. The wireless access point may include a middleware layer for performing a variety of RFID data processing functions. In one embodiment, the wireless RFID reader network may be used to improve positioning of readers and tags, and may include a GPS system or position assisted GPS system at the reader and/or tag level. |
| US08345650B2 |
Access node/gateway to access node/gateway layer-2 connectivity (end-to-end)
Systems, methods, and apparatus for providing end-to-end L2 connectivity, are described. The system includes satellites configured to transmit data packets. The system further includes a first non-autonomous gateway in communication with the satellites. The first non-autonomous gateway is configured to receive the data packets from the satellites at L1, generate virtual tagging tuples within L2 packet headers of the data packets, and transmit the data packets each including a virtual tagging tuple. The system further includes a L2 switch in communication with the first non-autonomous gateway. The L2 switch is configured to receive the virtually tagged data packets and transmit the virtually tagged data packets. Further, the system includes a second non-autonomous gateway in communication with the L2 switch. The second non-autonomous gateway configured to receive the virtually tagged data packets and transmit the virtually tagged data packets to an entity based on the virtual tagging tuple associated with each of the virtually tagged packets. |
| US08345647B2 |
Flexible multicast and/or broadcast listening intervals
The present invention provides a new and unique method and apparatus for communicating information between two nodes, points or terminals in a wireless local area network (WLAN), where a variable multicast and/or broadcast listening interval and associated signalling is allowed between the two nodes, points or terminals in the wireless LAN network. The two nodes, points or terminals include an access point (AP) or other suitable network node or terminal and a station (STA) or other suitable network node or terminal in the WLAN. The AP and the STA can indicate its capability to support a flexible multicast and broadcast listening interval by using new fields in Beacon and Probe Response frames and in (Re)Association Request Frames. The multicast and broadcast service is setup by using Multicast and Broadcast Service Setup signalling. |
| US08345646B2 |
Access terminal conditionally opening a data session
The access terminal is configured to wirelessly send to a data system a request that the data system assign an access terminal identifier (ATI) to the access terminal. The access terminal delays transmission of the request until after a user of the access terminal has employed the access terminal to request a packet data service from the data system. In some instances, the data system is an Evolution, Data Only (EV-DO) system and the access terminal identifier (ATI) is a Unicast Access Terminal Identifier (UATI) generated by the Evolution, Data Only (EV-DO) system. |
| US08345644B2 |
Wireless communication method and system for configuring radio access bearers for enhanced uplink services
A wireless communication method and system for controlling an enhanced uplink (EU) radio access bearer (RAB). The wireless communication system includes at least one wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), at least one Node-B and a radio network controller (RNC). The RNC configures an EU RAB to operate on an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH). At least one of the WTRU and the Node-B report EU traffic statistics and EU performance statistics to the RNC. The RNC then adjusts the configuration of the EU RAB in accordance with the received EU traffic statistics, the EU performance statistics, and information collected by the RNC itself. |
| US08345642B2 |
Mobile communications network
A first user terminal receives data during a time slot assigned for simultaneous transmission of data to a first set of at least one user terminal and to a second set of at least one user terminal using time-division multiplexing, estimates the applied power ratio between a first sub-channel to the first set and a second sub-channel to the second set (the available power ratios are divided into at least one known region and each applied power ratio belongs to one region), estimates bit error probability for each of the bursts of the received data; and applies an adaptation process in order to make the estimated bit error probabilities fall into one of bit error probability intervals of a predefined mapping table with a predetermined probability. which determines the bit error probability that is to be reported to a network. |
| US08345639B2 |
Broad propagation pattern antenna
An antenna includes a diplexer having a high pass filter coupled to first and second radiating elements and a low pass filter coupled to third and fourth radiating elements, the first and second radiating elements oriented in a different direction relative to the third and fourth radiating elements. Signals are transmitted to or receive from the first and second radiating elements with a greater intensity relative to the intensity with which the signals are transmitted to or received from the third and fourth radiating elements when the signal frequencies are above a low pass roll-off frequency of the low pass filter. Signals are transmitted to or received from the third and fourth radiating elements with a greater intensity relative to the intensity with which the signals are transmitted to or received from the first and second radiating elements when the signal frequencies are below a high pass roll-off frequency of the high pass filter. |
| US08345638B2 |
Method of maintaining broadcast service continuity
An access node in the boundary area of a single frequency network service area transmits a boundary indication to the mobile terminals in the boundary area to notify the mobile terminals that they are approaching the boundaries of the single frequency network. The mobile terminals receiving the boundary indications may then take steps to maintain continuity of broadcast services when the mobile terminals leave the service area of the single frequency network. |
| US08345632B2 |
Method and arrangement for processing mobile station history information in a wireless communication system
Methods and apparatus for processing mobile station transaction information at a serving control node in a wireless communication system are disclosed. The serving control node may be a base station, such as an eNodeB in an LTE/SAE wireless communication system. The transaction information, which may include, for example, mobility-related transaction information and traffic-related transaction information for a given mobile station, may be passed between controlling control nodes as the corresponding mobile station is handed over, so that a controlling control node has access to information characterizing the past activities of the mobile station. This information may be used in some embodiments for selecting a target control node for handover or for allocating link resources. |
| US08345630B2 |
Method of carrier reselection for providing selective traffic redirection
In one embodiment, the access terminal (AT) receives a switching ratio, the AT randomly generates a serving priority value from a uniformly distributed random variable, and the AT determines whether to switch from the first carrier and attach to one of the neighboring carriers based on the serving priority value and the switching ratio. |
| US08345626B2 |
Handover method for minimizing packet call reconnection delay time between different mobile communication schemes and multi-mode terminal for the same
Provided is a function of minimizing a delay time of a packet call disconnect due to a handover between communication networks providing a communication service using different mobile communication technologies. To do this, even though a handover situation is generated during a packet service, the packet service is continuously provided by maintaining a current mode and performing a mode change after registration in a handover target network succeeds. Accordingly, since the packet service is not provided only while a packet call connecting process is performed, a delay time according to a packet call reconnection can be minimized. |
| US08345623B2 |
Unified synchronous ranging channel design and allocation in wireless OFDMA systems
A unified synchronous ranging channel is provided. The unified synchronous ranging channel has a ranging cyclic prefix length that is the same as a cyclic prefix length of a data channel. The unified synchronous ranging channel is used for one of initial ranging, handover ranging, and periodic ranging between a mobile station and a femto base station. In one embodiment, the synchronous ranging channel spans over a two-dimensional radio resource region having a first number of subcarriers along frequency domain, a second number of OFDM symbols along time domain, and a third number of time-domain repetition. At the transmit side, a ranging code sequence is generated by applying a fixed time-domain cyclic shift per OFDM symbol to a root sequence. At the receive side, the ranging code sequence is decoded by using a summation module, a likelihood-combining module, and a modified peak test module that normalizes a peak value. |
| US08345621B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting signals according to the segmented access
A method and apparatus of transmitting signals for segmented access in a communication system is disclosed. The method for transmitting signals from a user equipment in a communication system includes the steps of selecting a predetermined channel structure depending on location of the user equipment among available channels defined differently depending on the location of the user equipment within a cell, and transmitting signals using the selected channel structure. Also, a method for transmitting signals using sequences allocated differently depending on location of a user equipment within a cell is disclosed. |
| US08345615B2 |
Omitting UE id on an enhanced RACH process
A method of an uplink transfer at the UE side in a wireless communications system over a wireless interface between a radio network and a user equipment node uses a first mode of transfer and a second mode of transfer. The first mode of transfer involves sending a first message by the UE to a Node B of the wireless communication system. The second mode of transfer involves receiving a resource by the UE from the Node B, and sending at least one subsequent message by the UE to the Node B, the at least one subsequent message omits an UE id. |
| US08345613B2 |
Enhanced UL rate violation detection
The present invention relates to a method for grant violation detection in an enhanced uplink (UL) telecommunication system. According to the method a radio network controller (RNC) establishes a first enhanced UL transport channel (E-DCH) which enables uplink data traffic with a certain data rate from a user terminal UE at least to a first base station. At least a first downlink transmission is performed to the user terminal UE including a first E-DCH. A Node B NB detects the scheduled data rate on which the user terminal UE transmits and further controls if the scheduled data rate detected is higher than the maximum data rate defined by the first E-DCH channel scheduled grant. If this is the case the Node B NB performs at least a second following downlink transmission including the first E-DCH channel scheduled grant. |
| US08345605B2 |
Transmission of bundled feedback in wireless networks
A transmission of information between a secondary to a primary node in a wireless network occurs in a plurality of N logical time durations. Bundled feedback information for multiple DL transmissions is provided in one UL transmission. Each DL transmission is indicated by a DL grant comprising an M-bit downlink assignment indicator (DAI) field. The primary node increments the value of the M-bit DAI field in successively transmitted DL grants. The secondary node examines the value of the M-bit DAI field in received DL grants, to determine the bundled feedback information. |
| US08345604B2 |
Effectuating establishment of internet protocol security tunnels for utilization in a wireless communication environment
Systems and methodologies are described that effectuate establishment of an IPSec tunnel for utilization in a wireless communication environment. IPSec establishment procedures on home base stations can be used to establish IPSec tunnels between home base stations situated on open access sectors of wireless communication environments and packet data interworking function components positioned at the contiguity of secured segments of the wireless communication environments. Moreover, high rate packet data point-to-point protocol challenge-handshake authentication protocols can be directed through the IPSec tunnels to facilitate authentication of access terminals associated with the home base stations in order to facilitate further communications with components dispersed within secure areas of wireless communication environments. Further, international mobile subscriber identities (IMSI) affiliated with access terminals associated with home base stations can be used to identify packet data serving nodes with which to establish communications between home base stations and packet data serving nodes. |
| US08345603B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing GTP triggered messages
A GTP Triggered Message handling capability is provided for enabling handling of GTP Triggered Messages. A GTP Triggered Message including a GTP Sequence Number and an invalid TEID is received, and one of a plurality of processing elements is selected for the GTP Triggered Message based on the GTP Sequence Number of the GTP Triggered Message. The selected one of the processing elements is selected based on a mapping of a group of GTP Sequence Numbers to the selected one of the processing elements. The GTP Triggered Message is propagated toward the selected processing element such that the GTP Triggered Message may be processed by the selected processing element. In this manner, processing of GTP Triggered Messages having invalid TEIDs may be performed by processing elements which typically process GTP Triggered Messages having valid TEIDs, such that GTP Triggered Messages having invalid TEIDs are not required to be processed by a central processing module before being provided to the processing elements. |
| US08345602B2 |
Wireless communication system, transmitting device and receiving device
A wireless communication system has a transmitting device and a receiving device that perform communication by using a multi-carrier signal, wherein the receiving device includes a quality generating unit generating each piece of receiving quality information on each pilot channel for transmitting each pilot signal, a determining unit determining the number of pilot channels needed in the multi-carrier signal based on the receiving quality information, and a notifying unit transmitting a signal requesting the determined number of pilot channels to the transmitting device, and the transmitting device includes an allocation unit determining allocations of pilot signals in the direction of the time axis and in the direction of the frequency axis, corresponding to a requested number of pilot channels, and a transmitting unit transmitting the multi-carrier signal having the determined pilot signal allocations. |
| US08345598B2 |
Mobility management method and network device
A mobility management method includes: notifying, at a mobile terminal, an edge node of a terminal function indicating that the mobile terminal has a Mobile IP client function; instructing, at the edge node, the mobile terminal to perform an operation for mobility management by using not an MIP function but an IP function when the edge node has a PMIP client function; performing, at the mobile terminal, the operation for mobility management by using the IP function in response to the instruction from the edge node; and performing, the edge node, the operation for mobility management by using the PMIP client function. |
| US08345596B2 |
Call control method for seamless mobility service
A call control method for an Internet Protocol (IP)-based mobility service is provided. The call control method for ensuring service continuity in a mobile communication service environment, includes: receiving a call signal message including permanent IP addresses and transport IP addresses from a transmitter terminal and a receiver terminal, and acquiring the permanent IP addresses and the transport IP addresses of the transmitter terminal and the receiver terminal; and performing call control between the transmitter terminal and the receiver terminal on the basis of the transport IP addresses and the permanent IP addresses of the transmitter terminal and the receiver terminal. Therefore, by interfacing with an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) for controlling a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based service, an IP mobility control apparatus for controlling mobility of a terminal when a call is controlled, and a network control apparatus for controlling a network, it is possible to prevent data transmission from being interrupted while the terminal is moving, thereby providing an IP-based seamless, high-quality service. |
| US08345595B1 |
Sector-based quality-of-service enforcement
What is disclosed is a communication system and method of operating a communication system, where a wireless access node configured to receive packet communications from wireless devices communicating in sectors over wireless links, and the packet communications indicate an application type. A wireless access node determines wireless device identifiers of the wireless devices and sector identifiers of the sectors and transfers the packet communications, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers. A packet processing system is configured to receive the packet communications, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers; determine the application types of the packet communications; determine sector activity profiles by way of the application types, the wireless device identifiers, and the sector identifiers; determine a quality-of-service policies based on the activity profiles; and transfer the quality-of-service policies. The wireless access node is configured to receive the quality-of-service policies and enforce a level of service to the wireless devices over the wireless links based on the quality-of-service policies. |
| US08345594B2 |
Method of executing handover between heterogeneous networks and method of supporting the same
A method of executing a handover between heterogeneous networks and method of supporting the same are disclosed, by which the handover can be smoothly performed between a wireless mobile communication network and a wireless LAN. A method of executing a handover between heterogeneous networks, in which a user equipment communicating with a wireless mobile communication network performs the handover into a wireless LAN, includes the steps of making a request for information for at least one cell neighbor to the wireless LAN to a second mobile communication network node via a first mobile communication network node, receiving the information for the at least one cell via the first mobile communication network node from the second mobile communication network node, and executing the handover to the wireless LAN using the received information. |
| US08345592B2 |
Method and arrangement for reducing power consumption in user equipments in multi-carrier radio systems
The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for reducing power consumption in the user equipments in power saving mode in a communication network, comprising a communication network node transmitting information on shared control channels (SCCH) to one or more user equipments. The information is transmitted over either a narrow or a wide bandwidth depending on which mode said one or more user equipments are, either a power saving mode or an active mode. |
| US08345591B2 |
Method and system for utilizing plurality of physical layers to retain quality of service in a wireless device during a communication session
A wireless mobile communication (WMC) device may be determine a quality of service (QOS) required to communicate data. The WMC device may utilize a plurality of physical layers available in the WMC device to retain the QOS throughout the data communication. The physical layers may comprise a plurality of wireless technologies and/or a plurality of transmission power levels within each wireless technology. Selection of physical layers that may be utilized may comprise determination of available QOS through the physical layers, available power in the WMC device, and/or power requirement for communicating data via the physical layers. Data encoding may also be utilized to alter size of communicated data while retaining the required QOS. Data encoding may comprise utilizing encoding schemes, data compression, and/or redundancy bits. A set of deadlines may be utilized to enable switching between available physical layers to ensure maintaining and/or achieving required QOS. |
| US08345590B2 |
Wireless communication system and wireless communication method for switching wireless channels
In a wireless communication system including a plurality of wireless terminal apparatuses and a relaying apparatus, the relaying apparatus performs a channel search to select a wireless channel in a good communication situation when the relaying apparatus transmits a beacon signal at a constant period, and transmits switching destination information to be used to switch the wireless channel to the selected one in a state of being stored in the beacon signal. When the communication situation of the wireless channel has deteriorated, the relaying apparatus switches the wireless channel being used by the communication section to the selected one based on the switching destination information. When the communication situation of a wireless channel of the wireless terminal apparatus has deteriorated, the wireless terminal apparatus switches the wireless channel to the selected one based on the switching destination information. |
| US08345586B2 |
Wireless data communication system and method
Embodiments of the present invention provide a communication system, comprising: a first wireless network including a coordinator and a plurality of network devices associated with the coordinator; a second wireless network; wherein the first coordinator is arranged to notify at least one network device of the availability of data; and the at least one network device notified of the availability of data is arranged to associate with the second wireless network and to receive the data. |
| US08345584B2 |
Wireless local area network and access point for a wireless local area network
Embodiments related to Wireless Local Area Networks and access points for a Wireless Local Area Network are described and depicted. |
| US08345582B2 |
Mobile communications system, base station apparatus, user apparatus and method
A base station apparatus used for a FDD mobile communications system which uses at least a predetermined frequency bandwidth is disclosed. The base station apparatus includes a control unit which provides an instruction signal which at least indicates a frequency band used in wireless communications; and a unit which wirelessly communicates with a user apparatus according to the instruction signal, wherein, if the base station apparatus belongs to a predetermined border area between mobile communications systems, an instruction signal which indicates that use of one part of the predetermined frequency band is permitted, but use of another part is prohibited is provided by the control unit, and, if the base station apparatus belongs to a predetermined non-border area, an instruction signal which indicates that use of one part and use of the other part are permitted. |
| US08345579B2 |
Relay device suppressing frame flooding
In a relay device, a first memory stores correspondence information representing a correspondence relationship between a node and a port. A second memory stores information by which a port to suppress flooding of a frame is distinguishable. A relay part limits a port, which floods a frame addressed to a node of which information is not stored in the first memory, based on the information stored in the second memory. |
| US08345578B2 |
Methods for configuring sender and receiver antennas, corresponding storage means and nodes
Methods for configuring antennas of first and second nodes of a wireless communications network clocked by transmission cycles, each cycle being divided into time slots, the first node and second nodes having first and second time slots for transmitting data in the first mode, the first node having a third time slot for transmitting data to the second node in a second mode, are proposed. The configuring method, on the second node side, comprises steps of determining a receiving configuration of the antenna of the second node, verifying that the determined receiving configuration is invariant, relative to a receiving configuration previously used for receiving data transmitted from the first node to the second node in the second mode; in the event of negative verification: sending a predetermined signal in the second mode, by using a sending configuration that is determined based on the determined receiving configuration; configuring, during the third time slot, the antenna of the second node by using this determined receiving configuration. |
| US08345577B2 |
High speed wireless infrastructure
High speed wireless infrastructures and techniques are provided. Wireless radios are situated within an enterprise, each radio positioned at the end of the wireless frequency range for that of a neighboring radio. Each radio wireless transmits using direction steerable antennas at 60 Gigahertz. At lease one radio is interfaced to a back-end enterprise information server. Each radio capable of interfacing to a consumer's wireless device within the enterprise when that wireless device is within range of the directional steerable antennas. The wireless radios and the back-end information server combine to form a high speed wireless communication network within the enterprise. |
| US08345576B2 |
Methods and systems for dynamic subring definition within a multi-ring
Embodiments of the present invention automatically determine via heuristics optimal configurations to form sub-rings of nodes and where to position gateway processors among these sub-rings. The heuristics may be applied at a predefined timing interval configured by the user or in response to various events, such as a node failure or when a node joins the multi-ring network. Another embodiment of the invention may use automatic heuristics to determine when a suboptimal multi-ring configuration exists and formulates a new multi-ring configuration. |
| US08345573B2 |
Communication quality estimation system, equipment, method and program
A communication quality estimation system has: a plurality of equipments performing packet transmission on a network; and a communication quality estimation equipment. The plurality of equipments includes: a first equipment; a second equipment; and a third equipment placed downstream of the first equipment and upstream of the second equipment. The communication quality estimation equipment estimates communication quality in the third equipment by comparing a number of first packets satisfying a first sampling rule out of packets transmitted by the first equipment and a number of second packets satisfying the first sampling rule out of packets transmitted by the second equipment. |
| US08345569B2 |
Multiple watermarks for fidelity assessment
A system and method of perceptual quality assessment for multimedia content in a communications network employing digital watermarking. A content preparer prepares content for quality assessment by embedding digital watermarks into the multimedia data, each watermark having a different level of robustness with respect to a specified type of potential degradation introduced during content transmission. A quality assessor provides an assessment of the quality of the transmitted content by attempting to detect the presence of at least one watermark, and calculating a quality assessment score based on the level(s) of robustness of the detected watermark(s) with respect to the specified type of potential degradation. The quality assessment score can be calculated based on the level of robustness of the least robust watermark whose presence was successfully detected by the quality assessor. The quality assessor generates an output indication of the transmitted content fidelity using any suitable type of output indication. |
| US08345568B2 |
Low loss layer two ethernet network
A method may include provisioning a first virtual connection between a first device and a second device, and provisioning a second virtual connection between the first device and the second device. A data flow is received and duplicated at the first device to generate duplicated data flows. The duplicated data flows are transmitted to the second device via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection. The duplicated data flows are received at the second device via the first virtual connection and the second virtual connection. A performance characteristic of the data flow received via the first virtual connection is determined. The performance characteristic of the data flow received via the second virtual connection is determined. The data flow received via the first virtual connection or the data flow received via the second virtual connection is selected for forwarding based on the performance characteristics of the data flow received via the first virtual connection and the performance characteristic of the data flow received via the second virtual connection. The selected data flow is forwarded. |
| US08345566B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving information through fast feedback channel in broadband wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving information through a fast feedback channel in a broadband wireless communications system are provided. The apparatus includes a generator for generating a quasi-orthogonal signal stream corresponding to a codeword to be fed back, a plurality of mappers for mapping the quasi-orthogonal signal stream to a plurality of bundles in the fast feedback channel by using different mapping patterns, and a transmitter for transmitting the quasi-orthogonal signal stream mapped to the plurality of bundles. |
| US08345564B2 |
Universal plug and play method and apparatus to provide remote access service
Disclosed are a universal plug and play (UPnP) method and a UPnP apparatus providing remote access service. The method includes receiving external inputs of an identifier of a remote access server (RAS) to generate a credential and a session initiation protocol (SIP) identifier of the RAS, generating a payload of a SIP packet including a credential identifier (ID) generated based on the identifier of the RAS, remote access transport agent (RATA) capability information, and a transport address (TA) set corresponding to candidate IP addresses to access a remote access client (RAC), and transmitting the SIP packet to the RAS. |
| US08345561B2 |
Time monitor
A method and system for measuring latency is provided. A monitor node is used to measure latency in a computer network or in a computing device by time stamping signal messages sent from nodes in the computer network and/or tasks in a particular node or device. The time stamps are generated using a system clock of the monitor node to reduce any discrepancies in timing. In addition, the monitor node may compensate for latencies between the monitor node and each of the one or more nodes or devices across which latency is to be measured. Signal messages may include a data message ID and/or a node ID identifying the message that is being tracked and for which latency is being measured. Latency may further be measured across multiple tasks being performed in the same or different nodes or devices by transmitting signal messages for each of the multiple tasks. |
| US08345560B2 |
Methods and apparatus to pre-qualify user communities for communication services
Example methods and apparatus to pre-qualify user communities for communication services are disclosed. An example method comprises configuring a first remote network demarcation associated with a first loop to a loop-back state, interrogating the first loop to determine a first parameter representative of the first loop, configuring a second remote network demarcation associated with a second loop to the loop-back state, interrogating the second loop to determine a second parameter representative of the second loop, and compiling a report based on the first and second parameters, the report containing a value that represents a degree to which a communication service can be provided to a user community associated with the first and second loops. |
| US08345549B2 |
Techniques for channel access and transmit queue selection
Various embodiments are disclosed for techniques to perform channel access decisions and to select a transmit queue. These decisions may be performed, for example, based upon the age and number of packets in a queue. These techniques may allow a node to improve the length of data bursts transmitted by the node, although the invention is not limited thereto. |
| US08345547B2 |
Channel access mechanism for wide channels used in overlapping networks
When a device is contending for the right to transmit on a wide channel (composed of a primary narrow channel and one or more secondary narrow channels), it may halt its backoff counter if one of the secondary channels is detected as busy, and restart the backoff counter from its halted value when all the channels are again detected as idle. Some embodiments may use a guard interval detection technique to aid in sensing whether the secondary channels are busy. |
| US08345542B2 |
Method of M:1 protection
An apparatus comprising a first segment endpoint bridge (SEB) configured to couple to a second SEB via a plurality of path segments, wherein the path segments comprise a working segment and a plurality of candidate protection segments, wherein the candidate protection segments comprise a protection segment that is configured to protect the working segment, wherein the candidate protection segments other than the protection segment do not protect the working segment, wherein only one first state variable is used to maintain each of the candidate protection segments other than the protection segment, and wherein a plurality of second state variables are used to maintain each of the working segment and the protection segment. |
| US08345541B2 |
Providing services in case of call diversion in a communication system
The present invention relates to an S-CSCF receiving a terminating request associated with a called user and executing services for the called user. The S-CSCF determines an indication in Session Case indicating originating services handling in call forwarding situation, and based on this executes a subset of services for the user. |
| US08345540B2 |
Virtual snooping bridge in computer networks
In general, techniques are described for implementing a virtual snooping bridge in computer networks. The techniques may be implemented by a ring network comprised of a plurality of ring network devices arranged in a ring topology. In one aspect, a ring network device coupled to an adjacent device that provides access to multicast content implements the techniques. This ring network device comprises one or more ports and a control unit. The ports receive ring messages from one or more of the other ring network devices in accordance with a group management ring protocol (GMRP). The ring messages indicate operations requested by one or more host devices with respect to delivery of content of the multicast group. The control unit then presents the received operations to the adjacent network device such that, from the perspective of the adjacent network device, the ring network appears as a single layer two network device. |
| US08345539B2 |
Addressing of redundant subscribers in a communication network
A system and a method are provided for addressing at least two subscribers that are redundant in respect of each other in a communication network. The subscribers are each permanently assigned a unique address which is different for each subscriber. The subscribers form a group such that the subscribers in the group are redundant in respect to each other. The group of subscribers is assigned a unique group address which is only activate for one of the subscribers in the group and de-active for each of the remaining subscribers in the group. At least one higher-order unit is provided for the activation and deactivation. |
| US08345535B2 |
Method and apparatus for generating ranging preamble code in wireless communication system
A method and apparatus of generating a ranging preamble code in a wireless communication system is provided. A mobile station (MS) generates one of a plurality of ranging preamble codes, wherein the plurality of ranging preamble codes are based on a padded Zadoff-Chu (ZC) sequence to which a cyclic shift is applied in a unit of NCS, where NCS is a function of a cyclic prefix (CP) length in a time domain. |
| US08345531B2 |
Selecting a transmission technology
The present invention discloses a method for selecting a transmission technology (MIMO or non MIMO) for a HSDPA connection established between a RNC and a UE depending on the mobility of said UE, measured at the RNC as variations of the position of the UE. Then, if the connection is established with HSDPA MIMO technology and the position variations exceed a first pre-defined threshold, the connection is switched to HSPDA non MIMO technology. Also, if the connection is established with HSPDA non MIMO technology and the position variations are below a second pre-defined threshold, the connection is switched to HSPDA MIMO technology. |
| US08345529B2 |
Optical pickup apparatus with astigmatism correcting collimating lens
An optical-pickup apparatus includes: a laser diode having a first-laser element, which emits a first-laser beam, and a second-laser element, which emits a second-laser beam having a wavelength shorter than a wavelength of the first-laser beam, arranged in the same package; an objective lens to condense the first- and second-laser beams emitted from the laser diode to signal-recording layers of first- and second-optical discs, respectively, the second-optical disc being of a standard different from a standard of the first-optical disc; and a collimating lens arranged in an optical path between the laser diode and the objective lens, the collimating lens configured to change the first- and second-laser beams from divergent light to parallel light, the collimating lens being inclined with respect to optical axes of the first- and second-laser beams so that astigmatism in the first- and second-laser beams is corrected. |
| US08345527B2 |
Optical phase controller and optical phase control method
An optical phase controller includes an optical phase control element so that a phase of incident light applied to the optical phase control element is controlled. The optical phase control element includes a metal structure having anisotropy in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to the first direction within an electric-field vibration plane of the incident light, the wavelength of the incident light includes a plasmon resonance wavelength possessed by the metal structure, and the incident light is linearly polarized light or elliptically polarized light simultaneously having polarized components in the first direction and the second direction perpendicular to the first direction. |
| US08345526B2 |
Non-binary holograms for increased capacity
Techniques are provided for increasing storage capacity in a holographic storage system. While typical holographic storage systems involve binary storage for each data position in a holographic disk, present techniques involve storing data such that more than two data levels may be recorded in each data position. In some embodiments, a recording beam directed to the disk may be adjusted to different power levels depending on the data level to be recorded. Furthermore, the recording time at a data position may be adjusted to increase the energy directed to the data position by increasing the amount of time the recording beam is impinged on the data position. Embodiments are suitable for different types of holographic storage, including dye-based medium. |
| US08345524B2 |
Information readout apparatus
An offset corrector of an information readout apparatus receives a digital signal DRF output from an A/D converter, and performs offset correction. The offset corrector is capable of switching between a level-correction operation that corrects the offset so that the DC level of the shortest period signal included in the readout signal assumes a zero amplitude reference and a HPF operation that matches the level of the readout signal with the zero amplitude reference. The offset corrector corrects the offset in the level correction operation during a normal reproduction, and switches to the HPF operation for offset correction when a defect judgment unit detects a defective area. The information readout apparatus is stable and has a superior performance without a symmetry deviation if there occurs a waveform fluctuation caused by a defect etc. |
| US08345522B1 |
Flexible optical write strategy
A method of controlling a laser driver includes determining a set of timing parameters in response to contents of a received bit stream. The method further includes creating a plurality of sets of pulse defining parameters in response to the set of timing parameters, and generating a plurality of generic pulses in response to the plurality of sets of pulse defining parameters. The method also includes combining the plurality of generic pulses into a plurality of enable signals, and creating a plurality of adapted enable signals by selectively replacing one of the plurality of enable signals with an alternative signal. The method further includes outputting the plurality of adapted enable signals to the laser driver. |
| US08345521B2 |
Optical disc apparatus and signal generation method
An optical disc apparatus includes a light separator configured to separate a light beam emitted from a light source into a main beam and a sub-beam, an objective lens configured to, when the light beam is condensed and irradiated to an optical disc having a uniform recording layer in which a track is formed by record marks, irradiate at least part of the sub-beam to an area where the main beam is not irradiated in a radial direction which is defined as a direction of radius of the optical disc, and a signal generating unit configured to generate a mark layer distance signal, representing a distance between a focus of the light beam and a mark layer to which the track belongs, based on a return light beam resulting from at least one of the main beam and the sub-beam, which has been irradiated to the track. |
| US08345520B2 |
Method of vertical deviation disc detection
A method for detecting whether vertical deviation of an optical disc occurs is provided. First, before a pickup head is successfully focused on the optical disc, a pickup head is actuated based on an input control signal so as to generate a focus error signal with a plurality of S-curves. Then, a plurality of zero crossing points of the S-curves in the focus error signal is identified and a plurality of input control values respectively corresponding to the zero crossing points is obtained. A variation of the input control values is then calculated. Whether vertical deviation of the optical disc occurs can be determined according to the variation of the input control values. |
| US08345517B2 |
Method and apparatus for aligning a laser diode on a slider
An apparatus includes a structure including a waveguide and a pocket adjacent to an input facet of the waveguide. A laser has an output facet and is positioned in the pocket. A stop is included one at least one of the laser and a wall of the pocket. The stop is positioned at an interface between the laser and the wall of the pocket such that the output facet of the laser and the input facet of the waveguide are separated by a gap. |
| US08345513B2 |
Stacked transducing devices
Implementations include a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) having an additional transducing device overlaid in a vertically stacked relationship. In some implementations the additional transducing device is a second CMUT configured to operate at a different frequency from the first CMUT. |
| US08345512B2 |
Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) device and method of controlling the same
A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) device, comprising: a cMUT formed on a semiconductor substrate; a DC high-voltage generation unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for generating a DC high-voltage signal to be superposed on a driving signal for the cMUT; a driving signal generation unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for generating the driving signal; and a superposition unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for branching the DC high-voltage signal output from the DC high-voltage generation unit and for superposing one of the branched DC high-voltage signals on the other of the branched DC high-voltage signals via the driving signal generation unit. |
| US08345509B2 |
System and method to create three-dimensional images of non-linear acoustic properties in a region remote from a borehole
In some aspects of the disclosure, a method for creating three-dimensional images of non-linear properties and the compressional to shear velocity ratio in a region remote from a borehole using a conveyed logging tool is disclosed. In some aspects, the method includes arranging a first source in the borehole and generating a steered beam of elastic energy at a first frequency; arranging a second source in the borehole and generating a steerable beam of elastic energy at a second frequency, such that the steerable beam at the first frequency and the steerable beam at the second frequency intercept at a location away from the borehole; receiving at the borehole by a sensor a third elastic wave, created by a three wave mixing process, with a frequency equal to a difference between the first and second frequencies and a direction of propagation towards the borehole; determining a location of a three wave mixing region based on the arrangement of the first and second sources and on properties of the third wave signal; and creating three-dimensional images of the non-linear properties using data recorded by repeating the generating, receiving and determining at a plurality of azimuths, inclinations and longitudinal locations within the borehole. The method is additionally used to generate three dimensional images of the ratio of compressional to shear acoustic velocity of the same volume surrounding the borehole. |
| US08345508B2 |
Large area modular sensor array assembly and method for making the same
A modular and tileable sensor array with routing in the interposer carrying the signals from the sensors to the integrated circuits. In one embodiment a large area modular sensor array assembly includes one or more tileable modules coupled together. The tileable modules have a plurality of transducer cells forming a sensor, an interposer coupled on a first side to the plurality of transducer cells by a plurality, one or more integrated circuits coupled to a second side of the interposer, wherein the interposer is configured to form the connection of at least some of the transducer cells to the integrated circuits, and one or more input/output connectors coupled to the interposer and providing an external interface. |
| US08345506B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
In order to latch and store a word line reset level voltage (negative voltage) which is set during reset operation, a word line driver includes PMOS transistors and NMOS transistors. The word line driver further includes a stress-reducing PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor, and also a word line bias control circuit which controls and activates a supply bias during setting of a word line, start of resetting, and a reset period. |
| US08345500B2 |
Memory having a disabling circuit and method for disabling the memory
A memory with disabling circuit includes a memory matrix and a disabling circuit. The memory matrix includes a data input/output end and an output enable end. The disabling circuit includes a fuse and an output end. When the fuse is not blown, the disabling circuit transmits the signal of the data input/output end to the output end according to the signal of the output enable end. When the fuse is blown, the disabling circuit generates a tri-state to the output end. Therefore, external circuits cannot perform actions of reading or writing to access the memory matrix. |
| US08345497B2 |
Internal bypassing of memory array devices
An output control circuit for a memory array includes a latched output node precharged to a first logic state prior to both a read and write operation; first logic that couples memory cell data from a memory read path to the output node during the read operation, the first logic controlled by a timing signal; second logic that internally bypasses the memory read path during a write operation by decoupling it from the output node, such that a logical derivative of write data written to the memory array is also coupled to the output node, the second logic also controlled by the timing signal; and wherein a transition of the output node from the first logic state to a second logic state during the write operation occurs within a time range as that of the same transition during the read operation. |
| US08345494B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory cell mats each comprising a plurality of normal memory cell arrays; and a redundancy memory cell array configured to replace a defective memory cell with a plurality of redundancy memory cells corresponding to a redundancy word line when the redundancy word line corresponding to one or more redundancy memory cell arrays is activated in response to an address corresponding to the defective memory cell among the plurality of normal memory cell arrays. |
| US08345486B2 |
Programming a memory device to increase data reliability
Methods for programming a memory array, memory devices, and memory systems are disclosed. In one such method, the target reliability of the data to be programmed is determined. The relative reliability of different groups of memory cells of the memory array is determined. The data is programmed into the group of memory cells of the array having a relative reliability corresponding to the target reliability. |
| US08345483B2 |
System and method for addressing threshold voltage shifts of memory cells in an electronic product
Methods and systems for addressing threshold voltage shifts of memory cells. A method includes reading a pattern of data from a first plurality of memory cells, comparing the read of the pattern of data with a known pattern of data using a reference, and if the read of the pattern of data and the known pattern of data do not match, adjusting the reference to find a reference level that results in a matching of a read of the pattern of data and the known pattern of data. Thereafter, trim sector data is read into a second plurality of memory cells using the adjusted reference level. |
| US08345481B2 |
NAND based NMOS NOR flash memory cell, a NAND based NMOS NOR flash memory array, and a method of forming a NAND based NMOS NOR flash memory array
A NOR flash nonvolatile memory or reconfigurable logic device has an array of NOR flash nonvolatile memory circuits that includes charge retaining transistors serially connected in a NAND string such that at least one of the charge retaining transistors functions as a select gate transistor to prevent leakage current through the charge retaining transistors when the charge retaining transistors is not selected for reading. The topmost charge retaining transistor's drain is connected to a bit line parallel to the charge retaining transistors and the bottommost charge retaining transistor's source is connected to a source line and is parallel to the bit line. The charge retaining transistors are programmed and erased with a Fowler-Nordheim tunneling process. |
| US08345469B2 |
Static random access memory (SRAM) having bit cells accessible by separate read and write paths
A method is for reading a first bit cell of a static random access memory in which the static random access memory has a first plurality of bit cells including the first bit cell. Each bit cell of the first plurality of bit cells includes a cross coupled pair of inverters for storing a logic state, optimized for being written, and powered by a read voltage during a read of the first plurality of bit cells. Each bit cell of the first plurality of bit cells is coupled to a true read bit line and a true write bit line, and a second plurality of bit cells is coupled to a complementary read bit line and a complementary write bit line. The true and complementary read bit lines are precharged to a precharge voltage of about half the read voltage. The true read bit line is predisposed to a logic low condition. One of a group consisting of a high impedance from the first bit cell to indicate that the logic state is a logic low and a signal voltage greater than the intermediate voltage to indicate that the logic state is a logic high is output from the first bit cell to the true read bit line. |
| US08345468B2 |
Capacity and density enhancement circuit for sub-threshold memory unit array
A capacity and density enhancement circuit for a sub-threshold memory unit array which can decrease the drain current in the bit lines and enhance the pull-up capability of memory cells. The capacity and density enhancement circuit is composed of a first enhancement transistor, a second enhancement transistor, a first mask transmission gate, a second mask transmission gate, a first logic memory capacitor and a second logic memory capacitor. |
| US08345463B2 |
Resistive memory device and method for fabricating the same
A resistive memory device includes: a bottom electrode formed over a substrate; and an insulation layer having a hole structure formed over the substrate structure. Herein, the hole structure exposes the bottom electrode, has sidewalls of positive slope, and has a bottom width equal to or smaller than a width of the bottom electrode; a resistive layer formed over the hole structure; and an upper electrode formed over the resistive layer. |
| US08345459B2 |
Architecture to facilitate reuse in multiple applications
A method includes generating, from a representation of a first integrated circuit, a representation of a second integrated circuit. The representation of the first integrated circuit includes a plurality of representations of operative memory channel interfaces including a representation of a first operative memory channel physical interface. The representation of the second integrated circuit includes a representation of a pseudo-memory channel physical interface and at least a representation of a second operative memory channel physical interface. The generating includes replacing an instantiation of a first circuit of the representation of the first operative memory channel physical interface with an instantiation of a second circuit. The instantiation of the second circuit is a representation of a circuit that is logically equivalent to a first circuit represented by the instantiation of the first circuit. |
| US08345457B2 |
Voltage source converter for high voltage direct current power transmission
A high voltage AC/DC or DC/AC power conversion system including a voltage source converter with at least two series-connected converter valve bridges, at least two reactors, where each of the reactors is connected to one of the AC phase terminals of the at least two bridges and at least one transformer connected to an AC supply voltage. In order to block a DC voltage from the at least one transformer, one of at least two capacitors is connected in series with each of the at least two reactors and is connected between the corresponding reactor and the at least one transformer. |
| US08345456B2 |
Control system of a power factor correction circuit
A control system for a power factor correction circuit performs stabilized oscillation operation and suppresses switching frequency variation due to change of the AC power source. A control system includes a voltage error amplifier for outputting a voltage error signal obtained by amplifying a difference between a DC output voltage Vo and a command value Vref of the DC output voltage, a current command value generating circuit for outputting a current command value Vi for controlling the input current Iin, a comparator comparing an inductor current signal obtained by detecting an inductor current running in the switching element by a current detecting resistor with a magnitude of the output signal Vi from the multiplier, a timer circuit for setting an off-period of the switching element corresponding to the voltage Vd, and a reset-set type flip-flop circuit for setting an off-timing of the switching element after an elapse of the off-period. |
| US08345451B2 |
DC to AC converter that generates the sine wave from the pulse width modulated signal
A method and apparatus for converting DC electricity to AC electricity, the AC electricity having a sine wave shape. DC electricity is supplied to a pulse width modulator. A pulse width modulated signal is formed from the DC electricity, the pulse width modulated signal comprising a plurality of pulses, each pulse having a duration representing an amplitude of the sine wave during an interval of the sine wave represented by the pulse, the pulse width modulated signal comprising a plurality of pulses (or a pulse train) during one sine wave period. The sine wave is generated from the pulse width modulated signal, values of the sine wave during successive sine wave intervals responsive to the duration of the pulse that represents the sine wave interval. |
| US08345447B2 |
Mounting apparatus for expansion cards
An assembly includes a circuit board, a support perpendicular to the circuit board, and a mounting apparatus including a sliding bracket to accommodate an expansion card, a driving member pivotably mounted to the second support, and a clamping arm mounted to the sliding bracket. The sliding bracket is slidably mounted to the second support, and the driving member is fixed to the sliding bracket. The clamping arm is operable to press or release the expansion card. When the driving member is moved in a first direction, the sliding bracket is moved towards the circuit board, and the expansion card is moved to connect to the circuit board. When the driving member is moved in a second direction opposite to the first direction, the sliding bracket is moved away from the circuit board, and the expansion card disengages from the circuit board. |
| US08345446B2 |
Fastening structure for portable electronic device
A portable electronic device includes a housing, a cover, and a member positioned between the housing and the cover. The housing includes at least one hook. The cover is attached to the housing and includes at least one positioning pin. The member defines at least one locking hole. The hook passes through the locking hole to lock the member to the housing. The positioning pin is positioned adjacent to the hook to prevent the hook from disengaging from the locking hole. |
| US08345443B2 |
Supporting frame for circuit board
A circuit board includes a substrate and a supporting frame fixed to, and supporting, the substrate. The supporting frame includes a main body, a pressing supporting portion, two pulling supporting portions and two fixing portions. The main body includes a first arm and a second arm connected to the first arm. The pressing supporting portion extends downwards from a junction of the first arm and the second arm for counterbalancing a downward force applied upon the substrate. The pulling supporting portions respectively extend downwards from distal ends of the first arm and second arm for counterbalancing an upward force applied upon the substrate. The two fixing portions are respectively formed on the first arm and second arm. Each of the fixing portions is located between the pressing supporting portion and one corresponding pulling supporting portion and is closer to the corresponding pulling supporting portion. |
| US08345442B2 |
Latching structure of electronic device
A latching structure of electronic device includes a lower housing, a circuit board and an upper housing. The lower housing forms at least one fixing pole; The circuit board defines at least one positioning slot corresponding to the fixing pole; The upper housing defines at least one engaging hole corresponding to the fixing pole. The fixing pole, passes through the positioning slot and the engaging hole, and the distal end of the fixing pole becomes liquefied, secures the lower housing with the circuit board and the upper housing, the circuit board is clamped between the lower housing and the upper housing. |
| US08345441B1 |
Stub minimization for multi-die wirebond assemblies with parallel windows
A microelectronic assembly can include first and second microelectronic packages mounted to respective first and second opposed surfaces of a circuit panel. Each microelectronic package can include a substrate having first and second apertures extending between first and second surfaces thereof, first and second microelectronic elements each having a surface facing the first surface of the substrate and a plurality of contacts at the surface of the respective microelectronic element aligned with at least one of the apertures, a plurality of terminals exposed at the second surface in a central region thereof, and leads electrically connected between the contacts of each microelectronic element and the terminals. The apertures of each substrate can have first and second parallel axes extending in directions of the lengths of the respective apertures. The terminals of each microelectronic package can be configured to carry all of the address signals transferred to the respective microelectronic package. |
| US08345440B2 |
Industrial module assembling apparatus
An industrial module apparatus includes a frame, a module signal integrated backplane, a plurality of function modules and a module terminal panel. The module signal integrated backplane is disposed at a side of the frame. The function modules can be inserted into the frame and electrically connected to the module signal integrated backplane for signal transmission, and can be removed from the frame for replacement. The function modules include a video analysis module, a network module, and/or a sensing module. The module terminal panel is connected to the module signal integrated backplane and serves as a signal transmission port for the function modules. |
| US08345439B1 |
Modular chassis arrangement with redundant logic power delivery system
A modular packet network device has a chassis in which multiple logic cards mate to the front side of an electrical signaling backplane. Logic power for the logic cards is supplied from a group of power converter cards that convert primary power to the logic voltages required by the logic cards. The power converter cards lie in a separate cooling path behind the backplane. Advantages achieved in at least some of the embodiments include removing primary power planes from the signaling backplane or portion of the backplane, providing redundant, upgradeable power modules whose individual failure does not cause logic card failure, and providing cool air to power converter circuits that would be subject to only heated air if located on the logic cards. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. |
| US08345438B2 |
Electronic part module and method of making the same
An electronic part module includes a wiring substrate, a passive device group of passive devices formed on the wiring substrate, and device chips mounted on the wiring substrate. Such an electronic part module is made in the following manner. First, a wiring substrate wafer is made, to include a plurality of electronic part module formation areas. Then, a plurality of passive devices are formed in each of the electronic part module formation areas on the wiring substrate wafer. Then, the device chips are formed on each of the electronic part module formation areas on the wiring substrate wafer. Finally, the wiring substrate wafer is divided. |
| US08345437B2 |
Connection structure and connection method of wiring board
A connection structure for connecting a wiring board to a to-be-connected body having electric contacts, the wiring board including: a base having board-side contacts provided on its facing surface that is to face the to-be-connected body; and a cover film which covers the facing surface except the board-side contacts and a non-covered partial region of the facing surface, the connection structure including: conduction portions formed of electrically conductive resin, for bonding the electric contacts and the board-side contacts to permit electrical conduction therebetween; and a reinforcement portion formed of the same resin as the conduction portions and disposed at a position which is different from positions of the conductive portions and at which the reinforcement portion extends across both of a surface of the cover film and a surface of the non-covered partial region of the base, the reinforcement portion bonding the to-be-connected body and the wiring board for reinforcing connection therebetween. |
| US08345436B2 |
Printed wiring board and connection configuration of the same
A printed wiring board having an insulating base material; a wiring formed on at least one surface of the insulating base material, the wiring forming a predetermined circuit pattern; a first connection terminal portion formed on the surface and electrically connected to the wiring, the first connection terminal portion having a first width; a second connection terminal portion formed on the surface and electrically connected to the wiring, the second connection terminal portion having a second width; and a cover layer configured to cover the wiring and expose the first and the second connection terminal portion. |
| US08345435B2 |
Terminal structure and manufacturing method thereof, and electronic device and manufacturing method thereof
A conductor having a projecting portion is formed which forms a terminal portion. An uncured prepreg including a reinforcing material is closely attached to the conductor and the prepreg is cured to form an insulating film including the reinforcing material. When the prepreg is closely attached, the prepreg is stretched by the projecting portion, so that a region of the prepreg, which is closely attached to the conductor, can be thinner than the other region of the prepreg. Then, by reducing the thickness of the entire insulating film, an opening can be formed in the portion having a smaller thickness. The step of reducing the thickness can be performed by etching. Further, it is preferable not to remove the reinforcing material in this step. The strength of a terminal and an electronic device can be increased by leaving the reinforcing material at the opening. |
| US08345433B2 |
Heterogeneous organic laminate stack ups for high frequency applications
Organic laminate stack ups are disclosed for a variety of applications, including high frequency RF applications. One or more inner core layers may be disposed between outer layers along with bondply or prepreg layers as needed. Discrete devices, including surface mount components and flip chips, may be embedded within the organic laminate stack up structures. The embedding of the discrete devices, which may be active or passive devices, may be in the form of a layer of bondply or prepreg encapsulating the discrete devices. In addition or in the alternative, cavities may be formed in at least the outer layers for housing discrete devices, which include surface mount components, flip chips, and wire bonded integrated circuits. A variety of caps may be utilized to seal the cavities. Further, shielding may be provided for the organic laminate stack up structure, including through a wall of vias or a plated trench cut along at least one side of the stack up structure. Each stack up structure may be packaged in a variety of ways, including as a surface mount component, ball grid array, or land grid array. |
| US08345431B2 |
Thin multi-chip flex module
A multichip module comprises a flexible circuit having conductive patterns on its surface(s) to which microelectronic device(s) are attached. The flexible circuit is enclosed and supported by two rigid frames, which may further be provided with protective heat spreading covers. Contact pads on the rigid frame(s) may be configured to engage a mating socket or they may be solderable to a printed circuit board. |
| US08345430B2 |
IC card
An IC card includes a frame of a rectangular border-shape, a printed circuit board, and one pair of shells. The printed circuit board is disposed on an interior portion of the frame and equips an electronic component. The one pair of shells cover the area surrounded by the frame with both faces of the shells, and constitute an outer shell of the IC card. One of the shells has a plurality of intermittent bent pieces on a periphery thereof. The bent pieces face an edge portion of the frame. The bent pieces establish one pair of hook pieces which protrude from a plate thickness surface (a flat side) on a front end portion thereof. Ultrasonic vibration is applied to a front end portion of the bent pieces while an edge portion of the frame is subjected to pressure, joining the bent pieces to the frame. |
| US08345419B2 |
Server assembly
A server assembly includes a first server and a first airflow guiding pipe. The first server comprises a front wall. An input hole is defined in the front wall. A first input opening and a first output opening are defined in the first airflow duct. The first output opening corresponds to the input hole so as to guide airflow into the inner of the first server to dissipate heat generated by the first server. The first airflow guiding pipe is connected to the first input opening of the first airflow duct, the first airflow guiding pipe is configured to receive and guide airflow into the first airflow duct. |
| US08345417B2 |
Extension positioning structure for a portable memory device
An extension positioning structure for a portable memory device comprises a main body in a shell. A first end of the main body is disposed a drive element, and a spring is mounted outside a second end of the main body. A positioning element is pivotally disposed between the shell and the drive element. The positioning element includes a pivot shaft and an engaging portion. The engaging portion is helically formed with multiple cutting surfaces, and the positioning block is formed with a positioning block and a limiting block. By pushing the drive element, the cutting surface of the engaging portion of the positioning element cooperates with the positioning block and the limiting block to make the connecting terminal extend out of and retract into the shell, facilitating the operation and storage of the memory device while reducing both the production cost and increasing the yield rate. |
| US08345416B2 |
Portable electronic device with interface protector
Interface protector for an electronic device includes a housing defining an opening exposing the interface; a retaining element defining a first stopping slot and a second stopping slot, the retaining element mounted to the housing by a retaining member; a cover having a protrusion protruding therefrom, the cover rotatably mounted to the retaining element by a rotation member. When the protrusion is received in the first stopping slot, the cover shields the interface; when the protrusion slides out of the first stopping slot, until latching in the second stopping slot, the cover is rotated to expose the interface. |
| US08345415B2 |
Display apparatus
A display apparatus is provided. A frame is fixed and supported at the rear of a front panel forming the front portion of the display apparatus, and a separate bracket member is not mounted on the edges of the front panel. Thus, the front exterior of the display apparatus is neatly finished, and the display screen looks bigger than it actually is. |
| US08345414B2 |
Wearable computing module
In an example embodiment, a computing module includes a case, an optical display subsystem coupled to the case, a circuit element assembly, a power cell and an interface connector. The case includes a bottom portion and multiple lateral sidewalls. The case defines an enclosure. The circuit element assembly is positioned within the enclosure and is coupled to the optical display subsystem. The power cell is coupled to the circuit element assembly. The interface connector is defined in the case and includes multiple side openings, multiple bottom openings and multiple connector pads. The side openings are defined in at least one of the lateral sidewalls. The bottom openings are defined in the bottom portion of the case. The connector pads include multiple side pads coupled to the case and in communication with the side openings and multiple bottom pads coupled to the case and in communication with the bottom openings. |
| US08345410B2 |
Handheld computing device
A portable computing device is disclosed. The portable computing device can take many forms such as a laptop computer, a tablet computer, and so on. The portable computing device can include at least a single piece housing. The single piece housing including a plurality of steps. The plurality of mounting steps is formed by at least removing a preselected amount of housing material at predetermined locations on the interior surface. At least some of the mounting steps are used to mount at least some of the plurality of internal operating components to the housing. |
| US08345407B2 |
Low viscosity ionic liquids
Disclosed is an ionic liquid: wherein: n is 1 or 2; R1 is selected from H and (C1-C6)alkyl; R2 is selected from —(CH2)wO[(CH2)xO(CH2)y]m(CH2)zCH3 and wherein w is 1 to 6, x is 1 to 6, y is 0 to 6, z is 0 to 6, m is 0 to 3 and [w+m(x+y)+z] is less than or equal to 12; and R3 is selected from H and methyl, wherein if n is 1 then R3 is methyl, and if n is 2 then R3 is H. Also disclosed are electrochemical devices and devices employing such electrochemical devices as energy sources. |
| US08345405B2 |
Multilayer ceramic capacitor
Disclosed is multilayer ceramic capacitor. The multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a capacitive part including dielectric layers and first and second internal electrodes alternately laminated therein, wherein the dielectric layers include first ceramic particles having an average particle size of 0.1 μm to 0.3 μm, and one set of ends of the first internal electrodes and one set of ends of the second internal electrodes are exposed in a lamination direction of the dielectric layers, a protective layer formed on at least one of top and bottom surfaces of the capacitive part, including second ceramic particles and having a porosity of 2% to 4%, wherein an average particle size ratio of the second ceramic particles to the first ceramic particles ranges from 1.1 to 1.3; and first and second external electrodes electrically connected to the first and second internal electrodes exposed in the lamination direction of the dielectric layers. |
| US08345404B2 |
Anti-static part and its manufacturing method
A conductive layer mainly made of gold is formed on an upper surface of an insulating substrate. Plural electrodes facing each other via a gap is formed by forming the gap in the conductive layer. An overvoltage protective layer covering the gap and a portion of each of the plurality of electrodes is formed. This method can provide the gap with a narrow width precisely, and thereby, provide an electrostatic (ESD) protector with a low peak voltage, stable characteristics of suppressing electrostatic discharge, and a high resistance to sulfidation. |
| US08345402B2 |
Degaussing apparatus with highly uniform magnetic field
Generation of an intense magnetic field to erase high coercivity magnetic media uses delivery of energy to a degaussing cavity. To conserve energy storage and delivery requirements and to obtain a desired magnetic strength generally uniformly within the cavity, strategic placement of supplemental turns at ends of the magnetic field generating coil wound around the cavity can promote uniformity. Construction of at least cavity ends from an adequate quantity of magnetically soft ferrous material can also promote uniformity. A combination of both approaches is possible. |
| US08345399B2 |
Electrical protection assembly and system
An electrical protection assembly for connection between an electrical power supply line and electrical equipment has an insulating mounting structure; a first arm connectable to a live conductor for connection to a fusible device at a first end and a voltage surge protection unit at a second end, pivotally attached to the mounting structure in a displaceable manner intermediate its ends; a first connection arrangement at the first end of the first arm for connection to the fusible device; and a second connection arrangement at the second end of the first arm for connection to the voltage surge protection unit. The assembly further includes first and second springs for urging the first arm relative to the mounting structure. The springs may urge the second connection arrangement towards the voltage surge protection unit and the first connection arrangement away from the fusible device. |
| US08345397B2 |
Sensor control apparatus and sensor control method
A sensor control apparatus (100) includes a signal output section (60) which outputs an instruction signal for selecting a drive or protection mode, and a drive circuit (70) which controls the supply of electric current to the sensor. The drive circuit (70) includes detection means (77) for detecting an anomaly of the electrical connection state of the sensor, protection means (81), operable when the anomaly is detected, for forcedly switching to the protection mode, and report means (80) for outputting a report signal after the drive circuit has entered the protection mode. When the report is input, the signal output section outputs an instruction signal for switching the energization mode to the protection mode, and then outputs an instruction signal for switching to the drive mode. When the report signal is again input a predetermined number of times, the signal output section determines that an anomaly has occurred. |