| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08375454B2 |
Method for locking an application program
A method for locking the application program includes: when running a application program stored in a terminal, it judges whether a first unlocking key of the application program exists in the terminal; in the case that the first unlocking key does not exist, the terminal generates and stores the first unlocking key, and sends it to a device; judging whether the device has locked the application program, in the case that the result of judgment is no, proceeding to the first step, otherwise proceeding to the second step: the first step, the device locks the application program, generates a second unlocking key, and notifies the second unlocking key to a user, proceeding to the second step; the second step, performing the authentication process for the user; in the case that the first unlocking key exists in the terminal, the first unlocking key is sent to the device, judging whether the device has locked the application program or not, if not, proceeding to the third step, otherwise proceeding to the forth step; the third step, the device locks the application program, generates the second unlocking key and notifies the second unlocking key to the user, proceeding to the forth step; the forth step, performing the verification process. |
| US08375453B2 |
Methods and apparatus to mitigate a denial-of-service attack in a voice over internet protocol network
Methods and apparatus to mitigate a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack in a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) network are disclosed. An example method comprises receiving a communication session initiation message from a communication session endpoint, determining whether the communication session endpoint is associated with a probable DoS attack, and sending to the communication session endpoint a communication session initiation response message comprising a DoS header when the communication session endpoint is associated with the probable DoS attack. |
| US08375452B2 |
Methods for user profiling for detecting insider threats based on internet search patterns and forensics of search keywords
Disclosed are methods for user profiling for detecting insider threats including the steps of: upon a client application sending a request for a link, extracting at least one search keyword from a search session associated with the request; classifying the link into at least one classification; determining whether at least one classification is a monitored classification; capturing search elements of search sessions associated with the monitored classification; acquiring usage data from the search elements to create a user profile associated with a user's search behavior; and performing a statistical analysis, on a search frequency for the monitored classification, on user profiles associated with many users. Preferably, the method includes: designating a profile as suspicious based on the statistical analysis exceeding a pre-determined threshold value, wherein the pre-determined threshold value is based on an expected search frequency for the profile and each respective grade for at least one risk-assessment dimension. |
| US08375450B1 |
Zero day malware scanner
A training model for malware detection is developed using common substrings extracted from known malware samples. The probability of each substring occurring within a malware family is determined and a decision tree is constructed using the substrings. An enterprise server receives indications from client machines that a particular file is suspected of being malware. The suspect file is retrieved and the decision tree is walked using the suspect file. A leaf node is reached that identifies a particular common substring, a byte offset within the suspect file at which it is likely that the common substring begins, and a probability distribution that the common substring appears in a number of malware families. A hash value of the common substring is compared (exact or approximate) against the corresponding substring in the suspect file. If positive, a result is returned to the enterprise server indicating the probability that the suspect file is a member of a particular malware family. |
| US08375446B2 |
Intrusion detection using MDL compression
An intrusion masquerade detection system and method that includes a grammar inference engine. A grammar-based Minimum Description Length (MDL) compression algorithm is used to determine a masquerade based on a distance from a threshold in a model of an estimated algorithmic minimum sufficient statistic. |
| US08375445B2 |
Malware detecting apparatus, monitoring apparatus, malware detecting program, and malware detecting method
A malware detecting apparatus, monitoring apparatus, malware detecting program, and malware detecting method are provided. The method detects a plurality of nodes that have sent connection request information commonly to one of first destinations among a set of monitoring target nodes, detects, for each node in the set of monitoring target nodes, the number of second destinations to which the node has sent connection request information, identifies a node infected with malware based on the plurality of nodes detected and the number of second destinations detected, and outputs a result of the identification. |
| US08375443B1 |
Code annotations for preventing access to unsafe functionality
A safe environment is established for running untrusted code in a system whose trusted libraries include native code. Annotations are applied to code in the system libraries to identify safe and unsafe code, and analysis tools reveal whether code outside the system libraries is able to trigger any unsafe behavior. |
| US08375442B2 |
Auditing a device
Auditing a device is disclosed. One or more hardware parameters that correspond to a hardware configuration is received. A sequence of modifications to the physical memory is performed. Results are provided to a verifier. Optionally, once it is determined that no evasive software is active in the physical memory, a scan is performed. |
| US08375438B1 |
System and method for preventing unauthorized access to modules, especially in automation systems
Unauthorized access to modules, especially modules in automation systems, is prevented by controlling access between modules and a central processing unit. At least one first device transmits an identifier to at least one of the central processing unit and a second device which evaluate(s) the identifier by comparison with at least one comparative identifier stored in the at least one of the central processing unit and the second device. Operation of the first device on the system is denied by the at least one of the central processing unit and the second device if the received identifier does not correspond to the comparative identifier. |
| US08375435B2 |
Host trust report based filtering mechanism in a reverse firewall
Disclosed is a computer implemented method and computer program product to throttle traffic from a source internet protocol address. The reverse firewall inspects payloads of a plurality of packets each packet having a source address identical to the source internet protocol address and a target address corresponding to a receiver host. Responsive to detecting purported good content within at least one of the plurality of packets, the reverse firewall forwards packets having the source address. The reverse firewall determines whether a count of packets having the source address exceeds a safe threshold. The reverse firewall requests a demanded positive trust report from the receiver host, responsive to a determination that the count of packets having the source address exceeds the safe threshold. The reverse firewall determines whether a positive trust report is received from the receiver host that indicates that the source internet protocol address is good. The reverse firewall analyzes a header of packet having the source address without analyzing a payload of the packet, responsive to a determination that the positive trust report is received from the receiver host. |
| US08375431B2 |
System and method for platform activation
A platform discrimination indication register is stored in a wireless network card. This register holds a platform discrimination indication that indicates whether the wireless network card can be used to transfer data with notebook computers or whether the wireless network card is restricted to transferring data from a personal digital assistant or defined set of restricted devices. The platform discrimination indication can be upgraded using a key value obtained from an Internet site. This key value is limited to a specific wireless network card because of the use of a unique electronic I.D. An Internet site encrypts the electronic I.D. to produce the first key, such as a platform activation key (PAK). This first key is then decrypted at the personal data device in order to obtain a unique calculated I.D. value. If the calculated I.D. value matches the electronic I.D. value on the wireless network card, then the platform discrimination indication is altered (upgraded), allowing the operation of the wireless network card with notebook computers. |
| US08375428B2 |
Password input system using alphanumeric matrices and password input method using the same
The present invention relates to a password input algorithm, more particularly to a password input system and method using alphanumeric matrices. An aspect of the invention can provide a password input system and method using alphanumeric matrices that can defend against keylogging attacks and shoulder surfing attacks by including a movable second alphanumeric matrix and a fixed first alphanumeric matrix and enabling a user to input a password by moving the password letters of the second alphanumeric matrix to the user-defined value of the first alphanumeric matrix. Another aspect of the invention can provide a password input system and method using alphanumeric matrices that can defend against shoulder surfing attacks by enabling a user to input a password by dividing the password by every two digits and moving the cross-points for the two digits, respectively, to the user-defined value of the first alphanumeric matrix. |
| US08375426B2 |
Method and arrangement for handling client data
A method and arrangement for authorizing an initially unauthorized watching client to receive client data of an observed client from a client data server. The watching client sends an expanded request for client data to the server. The expanded request contains additional information such as a text string, a picture, or a video/audio clip. The server extracts the additional information and sends it to the observed client. The observed client can then decide whether to authorize the watching client to receive the observed client's data based on the additional information. |
| US08375417B2 |
Audiovisual (AV) device and control method thereof
According to one embodiment, video image and voice signals are transmitted to a plurality of electronic devices each having at least one of a video image display function and a voice reproducing function. Information indicating the fact that at least one of a video image and a voice has been set in a mute state is acquired from each of the electronic devices. Based on the information, a processing operation is applied to the video image and voice signals supplied to each of the electronic devices. |
| US08375409B2 |
Meta channel based media system control technology
Meta-channels identify content entries and indicate an order with which to experience the content entries. The meta-channels may include a multi-source meta-channel that includes at least a first content entry that relates to first content broadcast by a first content provider at a specific time and a second content entry that relates to second content made available, over a network, by a second content provider in response to user requests. A selection of a meta-channel is received and the selection of the meta-channel is mapped to a content entry defined by the selected meta-channel. A media system is controlled to render content based on a content entry mapped to by the selected meta-channel. |
| US08375406B2 |
Information processing apparatus and method, and program
In the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for recommending contents. The information processing apparatus may include recommended content extracting means for, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, during a period within a predetermined time from a point in time at which the predetermined condition is satisfied, with one or more contents that are being distributed or whose distribution is to be started from one or more distribution sources, respectively, as processing objects, extracting a recommended content to be recommended to a user from the processing objects on a basis of content information on each of the processing objects and preference information. |
| US08375403B2 |
Optical disc device
An optical disc device prevents a rail guide from falling off from a bottom case when a housing receives an impact force. The bottom case 2 includes a bottom plate 2a, a side plate 2b and a second bottom plate 2c. The rail guide 3 has a bottom surface 3a, a side surface 3b and an upper surface 3c. The side surface 3b of the rail guide is engaged with the side plate 2b of the bottom case. The rail guide has a convex portion 3d that is located on the side surface 3b of the rail guide, the convex portion extending from the upper surface of the rail guide and being in contact with the second bottom plate 2c of the bottom case. The convex portion 3d prevents the rail guide 3 from falling off from the bottom case 2 when the bottom case 2 is deformed. |
| US08375398B2 |
Method and system for sharing configuration parameters among processes of an electronic device
An electronic system comprises a memory, a parser, and a device driver. A plurality of applications and a document are stored in a user space of the memory, the document storing configuration parameters. The parser module parses the document to retrieve the parameters in response to invocation from at least one application. The device driver creates data structure for the parameters in the kernel space of the memory, thus to facilitate a plurality of programs to execute different functions of the system by commonly utilizing the parameters through the device driver. |
| US08375397B1 |
Snapshot view of multi-dimensional virtual environment
A computer-implemented method of enabling communication between a first client and a second client mutually participating in a communication session, in which the second client, but not the first client, has an application for rendering multi-dimensional virtual environments, is claimed. The method includes transmitting to the second client information representing a plurality of objects in a multi-dimensional virtual environment, wherein the multi-dimensional virtual environment is rendered at the second client, and transmitting to the first client an image for display by a first client application in a web page, the image including a representation of the multi-dimensional virtual environment rendered at the second client. The second client has an application, distinct from the first client application, for rendering multi-dimensional virtual environments. |
| US08375392B2 |
Data aware scheduling on heterogeneous platforms
Systems and method for data-aware scheduling of applications on a heterogeneous platform having at least one central processing unit (CPU) and at least one accelerator. Such systems and methods include a function call handling module configured to intercept, analyze, and schedule library calls on a processing element. The function call handling module further includes a function call interception module configured to intercept function calls to predefined libraries, a function call analysis module configured to analyze argument size and location, and a function call redirection module configured to schedule library calls and data transfers. The systems and methods also use a memory unification module, configured to keep data coherent between memories associated with the at least one CPU and the at least one accelerator based on the output of the function call redirection module. |
| US08375389B2 |
Ordered scheduling of suspended processes based on resumption events
A method includes receiving a plurality of resumption events associated with a plurality of suspended processes. Each resumption event is associated with a suspended process. Each resumption event also includes an execution time and a resumption time window. The method includes determining resumption deadlines for the suspended processes and determining a resumption order based on the resumption deadlines. The resumption deadline for a suspended process is based on the execution time and the resumption time window of the corresponding resumption event. The suspended processes are scheduled for execution in accordance with the resumption order. |
| US08375386B2 |
Failure management for a virtualized computing environment
For failure management for multiple operating systems in a virtual environment, an external virtual machine or agent is provided that has been granted rights to full physical memory space to perform a crashdump for the machine. To avoid exposing secret information during a crashdump, private information for a virtual machine or partition is encrypted prior to generating a dump. The storing of crashdump information for virtual machines may avoid storing crashdump information for virtual machines that are stateless. Instead of having an (unstable) operating system running within a virtual machine perform a crashdump, the provision of an external agent, e.g., an external virtual machine, to perform the crashdump avoids many limitations associated with a normal dump when performed by a crashed operating system. |
| US08375385B1 |
Techniques for parallel drive upgrade while maintaining host accessibility
Described are techniques for performing a firmware update. A drive management object determines one or more physical drives matching criteria of a first received request. The drive management object sends to provision drive objects a second request to update firmware on physical drives. Firmware update processing is performed independently for each physical drive. Each provision drive object is associated with one of the physical drives. Firmware update processing for said one physical drive includes determining whether to perform the firmware update at a current point in time; in response to determining to perform the firmware update at the current point in time, performing preparation processing; notifying, upon completion of said preparation processing, a physical drive object associated with said one physical drive to download the firmware update to the one physical drive; and resuming I/O operations to the one physical drive upon successfully completing the firmware update. |
| US08375384B2 |
Apparatuses, methods and systems for a social networking application updater
Software on a client device receives a notification from a server of the availability of an update for an application that is a multi-user social networking application. The software determines whether the state for a live process has been saved by the server. The software saves the state for a live process associated with the application if the state of the live process is not saved. The software kills the live process. Then the software downloads at least one file associated with the update and modifies at least one system database key or value associated with the application. The software launches the application as updated. And the software loads the state into the application as updated. |
| US08375383B2 |
Rolling upgrades in distributed applications
Embodiments described herein are directed to updating the various software associated with a distributed application in a piecemeal fashion. All instances of the software are analyzed and separated into different portions, called “roles.” Each instance of a role is strategically assigned to an update domain based on the structural information included in the service model of the distributed application. The distributed application is upgraded one update at a time by selecting an update or host update domain, bringing the roles assigned thereto offline, updating the offline roles, bringing the roles back online, and repeating for other update or host update domains. |
| US08375382B2 |
Enabling parallel websphere runtime versions
A computer implemented method, a tangible storage medium, and a data processing system build a runtime environment of a system. A profile manager receives a service request containing a profile identifier. The profile identifier specifies a required version of at least one software component. The profile manager identifies a complete installation of the software component, and at least one delta file. The profile manager dynamically constructs a classpath for the required version by preferentially utilizing files from the at least one delta file followed by files from the complete installation. The runtime environment is then built utilizing the classpath. |
| US08375378B2 |
Circuit for updating firmware of display apparatus and method thereof
The present invention relates to a circuit for updating firmware of a display apparatus and a method thereof. An optional update unit may be used for initializing the updating process. The first firmware information of the first display apparatus is transmitted to the second display apparatus for updating the second firmware information of the second display apparatus. Hence, reliability is enhanced and problems of incompatibility will not occur. In addition, no extra burning devices will be necessary, thus reducing extra cost. |
| US08375377B2 |
Controlling java virtual machine component behavior on a per-classloader basis
A method and system for controlling an operation of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) component on a per-classloader basis. A manifest of a bundle in an Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi®) compliant framework is parsed and metadata in the manifest is identified. The metadata is stored in a Java® classloader uniquely associated with the bundle. An upcoming performance of an operation which can be affected by a value of the stored metadata is identified by the JVM component. A value of the stored metadata is read from the classloader. The operation of the JVM component is controlled based on the value of the stored metadata. |
| US08375373B2 |
Intermediate language support for change resilience
In a change-resilient intermediate language code, registers have been allocated but symbolic references and pseudo instructions still use unbound items. Pseudo instructions having a specific location within generated intermediate language code request insertion of machine instruction(s) at the location to perform specified operations. Specified operations may include, for example, operations to perform or facilitate garbage collection, memory allocation, exception handling, various kinds of method calls and execution engine service calls, managed object field access, heap management, generic code, static variable storage access, address mode modification, and/or symbolic reference to types. A binder may transform the intermediate language code into executable code. Little or no register allocation is needed during binding, but unbound items such as offsets, sizes, slots, and the like are determined and specified to produce executable code. |
| US08375369B2 |
Run-time code injection to perform checks
A digital rights management system permits an application owner to cause code to be injected into the application's run-time instruction stream so as to restrict execution of that application to specific hardware platforms. In a first phase, an authorizing entity (e.g., an application owner or platform manufacturer) authorizes one or more applications to execute on a given hardware platform. Later, during application run-time, code is injected that performs periodic checks to determine if the application continues to run on the previously authorized hardware platform. If a periodic check fails, at least part of the application's execution string is terminated—effectively rendering the application non-usable. The periodic check is transparent to the user and difficult to circumvent. |
| US08375368B2 |
Systems and methods for profiling an application running on a parallel-processing computer system
A runtime system implemented in accordance with the present invention provides an application platform for parallel-processing computer systems. Such a runtime system enables users to leverage the computational power of the parallel-processing computer systems to accelerate/optimize numeric and array-intensive computations in their application programs. A profiling tool is used to collect, analyze, and visualize the performance data of an application in connection with its execution on a parallel-processing computer system through the runtime system. This profiling tool greatly enhances an application developer's ability to understand how an application is executed on the parallel-processing computer system and fine-tune the application to achieve high performance. |
| US08375366B2 |
Embedding event information in the timing stream
When events are traced, the timing stream is used to associate events with instructions and indicate pipeline advances precluding the recording of stall cycles. Additional information is needed in the trace stream to identify an overlay whose execution of code is in a system where overlays or a memory management unit are used. In the case of PC trace, additional information is added when the memory system contents is changed. Information describing the configuration change is inserted into the export streams by placing this information in a message buffer. As long as a message word is available for output, it becomes the next export word as the output of message words is continuous. |
| US08375361B2 |
Identifying changes in source code
A data processing method comprises maintaining a source code repository, checking out a component from the source code repository, checking in a modified version of the component to the source code repository, identifying the changes between the modified version of the component and the original component, applying one or more pattern matching techniques to the identified changes, storing the output of the pattern matching techniques, and displaying the output. |
| US08375358B2 |
Automatically generating rest clients from rest resources
The present invention discloses a method and system for creating REST clients using existing REST export information. The invention can provide a wizard able to dynamically generate REST client code. The REST client code can include source code, such as HTML and JAVA SCRIPT starting points that can be further configured by the REST client code recipient. In one embodiment, the automatically created REST client can be a GUI client able to be rendered within a browser. The REST client can include one or more sections, each associated with a particular REST resource. Each resource specific section can include fields for specifying values of each resource parameter. Suitable GUI controls can be associated with each of the fields such as using a checkbox for a Boolean field and a drop down list for an enumerated field. |
| US08375356B2 |
Tabular completion lists
A tabular completion list displays customizable rows and columns including information such as but not limited to return types of methods, types of local variables and properties, parameters for methods, a namespace in which a type is defined, an assembly in which a type is defined, accessibility, or a type from which members are inherited. The context of the tabular completion list may be preserved by persisting the completion list display or by transferring the context of a selected row of field in a row of the tabular completion list to a different feature. User interaction options with the tabular completion list may include: selection of the columns that are displayed in the completion list, persisting the completion list display, transferring the context of the completion list window to other features and sorting of the rows of tabular information according to different columns. |
| US08375355B2 |
Conversion of a class oriented data flow program to a structure oriented data flow program
System and method for converting a class oriented data flow program to a structure oriented data flow program. A first data flow program is received, where the first data flow program is an object oriented program comprising instances of one or more classes, and wherein the first data flow program is executable to perform a first function. The first data flow program is automatically converted to a second data flow program, where the second data flow program does not include the instances of the one or more classes, and where the second data flow program is executable to perform the first function. The second data flow program is stored on a computer memory, where the second data flow program is configured to be deployed to a device, e.g., a programmable hardware element, and where the second data flow program is executable on the device to perform the first function. |
| US08375354B2 |
System and method and apparatus for using UML tools for defining web service bound component applications
An application development system for developing an application with application components is described. The system application development includes a modeling tool. The modeling tool imports the application components in a comparable component definition format, and defines a data relation between data, screens, and operations embodied in the application components in an application model. The application model has a static structural characteristic, a dynamic behavioral characteristic and an implementation characteristic. The static structural characteristic defines parts of the application. The dynamic behavioral characteristic defines responsiveness of the application to events or actions, and the implementation characteristic describes elements required for deploying the application. The modeling tool updates the cross-component mapping. The modeling tool further includes a mapping analyzer for analyzing message components and data components in the application components, and generating a cross-component mapping. |
| US08375353B2 |
Enabling the use of process flow applications within an information management system (IMS)
An IMS process flow toolset can be used to create an IMS process flow application. The IMS process flow application can include an IMS process flow control program. The IMS process flow control program can embody process flow elements such as business logic and events as well as communication with external non-IMS applications. Both the IMS process flow application and IMS process flow control program can be run within the IMS. |
| US08375348B1 |
Method, system, and program product to implement colored tiles for detail routing for double pattern lithography
Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer program product to implement routing for double patterning lithography using colored space tiles. A three-phase routing scheme is employed, comprising a global router, a C-router, and a detail router. The C-router provides double patterning color seeding for routing tracks in the electronic design. The detail router employs space-tiles to perform double-patterning based routing for wires in the electronic design. Colored space tiles may be utilized to perform the detail routing. |
| US08375344B1 |
Method and system for determining configurations
An improved approach is described for analyzing and estimating products having arrays of uncommitted logic, and matching these products to electronic designs. The approach can be applied to any type of product that include arrays of uncommitted logic, such as gate arrays and field programmable gate arrays. |
| US08375338B1 |
Estimating the rate of storage corruption from atomic particles
Methods and systems estimate a rate of corruption of storage bits in a logic circuit. One or more processors execute instructions that cause the processors to perform the operations that follow. A description is input describing an environment of the logic circuit, and the description of the environment includes a position of the logic circuit. An atomic particle flux density at the logic circuit is estimated as a function of the description of the environment. A specification is input that specifies the storage bits in the logic circuit. The rate of corruption of the storage bits is determined as a function of the atomic particle flux density and a quantification of the storage bits in the logic circuit. |
| US08375336B2 |
Panning content utilizing a drag operation
Computer-readable media, computerized methods, and computer systems for intuitively invoking a panning action (e.g., moving content within a content region of a display area) by applying a user-initiated input at the content region rendered at a touchscreen interface are provided. Initially, aspects of the user-initiated input include a location of actuation (e.g., touch point on the touchscreen interface) and a gesture. Upon ascertaining that the actuation location occurred within the content region and that the gesture is a drag operation, based on a distance of uninterrupted tactile contact with the touchscreen interface, a panning mode may be initiated. When in the panning mode, and if the application rendering the content at the display area supports scrolling functionality, the gesture will control movement of the content within the content region. In particular, the drag operation of the gesture will pan the content within the display area when surfaced at the touchscreen interface. |
| US08375335B2 |
Computer input control for specifying scope with explicit exclusions
Methods and systems providing a user interface control allowing a user to specify a scope of items on a computer system or network is disclosed. Certain aspects provide an input control through which a user can specify an explicit scope, or range, of items, while also identifying explicit exclusions from the specified scope, thereby reducing ambiguity regarding identification of items included and items excluded from the scope. When a user explicitly selects an item for inclusion in the scope, the explicitly selected item is added to the scope definition, and all descendants of the explicitly selected item are implicitly selected for inclusion. When a user explicitly selects an item for exclusion from the scope, the explicitly selected item is added to the scope definition as an exclusion from an explicitly included item, and all descendants of the explicitly selected item are implicitly selected for exclusion. |
| US08375332B2 |
Apparatus and method for displaying multimedia contents to accommodate a user's preference using limited buttons of a device
Provided are an apparatus and method of displaying multimedia contents, more particularly, an apparatus and method of displaying stored multimedia contents to accommodate a user's preference using limited buttons of a remote control device or a cellular phone. The apparatus for displaying multimedia contents includes an alignment condition determination unit determining an alignment condition corresponding to a first user command signal among a plurality of alignment conditions, a detailed condition determination unit determining a detailed condition corresponding to a second user command signal among detailed conditions included in the alignment condition, a contents extraction unit extracting first multimedia contents according to the determined detailed condition, and a display unit displaying the determined alignment condition in a first region, the determined detailed condition in a second region, and a second multimedia contents selected by a user among the extracted first multimedia contents in a third region of a screen. |
| US08375324B1 |
Computer-implemented document manager application enabler system and method
A computer-implemented system and method for retrieving documents stored in a document management system based upon data from an application. While an interface is displayed, associations are created between one or more fields on the application's interface and one or more retrieval-related attributes of the document management system. Data that is subsequently provided for the fields is used to retrieve documents from the document management system based the created associations. |
| US08375323B2 |
Display control device, storage medium, and integrated circuit
A device including an update request section making an update request to update a display on a display device, and a display update section updating the display on the display device in response to the update request. In addition, the device includes a layout holding section holding layout information of each of screens hierarchically displayed on the display device, and a group assigning section, based on the layout information, assigning screens, which are displayed on the display device so as to be partially or entirely visible, to one group. The device also includes a group holding section holding group information consisting of the assigned group, and a switching request section for making a list display request to display a switching destination screen candidate list, which shows the screens included in the held group information as switching destination screen candidates in a group unit, on the display device so as to be visible. |
| US08375322B2 |
Context sensitive paging
The invention addresses the need to view an entire document element, such as a photograph, paragraph, etc. when paging. A window generated by an application such as a browser includes a succession of document elements. The window has an actual top and an actual bottom. The computer system selects a paging step size automatically, wherein the paging step size is selected from a group. The group includes a first step size that is of a size such that paging downward by the first step size from the current window position advances the window to a location placing the top of the at least one document element a predetermined distance below the top of the window. |
| US08375321B2 |
Custom visualizations in tab groups
A multi-document application that includes a multi-document interface that includes a view area that displays one document at a time and includes a tab group element that displays tabs, each tab having a control that permits a corresponding document to be visualized in the view area. When a new document is opened in the multi-document application, the multi-document interface adds a new tab to the tab group element to represent the newly opened document. The color coding of the tabs and/or the tab sizing is configurable by a user rather than being predetermined. Other visual properties may also be configurable. |
| US08375319B2 |
Progress indicator for loading dynamically-sized contents
A new resource address is registered in response to input received from a user. The user is then notified when a visually non-empty portion of content from the resource address has been loaded into a viewing area of the content viewing application. The notification cues the user to direct his/her attention to the viewing area of the content viewing application. |
| US08375316B2 |
Navigational transparent overlay
A method performed on a user device includes displaying a source user interface that includes one or more selectable objects; receiving a user input with respect to one of the one or more selectable objects of the source user interface; determining, in response to the user input, whether a lower level interface, with respect to the one of the one or more selectable objects of the source user interface, exists; displaying the lower level interface, when it is determined that the lower level interface exists for the one of the one or more selectable objects, where the lower level interface is displayed as a transparent overlay representative of a user interface that would be displayed if the user were to select from or access the source user interface; determining whether another user input is received, where the other user input indicates that the lower level interface is to be activated; and displaying the lower level interface as an opaque overlay, when it is determined that the other user input is received. |
| US08375315B2 |
Managing a calendar through a touch interface and graphically displaying the change history
A mobile terminal and method of managing a schedule using the same are disclosed, by which applications can be processed by linking to a schedule. The present invention includes displaying target item information including the schedule by executing a prescribe application, receiving a user's control selection signal for the target item information, and performing a control over the target item information according to the user's control selection signal received via the input device. Accordingly, based on contents of a received message, corresponding information is registered on a schedule table by a simple manipulation. And, schedules in the schedule table can be controlled in a simple manner. |
| US08375312B2 |
Classifying digital media based on content
A computer-implemented method for classifying digital content can include displaying one or more poster frames in a user interface, wherein a poster frame corresponds to an item of digital content, displaying one or more first level classification panes adjacent to a poster frame corresponding to an item to be classified, wherein a first level classification pane is associated with a keyword, and enabling a user to associate a poster frame with a first level classification pane to cause the keyword associated with the first level classification pane to be associated with the item to which the poster frame corresponds. |
| US08375311B2 |
System and method for determining placement of a virtual object according to a real-time performance
There is presented a system for determining a placement of a virtual object in a performance space according to a performance by a real-time performer. The disclosed system comprises a projection module including a polarizing filter, the projection module configured to generate a polarized visible image corresponding to the virtual object. The system includes a surface for displaying the polarized visible image to the real-time performer. The system also includes a detection module for detecting inputs to the surface, wherein the inputs are provided by the real-time performer based on a location of the polarized visible image on the surface. The system further comprises a mapping module configured for mapping a location of each input to the surface to a corresponding point in the performance space, for the placement of the virtual object in the performance space according to the locations of inputs to the surface by the real-time performer. |
| US08375310B2 |
Providing notification of a real-world event to a virtual universe user
An approach that provides transmission and notification of a real-world event to a virtual universe user is described. In one embodiment, there is a method for notifying a resident that is on-line in a virtual universe of an occurrence of a real-world event. The method includes receiving an indication of the occurrence of the real-world event, mapping the indication of the real-world event into one of a plurality of communication representations, and notifying the resident in the virtual universe in accordance with the mapped communication representation. |
| US08375308B2 |
Multi-user conversation topic change
Techniques for changing a conversation topic between one or more users via a user-interface are provided. A request to change the conversation topic is obtained from the one or more users via the user-interface. An indicator is presented to the one or more users notifying the one or more users, via the user-interface, of the request to change the conversation topic. The conversation topic between the one or more users is changed in response to an affirmative act by at least one of a moderator, the one or more users, and a predefined condition. |
| US08375306B2 |
Method for sending an electronic message utilizing connection information and recipient information
A method comprises displaying a mail server information screen, and receiving connection information via the mail server information screen. Further, the method comprises displaying an address page, and receiving recipient information via the address page. In addition, the method comprises displaying a content page, and receiving content in the content page. Additionally, an electronic mail message having the content is compiled, and the electronic mail message is sent to a recipient utilizing the connection information and recipient information. |
| US08375301B2 |
Network displays and method of their operation
A digital networked studio and the needed software services to allow the use of the system for monitoring the creation and distribution processes of real-time created content is described.Distribution problems are solved using an off-the-shelf network, e.g. using an IP based or similar data protocol, such as an IP network based distributed system architecture to bring the display controller functionality closer to the source and to replace proprietary busses used for transporting video, audio, RGB, graphical information and/or metadata with building blocks based on standard IP and compression technologies. A characteristic of such a network is to use unicast, multicast and/or broadcast technologies (based on network addresses) and to route data from one address to another. The network provides redundancy in case any of the digital generation units. |
| US08375297B2 |
Orthogonal transformation of web pages
A multivariate web page testing system includes a content retrieval module configured to receive a web page request from a visitor's browser and determine corresponding HTML content corresponding to the web page in the web page request. The multivariate web page testing system further includes a content determination module configured to determine if the corresponding HTML content conforms to a preset standard. An adapter is configured to convert the corresponding HTML content to conform to the preset standard if the corresponding HTML content does not conform to the preset standard. The multivariate web page testing system further includes an experimental treatment determination module configured to determine an experimental treatment for the corresponding HTML content and an experimental treatment application module configured to apply the treatment to the corresponding HTML content to create orthogonally transformed HTML content. The orthogonally transformed HTML content is operable to be transmitted to the visitor's browser. |
| US08375296B2 |
Reusing style sheet assets
In a first embodiment of the present invention, a method is provided comprising: parsing a document, wherein the document contains at least one reference to a style sheet; for each referenced style sheet: determining if a ruleset corresponding to the referenced style sheet is contained in a first local cache; if the ruleset corresponding to the style sheet is contained in the first local cache; if the referenced style sheet is not contained in the first local cache, parsing the referenced style sheet to derive a ruleset; and applying the ruleset(s) to the document to derive a layout for displaying the document. |
| US08375295B2 |
Customization of GUI layout based on history of use
A hand-held electronic device, method of operation and computer readable medium are disclosed. The device may include a case having one or more major surfaces. A visual display and a touch interface are disposed on at least one of the major surfaces.A processor is operably coupled to the visual display and touch screen. Instructions executable by the processor may be configured to a) present an image on the visual display containing one or more active elements; b) correlate one or more active portions of the touch interface to one or more corresponding active elements in the image on the visual display; and c) adjust a layout of content shown on the display according to a probability of one or more actions that may be taken with the one or more active elements. |
| US08375290B1 |
Document version marking and access method and apparatus
The present invention is directed to document or file access control. In particular, embodiments of the present invention alter files that are obsolete, so that it is apparent to a user that an updated version of the file should be obtained. Accordingly, files that are subject to revisions can be stored locally, to provide fast and convenient access to such files, with assurance that notice will be provided to a user if the locally stored version of a file becomes obsolete. Furthermore, the invention allows files stored locally that have become obsolete to be identified automatically. The alteration of obsolete files may include the placement of a watermark on or embedded in such files to provide an obvious indication to a user that the file is obsolete. |
| US08375289B2 |
Displaying a preview of document data including a region in which an object is inserted
An input of document data, in which a rule for retrieving an object from a database has been specified for each region, is received. For each region, the number of times that the database is referenced for retrieving the object is counted by applying the rule. A reference value and each of the counted are compared. For each region, it is determined that the object is to be inserted in the region if the result of the comparison is that the number of times is less than or equal to the reference value, and that the object is not to be inserted in the region if the number of times is greater than the reference value. A preview of the document data is displayed with, for each region, the object being inserted in the region or the object not being inserted in the region in accordance with the determination. |
| US08375284B2 |
Document processing system, information processing unit, display medium, computer readable medium, document processing method, and computer data signal
A document processing system includes: a document management server that manages document data and an access key to access to the document data in association with each other; and an information processing unit including: a processing section; and a display detachably linked to the processing section by one of wired and wireless connection, the display holding an image of a document, the display storing the access key to access to the document data, the processing section comprising: a connection section to which the display is linked so as to read the access key from the display; a document acquisition section that acquires the document data corresponding to the access key read from the display from the document management server; and a document processing section that processes the document data acquired from the document management server. |
| US08375282B2 |
System and method for securely adding redundancy to an electronic message
A system for adding a redundancy check to an electronic message to discourage tampering and facilitate identification of altered messages provides a communication device for composing message content, a messaging module with a formatting and encoding layer for encoding the message content with header information in a series of message blocks, and an encryption layer for calculating a redundancy check value and inserting the value in one or more locations within the series of message blocks according a rule defined by a characteristic of the message content or the header information, and encrypting the message for delivery to a recipient. Upon receipt, the recipient communication device decrypts the message, extracts the redundancy check value from the message, and compares a calculated redundancy check value with the extracted redundancy check value to determine if the message had been altered before receipt. |
| US08375277B2 |
Multicast with UDP using packet identifier in MPEG payload
Content information is multicast via a data network to a plurality of receivers, using data packets in a transport stream. The content information is encapsulated according to a container format standard that allows an optional field in a packet header. Each data packet forms a payload of a datagram in a connectionless communication protocol. The optional field in each data packet is used to carry an identifier for identifying the data packet in a pre-determined sequence of the data packets. The use of the optional field enables packet loss detection at the receiver. |
| US08375275B2 |
Electronic storage device and control method thereof
An electronic storage device for connecting with a host system includes a flash memory including a number of memory segments, and a controller including an error correction segment capable of generating a first correction code and a second correction code according to a written data received by the controller. The written data, the first correction code and the second correction code are written into a memory segment of the flash memory by the controller. The first correction code is used for checking whether there is an error bit in the written data, and the second correction code is used for checking and correcting said error bit in the written data. |
| US08375272B2 |
Method and device for multi phase error-correction
Data bits to be encoded are split into a plurality of subgroups. Each subgroup is encoded separately to generate a corresponding codeword. Selected subsets are removed from the corresponding codewords, leaving behind shortened codewords, and are many-to-one transformed to condensed bits. The final codeword is a combination of the shortened codewords and the condensed bits. A representation of the final codeword is decoded by being partitioned to a selected subset and a plurality of remaining subsets. Each remaining subset is decoded separately. If one of the decodings fails, the remaining subset whose decoding failed is decoded at least in part according to the selected subset. If the encoding and decoding are systematic then the selected subsets are of parity bits. |
| US08375270B2 |
Signal transmission method and transmitter in radio multiplex transmission system
A signal transmission method in a radio multiplex transmission system that includes serial-to-parallel converting of serial data to be transmitted into N parallel data series and independently performing an error-correcting encoding process on the parallel signals of the N data series. The method further includes parallel-to-serial converting of the parallel signals encoded with error-correcting codes, performing an interleaving process on the parallel-to-serial converted signals and serial-to-parallel converting the interleaved signals into L parallel data series and transmitting each of the L data series. The transmitted signals are then received and separated into M data series and are parallel-to-serial converted and a deinterleaving process is performed. The method also includes serial-to-parallel converting the deinterleaved signals into N data series, independently performing an error-correcting decoding process on the parallel signals of the N data series serial-to-parallel converted, and parallel-to-serial converting the signals in which the error-correcting codes are decoded. |
| US08375269B2 |
Data transmission system and method of correcting an error in parallel data paths of a data transmission system
A data transmission system includes parallel data paths for transmitting data, and an encoder for encoding the data such that an error correction code is generated for data at a same bit position across the parallel data paths. |
| US08375267B2 |
Method and arrangement for improved turbo decoding
In a method for improved turbo decoding in a wireless communication system, jointly allocating (S10) a predetermined maximum number of decoding iterations to a batch of received decoding jobs; and consecutively performing decoding iterations (S20) adaptively for each job in the batch until a convergence criteria is reached for each job in the batch, or until the predetermined maximum number of iterations for the batch is reached. |
| US08375260B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting signal using bit grouping in wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for transmitting a signal using a bit grouping method in a wireless communication system is disclosed. Interleaved subblocks are maintained, and output bit sequences are modulated in due order after bit grouping and bit selection. The bit grouping method is advantageous in that bit reliability is uniformly distributed. |
| US08375257B2 |
ECC control circuits, multi-channel memory systems including the same, and related methods of operation
An Error Correcting Code (ECC) control circuit in a memory controller includes an ECC controller configured to receive data from a memory device in response to a request from a host device. The ECC controller transmits the data to a direct memory access (DMA) buffer for transfer to the host device, and to an ECC block for error detection and correction of the data. The ECC controller is configured to interrupt transmission of the data to the DMA buffer and transmit error-corrected data output from the ECC block to the DMA buffer responsive to detection of an error in the data by the ECC block. Related systems and methods are also discussed. |
| US08375253B2 |
Detection of a fault by long disturbance
A method for detecting faults by perturbations during execution of a computerized code in an electronic device. The computer code includes a sensitive process. The method includes a step of executing a redundant procedure of the sensitive process and a step of inserting a delay between the sensitive process and the redundant procedure. A trapping procedure is executed during the delay. The trapping procedure is sensitive to perturbations and supplies, in the absence of perturbation, a predictable result. |
| US08375251B2 |
Monitoring and healing a computing system
A method, system, and media for monitoring and healing a computing system. Monitoring agents are deployed to a computing system to be monitored. The monitoring agents collect performance and non-performance counter data of computing devices in the computing system. The data include any recordable information about the monitored computing system. The data is stored in a performance database. A master controller monitors the data for an occurrence of an alert condition that indicates degradation in the health of the computing system. The health of the computing system includes the health of the system, individual components therein, and interactions with other systems. The master controller performs a resolution process to resolve issues causing degradation of the computing system. The collection of data and the monitoring thereof is customizable for an individual computing device, for a cluster of computing devices, or for the computing system as a whole. |
| US08375247B2 |
Handling processor computational errors
Embodiments include a computer processor-error controller, a computerized device, a device, an apparatus, and a method. A computer processor-error controller includes a monitoring circuit operable to detect a computational error corresponding to an execution of a second instruction by a processor operable to execute a sequence of program instructions that includes a first instruction that is fetched before the second instruction. The computer processor-error controller includes an error recovery circuit operable to restore an execution of the sequence of program instructions to the first instruction in response to the detected computational error. |
| US08375244B2 |
Managing processing of a computing environment during failures of the environment
Recovery processing is provided for management components of an Information Technology (IT) environment. The recovery processing recovers the components, as well as performs one or more tasks that were being performed by the components prior to recovery. |
| US08375240B2 |
Memory system and data transmission method
A memory system of a high-speed operation can be realized by reducing an influence of reflection signals etc. caused by branching and impedance mismatching in various wirings between a memory controller and a memory module, and an influence due to transmission delays of data, command/address, and clocks in the memory module. To this end, a memory system comprises a memory controller and a memory module mounted with DRAMs. A buffer is mounted on the memory module. The buffer and the memory controller are connected to each other via data wiring, command/address wiring, and clock wiring. The DRAMs and the buffer on the memory module are connected to each other via internal data wiring, internal command/address wiring, and internal cock wiring. The data wiring, the command/address wiring, and the clock wiring may be connected to buffers of other memory modules in cascade. Between the DRAMs and the buffer on the memory module, high-speed data transmission is implemented using data phase signals synchronous with clocks. |
| US08375239B2 |
Clock control signal generation circuit, clock selector, and data processing device
Provided are a technique for high-speed switching between clock signals different in frequency, and a clock-control-signal-generation circuit which serves to generate a control signal for clock switching in a clock selector operable to switch between clock signals including a first clock signal based on first and second clock-stop-permission signals and a clock-resume-permission signal. The clock-control-signal-generation circuit includes: a before-switching clock processing unit; and an after-switching clock processing unit. In each of the before-and after-switching clock processing units, the high-frequency clock processing subunit and the low-frequency clock processing subunit take partial charges of processing of clock signals involved in the switching respectively, whereby the processing is speeded up. |
| US08375232B2 |
Power management for power-over-ethernet-capable switch
A system and method is described that allows a PoE-capable switch to selectively provide power to one or more remote devices in an instance where power being supplied to the switch itself is limited or failing. In one embodiment, the switch receives a notification from an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) and, in response to receiving the notification, selectively provides power to one or more devices powered by the switch. Selectively providing power to one or more of the devices may include providing power to only a subset of the devices, providing a different amount of power to different ones of the devices, or providing power for different durations to different ones of the devices. In an alternate embodiment, in response to receiving the notification, the switch communicates with a remote device and causes the remote device to activate at least one power saving feature. |
| US08375231B2 |
System and method of classification in power over ethernet systems
A method is disclosed that includes receiving a classification voltage at a powered device from a network. The classification voltage includes a baseline voltage level that is below an operating voltage range of the powered device and includes a sequence of distinct signal elements derived from the classification voltage. The method further includes detecting a number of signal elements of the sequence of distinct signal elements. A current is drawn until the number of signal elements exceeds a predetermined number. |
| US08375230B2 |
Managing heat dissipation while testing a power device
According to certain embodiments, an apparatus comprises port interfaces, charge storage devices, and a charge combiner coupled to a circuit board. Each charge storage device is associated with a port interface. Each port interface receives a current of charge from a device under test and pumps the charge to an associated charge storage device at a predetermined rate. Each charge storage device stores the charge from an associated port interface. The charge combiner combines the charge from the charge storage devices to yield a combined charge and feeds the combined charge to an output regulator. |
| US08375225B1 |
Memory protection
Data storage devices having one or more data security features are provided according to various embodiments of the present invention. In one embodiment, a data storage device comprises buffer and a buffer client. The buffer client comprises a scrambler configured to receive a configuration setting and a secret key on a certain event, to configure a scrambling function based on the received configuration setting, and to scramble data with the secret key using the scrambling function, wherein the buffer client is configured to write the scrambled data to the buffer. |
| US08375217B2 |
Process and device for the packet-oriented transmission of security-relevant data
The present invention relates to the packet-oriented transmission of security-relevant data. One task of the invention is the provision of a way for the packet-oriented transmission of security-relevant data ensuring —under the guarantee of a considerably enhanced user data rate —a high level of protection against statistical and systematic errors with an insecure transmission medium. The invention provides, particularly for the use of at least one parallel and/or serial network and/or bus system, a process and devices for the packet-oriented transmission of security-relevant data allowing the transmission of security-relevant data and a redundant information that is based on the data in different packets. |
| US08375215B2 |
Source selection apparatus and method using media signatures
The present disclosure relates to a method and/or apparatus for determining whether to select media for printing. This may be accomplished by identifying a media signature present in the media and identifying a data stream signature that may be printed on the media. A comparison may then be made as between the data stream signature and the media signature. Based upon the comparison media may then be selected for printing. |
| US08375214B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program therefor
An information processing apparatus includes a storage unit that stores security processing information describing a security processing procedure that is to be executed on data handled by a service providing program and including data written in a structured language; and a security processing unit that executes security processing to encrypt or sign the data handled by the service providing program, with reference to the security processing information stored in the storage unit, so that the service providing program can communicate securely with an external service providing program. |
| US08375213B2 |
Systems and methods for enabling trust in a federated collaboration
Systems and methods consistent with the present invention enable explicit and multilateral trust across a community of federated servers via a network. A trusted third party establishes a framework of policies and procedures governing a federation. Organizations joining the federation submit to an audit process of internal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the policies and procedures of the federation. Upon successful completion of an audit, an organization may receive a digital certificate containing the digital public key of the organization and indicating approval of the trusted third party. The organization may then use the associated digital private key for signing security assertions associated with a request for resources from another federation service provider. The service provider may trust the assertion from the organization based on trust placed in trusted third party by the service provider and the trust placed in the organization by the trusted third party. |
| US08375212B2 |
Method for personalizing an authentication token
An authentication token using a smart card that an organization would issue to its customer, the smart card having a processor for executing a software application that is responsive to a user input to generate a one-time password as an output. The smart card co-operates with an interface device for inputting the user input and displaying the one-time password. The authentication token may be used in combination with a remote authentication server for validation of the password and hence authentication of the user. |
| US08375209B2 |
Near field registration of home system audio-video device
A near field communication (NFC) sticker which stores a key is attached to a new client device. A remote commander in a home network reads the key using a NFC interface and IR-transmits it to a home network server. Once the client is connected to the network, it encrypts its own device information with the key and sends the encrypted information to the server, which decrypts the data with the key sent from the remote commander. In this way, client device registration is executed easily and securely. |
| US08375208B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing content aggregation in support of virtual channels
An approach is provided for content aggregation in support of virtual channels. Query information and authentication information of a user are received from a media application associated with a set-top box. A query request is generated for media content from a content provider using the query information, the authentication information, and an identifier of a service provider. Transmission of the query request is initiated to the content provider system. One or more search results are received in response to the query request. Transmission of the one or more search results is initiated to the media application. |
| US08375206B2 |
Authentication and encryption utilizing command identifiers
A data processing system, recording device, data processing method and program providing medium are provided to execute authentication processing and content storing processing between apparatuses. Program localization is employed to restrict access to program content. A plurality of key blocks store key data for authentication processing. Key block designation information is set in a recorder/reproducer, which is configured for executing authentication processing with the recording device by designating a key block. The recorder/reproducer can set a key block for each product, model or the like. In addition, data stored according to a selected key block cannot be utilized in a recorder/reproducer in which a different key block is set. Furthermore, an encryption processing controlling section of a recording device executes control in accordance with a pre-defined setting sequence. Furthermore, an illegal instrument that has not completed the authentication processing can be prevented from utilizing program content. |
| US08375198B2 |
Boot system and method having a BIOS that reads an operating system from first storage device via an input/output chip based on detecting a temperature of a second storage device
Boot systems and methods are provided. The boot system includes an IO (Input/Output) chip, a memory device, and a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). The memory device is coupled to the IO chip, and includes at least a rescue OS (Operating System). The BIOS reads the rescue OS from the memory device via the IO chip, and boots an electronic device based on the rescue OS. |
| US08375193B2 |
System, method, and computer-readable medium for optimized data storage and migration in a database system
The frequency with which data is accessed within the system may be periodically monitored and a corresponding access frequency quantifier assigned to the data is updated accordingly. The data access frequency quantifier may be associated with a storage device zone speed quality rating. The association between data access frequency quantifiers and the storage device zone speed quality ratings may be made in a hierarchical association such that quantifiable differentials may be ascertained between a particular access frequency quantifier and a storage device zone speed quality rating. In this manner, when no storage zone having a speed quality rating that is associated with data having a particular access frequency quantifier is available for storage of the data, a storage zone having a speed quality rating more proximate the speed quality rating associated with the access frequency quantifier may be identified for migration. |
| US08375192B2 |
Discardable files
The present application includes methods and system for managing a storage device. In one implementation, a storage allocator that is present in a host or a storage device receives a request to store a file in a storage area of the storage device. The storage allocator marks the file as discardable in a file system structure associated with the storage device and updates a primary file allocation table (“FAT”) to associate a cluster chain that is allocated to the file with the file. The storage allocator additionally updates a discardable FAT or a database to reflect a physical location of the file, or may generate one or more location files that store the physical location of the file. The storage allocator then manages the storage area device based on the FAT and a discardable FAT, database, or one more location files indicating the physical location of the file. |
| US08375188B1 |
Techniques for epoch pipelining
Techniques for epoch pipelining are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for epoch pipelining comprising the steps of beginning a first epoch, determining for one or more pages of memory if the pages of memory are likely to be modified in a subsequent epoch, performing a first operation on the pages of memory that are likely to be modified in a subsequent epoch, beginning a second epoch, subsequent to the first epoch, performing a second operation on the pages of memory that are not likely to be modified in a subsequent epoch, and ending the first epoch, wherein the first operation and the second operation are dissimilar. |
| US08375184B2 |
Mirroring data between redundant storage controllers of a storage system
In one embodiment, the present invention includes canisters to control storage of data in a storage system including a plurality of disks. Each of multiple canisters may have a processor configured for uniprocessor mode and having an internal node identifier to identify the processor and an external node identifier to identify another processor with which it is to mirror cached data. The mirroring of cached data may be performed by communication of non-coherent transactions via the PtP interconnect, wherein the PtP interconnect is according to a cache coherent protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08375182B2 |
System and method for segmenting a data stream
A method of limiting redundant storage of data comprises receiving a data stream and partitioning the data stream into a series of data chunks. At least one content hash value for a set of data chunks is generated based on data content of the set of data chunks. One or more data chunks are grouped into a segment with at least one boundary of the segment defined based on an evaluation of content hash values of data chunks. Content hash values of data chunks of the segment are compared to content hash values of data chunks of segments stored on a backup mass storage device. A pointer to a stored data chunk of an existing segment is stored on the backup mass storage device if a content hash value of a data chunk of the segment matches the content hash value of the stored data chunk. |
| US08375178B2 |
Memory page eviction based on present system operation
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with selecting a memory page for removal from a buffer pool based on the operating conditions of a computing system. |
| US08375173B2 |
Accessing a multi-channel memory system having non-uniform page sizes
A method includes predicting a memory access pattern of each master of a plurality of masters. The plurality of masters can access a multi-channel memory via a crossbar interconnect, where the multi-channel memory has a plurality of banks. The method includes identifying a page size associated with each bank of the plurality of banks. The method also includes assigning at least one bank of the plurality of banks to each master of the plurality of masters based on the memory access pattern of each master. |
| US08375170B2 |
Apparatus and method for handling data in a cache
A data processing apparatus for forming a portion of a coherent cache system comprises at least one master device for performing data processing operations, and a cache coupled to the at least one master device and arranged to store data values for access by that at least one master device when performing the data processing operations. Cache coherency circuitry is responsive to a coherency request from another portion of the coherent cache system to cause a coherency action to be taken in respect of at least one data value stored in the cache. Responsive to an indication that the coherency action has resulted in invalidation of that at least one data value in the cache, refetch control circuitry is used to initiate a refetch of that at least one data value into the cache. Such a mechanism causes the refetch of data into the cache to be triggered by the coherency action performed in response to a coherency request from another portion of the coherent cache system, rather than relying on any actions taken by the at least one master device, thereby providing a very flexible and efficient mechanism for reducing cache latency in a coherent cache system. |
| US08375169B2 |
Memory controller
An address comparator stores an address of data read out by a host system. Also, a buffer reads out the data from a memory and stores the data. If an address of data which is expected to be newly read out by the host system is included in addresses which have already been stored in the address comparator, the host system 1 newly reads out the data from the buffer, not from the memory. As a result, it is possible to eliminate or lessen the possibility of unintentional rewriting of data which is likely to be caused due to repeated readout of data. |
| US08375168B2 |
Method and system of collection performance data for storage network
This invention provides a user or an operator with a management apparatus or method for displaying logical connection information between an interface connected to a computer and a switch and a storage system or a logical unit in the storage system in a virtual storage system, wherein the switch receives a first access request from said computer, converts said first access request to a second access request to one of said plural storage systems, and sends said second access request to one of said plural storage systems or one logical unit. |
| US08375165B2 |
Bit weaving technique for compressing packet classifiers
An improved technique is provided for compressing a packet classifier for a computer network system. A set of packet classification rules is first partitioned into one or more partitions. For each partition, columns of bits in each of the ternary strings of a given partition are reordered, the ternary strings within each partition are consolidated into one or more replacement strings and then the columns of bits of the replacement strings are rearranged back to the starting order. The rearranged replacement strings from each of the partitions are appended together to form a compressed packet classifier which may be instantiated in a content-addressable memory device. |
| US08375157B2 |
Cluster based non-volatile memory translation layer
An improved non-volatile memory and logical block to physical block address translation method utilizing a cluster based addressing scheme is detailed. The translation of logical blocks/sectors to the physical blocks/sectors is necessary for a non-volatile memory to appear as a freely rewriteable device to a system or processor. Embodiments of the present invention utilize cluster based address translation to translate logical block addresses to physical block addresses, wherein each cluster contains a plurality of sequentially addressed logical blocks. This allows the use of a smaller RAM table for the address translation lookup and/or faster scanning of the memory device or memory subsystem for the matching cluster address. In one embodiment, a specially formatted cluster is utilized for frequently updated sectors/logical blocks, where the cluster stores a single logical block and a new sequential physical block of the cluster is written in turn with each update. |
| US08375153B2 |
Method for data output control
The present invention relates to a method for data output control, which comprises: obtaining the length of idle bits in the cache queue of a data output interface, and if the idle-bit length is equal to or longer than the length of the data to be sent on the interface, putting the data into the cache queue of the interface. In addition, this present invention discloses another data output control method, and two types of data output control apparatuses. Using this invention can avoid flow interruption. |
| US08375150B2 |
Fast HDMI switching with conditional reset mechanism
Various exemplary embodiments relate to a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) switch configured to receive notification of a switch from a current HDMI source to a new HDMI source, determine whether the new HDMI source is actively transmitting data, has attempted to access an HDCP register before a predetermined timeout delay since a last HDCP register access, and is transmitting unencrypted data, and based on these determinations, either immediately begin transmission of the HDMI data received from the new source or reset the new HDMI source. In this manner, various exemplary embodiments enable switching between HDMI sources with a reduced delay. |
| US08375146B2 |
Ring bus structure and its use in flash memory systems
A system and integrated circuit chips used in the system utilize a bus in the form of a ring to interconnect nodes of individual components for transfer of data and commands therebetween. An example system described is a memory having one or more re-programmable non-volatile memory cell arrays connected to each other and to a system controller by a ring bus. |
| US08375142B2 |
Model-based data center management
Computer-readable media, systems, and methods for model-based data center management. In embodiments, a request to perform a management operation on a device in a data center is received and available paths to the device are determined. The paths are determined based on an artifact storing a topology of the data center. Further, a current favored path that is one of the available paths is determined based on a policy and the device is bound for performance of the management operation using the current favored path. In embodiments, the model-based data center management is configured to provide a generic description of the data center architecture and a generic description for one or more devices in the data center. The generic description provides for dynamic runtime data center configuration. |
| US08375140B2 |
Adaptive playback rate with look-ahead
The disclosure provides for a download agent executing on a computing device to dynamically select between media files when a portion of the media file that is currently being downloaded has a portion average playback rate that is greater than a throughput rate at which the computing device is receiving media files. During the portion where the portion average playback rate is greater than the throughput rate, the download agent may dynamically transition to a different media file where the portion average playback rate for the portion is less than or equal to the throughput rate. The download agent may then transition back to the original media file after downloading the portion form the different media file. |
| US08375137B2 |
System and method for streaming audio using a send queue
A system and method are provided for preparing a streaming media system for initial presentation of a media stream. The system includes a media server configured to send out media packets for a media stream at periodic clocked intervals. A framer can be located with the media server to divide the media stream into media packets. A media client is also provided to receive the media packets for the media stream from the media server. A send queue can be located in the server. The send queue can be configured to store a defined length of programming from the media stream, and the send queue can immediately fill a client's user buffer when an activation event occurs. |
| US08375136B2 |
Defining and implementing policies on managed object-enabled mobile devices
Embodiments of a system configured to manage policies, including decision policies and active policies, on an Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA DM) enabled mobile client devices is described. The system is configured to manage policies, including decision policies and active policies, on mobile devices. The system includes a device policy repository, a policy decision point, a decision policy enforcer, and an active policy enforcer. The system includes a server-side process configured to allow creation, modification and transmission of defined policies to the mobile client device, and a client-side process executed on the mobile client device and configured store the defined policies in an OMA DM management tree in the mobile client device as management objects, wherein each policy of the defined policies is represented as a subnode of the management tree. |
| US08375135B2 |
Method for secure user plane (SUPL) version negotiation
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system and method for negotiating a version of Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) between a network entity and a SUPL enabled terminal. In a particular implementation, a SUPL initiation message is transmitted from a network entity to a SUPL entity, where the SUPL initiation message identifies a plurality of SUPL versions capable of supporting a desired service. A response is received from the SUPL entity that is based, at least in part, on an ability of the SUPL entity to support at least one of the plurality of versions. |
| US08375130B2 |
Shared resource discovery, configuration, and consumption for networked solutions
A networked solution offering a software-based service via a networked architecture having a system landscape can discover a shared resource within the system landscape, for example by accessing a landscape directory comprising information about a plurality of shared resources available in the system landscape. The information about the discovered shared resource can include a second networked solution within the system landscape that has previously configured the discovered shared resource. Configuration settings can be retrieved for the discovered shared resource from the second networked solution. Using the retrieved configuration settings, a shared resource-specific communication channel can be determined for the networked solution to access the discovered shared resource in a peer-to-peer manner. A resource type-specific application programming interface can be provided to the software-based service to enable consumption of the discovered shared resource by the software-based service. Related methods, systems, and articles of manufacture are described. |
| US08375128B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for providing communications services in connection with a communications network
Systems and methods for providing differentiated user service options on communications networks are disclosed. Devices can be configured to generate service change requests, and to transmit the service change requests to a network node. The service change request can be routed to a node that determines if the service change request should be granted. The device and network can begin operation in accordance with the service change request almost instantly since no negotiation is required between the device and the network. Methods and computer-readable media embodying methods for providing differentiated user service options, are also disclosed. |
| US08375126B2 |
Methods, apparatus and techniques for suspending, resuming, and sharing sessions using object serialization
An X display may be dynamically rerouted to a different graphics terminal, or to several graphics terminals, without disrupting X clients. The corresponding X server architecture includes a static, protocol router part which acts as an endpoint for client connections and which routes X protocol to one or more X server displays, and a dynamic X display part which maintains the state and contents of the display. An X display may maintain its state and display contents entirely in memory without any need for physical display or input devices, in which case it is termed a “headless X display” and provides a virtual X server display that appears to the host as if it were a user-interactive display. The architecture allows for any number of X displays to be attached to the protocol router for multi-user, fault tolerant or suspend/resume functionality. |
| US08375124B1 |
Resumable upload for hosted storage systems
An initial portion of an object is received at a hosted storage system. The initial portion of the object is stored at the hosted storage system. After receiving the initial portion of the object, a timer is started. Prior to the expiration of the timer, whether an additional portion of the object is received at the hosted storage system is determined. The initial portion is deleted upon the expiration of the timer if the additional portion is not received. The timer is reset if the additional portion is received. |
| US08375123B2 |
Remote session management
Provided is reporting session information for a session upstream from a server. A data processing system receives a session handshake from a first client for a session between the server and the first client. The system receives a session-descriptor for a session between a second client and the first client before handling a nested session. The system determines whether a user has made an upstream session request. The system obtains session data from an upstream data structure, responsive to a determination that the user has made an upstream session request. The system renders the session data based on the upstream session request. |
| US08375121B2 |
ISDN disconnect alarm generation tool for use in voice over IP (VoIP) networks
An alarm generation tool that operates within a Voice over IP (VoIP) network environment to generate alarms based on ISDN disconnect cause codes. The tool examines call-specific usage records associated with VoIP traffic to detect ISDN disconnect cause codes and determines failure rate information from failure-type disconnect cause codes among the ISDN disconnect cause codes on a per-gateway basis. The tool generates alarms when the failure rate information, such as failure rates and/or counts, exceeds defined thresholds. |
| US08375111B2 |
Method and apparatus for HBA migration
In one implementation, a system includes multiple SCSI nodes configured to perform a SCSI target function. Each of the multiple SCSI nodes includes a host bus adaptor configured to connect the SCSI node with a Fiber Channel fabric. The host bus adaptor being assigned a world wide name and a network address. The system further includes a host configured to perform a SCSI initiator function. The world wide name assigned to a source host bus adaptor associated with one SCSI node is relocated to a target host bus adaptor associated with another SCSI node. After that, the network address associated with the source host bus adaptor is relocated to the target host bus adaptor. In one implementation, the system determines whether or not a network address assigned to a source host bus adaptor associated with one of the multiple SCSI nodes is shared with at least one other service. If so, the system determined whether the shared network address can be relocated to a target host bus adaptor associated with another one of the multiple of SCSI nodes. If the latter determination is in affirmative, the world wide name and network address are relocated. |
| US08375110B2 |
Apparatus to manage binding information on bundles remotely installed into an OSGi service platform and method thereof
An apparatus to generate and manage binding information that is used to map a bundle remotely installed into an open service gateway initiative (OSGi) framework, to at least one controller device that is interested in a change of a life cycle of the bundle, by using a controlled device, in which an OSGi service platform is installed. |
| US08375108B2 |
System and method for updating network computer systems
An update system configured to provide software updates, software patches and/or other data packets to one or more computer systems via a network is disclosed. The update system may interact with a network management system, such as an enterprise management system, to distribute data packets and gather configuration information. The update system may generate and send commands to the network management system. The network management system may carry out the commands to distribute data packets and/or gather configuration information. |
| US08375107B2 |
Webpage pre-reading method, transfer server and webpage pre-reading system
The present invention provides a relay server-based web page pre-reading and integrated browsing method and system. The method includes: based on a page visit request sent from a mobile terminal for page data of a web page having a plurality of sub-pages, requesting the page data of the web page from a network resource server; after receiving the page data of the web page from the network resource server, performing a pre-reading process starting from the received page data of the web page and ending with pre-reading page data of a predetermined levels of sub-pages of the web page from the network resource server. By using the present invention, effective sub-pages can be flexibly obtained and the obtained sub-pages can be merged and rearranged. The web page display can be more flexible, user-friendly, and fast, reducing the user's operating processes and enhancing the user experience when browsing web pages having multiple sub-pages. |
| US08375106B2 |
Loading a mobile computing device with media files
In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for loading media files to a mobile computing device. A media library that includes media files is stored at a server system. Information indicating a present state of the mobile device is accessed, where the present state is based on the device being at a geographical location at a present time. Information indicating a previous state of the mobile device is accessed, where the previous state is based on the device being at a previous geographical location at a previous time. A selection of preferred media files are accessed based on the present state and the previous state. A selection of a subset of media files are accessed based on the preferred media files. At least a portion of each media file in the subset is transmitted to the mobile device. |
| US08375101B2 |
Method and device for message prompting
A message prompting method applied in the field of computer technology is disclosed, which comprises acquiring a feature of an operation of a user on software as well as whether or not the operation is successful, determining a feature group of the feature and its corresponding weight, the feature group containing features of a same category and having a weight which represents a relevance among the features within the group, and determining the message to be prompted to the user according to the weight and a pre-determined threshold in combination with whether or not the operation is successful. A message prompting device is also disclosed. The disclosure prompts software features with better pertinence to a user according to behavior features of the user, provide a personalized way of feature notification, avoid disturbing the user, improve the user experience, enhance friendliness, and can provide effective guidance to the user. |
| US08375097B2 |
Communication systems and methods with social network filtering
A method for a computer system include determining a first social distance for a first user with respect to a second user, determining a second social distance for a third user with respect to the second user, determining a first trust-metric for the first user in response to the first social distance, determining a second trust-metric for the third user in response to the second social distance, and prioritizing a first communication from the first user over a second communication from the third user, in response to the first trust-metric and the second trust-metric. |
| US08375096B2 |
Alerts life cycle
Server computers and methods for updating or changing user alert message settings when changes are made to one or more user accounts are disclosed. The change in the user accounts can include transfers of a user account or user account identifier from one user account issuer to another user account issuer. The change in user accounts can be initiated by a user or issuer associated with the user account. When changes are made to the user accounts or changes are made to the user alert message settings, the server computer can confirm the changes with the user or issuer associated with the user accounts that are changed. |
| US08375095B2 |
Out of order durable message processing
The dispatching of messages from an incoming message pool to service instance(s). Message are received non-destructively and exclusively from the incoming message pool. If a particular service instance receives a message out of order, the processing of the message is deferred without releasing the exclusivity in the incoming message queue. Thus, the target service instance may continue to process one or more other messages until the target service instance is ready to process one or more deferred messages. In this way, messages may be pulled from the incoming message queue for dispatch to service instance(s), while maintaining correct order of processing, even if messages do not arrive into the incoming message queue in the correct order. |
| US08375093B2 |
Retaining email response time trends
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for retaining email response time trends. A send module determines a send time, the time that a user sends an email message to a recipient. A receive module determines a receive time, the time that the user receives a response from the recipient. A response time module determines a response time that corresponds to the email message based on an elapsed time between the send time and the receive time. A content identifier module determines a content identifier for the email message. A trend module determines a response time trend that corresponds to the recipient and the content identifier based on the response time and on a plurality of previous response times of the recipient. The plurality of previous response times correspond to a plurality of previous email messages between the user and the recipient that match the content identifier. |
| US08375091B2 |
Electronic device with email function and method for setting email account of electronic device
A method for setting account of an electronic device is provided. The method includes steps of: receiving emails; reading a received email; detecting whether parameters of the read email are consistent with a predetermined rules; setting the origination email account, which sends the read email, as an available email account of the electronic device if the parameters of the read email are consistent with the predetermined rules. The electronic device with email function is also provided. |
| US08375090B2 |
Advertisement blocking in IMS networks
IMS networks and methods are disclosed for selectively blocking advertisement content on a per user identifier (ID) basis. A subscriber database in the IMS network, such as a Home Subscriber Server (HSS), stores service profiles for IMS users. The service profiles of the IMS users are also provisioned with advertisement blocking indicators that are associated with a user ID of the IMS users. When a request is received in the subscriber database for a service profile associated with a user ID, the subscriber database checks the advertisement blocking indicator associated with the user ID to see if advertisement content should be blocked for this user ID. If so, the subscriber database modifies initial filter criteria (iFC) associated with the user ID, which in essence blocks the advertisement content from being sent to the IMS user. |
| US08375084B2 |
Online system and method for quality assurance testing of high definition video discs and similar media
An online quality assurance system and method for optical disc formats with enhanced interactivity features is disclosed. Specifically, the system and method provides a means for various studios, dvd player manufacturers, dvd standards specification providers, authoring facilities, and dvd standards tool developers to each provide and receive input, preferably in realtime, about research, development, and production issues, problems and solutions. |
| US08375081B2 |
Calendar repair assistant
Calendar repair may be provided. Calendar events, such as appointments and meetings, may be created and copied to a plurality of attendee calendars. A first copy of the event may be compared to a second copy of the event, and an event property of the second event may be updated to match a corresponding event property of the first event. |
| US08375072B1 |
Electronic file management hierarchical structure
Based on received data descriptive of an event, a hierarchical data structure is constructed comprising structural elements associated with components of an event. A file folder hierarchy corresponding to the hierarchical data structure is created. User interfaces facilitate user access to files and folders in the hierarchies. Certain documents may be designated as documents of record and access to those documents is limited to processes that will not modify the original electronic document, thereby preserving it. Facilities for creating working copies of documents of records and associating them within the hierarchies are provided. A scanning information sheet that may have an electronically readable data imprint containing information about a document to be scanned is described for facilitating the migration of paper documents into an electronic file management system. |
| US08375071B2 |
File management information storage apparatus and method and program for controlling the same
When an input-output request for file management information is inputted to a file management information storage apparatus, the input-output request is accepted by a file management section. A fixed-length area management section then inputs and outputs basic management information for managing a file corresponding to the input-output request to and from a fixed-length area of a storage unit as fixed-length data. In addition, a variable-length area management section inputs and outputs extended management information for managing the file corresponding to the input-output request to and from a variable-length area of the storage unit as variable-length data. |
| US08375063B2 |
Method and program product for migrating data from a legacy system
A method for migrating data from a legacy system is provided. The method comprises providing a legacy database having metadata describing one or more legacy data fields in the legacy database and creating a legacy value table in the legacy database that corresponds to a recipient value table in the recipient database. Further, the method comprises updating a translation table in the legacy database that defines one or more recipient data elements in the recipient database based upon the metadata of the legacy database, and translating legacy data elements in the legacy database to correspond to the one or more recipient data elements in the recipient database by utilizing the translation table. Furthermore, the method comprises populating a legacy interface table using the translation table and remotely extracting the data from the legacy interface table to the recipient database. |
| US08375062B2 |
Simple optimistic skiplist
Apparatus, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for concurrently searching a memory containing a skiplist data structure. The method locates the skiplist data structure in the memory. The skiplist data structure includes a plurality of linked lists related by a skiplist invariant. Furthermore, the plurality of linked lists includes a first-level linked list and one or more higher-level linked lists. The skiplist data structure also includes a plurality of nodes, each of which includes a key field, at least one pointer field, and a lock field, respectively. Each of the plurality of nodes is linked to the first-level linked list through the at least one pointer field and ordered responsive to the key field. The method performs a search operation on the skiplist data structure, while the skiplist data structure is subject to concurrent alteration of the plurality of nodes by a plurality of execution threads that are configured to maintain the skiplist invariant and returns a result of the search operation. |
| US08375061B2 |
Graphical models for representing text documents for computer analysis
In a method for representing a text document with a graphical model, a document including a plurality of ordered words is received and a graph data structure for the document is created. The graph data structure includes a plurality of nodes and edges, with each node representing a distinct word in the document and each edge identifying a number of times two nodes occur within a predetermined distance from each other. The graph data structure is stored in an information repository. |
| US08375060B2 |
Managing parameters in filter expressions
A mechanism is provided for generating a filter expression using tree parameters receives an expression wherein operators of the expression bind multiple data items to a single parameter to form a received expression, generates a default prompt control using received metadata and the received expression and prompts for an input selection using the default prompt control. Responsive to receiving selected values in response to the default prompt control to form received values the computer-implemented process generates a native database query using the received expression with the single parameter and the received values, wherein the single parameter is a tree parameter. |
| US08375056B2 |
Optimizing data cache when applying user-based security
A secure caching system and caching method include receiving a user request for data, the request containing a security context, and searching a cache for the requested data based on the user request and the received security context. If the requested data is found in cache, returning the cached data in response to the user request. If the requested data is not found in cache, obtaining the requested data from a data source, storing the obtained data in the cache and associating the obtained data with the security context, and returning the requested data in response to the user request. The search for the requested data can include searching for a security list that has the security context as a key, the security list including an address in the cache of the requested data. |
| US08375052B2 |
Outgoing message monitor
An outgoing message monitor is provided. In an embodiment, outgoing messages are monitored to detect potential errors and alerts may be triggered. Using information about a message such as an email, a first classifier classifies the email into an expected class and a second classifier classifies the email into an actual class. On the basis of a comparison of the expected and actual classes an alert may be triggered. In an embodiment, the second classifier uses information derived from text content of the email which may optionally be pre-processed. The first classifier, for example, uses other information about the email such as its intended recipients, information about the presence of attachments, information about whether the email is part of a thread and other information. |
| US08375050B1 |
Determining full sub-tree isomorphism queries over natural number node labeled unordered trees
Embodiments of the present invention ease the processing and exchange of information and data between programmatic schema and memory stores. A common and universal indexing system or coordination language is created based on natural number node-labeled tree data structures and use of the full sub-tree isomorphism query as the only operation. |
| US08375046B2 |
Peer to peer (P2P) federated concept queries
Embodiments of the invention are generally related to data processing, and more specifically to retrieving results for a query from one or more devices coupled to a network. A first device may receive an abstract query including logical fields defined by a first data abstraction model and retrieve query results stored in the first device. The query may be sent to one or more other devices via the network. The one or more other devices may be configured to convert the abstract query to local abstract queries including logical fields defined in local data abstraction models. The local queries may be issued against local databases to retrieve additional results for the query. |
| US08375044B2 |
Query processing pipelines with single-item and multiple-item query operators
Queries against data sources (such as language-integrated queries to be applied against relational databases) may be prepared for processing by a query processing pipeline. This pipeline performs services including transforming the query into a form more easily applied by the data source, e.g., into SQL, by matching query terms with query operators configured to handle various query operations. Many query processing pipelines include single-item query operators that perform individual operations (e.g., an updating query operator that specifies an updating of individual records of a table.) An integrated query pipeline may be devised that includes both single-item query operators and multiple-item query operators that specify operations on sets of data items. An integrated query processing pipeline may analyze the query to determine whether a single-item or multiple-item operation is specified in order to select an appropriate query operator, which may improve the efficiency and performance of the data source querying. |
| US08375038B2 |
Method to send a short message service (SMS) campaign to a related object by selecting the base object
A method to transmit SMS messages to a Related Object by selecting the Base Object and transmit SMS messages to both, the Base Object as well as to the Related Object, simultaneously, in a CRM application is disclosed. The relationship between the Base Object and the Related Object may be any one of one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one or many-to-many that can be defined while deploying the CRM application. The process takes place in different levels wherein the system decides whether the SMS message should be sent to the Base Object or different Related Objects depending upon the Campaign Workflow and locates the mobile phone number of the entity and finally transmits the SMS message via SMS Service Provider chosen from the user Interface. |
| US08375036B1 |
Book content item search
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products are provided for ranking distinct book content items based on implicit links to other distinct book content items. The implicit links are defined based on the identification of matching features in the distinct book content items. In some implementations, the matching features are uncommon phrases in textual content of the distinct book content items. Edges representing implicit links are generated between distinct nodes representing distinct book content items in a weighted graph. Search results for distinct book content items can be ordered based on the edges connected to the distinct nodes in the weighted graph that represent the distinct book content items. |
| US08375031B2 |
Lossless real-time line-rate filtering using PCAP style filters and hardware assisted patricia trees
A processor performs line-rate filtering using hardware-assisted Patricia trees. A PCAP-style filter is converted into a form that can be inserted into a Patricia tree. The PCAP filter expression is parsed and converted into disjunctive normal form (DNF). Each DNF clause of the filter is inserted into a Patricia tree. The DNF clauses are checked for overlaps and the overlapping clauses are combined when possible. |
| US08375027B2 |
Search supporting apparatus and method utilizing exclusion keywords
Facilitating a user determination of an exclusion keyword in order to specify an efficient exclusion of an unwanted piece of data when the user narrows searching objects. Exclusion is accomplished in a system having a searching object data storage for storing pieces of searching object data, a searcher for performing a primary narrowing of the search, a common keyword extractor for extracting the common keywords associated with a piece of data, an input/output device for passing a selected keyword selected the extracted common keywords while receiving and displaying a result from an exclusion efficiency calculator. The exclusion efficiency calculator calculates exclusion efficiency and indicates a level of exclusion efficiency of data that is not associated with a selected keyword for an individual common keyword. |
| US08375025B1 |
Language-specific search results
Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer program products are described for ranking content items identified by a search engine and delivering corresponding search results. In one aspect, search engine user language preference data is stored in association with user content item selection records. Analysis of the records is performed to identify content items that appeal to users having common language preferences. Query results can be ranked based on the language preference of the current user and/or the user's query and data derived from the selection records. |
| US08375011B2 |
Safe multi-stream versioning in a metadata repository
Managing metadata in a metadata repository that includes parsing metadata to determine an identity of the metadata and individual items associated with the metadata. Converting the identity of the metadata and the individual items associated with the metadata into corresponding object structures. Storing the object structure representing the identity of the metadata into a first table of the metadata repository and storing the object structures that represent the individual items associated with the metadata into a second table of the metadata repository. Responsive to receiving a request to modify a row in the first table or a row in the second table, logically deleting the row being modified without actually deleting or modifying the row, and creating a new row within the first table or the second table having the modified row, in which the new row further includes a link to the logically deleted row. |
| US08375010B2 |
Method of integrating applications with a network service application by creating new records in a relationship field
A computer-implemented method for integrating applications with a network service application is provided. A database management system automatically updates a local database of a computer with information contained within a remote database and an application is enabled to generate a new record in the local database with temporary values in the relationship fields such that the child records are logically related to one or more parent records by virtue of having the same relationship values. A new record is created by the web service for the parent record. When a changed value of the parent record's key is detected, a value of the key of relevant changed parent record is written into one or more local related record's relationship field. |
| US08375009B2 |
Scalable and extensible framework for data-driven web services
A layered architecture for a web service is provided with a data tier, object representation, data transformation, and a service tier. Scalability is achieved by relying on relatively high degree of decoupling, lightweight data interaction, and reducing overhead of transaction demands. Custom web services can be built on top and leverage the capabilities of the flexible framework including lightweight transaction support, event-based business logic extensibility, and efficient data contract binding. |
| US08375004B2 |
Asynchronous remote copy system and storage control method
In a previous storage apparatus, differential JNLs are reflected in order of the update numbers, to the data volumes thereof. If a first storage apparatus is suspended, it is determined which is newer: the update number which the journal recently reflected in a second storage apparatus or the update number reflected in a third storage apparatus. In the newer storage apparatus having the newer update number, it is determined whether one or more JNLs from the journal having the update number next to the update number which is not determined to be the newer to the journal having the update number determined to be the newer exist, or not. If the result of the determination is positive, from the newer storage apparatus to the previous storage apparatus which is not the newer of the second and the third storage apparatuses, one or more differential JNLs are copied. |
| US08375001B2 |
Master monitoring mechanism for a geographical distributed database
A distributed database system with a plurality of nodes is provided, each node storing a replica of at least one partition of data. A method of handling the distributed database system comprises: partitioning data into a number of partitions; replicating each partition into a number of replicas; for each partition, distributing the number of replicas amongst database nodes; activating more than one node; monitoring at each active node events of: latest updating of each replica, replica status, status of local resources in charge of each replica, and connectivity status of each replica; upon activation or deactivation of a node, determining which node is considered current master node for each partition in charge of current master replica; for any request received in a node to read/write data, determining the current master node in charge of the current master replica, and routing said request to said current master node. |
| US08375000B2 |
Remote copy system
In a system in which data employed by a computer is stored in a storage system, the storage system transfers this data to another storage system and a copy of the data is maintained in the other storage system. The consistency of the copy is maintained even when data is written, to the storage system by a computer, without having a write time applied. A source storage system, when a write time is applied to a write request, records the write time and applies this write time to the received write data and, when no write time is applied, applies the recorded write time to the received write data and transfers the write data with this write time applied thereto, to a target storage system. The target storage system stores the write data in a logical volume in the target storage system in accordance with the write time. |
| US08374998B2 |
Computer implemented methods and systems to facilitate retrieval and viewing of call center contact and customer information
A computer-implemented method of enabling a customer service agent to retrieve customer and contact information from a database coupled to a computer system may include receiving a communication from a person; asking the person to provide contact details and a customer, if any, with which the person is affiliated; entering search criteria that include the provided contact information and/or customer affiliation into the computer system to retrieve matching customer and contact information from the database; searching the database to retrieve all customers and contacts that match at least one of the entered search criteria, and viewing, on a single screen displayed by the computer system, a first search results box that is configured to display information relating to contacts retrieved from the database and a second search results box that is configured to display information relating to customers retrieved from the database. |
| US08374994B2 |
System and method of quantum computing using three-state representation of a qubit
A method (and structure) of quantum computing. Two independent magnitudes of a three-state physical (quantum) system are set to simultaneously store two real, independent numbers as a qubit. The three-state physical (quantum) system has a first energy level, a second energy level, and a third energy level capable of being degenerate with respect to one another, thereby forming basis states for the qubit. |
| US08374993B2 |
Radioactive isotope identification
A method of identifying radioactive components in a source comprising (a) obtaining a gamma-ray spectrum from the source; (b) identifying peaks in the gamma-ray spectrum; (c) determining an array of peak energies and peak intensities from the identified peaks; (d) identifying an initial source component based on a comparison of the peak energies with a database of spectral data for radioactive isotopes of interest; (e) estimating a contribution of the initial source component to the peak intensities; (f) modifying the array of peak energies and peak intensities by subtracting the estimated contribution of the initial source component; and (g) identifying a further source component based on a comparison of the modified array of peak energies with the database of spectral data. Thus a method for identifying radioactive components in a source is provided which does not rely on comparing template spectra with an observed spectrum. |
| US08374992B2 |
Organization of user generated content captured by a smart pen computing system
In a pen-based computing system, use of paradigms similar to those used with physical paper to organize user generated content captured by a smart pen is disclosed. Data, such as handwriting gestures, is captured by the smart pen and transferred to a digital domain, such as by being transferred to a computing system. Once in the digital domain, the captured content is organized as virtual pages or virtual notebooks. Hence, content captured from various sources, such as different notebooks or different physical pieces of paper, is assembled into a virtual page or virtual notebook. User input or automatic application of rules can be used to assemble the captured content into a virtual page or virtual notebook. |
| US08374990B2 |
Situational resource rating
A computer-implemented system may include determination of a similarity of a semantic projection of a set of interests of a first user to a semantic projection of a first resource, wherein the semantic projection of the set of interests of the first user and the semantic projection of the first resource conforms to a common semantic projection model. Also included may be determination of a semantic interest of the first user for the first resource in a first context based on the similarity of the semantic projection of the set of the interests of the first user to the semantic projection of the first resource, and determination of an interest measure associated with the first user, the first resource and the first context based on a rating prediction for the first user to the first resource in the first context and on the determined semantic interest of the first user for the first resource in the first context. |
| US08374987B2 |
Stateful, continuous evaluation of rules by a state correlation engine
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, related to stateful, continuous evaluation of event-condition-action rules by a state correlation engine. In general, one or more events may be determined to have occurred and an event-condition-action cycle may be caused to be processed for the events. The event-condition-action cycle may include evaluating condition networks based on a state of execution of the state correlation engine that includes the events, where the state of execution is based on a state of execution before the events, and enabling the actions to be executed if evaluation of the condition networks with the state of execution is to result in one or more actions being enabled. |
| US08374985B1 |
Presenting a diversity of recommendations
Methods, systems and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing a diversity of recommendations. According to one method, results are identified so as to increase the likelihood that at least one result will be of interest to a user. Following the identification of a first result, second and later results are identified based on an assumption that the previously identified results are not of interest to the user. The identification of diverse results can be based on formulas that approximate the probability or provide a likelihood score of a user selecting a given result, where a measured similarity between a given object and previously identified results tends to decrease the calculated probability approximation or likelihood score for that object. |
| US08374982B2 |
System and method for constructing forecast models
Embodiments of the present invention include a computational forecasting system that includes an identity of a dependent variable of interest and identities of a plurality of candidate indicators along with historical data or stored references to historical data, forecast-problem parameters stored in an electronic memory of the one or more electronic computers, an independent-variable selection component that generates correlations to the dependent variable of interest and lag times for the candidate indicators, and uses the generated correlations and lag times to select a number of the candidate indicators as a set of independent variables, and a model-generation component that, using a regression method, generates forecast models for the dependent variable of interest until a model that meets an acceptance criterion or criteria is obtained. |
| US08374979B2 |
Fast image parsing by graph adaptive dynamic programming (GADP) performing classification, detection, and segmentation simultaneously
Systems and methods are disclosed to perform image parsing on one or more images by identifying a set of similar regions from each image; assigning one or more region labels to each region and generating multiple hypotheses for region label assignment; and detecting class, location and boundary of each object in the image, wherein object classification, detection and segmentation are performed jointly during image parsing. |
| US08374978B2 |
Context-sensitive dynamic bloat detection system that uses a semantic profiler to collect usage statistics
Methods and apparatus are provided for a context-sensitive dynamic bloat detection system. A profiling tool is disclosed that selects an appropriate collection implementation for a given application. The disclosed profiling tool uses semantic profiling together with a set of collection selection rules to make an informed choice. A collection implementation, such as an abstract data entity, is selected for a given program by obtaining collection usage statistics from the program. The collection implementation is selected based on the collection usage statistics using a set of collection selection rules. The collection implementation is one of a plurality of interchangeable collection implementations having a substantially similar logical behavior for substantially all collection types. The collection usage statistics indicate how the collection implementation is used in the given program. One or more suggestions can be generated for improving the collection allocated at a particular allocation context. |
| US08374976B2 |
Method for selecting neighborhoods of training points for local learning
A method selects a subset of training points near a query point from a set of training points. The subset of training points near the query point is determined from a the set of training points such that a cumulative similarity is maximized, wherein the cumulative similarity measures a similarity of the query point to each point in the subset and a similarity of points in the subset to each other. |
| US08374972B2 |
Media development network
Methods and systems for encouraging and identifying new talent, as well as an incentive structure for financing creative/media projects, are described. A social network web site allows users to post their own content, and filters users to the top who have achieved a given level of popularity. Popular users can then post media proposals to a private section of the web site, through which established stars and talent review the proposals. Users, in exchange for access to the private section, grant to a proprietor of the web site an option to make one or more future productions with that user at a reduced rate should that user reach stardom. Established stars and talent, in exchange for participating in a media proposal at a reduced rate, receive an interest in one or more productions by the user if/when the proprietor of the web site exercises an option to make a future production with the user. |
| US08374970B2 |
Apparatus, systems and methods for online, multi-parcel, multi-carrier, multi-service enterprise parcel shipping management
The present invention provides a plurality of Enterprises with a single online user interface with which the Enterprise can provide Enterprise Shippers, shipping origination users and shipping intermediary users with an automated parcel management system for a plurality of supported Carriers for a plurality of services. The present invention provides for the hierarchical definition of users, including the hierarchical definition of organizational units within each Enterprise. The present invention further provides for a distinct definition of policies, privileges, and other types of specifications for each user level, each user, and each organizational unit. The present invention applies the user and organizational policies, privileges and other specifications as they apply to each particular user to drive the interactive interface with each particular user and to provide among other things, shipping options, shipping services, shipping rates, traveler and/or shipping label preparation, and shipment tracking. |
| US08374967B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling rented or leased or loaned equipment
A method and apparatus relating to the renting, leasing and/or loaning of electronic equipment operable and/or controllable by a computer, wherein one entity not in physical possession and/or control of the equipment desires control over another entity which has physical possession and/or control of the equipment. Such equipment may comprise a washing machine, medical, office or industrial equipment, a vending machine, etc. A central computer system includes software which enables management and execution of financial transactions between the entities, such as debiting or crediting of accounts held by these or other entities, or creating an invoice for one entity to present to another entity. Information used in making these financial transactions can be determined by analysis of information which may be communicated to the central computer system from at least one other source. Such source may include the control system of the controlled equipment, e.g., from a vending machine or the computer system of an interested entity. |
| US08374962B2 |
Stored value payouts
According to the invention, a method for automatically processing an incoming payment for a payee with an online money transfer system. In one step, information is received at the online money transfer system. That information relates to processing of one or more received payments associated with the payee. At some point, the incoming payment associated with the payee is received. A default repository for the incoming payment is determined. It is determined whether to transfer at least some of the incoming payment away from the default repository or escrow at least a portion of the incoming payment for benefit of at least one predetermined party. Either the earmark or the escrow is applied after this determination. |
| US08374959B2 |
Managing lead-based feedback in a network commerce system
A network commerce system comprises a product sale listing searchable by a consumer and comprising one or more products provided by a third-party. A lead tracking module is operable to track consumer leads provided to the third-party vendor. A communications module enables the consumer and third-party vendor to communicate; and a feedback module enables at least one of the consumer and the third-party vendor to leave feedback regarding a lead tracked via the lead tracking module based on a handshake. |
| US08374958B2 |
Method and apparatus for the payment of internet content
A payment system for accessing Internet content is located within an Internet service providers network. The system includes an access controller (106) and a payment authority (108). When an end-user makes a request for a URL, the access controller terminates the request and determines whether the requested URL is one for which a charge for accessing the content referenced by that URL is required. That determination is made by comparing the requested URL with a set of rules that are supplied by all the content providers for which the service provider supports payment. If no match is found, the request is forwarded to the content provider. If a rule is found that matches the requested URL, the end-user is identified and the request is forwarded to the payment authority where a payment policy associated with the matched rule is applied. If the end-user fulfills the requirements of this payment policy, then access to the content is granted. The end-user may fulfill the requirements of the payment policy, for example, through a current subscription to a content provider's site, through an auto-payment agreement in which all charges of less than an agreed upon amount are automatically accepted, or by specifically accepting and agreeing to pay an indicated charge for accessing the requested content. In accepting any such payment arrangement, the end-user's account with the service provider is debited for the appropriate charge and the content provider's account is credited for the end-user's access. |
| US08374957B1 |
Systems and methods for automated payment processing
Apparatus and methods to process loss payments are described herein. In one example, an apparatus includes one or more data stores, a rules engine, an audit engine and a payment engine. In another example, the method may include receiving a notice of loss, deriving a payee, processing one or more rules using the information, determining whether an automatic payment can be made and transferring funds if the automatic payment can be made. In a further example, the method may include receiving a notice of loss, the loss having one or more exposures, processing one or more rules for each of the exposures in parallel, determining if an automatic payment can be made for each of the exposures and removing the automatic payment for an exposure if it can not be made while continuing processing payments for the remaining exposures. |
| US08374954B1 |
Private capital management system and method
A computer-implemented data processing system comprises capital management logic accessible to a plurality of users by way of a communication network. The plurality of users include companies, institutional investors, individual investors, and exchanges. The capital management logic is configured to facilitate pre-financing and post-financing interactions between the companies, the institutional investors, the individual investors, and the exchanges throughout one or more rounds of financing of the companies. |
| US08374945B2 |
System and method for processing data for instruments in multiple classes for providing deferred income
A computer system for processing data related to financial instruments for providing deferred income includes a data storage device storing data relating to financial instruments representing a right to receive deferred periodic payments includes, for classes of financial instruments, a price, payment amount and frequency, deferral data, and one or more permitted values of one or more actuarial factors of purchasers. The system further includes a processor configured to receive via a communication module data indicative of a request to purchase financial instruments, including a purchase payment amount and one or more values of the one or more actuarial factors of an individual purchaser, and to determine, based on the received data, a number and class of the financial instruments for issue to the individual purchaser and to output data for generation of the determined number and class of the financial instruments for issue to the individual purchaser. |
| US08374939B2 |
System, method and computer program product for selecting and weighting a subset of a universe to create an accounting data based index and portfolio of financial objects
A system, method and computer program product creates an index based on accounting based data, as well as a portfolio of financial objects based on the index where the portfolio is weighted according to accounting based data. A passive investment system may be based on indices created from various metrics. The indexes may be built with metrics other than market capitalization weighting, price weighting or equal weighting. Non-financial metrics may also be used to build indexes to create passive investment systems. Additionally, a combination of financial non-market capitalization metrics may be used along with non-financial metrics to create passive investment systems. Once the index is built, it may be used as a basis to purchase securities for a portfolio. Specifically excluded are widely-used capitalization-weighted indexes and price-weighted indexes, in which the price of a security contributes in a substantial way to the calculation of the weight of that security in the index or the portfolio, and equal weighting weighted indexes. Valuation indifferent indexes avoid overexposure to overvalued securities and underexposure to undervalued securities, as compared with conventional capitalization-weighted and price-weighted. |
| US08374937B2 |
Non-capitalization weighted indexing system, method and computer program product
An investment system based on indexes created from various metrics is disclosed. The indexes may be built by selecting from a universe of assets, a subset using selection and weighting metrics substantially independent of market capitalization weighting, price weighting, or equal weighting. These metrics may include, but are not limited to book value, sales, dividends, cash flow, employees, demographics, etc. A combination of financial non-market capitalization metrics may be used along with non-financial metrics to create passive investment systems. Once the index is built, it may be used as a basis to purchase securities for a portfolio. As the data underlying the indexes change because of, e.g., economic activity, the index may be updated and may be used as a basis to rebalance the portfolio. Valuation indifferent indexes of the present invention avoid overexposure to overvalued securities and underexposure to undervalued securities, as compared with conventional capitalization-weighted price-weighted indexes. |
| US08374936B2 |
Method and system for integrating savings and credits with different interest rates
A method and system for operating a new financial instrument and payment card integrates savings and credit transactions belonging to the same payment plan into a single account. Transactions can be carried out at different periods in time, for any amount, agreed on with different fixed or adjustable interest rates, without losing the payment conditions of each savings and credit. A financial account card as a financial instrument can be used to carry out long, medium and short-term savings and credit financial transactions. The card can also be used as a payment card to buy and sell anything of value. The card is operated through financial institutions and service centers by a computer system, which manages transactions between cardholders themselves and with financial institutions, maintains account balances, determines installments for debt and savings balances, manages available credit limits and guarantees, and manages other financial and payment services. |
| US08374933B2 |
Method for educational financial planning
A method is provided that gathers information from a user regarding a desired educational institution and sources for financing an education at the educational institution. The method further estimates a future income and compares the income with the obligations that arise from financing the education. This comparison is subsequently classified according to a risk profile. |
| US08374931B2 |
Consistent set of interfaces derived from a business object model
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. |
| US08374930B2 |
Certified email system and method
A certified email system for providing a time stamp for a presented file, particularly when the presented file is an email. Preferably a demanding party receives the email; generates a unique HASH; digitally signs the unique HASH; and sends the signed HASH and a time-stamp request call to a web services time-stamp conduit (WSTC). The WSTC receives the request and signed HASH from the demanding party and obtains a time stamp. The WSTC sends the time stamp back to the demanding party, which sends a time-stamp notification to the original sender of the email and, optionally, the recipient(s) of the email. Multiple branded or customized demanding servers can efficiently run using one web services time-stamp conduit.An integrated detailed billing system capable of pass-through client billing, keyword search functionality, a multi-party content management system, and convenient web-based automated verification (file or HASH) services are provided. |
| US08374921B2 |
Interactive TV system and co-located transaction-ordering web server for online ordering of items of real-time availability from a set-top-box connected TV
An online ordering system for ordering of items of real time availability in inventory online employs An interactive TV system connected to a plurality of TV equipment units via a TV services platform, whereby a TV viewer can view an advertisement for a transactable item on the TV display and send a request for ordering the item by signals sent by the TV remote control unit to the TV services platform. A transaction-ordering web server is co-located with and operatively connected to the TV services platform for processing requests from TV viewers into web orders sent online via Internet connection to online ordering websites for processing against real time vendor inventories and confirming transactions of ordered items. The TV system may be a hotel in-room TV system coupled to a hotel purchase management system to manage guest billings for purchases. The hotel in-room TV system can provide guests with updates of activities and advertisements for guest activities on the in-room TV. It can also send messages to guest cellphones or mobile devices and process billings for guest requests. |
| US08374920B2 |
Anti-counterfeiting system and method
An online auction website has anti-counterfeiting measures. The website requires a seller of an item to input information about the product for sale, including at least a brand of the product and a product identification code. If the brand code and product identification code are not entered, the website does not allow the seller to post the item for sale. If entered, the brand and the product identification code are included in the listing on the online auction webpage that advertises the product for sale during the auction period. Verification may be performed on the item to determine its authenticity. The verification process includes comparing the listed brand and product identification codes with a plurality of authentic brand and product identification codes. When the brand and product identification codes are determined to be counterfeit, the listing is terminated and the sale of counterfeit items is prevented. |
| US08374919B2 |
Method and system for conducting an auction over a network
A method and system for enabling a user or bidder to purchase an option on auction merchandise or services in an online auction are provided, thus allowing the option winner to purchase the merchandise in the event the original auction bidder (i.e., the highest bidder for the merchandise) defaults on his purchase. The method and system also provides an incentive to the users purchasing the option(s), e.g., bid optionees, by partially distributing the option pool of monies collected to the user who purchases the option at the price closest to the final auction price. |
| US08374917B1 |
Call routing apparatus
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and in particular to systems and methods for routing and placing telephone calls. In one embodiment, a call manager system is configured to place a call to a pay-per-call service, or to cause such a call to be placed by a user computer terminal, in response to a user initiating a purchase transaction over a computer network. In addition, the call may include billing information, such as the user's phone number, which is provided to the pay-per-call service so that the user can be billed for the call in an appropriate amount. |
| US08374915B2 |
Presence optimized advertisement publishing system and methodology
A system and method are provided for publishing certain advertising information on-line. Presence indicators are incorporated into merchant advertisements published online. The presence indicators are preferably active hyper-links that are configured to allow a consumer to send a request to a merchant for initiation of a 2-way real time communications session. The system provides for adding one of a pool of merchant representatives to an opened communications session with the consumer. Advertisements may be selectively published or withheld from publication based upon the availability status of an associated merchant. |
| US08374914B2 |
Advertising using image comparison
Registration and classification of non-textual information, such as digital images and video is described. Image searching and comparison of the images is also described. The digital images are indexed (i.e., each image is assigned a unique numerical parameter and/or a plurality of numerical parameters). The resulting index files are stored in a database that can be quickly searched because the index files are universal numerical files that are significantly smaller in size than their source images. Image search queries are also indexed to generate an index file, which is then compared with the stored index files. A similarity score is also calculated to rank the similar images based on the index file-to-index file comparison. |
| US08374909B2 |
System, method and computer readable medium for billing based on a duration of a service period
A system, method, and computer readable medium for billing based on a duration of a service period, comprises sending fleet data from a third party entity to a toll authority via a toll rental entity, matching toll data with the fleet data by the toll authority, if the toll data matches the fleet data: charging an account by the toll authority and sending the matched data to the toll rental entity, determining, by the toll rental entity, if the sent matched data is related to an opt-in for duration based tolling or an opt-out for duration based tolling, if the sent matched data is related to an opt-in for duration based tolling, charging the third party entity for the duration based tolling, and if the sent matched data is related to an opt-out for duration based tolling, applying at least one of: a fee for the duration based tolling, a toll usage amount, a service fee for the duration based tolling, and a service fee for the toll usage. |
| US08374908B2 |
Computer system and computer-based method for assessing the safety of a process industry plant
A method and system to establish a safety assessment of a process industry plant including multiple organizational units. The method and system store scores relating to a rating of one of an inspection, undertaken in one of the organizational units regarding an aspect of the plant, and an answer, given by a human representative of one of the organizational units in response to defined questions relating to one of the aspects. The scores are assigned to respective of the organizational units and respective of the aspects. Aspect-specific scores are then calculated. Safety assessment can then be established from the aspect-specific scores of the organizational units. |
| US08374907B1 |
E-commerce price index
An e-commerce price index is constructed and maintained based on consumer actions in connection with one or more e-commerce websites. A data collector software module collects information regarding products sold or available for sale online, including a price and rate of clicks received for each product on the website(s). An index software module analyzes the collected information to construct the price index. Specifically, the index software module scrubs the collected information to remove outliers and fill in gaps and calculates a click-weighted average price by product category and day. The index module generates the price index by aggregating and normalizing the calculated click-weighted average prices. The index software module can compute the e-commerce price index on a virtually real-time basis. Thus, the e-commerce price index can provide useful information about online pricing trends far earlier than traditional indices. |
| US08374906B1 |
Method and system for generating pricing recommendations
To determine pricing recommendations for goods and service products in a business-to-business environment, a set of transaction data corresponding to a set of products are processed to generate a set of pricing recommendations optimized according to an objective. Furthermore, a set of product segments may be determined, transaction data may be associated with one or more of the product segments and a demand model and associated price elasticity may be formulated for one or more of the product segments based upon the transaction data associated with the segment. Using these formulated price elasticities, pricing recommendations for each product may be determined for each of a set of customers. Using an optimization process, price elasticities are used to determine price dependent entity goals for any combination of products, customers and sets of prices, using a mathematical objective function. |
| US08374905B2 |
Predicting success of a proposed project
A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product predicts a success of a currently proposed project. Responsive answers to a survey questionnaire for a currently proposed project are received and used to create a predicted success score for the currently proposed project, based on a pattern of responsive answers to a predetermined combination of questions from the survey questionnaire. The predicted success score for the currently proposed project is compared with and matched to actual success scores from prior projects. If the percentage of prior projects that retained their success scores through completion exceeds a predetermined accuracy threshold, then the currently proposed project is approved for implementation. |
| US08374902B2 |
Information processing apparatus and information processing method
It is determined whether a workflow includes a process to be executed by an information processing apparatus. Upon determining that the workflow includes a process to be executed by the information processing apparatus, it is determined whether the workflow includes a process to be executed by an external apparatus in accordance with an instruction of the information processing apparatus. Upon determining that such process is not included, display is controlled to display a parameter for only the process to be executed by the information processing apparatus. Upon determining that such process is included, the function information of the external apparatus is acquired. After the function information has been acquired, display is controlled to display the parameters while reflecting the function information on the parameters of the processes of the workflow. |
| US08374900B2 |
Determining composite service reliability
The reliability of a composite service having service components is determined, where the composite service can fail only where underlying resources fail. The composite service is represented as a plurality of continuous-time Markov chains (CTMC's). Each CTMC corresponds to a resource. A product of the CTMC's is constructed. The product encompasses composite service states. Steady-state probabilities for the product are determined. Each steady-state probability corresponds to a likelihood that a corresponding state will be a steady state. For each state of the composite service, a reward structure is determined. The reward structure corresponds to a likelihood that the state will successfully use the resources without failure. The reward structure is determined for a given state based on the given state's steady-state probability and based on discrete-time Markov chains (DTMC's) corresponding to the service components. The reliability of the composite service is determined based on the reward structure of each state. |
| US08374899B1 |
Assessment construction tool
An assessment construction tool is provided for developing and executing assessments of various operational aspects of a business entity. Both application-level and project-level assessments may be constructed, and the assessments include a mechanism for applying scores associated with answers derived from conducting the assessment to multiple assessment process categories of the business entity. |
| US08374897B2 |
Apparatus and method for forecasting qualitative assessments
A computer-readable medium to direct a computer to function in a specified manner includes executable instructions to: generate a set of qualitative assessments; convert the set of qualitative assessments into a set of quantitative assessments; produce a quantitative forecast from the set of quantitative assessments; and translate the quantitative forecast to a qualitative forecast. |
| US08374896B2 |
Architectural design for opportunity management application software
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for implementing a software architecture design for a software application implementing ad-hoc goods movement. The application is structured as multiple process components interacting with each other through service interfaces, and multiple service operations, each being implemented for a respective process component. The process components include, for example, a lead processing process component that handles the potential interests of a business partner and the interactions with the business partner over a certain timeframe; an opportunity processing process component that handles the development, processing, and monitoring of opportunities; a customer quote processing process component that handles the processing of quotes to customers offering the delivery of goods according to specific terms; and a sales order processing process component that handles the processing of customers' requests to seller for delivery of goods, on a specific date, for a specific quantity, and for a specific price. |
| US08374895B2 |
Travel information interval grid
A method and system for presenting travel information in a way that facilitates identifying travel plans that satisfy objectives is provided. A travel information system collects travel information for the travel items on various observation dates including the current date and presents the travel information to a user in a way that facilitates travel planning and travel shopping. The travel information system stores the travel information in an observation store. To provide travel information that satisfies a search criterion, the travel information system retrieves the travel information that satisfies the search criterion either from flight information of the observation store or from current flight information provided in real time from a source of travel information. The flight information system provides the travel information in various formats to facilitate travel planning. These formats include a fare history graph, an interval grid, a route map, a future fare graph, and/or a departure date/duration grid. |
| US08374894B2 |
Extended web enabled multi-featured business to business computer system for rental vehicle services
An Internet enabled, business-to-business computerized transaction system is disclosed in its preferred embodiment for use in providing rental car services for high volume users and comprises an Internet web portal through which the high volume user may access a plurality of service providers including an integrated business computer network for at least one rental vehicle service provider. The rental vehicle services provider computer network is configured to interconnect a geographically diverse plurality of branch offices, cataloguing their available rental vehicles and schedules for same as well as handling all transactional data relating to its business. The Internet web portal provides ubiquitous connectivity and portability for a multi-level business organization who regularly places high volumes of rental purchases with its business partner and also those other service providers who may or may not have the same integrated business computer system and software. Utilizing the method and apparatus of the present invention large volumes of rental transactions may be placed, monitored, altered during performance, and closed out with financial accounting and payment being made virtually without human intervention. |
| US08374891B2 |
Record locator service
A system and method for accessing health care data are disclosed. A data retrieval service module is coupled to a client device and to one or more data sources, such as medical data sources, a master patient index or additional data retrieval service modules. The data retrieval service module receives a data request from the client device and transmits the data request to the one or more data sources. The data retrieval service module then receives data associated with the data request from die one or more data sources and generates catalog by aggregating data from multiple data sources. The catalog is then transmitted from the data retrieval service module to the client device, allowing the client device to access data obtained from various data sources. |
| US08374886B2 |
Computer based clinical laboratory ordering and reporting system with embedded consultation function
A system for facilitating the provision of clinical laboratory services includes an order entry subsystem for submitting patient test requests to a laboratory by means of a networked terminal, an online data storage subsystem, a triage subsystem for comparing test results with predetermined reference ranges, and a reporting-consulting subsystem for use by an embedded consulting physician to generate a consultative report which is communicated by a networked terminal to the person submitting the test request. |
| US08374884B2 |
Decoding apparatus and decoding method
A coding apparatus reduces a circuit scale and the amount of coding processing calculation. A frequency domain conversion section performs a frequency analysis of the signal sampled at a sampling rate Fx with an analysis length of 2·Na and calculates first spectrum S1(k)(0≦k |
| US08374883B2 |
Encoder and decoder using inter channel prediction based on optimally determined signals
An encoder improves inter-channel prediction (ICP) performance in scalable stereo sound encoding using an ICP. In the encoder, ICP analysis units use, as reference signal candidates, a frequency coefficient in the low-band portion of a side residual signal, a frequency coefficient in each sub-band portion of a monaural residual signal, and a frequency coefficient in the low-band portion of the monaural residual signal, respectively, and perform an ICP analysis between the these respective candidates and a frequency coefficient in each sub-band portion of the side residual signal to generate first, second, and third ICP coefficients. A selection unit selects an optimum reference signal from among the reference signal candidates by checking the relationship between the respective reference signal candidates and the frequency coefficient in each sub-band portion of the side residual signal and outputs, to an ICP parameter quantization unit, a reference signal ID indicating the selected reference signal and an ICP coefficient corresponding to the reference signal. |
| US08374881B2 |
System and method for enriching spoken language translation with dialog acts
Disclosed herein are systems, computer-implemented methods, and tangible computer-readable media for enriching spoken language translation with dialog acts. The method includes receiving a source speech signal, tagging dialog acts associated with the received source speech signal using a classification model, dialog acts being domain independent descriptions of an intended action a speaker carries out by uttering the source speech signal, producing an enriched hypothesis of the source speech signal incorporating the dialog act tags, and outputting a natural language response of the enriched hypothesis in a target language. Tags can be grouped into sets such as statement, acknowledgement, abandoned, agreement, question, appreciation, and other. The step of producing an enriched translation of the source speech signal uses a dialog act specific translation model containing a phrase translation table. |
| US08374880B2 |
System for automatically creating a lighting atmosphere based on a keyword input
The invention relates to the automatic creation of an atmosphere, particularly a lighting atmosphere, based on a keyword input such as a keyword typed or spoken by a user. A basic idea of the invention is to enable a user of an atmosphere creation system such as a lighting system to automatically create a specific atmosphere by simply using a keyword which is input to the system. The keyword, for example “eat”, “read”, “relax”, “sunny”, “cool”, “party”, “Christmas”, “beach”, may be spoken or typed by the user and may enable the user to find and explore numerous atmospheres in an interactive and playful way in embodiments of the invention. Finding atmosphere elements related to the keyword may be done in various ways according to embodiments of the invention. The invention allows also a non expert in designing or creating atmosphere scenes to control the creation of a desired atmosphere in an atmosphere creation system. |
| US08374876B2 |
Speech generation user interface
A system and a method for speech generation which assist the speech of those with a disability or a medical condition such as cerebral palsy, motor neurone disease or a dysarthia following a stroke. The system has a user interface having a multiplicity of states each of which correspond to a sound and a selector for making a selection of a state or a combination of states. The system also has a processor for processing the selected state or combination of states and an audio output for outputting the sound or combination of sounds. The sounds associated with the states can be phonemes or phonics and the user interface is typically a manually operable device such as a mouse, trackball, joystick or other device that allows a user to distinguish between states by manipulating the interface to a number of positions. |
| US08374874B2 |
Establishing a multimodal personality for a multimodal application in dependence upon attributes of user interaction
Establishing a multimodal personality for a multimodal application, including evaluating, by the multimodal application, attributes of a user's interaction with the multimodal application; selecting, by the multimodal application, a vocal demeanor in dependence upon the values of the attributes of the user's interaction with the multimodal application; and incorporating, by the multimodal application, the vocal demeanor into the multimodal application. |
| US08374873B2 |
Training and applying prosody models
Techniques for training and applying prosody models for speech synthesis are provided. A speech recognition engine processes audible speech to produce text annotated with prosody information. A prosody model is trained with this annotated text. After initial training, the model is applied during speech synthesis to generate speech with non-standard prosody from input text. Multiple prosody models can be used to represent different prosody styles. |
| US08374872B2 |
Dynamic update of grammar for interactive voice response
A device provides a question to a user, and receives, from the user, an unrecognized voice response to the question. The device also provides the unrecognized voice response to an utterance agent for determination of the unrecognized voice response without user involvement, and provides an additional question to the user prior to receiving the determination of the unrecognized voice response from the utterance agent. |
| US08374869B2 |
Utterance verification method and apparatus for isolated word N-best recognition result
An utterance verification method for an isolated word N-best speech recognition result includes: calculating log likelihoods of a context-dependent phoneme and an anti-phoneme model based on an N-best speech recognition result for an input utterance; measuring a confidence score of an N-best speech-recognized word using the log likelihoods; calculating distance between phonemes for the N-best speech-recognized word; comparing the confidence score with a threshold and the distance with a predetermined mean of distances; and accepting the N-best speech-recognized word when the compared results for the confidence score and the distance correspond to acceptance. |
| US08374864B2 |
Correlation of transcribed text with corresponding audio
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving at a communication device an audio communication and a transcribed text created from the audio communication, and generating a mapping of the transcribed text to the audio communication independent of transcribing the audio. The mapping identifies locations of portions of the text in the audio communication. An apparatus for mapping the text to the audio is also disclosed. |
| US08374862B2 |
Method, software and device for uniquely identifying a desired contact in a contacts database based on a single utterance
A single utterance having a name portion and a qualifier portion is received. The name portion represents a spoken name of a desired contact of a contacts database, and the qualifier portion represents a spoken word or words for disambiguating the name of the desired contact from any homophone names in the contacts database. From the utterance, a digital name representation corresponding to the name portion and a digital qualifier representation corresponding to the qualifier portion are generated. The digital representations may be textual or phonetic representations for example and may result from conversion of the utterance to a digital utterance representation and a parsing of the digital utterance representation. The digital name and qualifier representations are processed to uniquely identify the desired contact within the contacts database. The utterance may contain a disambiguation field identifier portion which facilitates the identification of a disambiguation field. |
| US08374861B2 |
Voice activity detector
A voice activity detector indicates the presence of speech within a signal. The detector may determine whether the signal includes speech by calculating a variance of a signal-to-noise ratio across a plurality of portions of a signal, calculating a value based on the variance of the signal-to-noise ratio, performing a comparison between the value and a threshold, and identifying whether the signal contains speech based on the comparison between the value and the threshold. |
| US08374860B2 |
Method, apparatus, system and software product for adaptation of voice activity detection parameters based oncoding modes
Encoding audio signals with selecting an encoding mode for encoding the signal categorizing the signal into active segments having voice activity and non-active segments having substantially no voice activity by using categorization parameters depending on the selected encoding mode and encoding at least the active segments using the selected encoding mode. |
| US08374857B2 |
Estimating rate controlling parameters in perceptual audio encoders
Perceptual audio coder refers to audio compression schemes that exploit the properties of human auditory perception. The coder allocates the quantization noise below the masking threshold such that even with the bit rate limitation, the noise is imperceptible to the ear. These distortion and bit rate requirement makes the bit allocation-quantization process a considerable computational effort. One method includes incrementally adjusting a global gain according to a gradient. The gradient could be adjusted each time the number of bits used to represent a quantized value is counted. Another method includes limiting a rate controlling parameter to a predetermined number of loops. The method could also include deriving a global gain to ensure exit from the loop. Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a fast and efficient method to derive the rate controlling parameter and can be applied to generic perceptual audio encoders where low computational complexity is required. |
| US08374852B2 |
Apparatus and method of code conversion and recording medium that records program for computer to execute the method
Disclosed is a code conversion method to convert a first code sequence conforming to a first speech coding scheme into a second code sequence conforming to a second speech coding scheme. The method includes the following steps. The first step discriminates whether the first code sequence corresponds to a speech part or to a non-speech part, and generates a numerical value that indicates the discrimination result as a control flag. The second step converts the first code sequence into the second code sequence and outputs said second code sequence, when the value of the control flag corresponds to the speech part. The third step outputs the second code sequence that corresponds to the value of the control flag, when the value of the control flag corresponds to the non-speech part. |
| US08374851B2 |
Voice activity detector and method
Acoustic echo control for hands-free phone has acoustic echo cancellation and echo suppression with a voice activity detection for the echo suppression based on near-end input power together with an estimate for acoustic echo cancellation gain. |
| US08374843B2 |
Methods and systems for local, computer-aided translation incorporating translator revisions to remotely-generated translation predictions
A method for local, computer-aided translation using remotely-generated translation predictions includes the step of determining that a translation stored in a remote translation memory is useful in translating a first portion of a local document. A local machine receives the translation of the first portion of the document. The local machine stores, in a local cache, an alternate version of the translation created by a translator. The alternate version of the translation is identified as useful in translating a second portion of the document. The local machine generates a translation of the second portion of the document through reuse of the alternate version of the translation of the first portion of the document, responsive to the received identification of the utility of the alternate version of the translation of the first portion of the document to the second portion of the document. |
| US08374837B2 |
Descriptors of three-dimensional objects, uses thereof and a method to generate the same
A computer-based method of generating a descriptor of a three-dimensional object wherein the following steps are performed for each of a set of one or more cages and for each of one or more properties: (i) enclosing entirely the three-dimensional object in the cage, (ii) for each property, while keeping the three-dimensional object entirely enclosed in the cage by varying one or more dimensions of the cage, minimizing the interaction value resulting from the interaction between the three dimensional object and the cage by changing the relative orientation between the three-dimensional object and the cage, and (iii) assigning each of the obtained minimized interaction values to a distinct position in the descriptor. |
| US08374836B2 |
Methods and systems for constructing and using a subterranean geomechanics model spanning local to zonal scale in complex geological environments
In an exemplary embodiment, a method and system is disclosed for developing a subterranean geomechanics model of a complex geological environment. The method can include estimating a pore pressure field, a stress field, a geomechanics property field, and a geological structure field from a geological concept model; geostatistically interpolating vectors and tensors from the estimated fields; and combining the results from the estimated fields and the geostatistically interpolated vectors and tensors to derive a geostatistical geomechanical model of the geological environment. |
| US08374834B2 |
Statistical method for analyzing the performance of oilfield equipment
A statistical methodology is disclosed to provide time-to-event estimates for oilfield equipment. A method according to the present invention extracts unbiased information from equipment performance data and considers parameters interactions without recourse to data thinning. The analysis explicitly accounts for items of equipment that are still operational at the time of analysis. A method according to the present invention may also be utilized to apply survival analysis to any oilfield equipment components where time-to-event information has been recorded. The method of the present invention allows comparative reckoning between different components present in the system comprising several or many individual components and allows analysis of these components either individually or simultaneously, i.e., in the presence of other components. |
| US08374832B1 |
Virtual scene generator and probability of interception system and method
Techniques are provided for simulating dissemination of at least one target substance in a scene that has been contaminated with the at least one target substance. Data is received from a user to select at least one target substance whose dissemination is to be simulated as well as parameters for the scene within which the simulation is to be performed. Simulation of the dissemination is performed and data can be displayed to illustrate, statistically and/or graphically, the results of the simulation. The simulation may include simulating interrogation of at least one surface in the scene with a sensor that detects ambient or scattered radiation from the at least one surface. Data may then be generated that indicates overlap of an interrogation spot of the sensor with the at least one target substance on at least one surface in the scene. A user may change parameters and repeat the simulation. The data generated by the simulation techniques is useful in designing sensors as well as developing strategies for deployment of sensors for certain applications. |
| US08374829B2 |
Automatic generation of building instructions for building element models
A computer-implemented method of generating building instructions for a building element model, the model including a plurality of building elements, the building instructions being indicative of a sequential order of construction steps for constructing the building element model, each construction step including adding at least one building element to the building element model. The method comprises determining, from a digital representation of the building element model, a sequential order of deconstruction steps for deconstructing the building element model into building elements, each deconstruction step including removing at least one building element from the building element model; and inverting the determined sequential order of deconstruction steps to obtain the sequential order of construction steps. |
| US08374827B2 |
Numerical simulation apparatus for time dependent schrödinger equation
To provide a numerical simulation apparatus capable of executing a numerical simulation with high speed and precision by reducing computational complexity. A numerical simulation apparatus that executes a numerical simulation using a wave function which is a solution of a time dependent Schrödinger equation includes: a real time evolution calculation unit that calculates a second wave function while evolving the second wave function from an initial time in increments of a predetermined time period, the second wave function being obtained by applying a central difference approximation in a real-space finite-difference method to a first wave function expressed using a propagator, and being expressed using a Bessel function; and a calculation result storage unit that stores a calculation result of the second wave function obtained at each time by the time evolution calculation unit while evolving the second wave function in increments of the predetermined time period. |
| US08374825B2 |
Personal items network, and associated methods
A personal items network, comprising a plurality of items, each item having a wireless communications port for coupling in network with every other item, each item having a processor for determining if any other item in the network is no longer linked to the item, each item having an indicator for informing a user that an item has left the network, wherein a user may locate lost items. A method for locating lost personal items, comprising: linking at least two personal items together on a network; and depositing one or both of time and location information in an unlost item when one of the items is lost out of network. |
| US08374823B1 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring variations in a parameter over time
A method and apparatus are provided for monitoring a parameter such as temperature in a system such as a computer server. The method involves defining a monitoring range for the parameter. Typically, the parameter initially lies within the monitoring range. The parameter is then tracked by determining whenever the parameter exceeds an upper or lower limit of the monitoring range. If such a limit is reached, the monitoring range is adjusted to try to accommodate the parameter within the adjusted monitoring range. A time history of the monitoring range may be recorded, including details of all the adjustments of the monitoring range. This allows the behavior of the parameter to be subsequently investigated for diagnostic purposes. |
| US08374822B2 |
Experiment parameters for wald'S sequential tests based on continued fractions
Test characteristics are determined at vertices of a rectangle defined on a sequential probability ratio test plot of a number of failures of a new physical system versus a number of failures of a baseline physical system. Based on the test characteristics, errors of first and second order are approximated as planes. Based on the approximating, intercepts of accept and reject boundaries are estimated. Based on slopes of the planes and actual values of the errors of the first and second orders, a starting point is determined on a graph of values of an intercept of the reject boundary and values of an intercept of the accept boundary. A minimum of an operating characteristic function is determined by alternative advances, commencing at the starting point, parallel to an axis representing the accept boundary intercept and an axis representing the reject boundary intercept. |
| US08374819B2 |
Actuator-based calibration system for a pressure-sensitive catheter
A calibration apparatus includes a fixture coupled to hold a distal end of a medical probe. An actuator is configured to press against the distal tip of the probe and apply to the distal tip multiple force vectors having respective magnitudes and angles with respect to the distal end, so as to cause a deformation of the distal tip relative to the distal end. A sensing device is configured to measure the magnitudes of the force vectors applied by the actuator. A calibration processor is configured to receive from the probe first measurements indicative of the deformation of the distal tip in response to the force vectors, to receive from the sensing device second measurements indicative of the magnitudes of the force vectors, and to compute, based on the angles and the first and second measurements, calibration coefficients for assessing the force vectors as a function of the first measurements. |
| US08374818B2 |
System, method and apparatus for calibrating inspection tools
The present invention relates to systems and methods for examining a number of components that have been assembled onto a substrate. In general, the invention relates to the calibration of inspection tools for inspecting components on the substrate. In particular, the invention relates to the calibration of inspection tools for detecting the accuracy of the array pegs positions on an assembled HTA plate. |
| US08374817B2 |
Auto-calibration of orientation sensing systems
An electronic device has an orientation sensing system for determining an orientation of the device. The system includes a magnetometer and an accelerometer. The system further has a calibration device configured to calibrate the sensing system for operational use. The accelerometer supplies measurements used to constrain a range of possible directions of the external magnetic field to be determined. The calibration device numerically solves a set of equations and is equally usable for a 2D or 3D magnetometer in combination with a 2D or 3D accelerometer. |
| US08374814B2 |
X-ray detection signal processing apparatus and method therefor
An X-ray detection signal processing apparatus of the present invention is such that after a signal from a preamplifier has been converted into a digital signal at a high speed by means of a high speed analog-to-digital converter (1), a process for removing influences brought about by a component that has been decayed by a differential time constant in the preamplifier is performed on a digital basis in a digital signal processing block (2). An event detecting unit (3) within the digital signal processing block (2), smoothen the signal from the high speed analog-to-digital converter (1) for a predetermined shaping time with the use of a filter function for high speed shaping, detects as an event information the timing at which the smoothened signal exceeds a predetermined threshold and attains the maximum value, and add such event information to the signal from the high speed analog-to-digital converter (1). |
| US08374812B2 |
Signal analyzer and method for producing data therefore
A first frequency analysis range and a second frequency analysis range narrower than the first one are set with an operation panel 34, etc. A first signal path 171 produces first time domain data of a frequency converted signal under test by a first data production rate depending on the first frequency analysis range. A second signal path 172 produces second time domain data of frequency converted signal under test by a second data production rate depending on the second frequency analysis range and slower than the first data production rate. A CPU receives the first and second time domain data in parallel and produces first and second frequency domain data by FFT wherein frequency shift amounts in the frequency conversions in the first and second signal paths are different depending on the difference between the center frequencies of the first and second frequency analysis ranges. |
| US08374810B2 |
Method and apparatus for calculating insertion indices for a modular multilevel converter
A method for calculating insertion indices for a phase leg of a DC to AC modular multilevel converter. Each phase leg includes two serially connected arms, wherein each arm includes a number of submodules, wherein each submodule can be in a bypass state or a voltage insert mode. The insertion index includes data representing the portion of available submodules that should be in the voltage insert mode. The method includes the steps of: calculating a desired arm voltage for an upper arm connected to the upper DC source common bar and a lower arm connected to the lower DC source common bar, obtaining values representing actual total arm voltages in the upper arm and lower arm, respectively, and calculating modulation indices for the upper and lower arm, respectively, using the respective desired arm voltage and the respective value representing the total actual arm voltage. A corresponding apparatus is also presented. |
| US08374808B2 |
Detection method for membrane and electrode failures in fuel cell stacks
A method for determining a failure of a membrane in a fuel cell in a fuel cell stack. The method includes measuring the voltage of each fuel cell in the fuel cell stack, calculating an average cell voltage from all of the cell voltages of the fuel cells in the fuel cell stack, and identifying a minimum cell voltage from all of the cell voltages of the fuel cells in the fuel cell stack. The method then determines an absolute delta voltage value as the difference between the average cell voltage of the fuel cells and the minimum cell voltage of the fuel cells at a plurality of sample points during the sample period. A plurality of absolute delta voltage values determined over a plurality of sample periods, filtered for low current density are used to determine whether there is a membrane failure and, by filtering for high current density, to determine whether there is an electrode failure. |
| US08374805B2 |
Coriolis mass flowmeter
A Coriolis mass flowmeter includes a vibrator configured to vibrate a measurement conduct line, an upstream sensor and a downstream sensor, which are placed at a certain distance in the measurement conduct line and are configured to detect the vibration of the measurement conduct line, a first effective value reception section configured to receive an effective value of the first signal, a second effective value reception section configured to receive an effective value of the second signal, a ratio computation section configured to receive the effective value of the first signal and the effective value of the second signal and to compute the ratio of both values, and an anomaly diagnosis section configured to make a comparison between the computed ratio and a certain value and to generate an alarm. |
| US08374804B2 |
Aircraft dynamic pressure estimation system and method
Methods and apparatus are provided for estimating aircraft dynamic pressure. The load on the flight control surface actuator that is coupled to a flight control surface is measured. An estimate of the aircraft dynamic pressure is calculated from the measured load. |
| US08374802B2 |
Device and method for radiometric measurement of a plurality of samples
The invention relates to a method for photometrically investigating sample radiations of at least one sample, which are caused by the radiation of N emitter elements of at least one radiation element wherein said N emitter elements are emitting radiation during time periods which at least partially overlap, to detect the sample radiation of at least two samples as a sum signal during time periods which at least partially overlap and to evaluate the sample radiation of at least one individual sample from said sum signal. |
| US08374800B2 |
Determining parameters of the dielectric function of a substance in aqueous solution by self-referenced reflection THz spectroscopy
Method and apparatus for determining dielectric function of liquid solutions and thereby concentrations of substances in aqueous solution or the volatile/non-volatile nature of the liquid by self-referenced reflection THz spectroscopy. Having the aqueous solution in any container with a window allows irradiating coherent THz radiation with frequencies within the range 0.05-2 THz on the front of the window, and recording both a reference signal reflected from the front of the window and a sample signal reflected from the back of the window in contact with the aqueous solution. From these signals, the complex index of refraction, (I) or the complex reflection coefficient (II), can be calculated. The calculated components are compared with previously determined components from samples with known concentrations, whereby a concentration of the substance in the mixture can be estimated. The invention is particularly useful for determining alcohol (ethanol) content in aqueous solution containing other substances and particles. |
| US08374799B2 |
Systems and methods for extending the dynamic range of mass spectrometry
Systems and methods are used to predict intensities of a saturated peak using a peak predictor. A set of data is selected from the plurality of intensity measurements that includes a saturated peak. Confidence values are assigned to each data point in the set of data producing a plurality of confidence value weighted data points. A peak predictor is selected. The peak predictor is applied to the plurality of confidence value weighted data points of the saturated peak producing predicted intensities for the saturated peak. The confidence values can include system confidence values, predictor confidence values, or a combination of system confidence values and predictor confidence values. The peak predictor can be a theoretical model, a dynamic model, an artificial neural network, or an analytical function representing a best fit of a plurality of probability density functions to a first set of measured data that includes a representative non-saturated peak. |
| US08374795B2 |
Systems and methods for step discontinuity removal in real-time PCR fluorescence data
Systems and methods for removing jump discontinuities in PCR or growth data. A first approximation to a curve that fits a received data set is determined by applying a non-linear regression process to a non-linear function that models the data set to determine parameters, including a step discontinuity parameter, of the non-linear function. One example of a non-linear function is a double sigmoid equation. A second approximation to a curve that fits the data set is also determined by applying a regression process to a second non-linear function to determine parameters, including a step discontinuity parameter, of the second function. One of the first or second approximations is then selected based on an information coefficient determined for each of the first and second approximations. If a confidence interval calculated for the step discontinuity parameter includes the value zero, no step correction is made. If the confidence interval does not include the value zero, then a step correction is made. If a step correction is made, the portion of the data curve prior to the step change is replaced with appropriate portion of the selected approximation to produce a shift-corrected data set. In certain aspects, the portion of the data curve up to the first point after the step change is corrected. In certain aspects, if the approximation does not satisfy a goodness of fit criterion, no step correction is made. The shift-corrected data set is returned and may be displayed or otherwise used for further processing. |
| US08374794B1 |
Protein synthesis modulators
The invention provides a high resolution three-dimensional structure of cycloheximide, either alone or in association with a large ribosomal subunit. The invention provides methods for designing and/or identifying cycloheximide analogs and derivatives that bind and/or modulate the protein biosynthetic activity of the ribosome. |
| US08374787B2 |
Mobile navigation device
A mobile navigation device operating in a first mode and a second mode is provided. In the first mode, a satellite positioning module is activated while a dead reckoning module is disabled. A processor calculates the coordinates of the mobile navigation device based on the satellite navigation signals received by the satellite positioning module. In the second mode, the satellite positioning module is disabled while the dead reckoning module is activated, and the processor updates the coordinates based on displacements and rotations detected by the dead reckoning module. |
| US08374782B2 |
Pre-fetching navigation maps
A method for providing map tiles associated to a route is described. Generally, a route comprising a number of route segments is received. Then, a respective route segment attribute for each of the route segments is determined. Next, associated map tiles for each of the route segments are determined, using said route segment attributes, and finally an indication of the determined map tiles are transmitted to a map tile fetcher. |
| US08374781B2 |
Method for vehicle route planning
A method of planning a vehicle route includes estimating fuel requirements of identified alternative routes or route segments using navigation, vehicle, and powertrain information. The method also includes displaying for a vehicle operator a list of alternate routes that features either absolute or relative values representative of such estimated fuel requirements. The method further includes adapting values used to estimate fuel requirements based upon current powertrain operating parameters, and alerting the vehicle operator when actual vehicle fuel economy along a selected route varies significantly from the estimated fuel requirement. |
| US08374775B2 |
Adaptive sensor-based activity classification
An activity state (e.g., stationary or moving) of an intermittently moving mobile device is classified using sensor measurements provided by one or more on-board sensors. The activity state can be determined by a classifier that exploits the separable log-normal distributions of the short-time variance of sensor measurements. The activity state can provide an external non-correlated indication of movement or stationarity to an on-board navigation engine. The on-board navigation engine can use the activity state to improve tracking performance. |
| US08374774B2 |
Vehicle
When a vehicle climbs up/down a step, driving torque suitable for the step climbing operation is applied to a driving wheel, and the center of gravity of a vehicle body is moved in an upward direction of the step. Thus, a stable traveling state and stable posture of the vehicle body can be maintained both when climbing up a step and when climbing down a step, whereby an occupant can operate the vehicle safely and comfortably even on a place having steps. In view of this, the vehicle includes: a vehicle body; a driving wheel rotatably attached to the vehicle body; and a vehicle control apparatus for controlling driving torque that is applied to the driving wheel and controlling posture of the vehicle body. When climbing up/down a step on a road, the vehicle control apparatus controls a position of center of gravity of the vehicle body in accordance with the step. |
| US08374772B2 |
Misfire detection through combustion pressure sensor
A method is provided for controlling an internal combustion engine. The method includes, but is not limited to the step of measuring in-cylinder pressure of an expansion phase of a combustion cycle of a cylinder of the internal combustion engine and measuring in-cylinder pressure of a compression phase of the combustion cycle of the cylinder of the internal combustion engine. A difference between a polytrophic expansion phase constant of the cylinder of the internal combustion engine and a polytrophic compression phase constant of the cylinder of the internal combustion engine is then determined using the measured expansion phase pressure and the measured compression phase pressure. A misfiring of the cylinder is later detected using the determined difference. |
| US08374768B2 |
Internal combustion engine controller
A controller of an internal combustion engine operable by an alcohol-containing fuel, includes: an alcohol concentration detecting unit, operable to detect an alcohol concentration of the alcohol-containing fuel; a feedback controller, operable to perform feedback control to make an exhaust air-fuel ratio of the internal combustion engine become equal to a target air-fuel ratio in accordance with an operation region; and an operation region setting unit, operable to set a stoichiometric operation region, in which the target air-fuel ratio is stoichiometric, in an enlarged manner when the alcohol concentration, detected by the alcohol concentration detecting unit, is higher than a concentration. |
| US08374766B2 |
Power management system for compaction vehicles and method
A method for managing power in a hydrostatically driven vehicle includes calculating the power consumption of the vehicle based on the pressure of the compressed fluid in a hydraulic circuit, and the displacement of the pump. An electronic controller further calculates the power output of the engine based on at least one engine operating parameter, and operates to change the power output of the engine based on a difference between the power consumption and the power output. |
| US08374763B2 |
Vehicle fuel control based on vacuum-assisted brake component actuation
A control method for an engine of a vehicle includes generating a brake value indicative of an operating condition of a brake system of the vehicle, and selectively adjusting one of a fuel control value of the engine and a fuel adjustment diagnostic value for the engine based on the brake value. In the method, a mass of fuel delivered to the engine is based on the fuel control value, and a diagnostic result indicative of lean operation of the engine is based on the fuel adjustment diagnostic value. The brake operating condition is selected from a group including a state of operation, a pedal displacement, an actuation period, a fluid operating pressure, and a power assist pressure. The fuel control value is provided. |
| US08374754B2 |
Apparatus for detecting subsurface objects with a reach-in arm
An apparatus for detecting objects on or beneath a surface of a medium having a reach-in arm, the base of the reach in arm connected to a platform, and the distal end of the reach-in arm connected to a sensor. The sensor detects objects on or beneath the surface of a medium and is capable of monitoring the distance of the sensor from objects in the path of the sensor. Motor controllers are connected to the reach-in arm and the sensor for controlling the movements of the reach-in arm and sensor. A computer is in communication with the reach-in arm, the sensor, and the motor controllers. The computer detects objects on or beneath the surface of a medium; determines the location of the reach-in arm and sensor relative to objects in their paths; and controls the movement of the reach-in arm and sensor either automatically using pre-programmed software or according to user inputted commands. |
| US08374752B2 |
Method and device for activating personal protection means
A device and a method for activating a personal protection device are provided, in which a feature vector with at least two features is formed by an evaluation circuit from at least one signal of an accident sensor system. The evaluation circuit classifies the feature vector in the corresponding dimension using at least one class boundary. The activation circuit generates an activation signal which activates the personal protection device. |
| US08374750B2 |
Method and device for recognizing driver fatigue using a torque sensor system
A method is provided for recognizing the fatigue of a driver of a vehicle. In the method a torque variable representing the torque applied to the steering wheel by the driver is detected, and the presence of fatigue of the driver is detected on the basis of the torque variable. |
| US08374749B2 |
Parking assist system
The parking assist system assists the maneuvering for moving a vehicle to a reverse start position, then moving it in reverse from the reverse start position to a predetermined parking position in a manner as follows. A parking target setting section sets a parking target position corresponding to the predetermined parking position, based upon a parking reference detected based on image data captured from the scene around the vehicle. A parking path calculating section sequentially calculates a parking path from a present position of the vehicle to the parking target position, in the course of forward movement along a forward path. A parking path determining section determines whether an effective parking path has been established or not, based upon result of calculation by the parking path calculating section. |
| US08374747B2 |
Failure diagnostic apparatus and method of storing failure information
A failure diagnostic apparatus determines the environment in which the condition of a vehicle is examined and selects an appropriate storage location for information regarding the condition of the vehicle. In particular, the failure diagnostic apparatus includes a vehicle-condition diagnostic portion, a plurality of failure-information storage portions, a diagnostic-environment determination portion, and a storage selection portion. When the vehicle-condition diagnostic portion determines that a failure has occurred, the diagnostic-environment determination portion determines the environment in which the condition of the vehicle is examined. Then, based on the diagnostic environment determined by the diagnostic-environment determination portion, the storage selection portion selects at least one storage portion of the plurality of failure-information storage portions to store information regarding the failure. |
| US08374745B2 |
Telematics-enabled aggregated vehicle diagnosis and prognosis
A system and method for telemetrically collecting on-road vehicle diagnostic data. In one embodiment, the method includes collecting vehicle diagnostic data from service shops, on-road vehicles and warranty records, aggregating the collected data and extracting knowledge therefrom. The extracted knowledge can be used to enhance algorithms on-board vehicles or at service centers so as to better identify vehicle faults and provide enhanced diagnostics and prognostics. The enhanced algorithms can then be used to provide predictive maintenance suggestions, provide trouble shooting assistance or provide vehicle design improvements. |
| US08374743B2 |
Method and apparatus for driver control of a limited-ability autonomous vehicle
A vehicle system for providing an interface for driver control of at least a partially autonomous vehicle. The system includes a driver command processor that receives request signals from a driver interface device of the driver's desire for the vehicle system to take certain actions and sends appropriate signals in response thereto to the proper autonomous vehicle systems. The driver command processor also sends signal to a display device indicating available actions, acknowledgement of the driver request, status of actions being taken or to be taken, etc. |
| US08374734B2 |
Method of controlling an aircraft, the method implementing a vote system
In the method of controlling an aircraft, a device implements the steps consisting in determining a first global value on the basis of only some amongst first individual values calculated by respective applications, modifying at least one parameter to take account of how the determination step took place and determining a second global value on the basis of second individual values calculated by the respective applications and on the basis of the parameter(s). |
| US08374733B2 |
Transportation information management system
A computer-implemented transportation information management system and method permits entry, recording, and transmission of operation and maintenance data related to FAA recordkeeping and recording requirements within an SQL database. A secure website permits entry and display of operation and maintenance data as well as facilitating data input using input devices such as a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant, a personal computer, and a portable computer. The system outputs aircraft operation and maintenance data, automatic alerts of pilot flight and duty time limitations, and flight tracking and monitoring information via a spreadsheet, electronic mail message, text message, and a completed FAA mandatory reporting requirement forms to the aforementioned data input devices. Operation and maintenance data is automatically and continuously transferred to the FAA to populate FAA flight tracking data systems and air traffic control data system. |
| US08374732B2 |
Interactive device for control of utility systems in an aircraft
A device for control of a plurality of support subsystems in an aircraft includes a filtering unit that determines at least one command associated with at least one support subsystem of the plurality of support subsystems according to at least one context parameter. The device also includes a display unit that displays at least one representation of the at least one determined command. The at least one representation of the at least one determined command includes an indication relating to a state of the at least one support subsystem controlled by the at least one determined command. The device further includes a selection unit that selects the at least one representation. In addition, the device includes an activation unit that transmits the at least one determined command to the at least one support subsystem in response to an activation of the at least one selected representation. |
| US08374725B1 |
Climate control
A system is provided in which the dampers may be individually controlled. The climate control system may be retrofit to an existing climate control system by connecting the controller to the existing climate control equipment through the thermostat interface. The climate control system may be monitored and set via a remote server. |
| US08374722B2 |
Robotic arm
A robotic arm is provided, for example for inspecting a rotary machine such as a gas turbine engine. The arm has a plurality of groups of links having articulations therebetween for movement in a first plane, the groups having articulations with respect to each other for movement in a second orthogonal plane. Thus the arm can move around objects such as aerofoils in the engine, and also move up or down to remain close to the rotary surface of the machine. |
| US08374716B1 |
System and method for reconfigurable fans
A computer program product stored in a computing device has a processor and a communication interface to determine cooling specifications of a remote housing. The computer program product includes a machine-readable storage medium and machine-readable program code, stored on the machine-readable storage medium. The machine readable program code includes instructions, which when executed, to cause the processor to interact with a user to obtain fan motor operating parameters and conditions. Motor operation is then controlled in accordance with the user-provided operating parameters and conditions. |
| US08374713B2 |
Product-line based content management systems and methods
A product-line managing module includes a code and bill of material (BOM) generator module and a configuration management module. The code and BOM generator module: receives data dictionary entries and interface information; generates a product BOM of at least one of a product based on the data dictionary entries and interface information; and generates autocode for N modules based on the data dictionary entries and interface information, where N is an integer greater than 1. The configuration management module assembles the autocode to generate the product. |
| US08374711B2 |
Method and related apparatus for selecting an audio data source for a multimedia device
A method for selecting an audio data source for a multimedia device includes detecting an error state of audio data for generating a detection result, wherein the audio data is generated by a digital source of the multimedia device, generating an initial counting value, generating a counting result according to the detection result and the initial counting value, confining the counting result within a boundary for generating a limit result, and comparing the limit result with a threshold for generating a comparison result, for selecting the audio data source of the multimedia device. |
| US08374709B2 |
Control and optimization system
A system for optimizing a power plant includes a chemical loop having an input for receiving an input parameter (270) and an output for outputting an output parameter (280), a control system operably connected to the chemical loop and having a multiple controller part (230) comprising a model-free controller. The control system receives the output parameter (280), optimizes the input parameter (270) based on the received output parameter (280), and outputs an optimized input parameter (270) to the input of the chemical loop to control a process of the chemical loop in an optimized manner. |
| US08374706B2 |
Method for moving a machine element of an automation machine and a drive system
In a method for moving a machine element of an automation machine with separately controlled drive shafts moving in a common direction, a first controller receives a first desired control variable, which is filtered using a filter having a frequency-dependent transfer function. In one embodiment, first desired control variable represents an overall movement of a machine element. A difference is determined between the filtered first desired variable and a first actual variable, and the difference is supplied as a desired control variable to the second controller for controlling the movement of the second drive shaft. In another embodiment, the filtered first desired variable and a second desired variable are added to form a sum, and a difference between the formed sum and the first actual variable is supplied as a desired control variable to the second controller for controlling the movement of the second drive shaft. |
| US08374701B2 |
Stimulating a nervous system component of a mammal in response to contactlessly acquired information
Described embodiments include a system, an apparatus, and a method. A described system includes a sensor device configured to sense a property of a mammal without physically contacting the mammal. The system also includes a signal generator configured to generate a signal indicative of the sensed property of the mammal. The system further describes a neuromodulation device configured to output a stimulus operable to modulate a nervous system component of the mammal in response to the signal indicative of the sensed property of the mammal. |
| US08374700B2 |
Adjustable impedance matching circuit
An implantable medical device with a medical module, an antenna, a transceiver and an impedance match circuit. The transceiver is operatively coupled to the antenna and the medical module and facilitates wireless transmission of data between the medical module and an external device. The impedance match circuit is operatively coupled between the transceiver and the antenna and has a plurality of predetermined selectable configurations, each providing a particular impedance matching characteristic. |
| US08374699B2 |
Envelope specific stimulus timing
An implantable stimulation arrangement is described for generating electrode stimulation signals for an implanted electrode array having stimulation electrodes. A filter bank pre-processor processes an input acoustic audio signal to generate band pass signals each corresponding to an associated band of audio frequencies. A signal envelope module computes a corresponding signal envelope for each band pass signal. A stimulation pulse generator extracts stimulation signal information from the rate of change of the signal envelopes such as a time-based derivative to generate stimulation event signals defining electrode stimulation timings and amplitudes for some or all of the stimulation electrodes. |
| US08374695B2 |
Lead splitter for an electrical stimulation system and systems and methods for making and using
A splitter for an electrical stimulation system includes a junction having a proximal end and a distal end. An elongated proximal member extends from the proximal end of the junction. The proximal member includes a plurality of terminals disposed on a proximal end of the proximal member. A plurality of elongated distal members extend from the distal end of the junction. Each distal member includes a connector disposed on a distal end of the distal member. The connector is configured and arranged for receiving a lead or lead extension. One of the distal members is longitudinally aligned with the proximal member and at least another one of the distal members is longitudinally offset from the proximal member. A plurality of conductors couple the terminals of the proximal member to the connectors of the distal members. |
| US08374692B2 |
Identifying a lead related condition based on motion-based lead impedance fluctuations
Techniques for determining whether a lead related condition exists based on a correlation between a parameter indicative of impedance of a lead and a parameter indicative of motion of the lead. In some examples, the techniques include generating an electrical signal that is indicative of impedance of the lead, generating an electrical signal that is indicative of motion of the lead, and monitoring the frequency, amplitude, and phase of the electrical signals in order to identify a correlation. In some examples, if a lead related condition is identified, an alert is provided or a sensing or therapy modification is suggested. |
| US08374689B2 |
Methods and systems for determining vascular bodily lumen information and guiding medical devices
Methods and systems for determining information about a vascular bodily lumen are described. An exemplary method includes generating an electrical signal, delivering the electrical signal to a plurality of excitation elements in the vicinity of the vascular bodily lumen, measuring a responsive electrical signal from a plurality of sensing elements in response to the delivered electrical signal, and determining a lumen dimension. Specific embodiments include generating a multiple frequency electrical signal. Another embodiment includes measuring a plurality of responsive signals at a plurality of frequencies. Still other embodiments include using spatial diversity of the excitation elements. Yet other embodiments use method for calibration and de-embedding of such measurements to determine the lumen dimensions. Diagnostic devices incorporating the method are also disclosed, including guide wires, catheters and implants. The methods and systems described herein are advantageous as they do not include injecting a second fluid for the measurements. |
| US08374686B2 |
Continuous monitoring of risk burden for sudden cardiac death risk stratification
System and method for assessing a likelihood of a patient to experience a cardiac arrhythmia. A biological sensor is configured to sense biological parameters of the patient. A processor is coupled to the biological sensor and is configured to determine the likelihood of the patient experiencing a cardiac arrhythmia based, at least in part, on a combination of the biological parameters, the combination dynamically weighting each of the plurality of biological parameters based on another one of the plurality of biological parameters. |
| US08374685B2 |
System, computer-readable medium, method, and use for combined epithelial early cancer diagnosis and staging
A system (40) for diagnosis and staging of early stages of cancer in the tissue of a patient is provided. The system—is configured to combine information from a Polarized Light Scattering Spectroscopy measurement (70) having a first probe depth, and a Differential Path Length Spectroscopy measurement (60) having a second probe depth, wherein the second probe depth is set larger than' the first probe depth. By comparing the results of the Polarized Light Scattering Spectroscopy and Differential Path Length Spectroscopy measurements early stages of cancer, such as dysplasia may be detected. Also hyperplasia, carcinoma in situ, and carcinoma may be detected. A computer-readable medium, method and use are also provided. |
| US08374683B2 |
Medical instrument with probe, probe cover, and methods of using the same
A medical instrument including a probe adapted to be inserted into an orifice of an animal's body. The instrument includes an emitter of electromagnetic radiation that is sensed by a sensor mounted on the probe. The sensor can then determine, by variations in the amount of radiation received from the emitter, whether a probe cover is mounted over the probe. A sensor can also be used to determine whether the walls of the body orifice block the radiation received from the emitter, thereby indicating position of the sensor, and thus, the probe within the orifice. A special probe cover is disclosed, and methods of using the medical instrument are also disclosed. |
| US08374682B2 |
Hyperspectral imaging in diabetes and peripheral vascular disease
The invention is directed to methods and systems of hyperspectral and multispectral imaging of medical tissues. In particular, the invention is directed to new devices, tools and processes for the detection and evaluation of diseases and disorders such as, but not limited to diabetes and peripheral vascular disease, that incorporate hyperspectral or multispectral imaging. |
| US08374681B2 |
Apparatus and method for functional neurological screening with adjustable spaced collimator plates
A variable focus collimator device and method for functional neurological screening. The variable focus collimator uses sets of corresponding holes in two plates of gamma shielding material, arranged so that only gamma rays emitted from a defined focal region detected. If a suitable radio-labeled tracer has been administered to the patient, this may be used to obtain and compare basal and stimulated data from a small number of regions in the brain to diagnose the presence or absence of dementias. The regions of the brain observer are typically about a cm cubed in volume, and their activity is monitored using small doses (<2 mCi) of radio-labeled, brain perfusion agents. The regions used are easily and repeatably located relative to well-known anthropological and radiological fiducials. By simply use of symmetry, ratios and cortical to cerebellar comparisons, rapid (˜15 minute) screening for dementia may be accomplished. |
| US08374678B2 |
Medical apparatus with image acquisition device and position determination device combined in the medical apparatus
In a medical apparatus for implementation of operative procedures on a patient, an image acquisition device and a position determination device combined and permanently associated in the medical apparatus. The position determination device serves for determination of the position of at least one medical instrument within an operation region. |
| US08374677B2 |
MRI-guided medical interventional systems and methods
An MRI-guided interventional system for use with a body of patient and an interventional device includes a base and a targeting cannula. The base is configured to be secured to the body of the patient. The targeting cannula has an elongate guide bore extending axially therethrough and an inlet and an outlet at opposed ends of the guide bore. The guide bore defines a trajectory axis extending through the inlet and the outlet and being configured to guide placement of the interventional device. The frame is operable to move the targeting cannula relative to the base to position the trajectory axis to a desired intrabody trajectory to guide placement of the interventional device in vivo. The inlet tapers from an outer diameter distal from the guide bore to an inner diameter proximate the guide bore to guide and facilitate insertion of the interventional device into the guide bore. |
| US08374676B2 |
Chest wall coil array for breast imaging
A RF coil array is provided for imaging a chest wall of a patient including a breast. The RF coil array includes a rigid cup-shaped element and a flexible, substantially flat portion. The rigid cup-shaped element is sized and dimensioned to receive a small breast, such as a post mastectomy breast or a male breast, and the flexible portion is configured to be conformed to the patient adjacent the breast to allow for imaging of the breast, and adjacent areas while facing the chest wall. |
| US08374675B2 |
Magnetic resonance angiography with flow-compensated and flow-sensitive imaging
In a magnetic resonance angiography method with flow-compensated and flow-sensitive imaging and a magnetic resonance apparatus for implementing such a method, a first MR data set of the examination region is acquired with an imaging sequence in which vessels in the examination region are shown with high signal intensity, a second MR data set of the examination region with an imaging sequence in which the vessels in the examination region are shown with low signal intensity, and the angiographic magnetic resonance image is calculated in a processor by taking the difference of the first and second data set. The first data set is acquired with an imaging sequence with reduced flow sensitivity and the second data set is acquired with an imaging sequence with an increased flow sensitivity compared to the initial imaging sequence. |
| US08374672B2 |
Biomagnetic field measurement apparatus capable of exact positioning
There is provided a biomagnetic field measurement apparatus capable of carrying out exact positioning work and highly sensitive signal detection. To bring a sensor surface close to a body surface while the sensor surface and the body surface are kept parallel, a cryostat is constructed so as to be capable of oscillating and expanding and contracting. A gantry is formed by three supports. A first support is a portal support that supports the whole of the gantry. A second support is supported on the first support, and is rotatable with a first direction being the axis. A third support is supported on the second support, and is movable in the axial direction of the cryostat as viewed from the second support. The cryostat is supported on the third support, and moves integrally with the third support. |
| US08374668B1 |
Analyte sensor with lag compensation
In particular embodiments, methods, devices and systems including calibrating analyte data associated with a monitored analyte level received from an analyte sensor based on a reference measurement, determining a lag time constant associated with the calibrated analyte data, and performing lag correction of the calibrated analyte data based on the determined time lag constant are disclosed. |
| US08374667B2 |
Signal processing for continuous analyte sensor
Systems and methods for dynamically and intelligently estimating analyte data from a continuous analyte sensor, including receiving a data stream, selecting one of a plurality of algorithms, and employing the selected algorithm to estimate analyte values. Additional data processing includes evaluating the selected estimative algorithms, analyzing a variation of the estimated analyte values based on statistical, clinical, or physiological parameters, comparing the estimated analyte values with corresponding measure analyte values, and providing output to a user. Estimation can be used to compensate for time lag, match sensor data with corresponding reference data, warn of upcoming clinical risk, replace erroneous sensor data signals, and provide more timely analyte information encourage proactive behavior and preempt clinical risk. |
| US08374665B2 |
Tissue profile wellness monitor
A tissue profile wellness monitor measures a physiological parameter, generates a tissue profile, defines limits and indicates when the tissue profile exceeds the defined limits. The physiological parameter is responsive to multiple wavelengths of optical radiation after attenuation by constituents of pulsatile blood flowing within a tissue site. The tissue profile is responsive to the physiological parameter. The limits are defined for at least a portion of the tissue profile. |
| US08374661B2 |
Recessible integrated pocket clip for mobile devices and the like
In one embodiment, an apparatus comprising a housing and a fastener, such as a clip (101, 201) for fastening the apparatus (100, 200) to an article of clothing. The housing (102, 202) has a recess (103, 203) formed therein, such that at least a portion of the fastener is adapted to fit within the recess. The fastener is adapted to travel slidably within the recess (103, 203) between a first position in which the fastener enables the apparatus (100, 200) to be fastened to an external object and a second position in which the fastener is stowed away. |
| US08374653B2 |
Communication apparatus and air-cooling method for the same
There is provided a communication apparatus and an air-cooling method for the same, in which the air-cooling mode can be easily changed to reduce the cost to increase the number of transceiver units and the space for the housing. The communication apparatus includes transceiver units of a transmission system for communication, the units being installed in a housing and being attachable onto and detachable from the communication apparatus; fan units for forcibly air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver units, the fan units being installed in the housing and being attachable onto and detachable from the communication apparatus. Each transceiver unit includes a transceiver function section including a transceiver function; a forced air-cooling radiator fixedly mounted in the transceiver function section for forcibly air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver function section; and a natural air-cooling radiator mounted in the transceiver function section for naturally air-cooling heat generated from the transceiver function section. The natural air-cooling radiator is attachable onto and detachable from the main transceiver section. |
| US08374651B2 |
System and method for generating a graphical user interface
A communications terminal comprises a display, a first storage for storing data, a second storage unit that stores a first and a second information set, the first information set including a first communications address and a communications recipient's name, and the second information set includes a second communications address and a communications recipient's name, a first display controller displays a text string expressed by data stored in the first storage unit; and a second display controller that identifies a name from the second storage unit included in the text string being displayed. When the name is associated with the first communications address, a screen prompts communications to the first communications address, or when the name is associated with the second communications address, a screen prompts communications to the second communications address. |
| US08374643B2 |
Systems and methods for facilitating push-to-talk (PTT) communications using SIP-based messaging
A method of facilitating push-to-talk (PTT) communications between a server device and a client device using SIP-based messaging, the server device being in communication with a media server. The method includes receiving in the server device from the client device a SUBSCRIBE message for subscription to a push-to-talk group, the SUBSCRIBE message including media information of the client device, storing in the server device the media information of the client device, and sending from the server device to the client device a NOTIFY message, the NOTIFY message including media information of the media server for storage by the client device. |
| US08374637B2 |
Universal short code administration facility
Systems and methods for assigning short codes to provide uniformity among wireless carriers. In the systems and methods, a Universal Short Code (USC) Administrator maintains a list of short codes and their lease status so that SMS messages sent to a particular short code may be routed to the proper holder of the short code. A network facilitator is in communication with both the USC Administrator and at least one wireless carrier to route the SMS message to the proper holder of the short code. The short code may be leased for a specified period of time so that the short code can be reassigned after expiration of the lease. |
| US08374632B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing geo-location enablement for wireless device
A method for providing geo-location enablement for a wireless device includes storing geo-location data in a storage device, the geo-location data including geo-location coordinates; referencing geo-location data for geo-location coordinates to corresponding wireless coverage area data, the wireless coverage area data for each geo-location coordinate including wireless coverage area coordinates, each wireless coordinate; representing a sub-area within a coverage area of a wireless network, each sub-area generally formed by an RF signaling range for a wireless access point; and referencing each wireless coordinate to corresponding signal strength data, the signal strength data for each wireless coordinate representing a signal strength value. Each signal strength value representing a signal strength parameter associated with the corresponding wireless coordinate. The wireless coverage area data and signal strength data being stored in the storage device. A server for providing geo-location enablement includes the storage device, an input module, and a geo-location handling module. |
| US08374628B1 |
Providing geographic location information on a telephone device
In one implementation, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, from a first telephone device and at a second telephone device, a request to accept a telephone call. The method further includes obtaining information that indicates a first current geographic location of the first telephone device or the associated first user based on the second telephone device or an associated second user being a member of a group of call recipients that are permitted to receive the information that indicates the first current geographic location. The method additionally includes, using the obtained information, providing a representation of the first current geographic location of the first telephone device on the second telephone device in association with the telephone call from the first telephone device. |
| US08374627B2 |
Method and system to transfer and to display location information
The present invention relates to a method and system to display information about an object. The system includes a mobile device to relay information about an object to a location content provider. The location content provider formats the information into a visual representation and transmits the information to, one or more digital television provides. One or more of the digital television provides can forward the information to a recipient to display on the recipient's television. |
| US08374624B2 |
Location measurement method based on predictive filter
Provided is a location measurement method of a mobile node using a predictive filter is provided for improving the location measurement accuracy of the mobile node. The location measurement method of a mobile node detects change of movement pattern of the mobile node, corrects weights of a location measurement period and a predictive filter depending on the change of movement pattern, and compensates a location of the mobile node using the corrected weights of the location measurement period and predictive filter. |
| US08374622B2 |
Call admission control for Wi-Fi
Call admission control within a wireless network is implemented using a service controller that manages a set of access points. The call admission control (CAC) function for a given access point determines whether the access point has sufficient unused bandwidth to handle an additional call. The service controller makes this determination by monitoring the access points and evaluating certain probability functions and load conditions. In one embodiment, a determination of whether the access point has sufficient unused bandwidth to handle an additional call is a function of two (2) independent probabilities: (i) a probability of an active session moving to the access point from one or more neighbor access points, and (ii) a probability of an idle mobile device already associated with the access point entering into a new active session by initiating an inbound or outbound call. According to another aspect, the service controller issues and manages “call admission credits” among the set of access points, where a call admission credit value indicates a number of calls that idle mobile devices associated with the access point may initiate from the AP. The call admission credits value is a function of a determined load on the AP, and a mobility probability, which is a probability of an active call moving to the access point from one or more neighbor access points. The call admission credit value for the access point is adjusted as a function of a change of the load or in the mobility probability. |
| US08374619B2 |
Apparatus, communication system and methods for enabling spectrum access
Embodiments of the invention provide for allocating spectrum in a wireless communication system that supports simultaneously at least a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation. Logic is arranged for determining a proportion of spectrum required for the wireless communication unit to operate simultaneously in both the first mode of operation and the second mode of operation. Logic for allocating spectrum allocates a temporary guard band between a first portion of spectrum for the first mode of operation and a second portion of spectrum for the second mode of operation for use while the wireless communication unit operates simultaneously in the first mode of operation and second mode of operation. |
| US08374618B2 |
Managing unscheduled wireless communication in a multiradio device
A system for managing the operation of a plurality of radio modules integrated within the same wireless communication device. A control strategy may be employed to manage both more predictable and more spontaneous wireless communication mediums, wherein a local controller may be employed in a radio module utilizing an unscheduled wireless medium, like WLAN, for determining whether adequate time has been allocated to complete a transaction. If the transaction cannot be completed in the allowed time, it may be delayed until adequate time exists, and the delay may be reported so that the time may be reallocated to other radio modules. The radio module may then enter a power-saving mode until the transaction can be completed. |
| US08374616B2 |
Hierarchical broadcast service with blind retransmission
In a broadcast service area having regions with varying inter site distances between transmitter sites, the robustness of the transmitted signal is set to meet minimum quality of service (QoS) requirements in the region having small ISD, and additional resources are allocated to the region having large ISD to provide greater robustness. The additional resources in the large ISD area may be used for blind retransmissions of either the original data or new data. |
| US08374614B2 |
Permutation device and method having improved resource granularity for wireless communications
A device and method for permuting subcarriers in a subframe which is divided into a plurality of frequency partitions in a wireless mobile communication system is disclosed. The method includes mapping, at a mobile station, physical resource units for localized resource allocation to a frequency partition of the plurality of frequency partitions in units of N_1 number of resource units, and physical resource units for distributed resource allocation to the frequency partition in units of N_d number of resource units, N_1 being different from N_d; and spreading, at the mobile station, subcarriers of the physical resource units for distributed resource allocation across the whole distributed resource allocations. |
| US08374612B2 |
Method for obtaining the transmission address of the target base station and method for establishing the X2 interface connection
A method for obtaining transmission address information of a target base station (BS), comprising: configuring a target BS with corresponding relations between information of each transmission address of the target BS and related information of other BSs; a source BS transmitting its related information to the target BS through a MME; after receiving the related information of the source BS, the target BS filtering out transmission address information required for establishing an X2 interface connection with the source BS from all transmission addresses of the target BS, and transmitting the out-filtered transmission address information to the target BS through the MME. A method for establishing an X2 interface connection between BSs further comprises, besides the above steps, the source BS initiating a flow of establishing the X2 interface connection to the target BS using the transmission address information of the target BS after receiving it. |
| US08374609B2 |
RRC messages and procedures
A method for radio resource control (RRC) messaging. The messaging includes transmitting a RRC message upon partial completion of message transmission. The RRC message further comprises an information element (IE) that represents a failed or partially failed condition. |
| US08374605B2 |
Method for selecting an S-CSCF unit within an IMS-based service communication system
A serving call session control function unit (S-CSCF) is provided within an IMS-based service communication system in order to register a user of a mobile communication terminal for communication service in a mobile communication system. The IMS-based service communication system has several call session control function units and at least one interrogation call session control function unit (I-CSCF). The mobile communication system is equipped with at least one policy decision point unit (PDP). To select a suitable S-CSCF unit, user information is first determined using a user context server unit that is assigned to the policy decision point unit and network information is determined using a network context server unit. The user information and network information are interlinked in the policy decision point unit (PDP) and user-specific and/or network-specific selection criteria are derived from said information and are taken into consideration to select a suitable S-CSCF unit. |
| US08374603B2 |
Method for utilizing an adaptive conventional scanning algorithm in a two-way radio transceiver
A method for adaptive conventional scanning in a two-way radio transceiver (300) includes initiating an unweighted scan behavior (301) from a scanning list and then determining if qualified activity is present on a scanned channel (303) for a predetermined number of scan cycles. Once qualified activity is detected, the scanned channel is then marked (307) as having high activity. The transceiver then switches (309) to a weighted scan behavior such that the marked channel will be checked at a higher periodic rate than an unmarked channel. Once qualified activity is detected on the marked channel for a predetermined number of cycles (311) the channel is unmarked (315) and the weighted nature of the scan is removed such that normal scanning activity is resumed (317). The marking process increases the overall scanning rate enhancing the overall performance of the scan for all channels. |
| US08374602B2 |
Method and system for providing roaming services to prepaid roamers of a home network
The present invention provides a method for providing roaming services to an HPMN's prepaid subscriber. The method includes facilitating the prepaid subscriber's registration at a VPMN by an SG, despite absence of the prepaid subscriber's roaming profile at an HPMN HLR. The HPMN and the VPMN are part of one or more partner networks and are unable to support IN protocol/agreement. The SG is deployed at either the HPMN, or an HPMN's MVNO, or a hub operator. The method further includes enabling mobile communication of the prepaid subscriber in the VPMN by the SG that converts protocol of all signaling messages, corresponding to the prepaid subscriber, into a format compatible with the HPMN. The method further includes billing the prepaid subscriber based on pre-defined criteria by using the SG that interfaces with an HPMN PPS via either: an HPMN SCP, or an HPMN service node, or an HPMN SMSC. |
| US08374599B2 |
System and method for measuring performance of new services in consumer devices
In a communication network architecture, a service provider monitors its customer's experience as the customer selects and uses services offered by the service provider. An agent, such as software installed on-board the customer's mobile equipment, measures parameters that are related to the services, and communicates the measured parameters to the service provider, over the communication network. |
| US08374598B2 |
Method for drift radio network controller to report that cell does not support transmission interval
The present invention discloses a method for a drift radio network controller (DRNC) to report that the transmission interval is not supported, in which, the DRNC reports the information that the cell does not support enhanced-dedicated channel (E-DCH transmission interval to the service radio network controller (SRNC) through signaling when the DRNC detects that its administrative cell does not support E-DCH transmission interval. By reporting the information that the administrative cell of the DRNC does not support E-DCH 2 ms transmission interval to the SRNC by the DRNC, the present invention enables the SRNC to obtain the information and accordingly to take part in making decision of stopping a user equipment from using the E-DCH 2 ms transmission interval or deleting the cell link that does not support the E-DCH 2 ms transmission interval, thus ensures normal communication of the user equipment. |
| US08374597B2 |
Symbiotic system for testing electromagnetic signal coverage in areas near transport routes
A cooperative system for testing signal strength near a target area selected by a wireless provider is disclosed, using test units installed in the fleet vehicles of an unrelated service enterprise. The system in one embodiment includes an algorithm for comparing test parameters to the route data contained in the dispatch plan for the fleet vehicles, in order to identify the optimal routes on which to send test units. A computer software product for storing the parameters and executing the algorithms is also disclosed. Signal testing in a target area is accomplished through the symbiotic relationship between the testing units and the fleet vehicles, whereby the wireless provider benefits from unit carriage along routes already being traveled by the fleet vehicles for a different purpose. This Abstract is provided quickly inform a reader about the subject matter, and not for use interpreting the scope or meaning of the claims. |
| US08374590B1 |
Systems and methods for updating user availability for wireless communication applications
Systems and methods for monitoring and updating user availability based upon presence and television viewing behavior are described herein. In one embodiment, a presence system is used to detect a user's presence to update the user's availability status. The availability status is then used to update a contact list, voicemail message, and/or busy message. In further embodiments, user preferences are used in combination with presence data to update the user's availability status. In still further embodiments, a user's television viewing behavior is used in combination with the presence data, user preferences, or both to update the user's availability status. Alternative embodiments provide systems and methods in accordance with the present invention for other interactive devices. |
| US08374587B2 |
Method for codec negotiation and selection
A method of modifying a call setup message for a call from a first terminal to a second terminal, the call setup message being sent from the first terminal to a network node via an intermediate node which handles at least some signaling or traffic associated with the call, wherein the network node is responsible for negotiating call setup requirements for the call to the second terminal, the method comprising the steps of: intercepting the call setup message at the intermediate node; identifying one or more preferences or capabilities associated with the intermediate node which may impact the way in which the intermediate node can handle signaling or traffic associated with the call; modifying the call setup message based on information relating to said preferences or capabilities; and sending the modified call setup message to the network node, in order that the node can effect said negotiations based on the modified message. |
| US08374585B2 |
System and method for delivering information to a transmitting and receiving device
The present invention provides systems and method for delivering information to a transmitting and receiving device. The device receives a notification alerting a user of the device that information is available to be obtained and, in some embodiments, providing a short description of the information. After receiving the notification at the device, the user can then use the device to obtain or otherwise act on the information at a time and at a place convenient to the user. |
| US08374584B1 |
Active phone book enhancements
A first mobile, wireless communication device including a memory and a communication module. The memory is configured to store data associating a first user of the first mobile, wireless communication device with a second user of a second mobile, wireless communication device. The communication module is configured to, based on the data associating the first user of the first mobile, wireless communication device with the second user of the second mobile, wireless communication device, establish a communication link between the first mobile, wireless communication device and the second mobile, wireless communication device. In response to the second user being within a predetermined range of the first user, the first mobile, wireless communication device is configured to automatically receive, via the communication link, notification that the second user is within the predetermined range of the first user. |
| US08374581B2 |
Wireless communications device and method for use with telephone network edge node providing privacy
A wireless device connects to one or more network node devices that are in turn connected to one or more wirelines. The wireless device has one or more wireless signal generators supporting one or more of the wireless connections and one or more memories to store an identifier. One or more negotiators negotiate with the network node device in order to establish a connection to one or more wirelines connected to the network node and a requesting process requests bridging to a call in progress. |
| US08374579B2 |
System and method for analyzing wireless communication data
In general, a system and method for analyzing wireless communication records and for determining optimal wireless communication service plans is disclosed. A transceiver is configured to receive billing information associated with a subscriber of a telecommunications service under a current rate plan. A storage unit stores the billing information. A processor processes the subscriber related billing information to produce organized data having a predefined format. The processor then analyzes the processed data in relation to a plurality of rate plans of a plurality of telecommunications service providers, and determines at least one proposed rate plan that would save the subscriber telecommunication costs relative to the current rate plan. A report of at least one proposed rate plan is then produced and provided to the subscriber, which enables selection of a best telecommunication service provider. |
| US08374576B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for generating resource utilization alerts through communication terminals
The cumulative utilization of communication system resources by a communication terminal is determined. An alert is generated through the communication terminal in response to the cumulative utilization exceeding a threshold amount. The cumulative utilization of resources may be determine by a core network of the communication system and/or by the communication terminal. The core network may transmit an alert message to the communication terminal to trigger an alert therefrom in response to the cumulative utilization of resources exceeding a threshold value. |
| US08374572B2 |
Apparatus and method for automatically detecting presence of external device in mobile terminal
In an apparatus and method for automatically detecting the presence of an external device in a port of a mobile terminal, the external device is automatically enabled without the additional operation of the mobile terminal when plugged into a jack. The mobile terminal may be safeguarded against severe damage being done thereto by mistakenly choosing options to enable an external device while an earphone/microphone set is plugged in the jack of a mobile terminal. |
| US08374569B2 |
Harmonic reject receiver architecture and mixer
Receiver architectures and methods of processing harmonic rich input signals employing harmonic suppression mixers are disclosed herein. The disclosed receivers, mixers, and methods enable a receiver to achieve the advantages of switching mixers while greatly reducing the mixer response to the undesired harmonics. A harmonic mixer can include a plurality of mixers coupled to an input signal. A plurality of phases of a local oscillator signal can be generated from a single local oscillator output. Each of the phases can be used to drive an input of one of the mixers. The mixer outputs can be combined to generate a frequency converted output that has harmonic rejection. |
| US08374564B2 |
Signal filtering system and related methods
A burst demodulator and method of obtaining a signal of interest from many signals of interest within a composite signal. Implementations may include receiving a composite signal, centering a replica of the interfering signal relative to the composite signal, reducing the composite signal to the bandwidth of a desired signal of interest, and canceling the remaining portion of the interfering signal. |
| US08374562B2 |
Codebook with nested structure
A multi-rank beamforming (MRBF) scheme in which the downlink channel is estimated and an optimal precoding matrix to be used by the MRBF transmitter is determined accordingly. The optimal precoding matrix is selected from a codebook of matrices having a recursive structure which allows for efficient computation of the optimal precoding matrix and corresponding Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR). The codebook also enjoys a small storage footprint. Due to the computational efficiency and modest memory requirements, the optimal precoding determination can be made at user equipment (UE) and communicated to a transmitting base station over a limited uplink channel for implementation over the downlink channel. |
| US08374555B2 |
Apparatus and method for compensating the axial ratio of an antenna for testing RFID tags
A method for compensating the axial ratio of an antenna for testing radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and an apparatus using the method are provided. The method includes the following steps. An initial location of the RFID tag (or a tagged product) is set to obtain an initial vector. The RFID tag and the antenna are respectively rotated with a first axis and a second axis to detect characteristics of the RFID tag in all directions, and the first axis and the second axis are perpendicular. A polarization angle of the RFID tag is calculated according to the initial vector of the RFID tag and a location of the RFID tag after rotation. A compensation value is obtained through a look up table according to the polarization angle, so as to compensate for the axial ratio of the antenna. |
| US08374554B2 |
Communication system for adjusting mode of collecting interference channel information
A plurality of transmit-receive pairs may operate in any one mode between an orthogonal mode and a concurrent mode. The transmit-receive pairs may collect interference channel information in a different time interval when operating in an orthogonal mode. In a concurrent mode, the transmit-receive pairs may apply a simultaneous transmission/reception scheme based on the collected interference channel information. |
| US08374552B2 |
Concurrent testing of multiple communication devices
Testing a plurality of communication devices. A plurality of signals may be received from the plurality of communication devices. The plurality of signals may include a signal from each of the plurality of communication devices, where a first subset of the plurality of signals has a different frequency than a second subset of the plurality of signals. The received signals may be combined into a combined signal. The combined signal may be downconverted to a combined signal, e.g., by mixing the combined signal with an output from at least one local oscillator. The downconverting may generate a plurality of lower frequency signals, each corresponding to one of the plurality of received signals. Testing may be performed on each of the plurality of lower frequency signals. |
| US08374550B2 |
Remote user interface for bluetooth device
A system and method of sending data pertaining to an accessory to a mobile device is disclosed. The accessory and the mobile device are communicable with one another using the Bluetooth™ protocol. A Bluetooth connection is established between the accessory and the mobile device. A Bluetooth query is received from the mobile device. The Bluetooth query is executed to obtain the requested data pertaining to the accessory. The requested data is sent back to the mobile device where it can be displayed on a mobile device display. Optionally, a logical link control and adaptation protocol (L2CAP) connection is established with the mobile device when an asynchronous connection-less (ACL) service is required. |
| US08374547B2 |
Communication partner appliance with automatic send mode activation
A communication partner appliance is implemented within a near field communication system. The communication partner appliance includes a receiver, a detector, and a processor. The receiver receives a NFC command signal from another communication partner appliance. The detector detects whether a carrier signal from the other communication partner appliance is present at the receiver at a time other than during a transmission of the NFC command signal from the other communication partner appliance to the receiver. The processor controls a power supply element based on a determination by the detector whether the carrier signal from the other communication partner appliance is present at the receiver. The power supply element is configured to establish a connection to either a first power supply or a second power supply. The first power supply is dependent on the carrier signal, and the second power supply is independent of the carrier signal. |
| US08374546B2 |
Wireless mobile communication device having an ensured NFC functionality
A wireless mobile communication device having NFC functionality that is designed to always be capable of NFC functionality, including secure NFC functionality by having a first and second energy source where charging of the second energy source may be achieved by the voltage induced by the received NFC signal. |
| US08374544B2 |
Communication apparatus, program, communication method and communication system
A communication apparatus including a first storage unit, a second storage unit logically or physically discriminated from the first storage unit, a first communication unit, a second communication unit for transmitting data stored in the second storage unit through electric field coupling or magnetic field coupling, and a selecting unit for selecting at least either the first storage unit or the second storage unit as a storage destination of the data received by the first communication unit. |
| US08374543B2 |
Apparatus and method for location estimation in a wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for location estimation in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes identifying if a received at least one signal passed through at least one repeater, when the received at least one signal is identified as having passed through at least one repeater, measuring a Base Station (BS) basis delay time and calculating a repeater basis delay time using the measured BS basis delay time, and estimating a location of the Mobile Station (MS) using the repeater basis delay time. |
| US08374541B2 |
Group response detecting system, communication system, input device and communication control device
A plurality of nodes 2-n are assigned to a plurality of operators. The each node 2-n detects input operation of the corresponding operator to transmit detection information in a wireless manner. A host 27 receives the detection information transmitted in the wireless manner by the each node 2-n. The host 27 transmits a beacon signal BS to the plurality of the nodes 2-n in a predetermined cycle CY. The each node 2-n performs processing of detecting the input operation while changing time, i.e., at times ST0 to ST3 to transmit the detection information to the host 27 in response to the beacon signal BS. It is possible to finely detect order of changes of the detection information among the plurality of the nodes. |
| US08374539B2 |
Recording apparatus and recording method
A recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink onto a recording medium from a plurality of recording heads include a conveying roller that conveys the recording medium that is continuously fed; the plurality of recording heads arranged in the conveying direction of the conveying roller; a skew sensor that detects the amount of displacement of the position of the recording medium skewed in the widthwise direction perpendicular to the conveying direction relative to the recording heads when the recording medium is skewed with respect to the conveying direction; and an angle adjusting mechanism that rotates the recording heads relative to the recording medium on the basis of the amount of displacement detected by the skew sensor. |
| US08374538B2 |
Sheet humidifier, sheet finisher, and image forming system
A sheet humidifier which executes a humidifying process to a sheet, the sheet humidifier including: a pair of humidifying rollers each of which has a first surface layer formed of rubber containing plasticizer, the pair of humidifying rollers nipping and conveying the sheet; and two water supply rollers each of which has a second surface layer formed of rubber containing the same kind of plasticizer as the plasticizer of the first surface layer, the two water supply rollers contacting each of the pair of humidifying rollers and supplying water to the each of the pair of humidifying rollers, wherein a hardness of the first surface layer is higher than the second surface layer. |
| US08374537B2 |
Image forming apparatus, protectant applicator and process cartridge
An image forming apparatus, including an image bearer; and a protectant applicator applying a protectant including zinc stearate and zinc palmitate to the surface thereof, wherein an average amount of the protectant adhering thereto is from 0.4 to 2.0 μg/cm2 after 500 images are produced, and wherein the following relationships are satisfied: X=Sb/Sa wherein X represents an index of the amount of the protectant adhering at an arbitrary point thereon; Sa represents a peak area in a wavenumber domain of from 1,765 to 1,786 cm−1 in an infrared absorption spectrum; and Sb represents a peak area in a wavenumber domain of from 1,533 to 1,547 cm−1, and ΔXi/Xave<0.3 wherein Xi represent the indices X at n-pieces of the arbitrary points in an image forming area thereof along its longitudinal direction; Xave represents an average of the n-pieces of Xi; and ΔXi represents a variation of Xi. |
| US08374536B2 |
Cylindrical heating rotator for heating a developer, fixing device using said heating rotator and image forming device using said heating rotator
A heating rotator that is used for heating a developer on a recording medium has a cylindrical body that is made of a metal and both end portions of the cylindrical body is rotatably supported. The cylindrical body has a thick-walled portion at both end portions that is thicker than a center portion in an axial direction of the cylindrical body, and a cross-sectional shape of the heating rotator changes from the end portions toward the center portion in a pressure area of an outer peripheral surface to which pressure is applied by a pressure rotator. |
| US08374535B2 |
Pivoting end cap for a fuser module of an image forming device
A fuser module of an image forming device including a pivot able end cap and a movable entry guide attached therein. The movable entry guide moves according to the pivoting end cap to ensure reduced positional variability within the fuser module. The pivoting end cap also has a wheel to axle ratio of about 18:1 to ensure reduced force variability within the fuser module. |
| US08374530B2 |
Methods and apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image using conductive particles
Methods and apparatus to develop an electrostatic latent image using conductive particles, such as carbon and metal particles with a low resistance value, without treating the surface with insulation membrane or other insulators that generate impurities in the conductive material printed by the imaging system. |
| US08374529B2 |
Image forming apparatus and tubular powder container having a guide portion
An image forming apparatus includes: an accommodation portion accommodating a tubular powder container containing a powder; and a guide portion guiding a guided portion provided to the powder container. The guided portion includes: a base portion provided with one end portion at downstream side in an insertion direction of the powder container and the other end portion at upstream side, and a part of the one end portion provided along the axial direction and protruding from an outer circumferential surface of the powder container toward a radial direction; a first facing portion provided along the axial direction, protruding from the base portion in one direction and arranged to face the outer circumferential surface with a gap; and a second facing portion provided along the axial direction, protruding from the base portion in a direction opposite to the one direction and arranged to face the outer circumferential surface with a gap. |
| US08374528B2 |
Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus that house a developing agent for forming an image
A developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus, include at least one developing roller. A plurality of transport members with screw and shaft portions, transport developing agent housed within the device in a longitudinal direction, and form a circulation path. A discharge aperture, formed in a transport path wall of one transport member, discharges developing agent to the outside when a surface of the developing agent transported by one of the plurality of transport members exceeds a predetermined height. The one transport member is adjacent to the developing roller that supplies the developing agent and includes, in a part in the longitudinal direction, an area on which the screw portion is not formed. The discharge aperture is disposed opposite to the area on which the screw portion is not formed, and the length of the discharge aperture is formed smaller than that of the area in the longitudinal direction. |
| US08374521B2 |
Image forming apparatus, method of controlling image forming apparatus, and storage medium storing program
This invention provides an image forming apparatus that includes a storage area to store a print job. Whether the type of printing medium set in the received print job is the same as the type of printing medium provided in the image forming apparatus is determined. Print processing is suspended after storing the print job in the storage area when it is determined that the former type is not the same as the latter type, and the suspension time for which the print job has been suspended is measured. The suspension time is compared with a predetermined period, and the print job is deleted from the storage area when the suspension time reaches the predetermined period. |
| US08374519B2 |
Image heating apparatus controlling the inclination of a stretching member stretching a belt member
An image heating apparatus heats an image on a recording material and includes: a rotatable belt; a pressor contacting the belt to nip and feed the recording material; a stretcher stretching the belt; a detector detecting a position of the belt perpendicular to a rotational direction of the belt; an executor executing a first control mode for controlling a position of the belt by inclination of the stretcher on the basis of an output of the detector, and a second control mode for controlling the position of the belt member by inclination of the stretcher on the basis of the output of the detector and for stabilizing the position of the belt; an inputter inputting information relating to the recording material; and a selector for selecting the first control mode or the second control mode in accordance with the information inputted to the inputter. |
| US08374514B2 |
Parallel digital coherent detection using symmetrical optical interleaver and direct optical down conversion
A method includes modulating lightwaves to provide first and second OFDM signal sidebands at a first polarization direction and first and second OFDM signal sidebands at a second polarization direction, and combining sidebands that are oppositely positioned and joined from the first and second OFDM signal sidebands at each polarization direction to provide a polarization multiplexing OFDM signal. |
| US08374513B2 |
Optical receiver and jitter tolerance control method
An optical receiver includes an optical device that receives input light and converts the input light to an electric signal; an equalizer that carries out waveform shaping on the electric signal; an amplifier that amplifies the electric signal; a discrimination part that discriminates data of the electric signal; an input optical power detecting part that detects input optical power of the input light; and a control part that makes an error rate in the electric signal with respect to the input optical power worse when the input optical power detected by the input optical power detecting part is equal to or less than a value corresponding to minimum receiver sensitivity. |
| US08374511B2 |
Fiber optic telecommunications card with security detection
A transceiver card for a telecommunications box for transmitting data over a first optical fiber and receiving data over a second optical fiber. The card has transmitter for transmitting data over the first optical fiber, the transmitter having a laser and a modulator, a fiber output optically connected to the laser for connecting the first optical fiber to the card, a fiber input for connecting the second optical fiber to the card, a receiver optically connected to the fiber input for receiving data from the second optical fiber, and an OTDR optically connected between the transmitter and the fiber output or between the receiver and the fiber input. An energy level detector is also provided between the receiver and the fiber input. |
| US08374506B2 |
Apparatus for transmitting data between two systems which move relative to one another
An apparatus for transmitting data at high data rates, between two systems that move relative to one another is provided. The apparatus includes an optical fiber and an axial module on one of the two systems for the purpose of axial data coupling, using the optical fiber and a lateral module on another of the two systems for the purpose of lateral data coupling using the optical fiber. |
| US08374502B2 |
Open shortest path first extensions in support of wavelength switched optical networks
A network component comprising a generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) control plane controller configured to implement a method comprising transmitting a message to at least one adjacent control plane controller, wherein the message comprises a Type-Length-Value (TLV) indicating Routing and Wavelength Assignment (RWA) information, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating additional RWA information. A method comprising communicating an open shortest path first (OSPF) link state advertisement (LSA) message comprising a TLV with at least one sub-TLV to a GMPLS control plane controller, wherein the TLV comprises a Node Attribute TLV, a Link Set TLV, or both, and wherein the TLV further comprises at least one sub-TLV indicating RWA information. |
| US08374499B2 |
Imaging apparatus and interchangeable lens
An imaging apparatus capable of mounting an interchangeable lens thereon includes first and second terminals for communicating with the interchangeable lens, and a control unit capable of switching between a first communication mode in which a clock signal is output from the first terminal and communication is performed using the second terminal based on the clock signal and a second communication mode in which communication is performed using the second terminal without outputting the clock signal from the first terminal. The control unit is configured to output a predetermined signal from the first terminal to the interchangeable lens when a predetermined condition is not satisfied in the second communication mode. |
| US08374498B2 |
Systems and/or devices for camera-based inspections
Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system comprising: a diffuser defining a camera lens hole in a top portion of said diffuser, said diffuser adapted to receive at least one set of low angle lights; and a plurality of lights mounted on said diffuser in proximity to said camera lens hole. |
| US08374495B2 |
User-configurable waterproof camera case
A user-configurable waterproof camera case includes a housing for sealingly holding different models of camera therein, an actuating shaft extending through an opening of the housing, a probe-carrying member connected to an inner end of the actuating shaft, and an adjustable probe carried by the probe-carrying member at a position engageable with an on/off button or a shutter button of the camera. |
| US08374492B2 |
Method and device for calculating the salience of an audio video document
The invention relates to a method for determining the salience map of an audio video document. The method comprises the steps for: calculating a salience map in relation to the video part of said document, determining at least one audio descriptor representing said document, weighting the video salience map as a function of the variation of said audio descriptor. |
| US08374485B2 |
Information recording method, information recording medium, and information reproducing method, wherein information is stored on a data recording portion and a management information recording portion
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface. |
| US08374482B2 |
Memory card, imaging apparatus, and recording/reproducing apparatus
Disclosed is a memory card attached to an external apparatus for transmitting and receiving data via the external apparatus and an optical communication. The memory card includes a power-supply potential unit receiving electric power supply at a predetermined voltage from the external apparatus; a ground potential unit connected to a ground potential unit of the external apparatus; a light-receiving unit receiving an optical signal transmitted from the external apparatus or another memory card; and a light-emitting unit transmitting the optical signal to the external apparatus or another memory card. In the memory card, the light-receiving unit and the light-emitting unit are arranged such that the signal received by the light-receiving unit and the signal transmitted from the light-emitting unit are transmitted in a straight line. |
| US08374480B2 |
Method and apparatus for video image data recording and playback
A video data recoding method suitable for recording computer sessions. Each video image frame is divided into multiple blocks. A server processes the video frames and transmits only changed blocks for each frame to a video log server. The video log server stores the changed blocks with block indices in a data file. The video log server also maintains a virtual frame table which stores, for each block of the frame, the data location within the data file where the most recent occurrence of that block is stored. The virtual frame table is continuously updated as changed blocks are stored in the data file. The video log server further stores a snapshot file containing snapshots of the virtual frame table at predetermined time points, along with time stamps and a next changed frame location. The data file and the snapshot file are used to reproduce the video images. |
| US08374479B1 |
Live-chase video-description buffer display
Embodiments of the invention describe a method of generating an enhanced audio stream. The enhanced audio stream is generated from live audio received and accompanies a live video broadcast. This live audio is buffered and combined with a visual description of the live video broadcast. Together these form an enhanced audio stream. The visual description is entered by a visual describer while they are viewing a an instantaneously updated visual buffer size display. The visual buffer size display is calibrated to a pre-set maximum buffer size, and shows the pre-set maximum buffer size and the current buffer size in a visual manner. Further, live audio from the buffer that is inserted into the enhanced audio stream is compressed in time. |
| US08374477B2 |
Modular optical fiber cassettes
The present disclosure includes apparatus and methods for a modular optical fiber cassette. One embodiment includes a base housing configured to receive additional nested components and an adapter plate resiliently connected to the housing and comprising a plurality of optical fiber connectors. The adapter plate is releasable from the housing and providing access to both sides of the adapter plate. The cassette further includes a radius limiter nested with and resiliently connected to the base housing, a first expansion housing having an exterior contour substantially aligned with the base housing and configured to resiliently interlock with the base housing, and a cover resiliently connected to the expansion housing. |
| US08374476B2 |
Fiber distribution device
A fiber distribution device includes a swing frame chassis pivotally mounted to a support structure. At least a first optical splitter module is mounted to the swing frame chassis. Pigtails having connectorized ends are carried by the swing frame chassis and have portions that are routed generally vertically on the swing frame chassis. An optical termination field includes fiber optic adapters carried by the swing frame chassis. The fiber optic adapters are configured to receive the connectorized ends of the pigtails. |
| US08374474B2 |
Optical fiber with single layer coating for field termination
A structure for optical fiber with single layer coating suitable for field termination process is provided, including a glass core, a cladding layer, and a permanent coating protective layer. The thickness of the permanent coating ranges preferably from about 4 um to 8 um, and remains on the optical fiber during the field termination process to provide protection to the optical fiber after the buffer layer is striped off. In addition, the optical fiber structure of the present invention still conforms to the specification of the standard optical fiber. The optical fiber of the structure according to the present invention can simplify the field termination process so that the quality efficiency of the deployment is improved. |
| US08374472B2 |
Bend insensitivity in single mode optical fibers
An optical fiber that is relatively insensitive to bend loss comprises a core region and a cladding region configured to support and guide the propagation of light in a fundamental transverse mode, the cladding region including (i) an outer cladding region having a refractive index less than that of the core region, (ii) an annular cladding pedestal region having a refractive index higher than that of the outer cladding region and comparable to that of the core region, and (iii) an annular cladding inner trench region disposed between the core region and the pedestal region, the inner trench region having a refractive index less than that of the outer cladding region. In one embodiment, the fiber also includes a (iv) an annular cladding outer trench region disposed between the pedestal region and the outer cladding region, the outer trench region having a refractive index less than that of the outer cladding region. In addition, to suppress HOMs the pedestal region is configured to resonantly couple at least one other transverse mode of the core region to at least one transverse mode of the pedestal region. Such fiber is advantageously used as access fiber, but may have other applications, such as sensor fiber. |
| US08374469B2 |
Optical waveguide
A waveguide structure includes core 1 formed of a semiconductor such as Si, two external regions 2 which are not optically connected to the core but arranged at a certain distance from the core and bridges 3 which electrically connect the external regions to the core. Light propagating in the waveguide core is strongly confined in the waveguide core and optically disconnected from (i.e. not coupled with) the external regions, so that light can propagate in the waveguide without being affected by the existence of the external regions. Furthermore, the waveguide core is electrically connected to the external regions through the bridges, so that a voltage can be applied and a current can be caused to flow to the core from the external regions. |
| US08374457B1 |
System and method for interactive image-noise separation
An interactive system for separating image information from noise information in noisy input images may include a structure-preserving filter capable of separating high- and low-frequency image structures from random noise. The system may access data representing an initially denoised image and a corresponding initial noise layer, apply the structure-preserving filter to the noise layer to extract image structure, and combine the extracted structure with the initially denoised image to produce a refined image, restoring structure incorrectly removed from an image by a previous denoising operation. The system may provide brush tools to identify regions on which to apply the filter and mechanisms to specify filter parameter values. The filter may be applied iteratively to improve results, and may be employed in noise-consistent image editing tasks to preserve original image noise. The filter may be implemented by program instructions stored on a computer readable medium and executable by CPUs and/or GPUs. |
| US08374453B2 |
Integrating image frames
The technology described herein includes integration of image frames. The integration of image frames includes determining a sharpness metric for each image frame in a plurality of image frames. The sharpness metric is indicative of at least one of edge content and an edge size of the image frame. The integration of image frames further includes determining a noise metric for each image frame in the plurality of image frames. The noise metric is indicative of a variation in brightness or color in the image frame. The integration of image frames further includes determining a jitter metric for each image frame in the plurality of image frames. The jitter metric is indicative of spatial shifts between the image frame and other image frames in the plurality of image frames. The integration of image frames further includes generating an integrated image frame from one or more of the plurality of image frames based on the sharpness metric, the noise metric, and the jitter metric. |
| US08374449B2 |
Method, system and computer program product for optimization of data compression
A sequence of n coefficients is compressed by determining a cost-determined sequence of n coefficient indices represented by a cost-determined sequence of (run, index derivative) pairs under a given quantization table and run-index derivative coding distribution, wherein each sequence of (run, index derivative) pairs defines a corresponding sequence of coefficient indices such that (i) each index in the corresponding sequence of coefficient indices is a digital number, (ii) the corresponding sequence of coefficient indices includes a plurality of values including a special value, and (iii) each (run, index derivative) pair defines a run value representing a number of consecutive indices of the special value, and an index-based value derived from a value of the index following the number of consecutive indices of the special value. This involves (a) using the given quantization table and run-index derivative coding distribution to formulate a cost function for a plurality of possible sequences of (run, index derivative) pairs; (b) applying the cost function to each possible sequence in the plurality of possible sequences of (run, index derivative) pairs to determine an associated cost; and, (c) selecting the cost-determined sequence of (run, index derivative) pairs from the plurality of possible sequences of (run, index derivative) pairs based on the associated cost of each of the plurality of possible sequences of (run, index derivative) pairs; and encoding the corresponding selected cost-determined sequence of (run, index derivative) pairs using entropy coding based on a run-index derivative coding distribution. |
| US08374447B2 |
Method and apparatus to prioritize video information during coding and decoding
A method and apparatus prioritizing video information during coding and decoding. Video information is received and an element of the video information, such as a visual object, video object layer, video object plane or keyregion, is identified. A priority is assigned to the identified element and the video information is encoded into a bitstream, such as a visual bitstream encoded using the MPEG-4 standard, including an indication of the priority of the element. The priority information can then be used when decoding the bitstream to reconstruct the video information. |
| US08374443B2 |
System and method for predicting the file size of images subject to transformation by scaling and a change of quality-controlling parameters
A system and method for predicting a file size of an image subject to transformation by scaling and a change of at least one quality-controlling parameter are described. The system receives the file size of the image before transformation, information about at least one quality-controlling parameter of the image before transformation, information about at least one quality-controlling parameter and a scaling factor to be applied to the image during transformation. A relative size prediction is calculated using the received quality-controlling parameters information and the scaling factor. The file size of the image after the transformation is finally calculated as a function of the file size of the image before the transformation and the calculated relative size prediction. Images are partitioned into classes of images, and for each class of images, an array of relative file size predictions, having at least two dimensions, is computed. |
| US08374441B2 |
Image processing device, method, and program
An image processing device includes: a step calculator configured to calculate, as a step, a difference in pixel values of pixels in a neighborhood with respect to each pixel in an image; a classifier configured to classify the pixels into classes for areas of the steps; a boundary ratio calculator configured to calculate, as a boundary ratio, a ratio of the number of pixels at a block boundary for each of the classes; and a block noise strength determinator configured to determine, as a block noise strength of the image, the step that is larger than a predetermined threshold and that is at a class having a largest value. |
| US08374435B2 |
Pet image detection system and method of controlling same
The image of a human is detected from within the image of a subject and the human whose image has been detected is identified. Pet information concerning the identified human is found from a personal information table indicating the correspondence between humans and the pet information that has been associated with these humans. The image of the pet in the found pet information is found from the image of the subject. Thus, rather than all animals included in the image of the subject being found, the image of the pet associated with the particular human is detected. A pet image is thus detected in comparatively simple fashion. |
| US08374434B2 |
Feature quantity calculation using sub-information as a feature extraction filter
To extract a feature advantageous for classification and correlation by using the information difficult to be acquired even when it is impossible to acquire the information difficult-to-be-acquired from all individuals. Sub-information input device inputs information difficult to be acquired and accumulates the inputted sub-information. Main information input device inputs information easy to be acquired as main information, and accumulates the inputted main information. Sub-information selection device evaluates a category attribution degree of each sub-information accumulated and selects the sub-information of a high category attribution degree. The correlation feature extraction device uses the sub-information selected by the sub-information selection device as the feature extraction filter, and extracts a feature corresponding to the main information from a correlation between the main information and the sub-information. |
| US08374433B2 |
Apparatus, method, and manufacture for correcting color shading in CMOS image sensors
A device for color shading correction is provided. Local color matching is performed as follows. For each pixel of the image that is being color matched, the RGB value is treated as a one-by-three matrix, which is multiplied by a three-by-three matrix that is generated during factory calibration. The matrix product is a one-by-three matrix that is used as the RGB value for the pixel in the color matched image. |
| US08374425B2 |
Method of chromatic classification of pixels and method of adaptive enhancement of a color image
A method of processing digital images by transforming a set of pixels from a three-dimensional space to a normalized two-dimensional space, determining a membership class and membership class level of each pixel in the set of pixels, and selectively modifying colors of pixels in the set of pixels based on the determined membership classes and membership class levels. |
| US08374421B1 |
Methods and systems for extracting still frames from a compressed video
Methods and systems for robot and cloud communication are described. A robot may interact with the cloud to perform any number of actions using video captured from a point-of-view or in the vicinity of the robot. The cloud may be configured to extract still frames from compressed video received from the robot at a frame rate determined based on a number of factors, including the robot's surrounding environment, the available bandwidth, or actions being performed. The cloud may be configured to request that a compressed video with higher frame rate be sent so that the cloud can extract still frames at a higher frame rate. Further, the cloud may be configured to request that a second compressed video from a second perspective be sent to provide additional environment information. |
| US08374417B2 |
Image processing method and radiographic apparatus using the same
An image processing method is provided including a band image generation step for generating band images through extracting a portion of frequency components in a source image having a subject image falling thereon; a lowest-frequency image generation step for generating a lowest-frequency image having a lowest-frequency component extracted from the source image; a lowest-frequency image control step for performing conversion processing to the lowest-frequency image in accordance with a lowest-frequency function to generate a lowest-frequency controlled image; a controlled band image generation step for performing conversion processing to the band image in accordance with a high-frequency function, that is different from the lowest-frequency function, to generate a controlled band image; and an image processing step for performing dynamic range compression processing to the source image using the lowest-frequency controlled image and the controlled band image. |
| US08374412B2 |
Data processing apparatus, medical diagnostic apparatus, data processing method and medical diagnostic method
A data processing apparatus includes a SNR distribution data generating unit, a filter processing unit, a weighting function generating unit and a corrected data generating unit. The SNR distribution data generating unit generates SNR distribution data of processing target data based on the processing target data. The filter processing unit generates filter processed data obtained by performing filter processing to the processing target data to improve a SNR of the processing target data. The weighting function generating unit generates a weighting function based on the SNR distribution data. The corrected data generating unit generates corrected data by performing weighted calculation between the processing target data and the filter processed data using the weighting function. |
| US08374409B2 |
Method for optically imaging an interior of a turbid medium, method for reconstructing an image of an interior of a turbid medium, device for imaging an interior of a turbid medium, medical image acquisition device and computer program
The invention relates to a method of imaging an interior of a turbid medium, a device for imaging an interior of a turbid medium, and a medical image acquisition device. A turbid medium is accommodated in a receiving volume (5), light from a light source is coupled into (10) and out of the receiving volume and detected (15) after which a dataset is obtained from the detected light (20). The dataset is then communicated to an image reconstruction algorithm (30) and an image of an interior of the turbid medium is reconstructed based on the detected light (35). According to the invention the dataset is changed prior to communicating the dataset to the image reconstruction algorithm into a further dataset (25), with a further dataset satisfying an input assumption underlying the image reconstruction algorithm. |
| US08374408B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method, program, and storage medium
Paper fingerprint information that represents a fiber pattern unique to a paper sheet is scanned, and the paper fingerprint information and its position information are embedded at two corners as the cater-cornered positions on a paper sheet. The paper fingerprint information is extracted based on the embedded position information. |
| US08374406B2 |
Image reading apparatus for feature image of live body
In an aspect of the present invention, an image reading apparatus includes a 2-dimensional image sensor having a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a matrix, and configured to detect an image of a detection target; and a plurality of partition walls configured to hold the detection target in a non-contact state in a predetermined distance from an upper surface of the 2-dimensional image sensor. The plurality of partition walls may be provided on the 2-dimensional image sensor to form a plurality of slits. Also, the plurality of partition walls may function as shading members. Instead, the plurality of partition walls may function as light transmissible members. In this case, the refractive index of the plurality of partition walls may be larger than 1.1 and is smaller than 1.4 or is larger than 2.0 and is smaller than 5.0. |
| US08374405B2 |
Camera device and identity recognition method utilizing the same
A camera device includes an image capturing module, a face detection module, a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system, a storage module, and a microprocessor. The image capturing module continuously captures images of a determined filed. The face detection module detects the images to obtain a face to be tested, and records coordinates of the face in the image. The LIDAR system scans the face to be tested in the determined field according to the coordinates thereby to obtain three-dimensional information of the face to be tested. The storage module stores three-dimensional information of a determined face. The microprocessor compares the three-dimensional information of the face to be tested with the three-dimensional information of the determined face, and then outputs a recognition signal. |
| US08374404B2 |
Iris recognition using hyper-spectral signatures
The spectral diversity of the iris can be used as a unique biometric identifier. By careful selection of a number of spectral bands, four or more, the hyper-spectral signature derived from data contained in those bands can distinguish color signatures that are not visually distinguishable in RGB color space to uniquely identify a person. Classification of hyper-spectral signatures requires less spatial resolution than the classification of texture signatures, maybe an order of magnitude or more. This reduces the size of the sensor aperture required at a given range. |
| US08374402B2 |
Data security system
A data security system comprises a host processor, and a plurality of remote computers. Each remote computer provides biometric authentication of a user prior to responding to the user request for data access. The remote computers are handheld when in operational mode. A sensor in the handheld computer captures a biometric image while the remote computer is being used. The biometric sensor is positioned in such a way that the sensor enables the capture of the biometric image continually during computer usage with each request for access to secure data. The biometric authentication occurs in a seamless manner and is incidental to the data request enabling user identity authentication with each request to access secure data. |
| US08374395B2 |
Augmented reality method and devices using a real time automatic tracking of marker-free textured planar geometrical objects in a video stream
Methods and devices for the real-time tracking of an object in a video stream for an augmented-reality application are disclosed herein. |
| US08374394B2 |
Augmented reality method and devices using a real time automatic tracking of marker-free textured planar geometrical objects in a video stream
Methods and devices for the real-time tracking of one or more objects of a real scene in a video stream for an augmented-reality application are disclosed herein. |
| US08374393B2 |
Foreground object tracking
Techniques are disclosed for detecting foreground objects in a scene captured by a surveillance system and tracking the detected foreground objects from frame to frame in real time. A motion flow field is used to validate foreground objects(s) that are extracted from the background model of a scene. Spurious foreground objects are filtered before the foreground objects are provided to the tracking stage. The motion flow field is also used by the tracking stage to improve the performance of the tracking as needed for real time surveillance applications. |
| US08374390B2 |
Generating a graphic model of a geographic object and systems thereof
Systems, devices, features, and methods for constructing a graphic model of a geographic object, such as a road sign or features thereof, from an image, such as, for example, to develop a navigation database are disclosed. For example, one method comprises receiving a plurality of images of regions, such as of roads or paths. An image of the plurality of images is identified. A process to determine scale-invariant components of a geographic object in the identified image may be performed. Other processes, such as generating a dictionary to facilitate optical character recognition may be performed. A graphic model of the geographic object is generated based on the scale-invariant components and/or the optical character recognition. The generated graphic model may be associated with a navigation or map database. |
| US08374389B2 |
Iris deblurring method based on global and local iris image statistics
A method of identifying a living being includes using a camera to capture a blurred visual image of an iris of the living being. The blurred visual image is digitally unblurred based on a distribution of eye image gradients in an empirically-collected sample of eye images and characteristics of pupil region. The unblurred image is processed to determine an identity of the living being. |
| US08374383B2 |
Systems, devices, and/or methods for managing images
Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a method comprising, responsive to a determination that a machine-readable two-dimensional code has been identified in a first image, said first image comprising a first plurality of pixels defining said machine-readable two-dimensional code and second plurality of pixels defining a non-code zone, automatically causing a saving or displaying of a second image that comprises said machine-readable two-dimensional code or a representation of said machine-readable two-dimensional code and that excludes said non-code zone. |
| US08374381B2 |
Diaphragm and loudspeaker using the same
A diaphragm includes carbon nanotube wire structures. The carbon nanotube wire structures are crossed with each other and woven together to form the diaphragm with a sheet structure. Each of the carbon nanotube wire structures includes carbon nanotube wires substantially parallel to each other, and closely arranged along an axis of the carbon nanotube wire structure to form a bundle-like structure, or carbon nanotube wires twisted with each other around an axis of the carbon nanotube wire structure in a helical manner to form a twisted structure. A loudspeaker using the diaphragm is also disclosed. |
| US08374377B2 |
Speaker apparatus for use in vehicle
A speaker apparatus in accordance with the present invention is for use with a vehicle having a compartment and is to be mounted to the vehicle. The speaker apparatus includes: an interior member including a hole edge that defines an attachment hole; a speaker unit configured to be placed in the attachment hole, the speaker unit including a limiting member; and a speaker grille configured to be attached in the attachment hole from an inside of the compartment, the speaker grille including a claw-fixing portion that is bendable and is configured to be engaged with the hole edge. Accompanying the engagement of the claw-fixing portion with the hole edge, the speaker grille is fixed to the interior member. Accompanying the placement of the speaker unit in the attachment hole, the limiting member is positioned in a bending space for the claw-fixing portion and thereby prevents disengagement of the claw-fixing portion from the hole edge. |
| US08374373B2 |
High transmission loss headphone cushion
A headset including an earcup having a front opening adapted to be adjacent to the ear of the user, a baffle disposed within the earcup to define front and rear cavities, a cushion extending around the periphery of the front opening of the earcup and constructed and arranged to accommodate the ear of the user, the cushion having a first density, an inner radial portion, and an outer radial portion opposite the inner radial portion, a cushion cover substantially surrounding the cushion to form a headphone cushion assembly, and a high impedance component having a second density and located near the outer radial portion to increase the transmission loss of the cushion along a radial direction. |
| US08374369B2 |
Assembly device for a component of a hearing apparatus and corresponding method
Hearing apparatuses and in particular hearing devices are to be designed to be smaller. To this end, provision is made for an assembly device for fastening a component in the housing of a hearing apparatus with a first arm for retaining the component and a second arm, which can be plugged at least partially into/onto a corresponding fastening element on the interior of the housing. A hinge connects the two arms in a pivotable fashion. After connecting the assembly device to the fastening element, the two arms are snapped onto one another by pivoting about the hinge and thus adopt a final assembly position. This retractable mechanism also allows the use of space below a cover segment of the housing. |
| US08374366B2 |
System and method for adaptive microphone matching in a hearing aid
A directional hearing aid (100) comprising at least two microphones (201, 202) has means (200) for matching differences in amplitude and phase between the two microphones (201, 202). The microphone matching means (200) compare differences between measured transfer functions of the microphone signal paths at a number of frequencies during use of the hearing aid (100), compares the differences to differences at similar frequencies in a model of the transfer functions of the microphone signal paths, derives a set of parameters based on the comparison, and adjusts the parameters in order to minimize the difference in level differences between the model and the microphones (201, 202). The model is then used to match the microphones (201, 202) mutually by applying appropriate control parameters (103, 104, 105, 106) to an adaptive matching filter (108) carrying one of the microphone signals. |
| US08374365B2 |
Spatial audio analysis and synthesis for binaural reproduction and format conversion
A frequency-domain method for format conversion or reproduction of 2-channel or multi-channel audio signals such as recordings is described. The reproduction is based on spatial analysis of directional cues in the input audio signal and conversion of these cues into audio output signal cues for two or more channels in the frequency domain. |
| US08374362B2 |
Signaling microphone covering to the user
A mechanism is provided that monitors secondary microphone signals, in a multi-microphone mobile device, to warn the user if one or more secondary microphones are covered while the mobile device is in use. In one example, smoothly averaged power estimates of the secondary microphones may be computed and compared against the noise floor estimate of a primary microphone. Microphone covering detection may be made by comparing the secondary microphone smooth power estimates to the noise floor estimate for the primary microphone. In another example, the noise floor estimates for the primary and secondary microphone signals may be compared to the difference in the sensitivity of the first and second microphones to determine if the secondary microphone is covered. Once detection is made, a warning signal may be generated and issued to the user. |
| US08374356B2 |
Noise canceling apparatus and noise canceling method
Disclosed herein is a noise canceling apparatus including: a microphone configured to pick up ambient sound as noise; a first signal generator configured to receive a signal from the microphone to generate a noise cancel signal that is inverted in phase to the signal received from the microphone and has an amplitude level considered with an attenuation in accordance with a distance from the microphone to an observation point separated away from the microphone; a first loudspeaker configured to be arranged in the proximity of the microphone and output the noise cancel signal; a second signal generator configured to receive the signal from the microphone to generate a positive-phase signal that has the same phase as that of the signal from the microphone; and a second loudspeaker configured to be arranged in the proximity of the microphone and output the positive-phase signal. |
| US08374352B2 |
Context-free protocol for enforcing data forwarding in wireless ad hoc networks
Described herein is a context-free protocol (i.e., the COFFEE protocol) for stimulating cooperation among selfish nodes. Various embodiments have the ability to transmit a packet over the path successfully without the dependency on the information of other packets' transmissions. It is assumed that every node in the network is rational, and therefore during the packet forwarding stage, if the intermediate nodes can not clearly tell whether the packet is destined to them or not, they do not simply drop the packet. Thus, in the COFFEE protocol, by introducing several techniques, for a packet received by a node, the node thinks the packet could potentially be destined to itself and forwards the packet to find out the answer. Detailed analysis and performance evaluations have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the COFFEE protocol. |
| US08374351B2 |
Encryption device, program, and method
Disclosed is an encryption device for generating a pseudo-random number based on a secret key and generates an encrypted text by applying the pseudo-random number sequence to a plain text, uses, an internal state in accordance with a state based on a permutation of a sequence of a finite number of numeric values, as an internal state used for generation of the pseudo-random number sequence, executes a predetermined leftward or rightward rotate shift, depending on a number smaller than an internal state number, based on the result of linear or non-linear, or combination of linear and non-linear using one or more numeric values of the internal state and sets at least one temporary variable used for generation of the pseudo-random number sequence to be a temporary variable having as a value a result of the execution of the predetermined leftward or rightward rotate shift, and generates the pseudo-random number by a predetermined prescribed operation on one or a plurality of numeric values of the internal state and the temporary variable. |
| US08374350B2 |
Quantum communication system
A system for transmitting quantum information includes a sending unit including an encoder configured to encode a carrier with quantum information by setting a quantum state of the carrier, the quantum state determined according to the combination of a first component and a second component, and a receiving unit including a decoder configured to perform a measurement on the carrier using a measurement basis selected to cancel the second component and decode the quantum information from the carrier. |
| US08374346B2 |
Method, apparatus, and system for pre-authentication and keep-authentication of content protected ports
A method, apparatus and system for providing pre-authentication and keep-authentication of content protected ports system employing a ratio of one decipher processing engine (e.g., HDCP engine) associated with multiple ports is disclosed is disclosed. In one embodiment, a receiving device is pre-authenticated by a transmitting device, wherein the receiving device to receive a data stream from the transmitting device via a first data path. Further, a first High-Definition Content Protection (HDCP) engine is associated with a first port in the first data path, the first HDCP engine coupled with a second HDCP engine. The second HDCP engine is associated with a plurality of ports in a second data path, each of the plurality of ports associated with a memory pipe having state information relating to each of the plurality of ports, the state information being used to pre-authenticate the receiving device. |
| US08374344B2 |
Coding
Coding is provided in which a multi-media object is coded to obtain a bit-stream, and quality information is added to the bit-stream, which quality information indicates a quality of the object in relation to a given position in (or a given part of) the bit-stream. By adding quality information to the bit-stream, jointly storing or transmitting multiple coded objects can be optimized in that the quality of the object can be easily taken into account. |
| US08374343B2 |
DES hardware throughput for short operations
A system for executing a symmetric key cryptographic method includes a processor selecting data paths, a key, an initialization vector, a memory storing batched operation parameters, a bus connected to the processor and the memory, a cryptographic processor connected to the bus and controlled by the processor for performing a plurality of operations according to the operations parameter, wherein data for each operation is received individually and separately from the batched operation parameters, wherein an output for each operation is transmitted separately, and a pair of first-in-first-out (FIFO) state machines controlled by the processor and selectably connected to one of the cryptographic processor and the bus, bypassing the cryptographic processor. |
| US08374333B1 |
System and method of intelligent call routing for cross sell offer selection based on optimization parameters or account-level data
An apparatus and methods for a call routing system is disclosed whereby the call routing service provider is associated with a series of partners. By providing a system supporting not only the main user, but also the partners, efficiencies are gained through cost-spreading. Agents can be qualified to field calls for multiple business entities. Cross-selling and proactive servicing based on caller demographic and profile data can be effectuated. The system employs a centralized or global bank of shared Interactive Voice Response (IVR) units so that unnecessary post-routing and call site interflow are reduced. The system comprises a central server system that interfaces with a long distance provider so that route requests are received, caller data is retrieved from one or more databases, routing and handling strategies are developed, load balancing is effectuated, and calls are appropriately routed to one of a plurality of geographically separated call center systems with queues staffed by agents. Each call center system is designed to support various queues, and agents may be qualified or assigned to various queues based on their skill sets and skill levels. |
| US08374332B2 |
Automatic call completion in a directory assistance system
A method, system and apparatus for automatic call completion in a directory assistance system in concert with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In accordance with the present invention, a method for automatic call completion in a directory assistance system can include receiving and processing a directory assistance request from a calling party over the PSTN. An address for the calling party can be retrieved from the PSTN and an address for a telephone number produced by the directory assistance request can be second retrieved from within the directory assistance system. Prospective telephone charges can be computed based upon the retrieved addresses and the calling party can be prompted with the computed prospective charges. Finally, a call can be automatically completed between the calling party and the telephone number. |
| US08374331B2 |
Method and device for remotely routing a voice call
A device for implementing a method of remotely routing a voice call forward to a telematic device is disclosed. The device first maintains a call state of the voice call in response to an answering of call forwarding rings by the telematic device. The device then forwards the calls to the next assigned device in response to a failure of a user of the telematic device to answer fake rings from the telematic device. Such a failure can be indicated by a monitoring of a prescribed number of back ring tones or a dropping of call within a prescribed timer window. |
| US08374328B2 |
Method and system for adding a caller in a blocked list
A method and system for adding a caller (102) in a blocked list is provided. The blocked list is stored at a communication server (104). The method includes receiving (604) a call from the caller (102) at a communication device (108). Further, the method includes receiving (606) a set of inputs at the communication device (108) in response to the call. The set of inputs includes a set of instructions to add the caller (102) in the blocked list. Furthermore, the method includes transmitting (608) a call termination request to the communication server (104). The call termination request includes the set of instructions to add the caller (102) in the blocked list. Transmission of the call termination request initiates addition of the caller (102) in the blocked list at the communication server (104). |
| US08374318B2 |
Systems and methods for providing context-based voicemail
Voicemail systems and methods for managing voicemail systems are provided herein. The subject voicemail systems provide a plurality voicemail greeting, each of which are associated with a context tag. The context tag can be, for example, a location, a device parameter, an account parameter, a network parameter, or any other contextual information. Upon receipt of a change in a context tag, the voicemail system determines a new voicemail greeting associated with the new context tag and sets the new voicemail greeting to the active voicemail greeting. |
| US08374314B2 |
Synchronized X-ray / breathing method and apparatus used in conjunction with a charged particle cancer therapy system
The invention comprises an X-ray system that is orientated to provide X-ray images of a patient in the same orientation as viewed by a proton therapy beam, is synchronized with patient respiration, is operable on a patient positioned for proton therapy, and does not interfere with a proton beam treatment path. Preferably, the synchronized system is used in conjunction with a negative ion beam source, synchrotron, and/or targeting method apparatus to provide an X-ray timed with patient respiration and performed immediately prior to and/or concurrently with particle beam therapy irradiation to ensure targeted and controlled delivery of energy relative to a patient position resulting in efficient, precise, and/or accurate noninvasive, in-vivo treatment of a solid cancerous tumor with minimization of damage to surrounding healthy tissue in a patient using the proton beam position verification system. |
| US08374311B2 |
System and method for verifying correct ordering of stack of components
A method of determining whether a stack of components in a device are in a desired order includes irradiating each of the components in the device with an energy beam. The radiation emissions from each of the irradiated components are detected with a radiation detector. The detected radiation emissions are analyzed using a central processing unit (CPU) to determine whether the components in the device are stacked in the desired order. |
| US08374309B2 |
Arrangement and method for projective and/or tomographic phase-contrast imaging using X-ray radiation
An arrangement and a method are disclosed for projective and/or tomographic phase-contrast imaging using X-ray radiation. In at least one embodiment, one or more phase grids is/are arranged in the beam path such that during a rotation of the at least one X-ray source, the examination object is scanned with different spatial orientations of the grid lines relative to the examination object such that the complete refraction angle, and hence the complete phase shift gradient, can be determined for each X-ray beam from the two scans with differently oriented phase grids in order to be able to show the phase shift of an examination object in terms of projections or in a tomographic image. |
| US08374308B2 |
Helically fluted tubular fuel rod support
A support grid for a nuclear fuel assembly, the fuel rod assembly having a generally cylindrical fuel rod with a diameter, wherein the support grid includes a frame assembly having a plurality of generally uniform cells, each the cell having at least one wall and a width and at least one generally cylindrical tubular member having a cell contact portion with a greater diameter and at least one helical fuel rod contact portion with a lesser diameter, the cell contact portion and the fuel rod contact portion joined by a transition portion, the greater diameter being generally equivalent to the cell width, and the lesser diameter being generally equivalent to the fuel rod diameter such that a fuel rod disposed in the tubular member would engage the inner diameter. Wherein the least one tubular member disposed in one cell of the plurality of generally square cells so that the cell contact portion engages the at least one cell sidewall. |
| US08374306B2 |
Isotope production system with separated shielding
An isotope production system that includes a cyclotron having a magnet yoke that surrounds an acceleration chamber. The cyclotron is configured to direct a particle beam from the acceleration chamber through the magnet yoke. The isotope production system also includes a target system that is located proximate to the magnet yoke. The target system is configured to hold a target material and includes a radiation shield that extends between the magnet yoke and the target location. The radiation shield is sized and shaped to attenuate gamma rays emitted from the target material toward the magnet yoke. The isotope production system also includes a beam passage that extends from the acceleration chamber to the target location. The beam passage is at least partially formed by the magnet yoke and the radiation shield of the target system. |
| US08374304B2 |
Filter circuit for removing noise pulses from digital input signal
A filter circuit includes an input-signal processing section and a signal-level determining section. The input-signal processing section samples and holds a digital input signal input according to a clock signal, outputs the holding signal as a sampling input signal when a level of the digital input signal is constant between sampling points, and reverses the holding signal and outputs the reversed signal as the sampling input signal when the level of the digital input signal changes between the sampling points. The signal-level determining section sequentially delays the sampling input signal from the input-signal processing section into plural stages, outputs a first level signal at a first level when all the delayed signals are at the first level, and outputs a second level signal at a second level when all the delayed signals are at the second level. |
| US08374300B2 |
Circuit, controller and methods for dynamic estimation and cancellation of phase and gain imbalances in quardrature signal paths of a receiver
A controller and a circuit work together to enable a selective and dynamic adjustment to correct phase and gain imbalances in quadrature signal paths of a receiver. Under select conditions, it has been determined that statistical estimates of gain and phase imbalance can be applied to adjust signals in the quadrature signal paths of a receiver. The controller validates the select conditions before updating the estimate of the gain imbalance and the estimate of the phase imbalance. The controller directs a compensator under select operating conditions such that validated dynamic estimates of the gain and phase imbalance or calibration data is applied to the quadrature signal paths. The controller disables the compensator and enables an estimator and a calculator when estimates are unavailable for the present operating conditions. |
| US08374297B2 |
Circuit, controller and methods for dynamic estimation and cancellation of phase and gain imbalances in quadrature signal paths of a receiver
A controller and a circuit work together to enable a selective and dynamic adjustment to correct phase and gain imbalances in quadrature signal paths of a receiver. Under select conditions, it has been determined that statistical estimates of gain and phase imbalance can be applied to adjust signals in the quadrature signal paths of a receiver. The controller validates the select conditions before updating the estimate of the gain imbalance and the estimate of the phase imbalance. The controller directs a compensator under select operating conditions such that validated dynamic estimates of the gain and phase imbalance or calibration data is applied to the quadrature signal paths. The controller disables the compensator and enables an estimator and a calculator when estimates are unavailable for the present operating conditions. |
| US08374296B2 |
Output circuitry for minimizing spurious frequency content
A system including first voltage supply circuitry configured to provide a first voltage supply with spurious frequency content and second voltage supply circuitry configured to provide a second voltage supply without the spurious frequency content is provided. The system includes signal generation circuitry configured to generate a first digital signal using a clock signal and the first voltage supply and configured to cause the spurious frequency content on the first voltage supply and output circuitry configured to generate a second digital signal from the first digital signal synchronous with the clock signal using the second voltage supply. |
| US08374288B1 |
Dummy burst detecting method and apparatus
A dummy burst detection method. The method begins with generating a dummy burst nominal power ηDB2 of a received burst and a normal burst nominal power ηNB2 of the received burst, wherein the dummy burst nominal power ηDB2 is generated based on the hypotheses that the received burst is a dummy burst, and the normal burst nominal power ηNB2 is formed based on the hypotheses that the received burst is a normal burst. A likelihood of the received burst is determined according to the dummy burst nominal power ηDB2, the normal burst nominal power ηNB2, and the noise power of the received burst. |
| US08374286B2 |
Methods and systems for improving frame decoding performance using known information
A method and apparatus for decoding encoded data bits of a wireless communication transmission are provided. A set of a-priori bit values corresponding to known bit values of a response message expected to be transmitted in response to a previously transmitted message. Example expected response messages include clear to send (CTS) messages transmitted in response to request to send (RTS) messages and positive acknowledgement (ACK) messages transmitted in response to messages with data payloads. |
| US08374285B2 |
System and method for time domain interpolation of signals for channel estimation
A system and method for time domain interpolation of signals for channel estimation. A method for computing channel estimates comprises storing symbols in a buffer, using time domain interpolation (TDI) for a first time to compute channel estimates for a set of sub-carriers of a symbol. The channel estimates are computed from the symbol and a first number of required symbols in the buffer. The method also comprises using TDI for a second time to compute channel estimates for the set of sub-carriers of a symbol. The channel estimates are computed from the symbol, a second number of required symbols in the buffer, and a buffered symbol used as a missing required symbol if the missing required symbol is not in the buffer. |
| US08374282B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving digital predistortion correction with amplifier device biasing
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for using digital predistortion are disclosed. A transmitter 212 may transmits a transmission signal. A receiver 214 may monitor the transmission signal to execute digital predistortion of the transmission signal to compensate for distortion. A field programmable gate array or application specific integrated circuit 226 may adjust a power amplifier bias to improve the digital predistortion. |
| US08374281B2 |
Method for setting cyclic shift considering frequency offset
A method for establishing a cyclic shift sequence to provide against the frequency offset is disclosed. The method calculates a distance between a channel response position of the sequence and an alias channel response position caused by a frequency offset, calculates the number of cyclic shifts per group according to the calculated distance, and establishes the cyclic shift (CS)—applying interval. This method easily establishes a cyclic shift (CS) interval at a specific location having no overlapping by considering a channel response of a reception (Rx) sequence and an alias location of this reception (Rx) sequence, although a reception (Rx) signal is shifted by a channel delay spreading or a propagation delay irrespective of categories of a domain generating a sequence, so that it can greatly reduce the number of the detection errors and the false alarm rate. And, if a sequence of the cyclic shift (CS) is allocated to a cell having a frequency offset of more than a predetermined level, the present invention can minimize the influence of a frequency offset on a high-mobility cell. |
| US08374279B2 |
Modulation device for a transmission path, method for signal processing in a transmission path, and transmission path having the modulation device
A modulation device includes a signal input for receiving a data stream to be modulated and a first and a second signal output. At least one first complex component is derived from the data stream in a coding device. A first and a second high-frequency signal are output via the signal outputs. The first and second high-frequency signals are derived from the at least one first complex component and are distinguished by the fact that the second high-frequency signal has a phase shift of substantially 90° with respect to the first high-frequency signal. |
| US08374276B2 |
Radio communication apparatus and resending controlling method
A synthesized gain in a resending operation can be improved significantly by relatively simple control when resending control is applied upon executing of a transmission diversity using CDD. A radio communication apparatus equipped with a plurality of antennas and for performing communication by MIMO, includes a phase shift amount assigning section 18 for executing a CDD process to assign a cyclic phase shift to a transmission signal on a frequency axis, a response signal demodulator 16 for demodulating ACK/NACK received from a destination station, and outputting control information about a resending operation when NACK is received and a reception is failed, and an initial phase controller 17 for setting an offset to a phase shift at a time of CDD process in response to a number of transmission times in resending control such that a predetermined offset, which is produced by adding a phase difference from a signal transmitted from other antenna to the phase shift, is assigned to a signal transmitted from the antenna over a full frequency band, wherein a frequency characteristic of a radio propagation path at a time of resending is changed every time of transmission times. |
| US08374265B2 |
Signal processing circuit, signal processing method and recording medium
A signal processing circuit, a signal processing method and a recording medium suppressing occurrence of unnecessary waves are provided. A timing generation means which generates timing to select a signal of a predetermined local frequency in a set time period and not to select any signal of all local frequencies in a different set time period, and a plurality of switches which switch over a signal of the local frequency from each multiband generator to the transmission mixer by an instruction from the timing generation means are included. |
| US08374260B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing uplink transmit diversity in a switched antenna orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system
A method and a customer's wireless communication device are provided that perform uplink transmit diversity in a switched antenna OFDM communication system. A switching of antennas used by the customer's wireless communication device to transmit an uplink signal is restricted to switching time periods that comprise one or more of a transition gap immediately preceding a transmission of a channel quality-related uplink signal and a time period subsequent to the occurrence of the transition gap but prior to the transmission of the channel quality-related uplink signal, which channel quality-related uplink signal may be used by a serving radio access network to update a channel response and antenna array weights associated with the customer's wireless communication device. The customer's wireless communication device then switches antennas used for uplink transmissions only during the switching time periods. |
| US08374259B2 |
Transmitting apparatus, communication system, transmitting method and program
A transmitting apparatus includes a transmission power reducing section to reduce a power of a transmission signal in a prescribed frequency band of a multicarrier signal containing a plurality of subcarriers and change the prescribed frequency band in which the power of the transmission signal is reduced in time sequence. In this configuration, when detecting an interfered system by reducing a transmission power in the prescribed frequency band, it is possible to minimize the bandwidth of the prescribed frequency band and thereby minimize degradation of reception characteristics due to the reduction of the transmission power. |
| US08374258B2 |
Transmission device, reception device, communication system, transmission method and program
A transmission device of the present invention includes a MAC that generates data I transmitted by a band group M and generates data J transmitted by a band group N; signal switching parts that exchange a part of the data I and a part of the data J; and antennas that simultaneously transmit the data I and the data J after data exchange is performed by the signal switching parts, by the band group M and the band group N. |
| US08374255B2 |
Moving picture encoder, decoder, and coding system
A moving picture sequence is divided into key frames, which are coded by a conventional method, and non-key frames, which are coded to obtain error-correcting information. The encoder and decoder independently generate predicted images for each non-key frame. The encoder compares its predicted image with the original non-key frame to estimate how much error-correcting information the decoder will need to decode the non-key frame by correcting prediction errors in the decoder's predicted image, and sends the decoder that amount of error-correcting information together with correlation information indicating how closely the predicted image and the original non-key frame are correlated. Before decoding the non-key frame, the decoder modifies the correlation information to compensate for differences in the prediction methods employed by the encoder and decoder. The modification enables the decoding process to converge faster. |
| US08374254B2 |
Multimedia stream combining
Two or more video streams including a high quality video stream and a low quality video stream are simultaneously transmitted to the video receiving device over the wireless network. All of the video streams carry the same video content but with different video quality. The high quality video stream is encoded using an unequal error protection code so that first components (e.g., high frequency components) receive a higher level of error protection than second components (e.g., low frequency components). The video receiving device can select the high quality video stream when channel conditions are favorable. When channel conditions are not good enough to support the high quality video stream, the video receiving device determines whether the first components of the high quality video stream with the greater error protection are usable. If so, the video receiving device combines the first components of the high quality video stream with the low quality video stream. Otherwise, the video receiving device outputs the low quality video stream. |
| US08374253B2 |
Wide-band multi-format audio/video production system with frame-rate conversion
A multi-format digital video production system enables a user to process an input video program to produce an output version of the program in a final format which may have a different frame rate, pixel dimensions, or both. An internal production format of 24 fps is preferably chosen to provide the greatest compatibility with existing and planned formats associated with HDTV standard 4:3 or widescreen 16:9 high-definition television, and film. Images are re-sized horizontally and vertically by pixel interpolation, thereby producing larger or smaller image dimensions so as to fill the particular needs of individual applications. Frame rates are adapted by inter-frame interpolation or by traditional schemes, including “3:2 pull-down” for 24-to-30 fps conversions. Simple speed-up (for 24-to-25 conversions) or slow-down (for 25-to-24 conversions) for playback, or by manipulating the frame rate itself using a program storage facility with asynchronous reading and writing capabilities. The step of converting the signal to a HDTV format is preferably performed using a modified upconversion process for wideband signals (utilizing a higher sampling clock frequency) and a resizing to HDTV format frame dimensions in pixels. |
| US08374252B2 |
Digital broadcasting system and data processing method
A digital broadcasting system and a method of processing data are disclosed, which are robust to error when mobile service data are transmitted. To this end, additional encoding is performed for the mobile service data, whereby it is possible to strongly cope with fast channel change while giving robustness to the mobile service data. |
| US08374251B2 |
Video decoder system for movable application
This invention is a digital television receiver receiving alternative broadcasts. Separate tuners receive separate broadcast signals, such as 12-segment HDTV and 1-segment QVGA. A multiplexer selects one tuner based upon receiver status of a first tuner. The selected signal is decoded and resized for a display. The decoder uses a frame buffer of images in the resized size. In the preferred embodiment the input signals are a 12-segment HDTV broadcast and a 1-segment QVGA broadcast and the resized size is VGA. |
| US08374247B2 |
Method and system for hierarchical motion estimation with multi-layer sub-pixel accuracy and motion vector smoothing
Aspects of a method and system for hierarchical motion estimation with multi-layer sub-pixel accuracy and motion vector smoothing are presented. Aspects of the system may include hierarchical motion vector computation that enables motion vectors to be computed at each level in the hierarchy based on a distinct pixel resolution level. A smoothing algorithm may be utilized to suppress spurious motion vector generation. The motion vectors computed at one level in the hierarchy may be utilized when computing motion vectors in a subsequent level. A bias value may be computed for each motion vector that provides an evaluation metric that may enable determination of whether the computed motion vector is to be utilized to enable generation of the interpolated image frame. |
| US08374243B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding based on intra prediction
Methods and apparatuses for encoding and decoding based on intra prediction. The method of encoding an image based on intra prediction comprises dividing a current block into a plurality of sub blocks so that a plurality of unit blocks adjacent to each other are included in one of the sub blocks based on an intra prediction direction of each of the unit blocks included in the current block, and performing intra prediction encoding on each of the sub blocks so that only information about one intra prediction direction is encoded in each of the sub blocks. |
| US08374240B1 |
Image frame management
Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with image frame management are described. According to one embodiment, an apparatus includes classifier logic to categorize frames that represent an image as either reference frames or non-reference frames, where the categorization is based, at least in part, on motion vectors between the frames. The apparatus further includes management logic to store the reference frames and to delete the non-reference frames. Image generation logic may then reproduce the image by using the stored reference frames. |
| US08374239B2 |
Method and apparatus for macroblock adaptive inter-layer intra texture prediction
There are provided scalable video encoders and decoders and corresponding methods for scalable video encoding and decoding. A scalable video encoder includes an encoder for selectively using spatial intra prediction to code, on a macroblock adaptive basis, an enhancement layer residue generated between an enhancement layer macroblock and a corresponding upsampled base layer macroblock. |
| US08374236B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving the average image refresh rate in a compressed video bitstream
An apparatus and method for digital video encoding is disclosed. The disclosed system provides for a way of improving video quality for a given video coding system design. |
| US08374232B2 |
Equalizer adapting circuit
A channel equalizer having a filter arranged to filter an input signal, the filter including a plurality of taps, each tap generating an output signal based on a coefficient, an input for receiving the coefficients and an output for outputting a filtered signal; and coefficient generating circuitry including a graduation unit arranged to receive the input signal and an error signal indicating an error in the filtered signal, to accumulate gradient values relating to each of the coefficients based on a plurality of error values of the error signal, each of the gradient values indicating a required change in one of the coefficients, and to sequentially output the gradient values; and coefficient update unit arranged to sequentially update each of the filter coefficients in turn, based on the gradient values. |
| US08374231B2 |
Equalization simulator with training sequence detection for an oscilloscope
An equalization simulator with training sequence detection uses an oscilloscope to acquire digital samples of an analog waveform signal from a serial data link to produce a digitized waveform record. The equalization simulator has training sequence detection receiving the digitized waveform record and generates a training sequence, an equalization adapter receiving the digitized waveform record and the training sequence and generating equalizer taps, and an equalizer receiving the equalizer taps and the digitized waveform record and generating an equalized digitized waveform record. |
| US08374227B2 |
Digital signal analysis with evaluation of selected signal bits
The invention refers to analyzing a digitally modulated test signal received from a device under test -DUT-, comprising providing a first sampled signal by assigning a first sequence of digital values as result of a level comparison of the test signal with a first threshold at first successive timing points, generating a first masking signal indicating matches between a second sequence of digital values expected from the DUT and one or a plurality of first data patterns, and analyzing the first sampled signal in conjunction with the masking signal. |
| US08374213B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmission of sounding reference signal in uplink wireless communication systems with multiple antennas and sounding reference signal hopping
A sounding reference signal transmission method which is efficient in an uplink wireless telecommunications system using a multiple antenna technique and sounding reference signal hopping. A terminal using the multiple antenna technique is equipped with a plurality of antennas, and a base station receives the sounding reference signal transmitted from these antennas and estimates the uplink channel state of each antenna. Moreover, the sounding reference signal performs frequency hopping so that the base station determines the channel condition for the entire bandwidth to which data is transmitted in the uplink system. The sounding reference signal is transmitted through an antenna pattern in which the sounding reference signal can be transmitted through the entire data transmission bandwidth of the uplink system for each antenna of the terminal without additional overhead in this environment. |
| US08374206B2 |
Combining multiple laser beams to form high repetition rate, high average power polarized laser beam
Two pulsed lasers (14) or sets of lasers propagate beams of pulses (20) having orthogonally related polarization states. A beam combiner (24) combines the orthogonal beams to form a combined beam propagating along a common beam path (16) to intersect an optical modulator (30) that selectively changes the polarization state of selected pulses of either beam to provide a composite beam (18) including similarly polarized pulses from the orthogonal beams. The composite polarized beam has a composite average power and a composite repetition rate that are greater than those provided by either laser. The optical modulator can also selectively control the polarization states of pulses from either laser to pass through or be blocked by a downstream polarizer (32). Additional modulators may facilitate pulse shaping of the pulses. The system is scalable by addition of sets of single lasers or pairs of lasers with beam combiners and modulators. |
| US08374204B2 |
Programmable SONET framing
A synchronous optical network (SONET) framer includes a frame dimension unit and a programming interface. The frame dimension unit can be programmed with a frame dimension through the programming interface. The SONET framer converts a data stream to and/or from a frame format based on the frame dimension programmed into the frame dimension unit. For instance, in various embodiments, a SONET framer can be programmed to support a variety of SONET frame sizes and to provide a number of testing and design advantages. |
| US08374202B2 |
Wireless communication method and wireless communication apparatus
A wireless communication method wherein the power consumption can be reduced as compared with the conventional one and a wireless communication apparatus can synchronize its super-frame with the super-frame of another wireless communication apparatus in an ad hoc network. According to this method, in the ad hoc network where a plurality of wireless communication apparatuses use broadband signals to data-communicate with each other, a wireless communication apparatus transmits an end tone (201) for identifying the end of a super-frame (221), and when another wireless communication apparatus receives the end tone (202), it synchronizes the end of its super-frame (221) with the end of the foregoing super-frame (221). In this way, the super-frames (221) can be synchronized even without any beacons. |
| US08374199B2 |
Auto-compression for media over IP
The present invention allows communicating devices to control the amount of compression used in packet sessions for transmitting streaming media to and from each other. When a communicating device detects a decrease in performance or quality of service indicative of a limited bandwidth condition, the amount of compression for the current or subsequent sessions is temporarily increased to allow the currently available bandwidth to support the session or subsequent sessions. After a set period of time, or when the limited bandwidth condition is removed, communications associated with the sessions can revert back to transporting uncompressed data or reducing the amount of compression for the sessions, thus using more of the available bandwidth. |
| US08374198B2 |
Communication relay system
A communication relay system relays communications between communication terminals performing the communications according to a plurality of communication protocols. The communication relay system includes pseudonymous identification information acquiring sections associated with respective communication protocols. Each of the pseudonymous identification information acquiring sections acquires pseudonymous identification information which is information according to the associated communication protocol and is different from terminal identification information for identifying each of the communication terminals. The communication relay system includes a communication relay section which, when receiving communication information according to a communication protocol from one of the communication terminals, replaces the source terminal identification information included in the communication information with pseudonymous identification information acquired by the pseudonymous identification information acquiring section, and transmits the communication information after the replacement to another one of the communication terminals. |
| US08374197B2 |
Method and system for link adaptation using metric feedback
A method for link adaptation at a base station using metric feedback is disclosed. The method can include the steps of communicating with a mobile station over a communication link having one or more sub-channels and during the communication, receiving from the mobile station a plurality of mutual information per coded bit metrics for a plurality of candidate modulation types per coding layer. The mutual information per coded bit metrics can be based on channel state knowledge of the sub-channels. Also, based on the received information, the operational performance of the mobile station can be predicted in view of one or more transmission parameters and performance factors and one or more of the transmission parameters, including a modulation type selected from one of the plurality of candidate modulation types per coding layer, can be selected based on a transmission condition of the communication link. |
| US08374189B2 |
Control channel transmitting method, receiving method, base station and terminal
A step of selecting one control channel format from among a plurality of control channel formats having different information amounts according to a predetermined condition; and a step of transmitting a control channel with the use of the thus-selected control channel format are carried out. |
| US08374187B2 |
Method and system for localising users for services based on SIP or H.323 protocols with dynamic IP address allocation
The aim of the invention is to localise a terminal (10) when accessing an IP service (15), by means of an access network (1, 2). To this end, a method for allocating an IP address to the terminal (10) is carried out, a database (8) memorises the IP address allocated to the terminal (10) in association with a terminal or user identifier and an identifier of an access point wherein the terminal accesses the access network (1, 2), the access point being associated with localisation information, and the database transmits the localisation information associated with the identifier of the terminal or the user to the service. |
| US08374185B2 |
Packet inspection device and method
A packet inspection device and method for use with a packet-retrievable network apparatus are provided. The packet inspection method includes: converting header information of a packet received into a hashing function value in presence of handshaking underway at the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer and comparing the hashing function value by a hashing function unit of the pending processing module, storing the hashing function value in a memory unit, and performing packet state comparison and packet screening and then creating by the session processing module a transmission connection according to the packet screened and selected by the pending processing module upon determination that data stored in the memory unit match the hashing function value resulting from conversion by the hashing function unit, thereby expediting packet inspection, reducing occupied memory space, and cutting costs. |
| US08374184B2 |
Method and mobile terminal for acquiring packet service
A method and mobile terminal for acquiring a packet service in a mobile communication system is provided. A mobile terminal of the present invention determines, when it powers on, whether to register with a network on the basis of previously stored packet service usage frequency and updates, when using the packet service after registering with the network, the packet service usage frequency. The mobile terminal of the present invention can reduce waste of resources required for the packet service by reducing communication with the network. A packet service acquisition method of the present invention helps reduces a number of mobile terminals registered with a network, whereby the network can reduce its processing load, resulting in improvement of network throughput. |
| US08374175B2 |
System and method for remote direct memory access over a network switch fabric
A system and method for remote direct memory access over a network switch fabric. Some illustrative embodiments may include a system comprising a first system node, a direct memory access (DMA) controller, a second system node, and a network switch fabric coupling together the first and second system nodes (the network switch fabric comprises a rooted hierarchical bus). The DMA controller is configured to perform a DMA transfer of data between the first and second system nodes across the network switch fabric. The data is formatted as one or more remote DMA (RDMA) protocol messages that are routed across the network switch fabric based on a bus end-device identifier corresponding to the second system node. |
| US08374171B2 |
Method for reducing the risk of call connection failure and system to perform the method
A method for reducing a risk of a call connection failure in a video communication providing a multimedia ring back tone service includes replying to a call connection request from a calling terminal, receiving a first message, determining whether the first message includes predetermined data and if the first message includes the predetermined data, setting a second message from the calling terminal as an initial value for a Numbered Simple Retransmission Protocol (NSRP) session with the calling terminal. The predetermined data may include a video temporal spatial tradeoff command, miscellaneous video temporal spatial indication, or a video fast update picture command. A system to perform the method includes a receiving unit, a determination unit, and a setting unit. |
| US08374165B2 |
Method, apparatus, and computer program product for communication routing
An apparatus for communication routing may include a processor. The processor may be configured to receive a packet. In this regard, the packet may include an address of a sending entity. The processor may also be configured to identify the packet as a qualified packet and store a local gateway table entry in a local gateway table to thereby identify a local gateway relationship in response to identifying the qualified packet. In this regard, the local gateway table entry may include the address of the sending entity. The processor may also be configured to update a routing table based on the local gateway table entry. Associated methods and computer program products may also be provided. |
| US08374164B2 |
Detection of specific BFD path failures
Improved detection of specific BFD LSP path failures is herein disclosed. The improved detection described herein allow for faster fault isolation of a failure along a LSP path, which in turn may allow for faster repair of the failure. When opening a BFD session with a LSP egress node, the LSP ingress node provides the LSP egress node a path descriptor along with the BFD Discriminator. If a BFD failure is detected at the LSP egress node, the LSP egress node can signal an alarm that includes a full description of the path. |
| US08374160B2 |
Method of transmitting and receiving feedback information and mobile station/base station apparatus therefor
A method of transmitting and receiving feedback information in a multi-cell based wireless communication system using FFR, a mobile station apparatus therefore and a base station apparatus therefore are disclosed. A mobile station is able to obtain FFR configuration information including configuration information on at least one frequency partition to which a corresponding FFR is applied per cell ID. And, the mobile station is able to transmit PMI information to a serving base station using the obtained FFR configuration information. In this case, the PMI information is specifically restricted or recommended by the mobile station among PMIs (precoding matrix indexes) used by at least one neighbor cell in an allocated specific frequency partition. |
| US08374158B2 |
Method for interfacing a second communication network comprising an access node with a first communication network comprising a contact node
An operational method interfaces a second communication network containing an access node with a first communication network encompassing a contact node. In a first step, an access node reads or receives an identity which is specific for the second communication network and is stored in a storage medium of a memory node. Then an interfacing message containing the identity that is specific for the second communication network is transmitted from the access node to the contact node, which is defined by an address stored in the storage medium. A packet data service to the access node is supplied by the contact node such that the second communication network is interfaced with the first communication network. An assembly and a storage medium are provided for interfacing the second communication network with the first communication network. |
| US08374157B2 |
Wireless docking station
A wireless docking station that allows a wireless connection between a computing device, for example a hand-held computing device, and a plurality of peripheral devices. This is achieved by providing the computing device with a wireless connectivity bus. The computing device may be, but is not limited to, a personal computer, a laptop, a notebook, a media player, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and the likes. |
| US08374155B2 |
Power loading transmit beamforming in MIMO-OFDM wireless communication systems
A method is disclosed for tuning a beamformed signal in wireless communications including a plurality of sub-carriers and a plurality of eigenbeams. The method includes adjusting a total gain of each of the plurality of sub-carriers and eigenbeams, and applying the adjusted total gain to each of the sub-carriers and each of the eigenbeams. |
| US08374153B2 |
Facilitating mobility between multiple communication networks
Various embodiments are described to enable improved inter-network/inter-technology handover of mobile devices. A network device (131, 132) collects dynamic information corresponding to mobile devices (101, 102), such as wireless measurement information at the device's location, and/or information corresponding to wireless network nodes (121-124), such loading levels/loading distributions. The network device then sends some or all of the dynamic information collected and/or statistical information generated from the dynamic information collected to a neighboring network information server (150) for access by other communication networks. By maintaining dynamic and/or statistical information in a neighboring network information server, such information can be made available to all the communication networks in a given region. One potential benefit to making this information available is improved inter-network handoff decision-making. |
| US08374152B2 |
Cell selection system, cell selection method, and mobile terminal
A cell selection system selects a cell to be used for communications by a mobile terminal in a network having a cell of a mobile phone network and WLAN cells included in the cell. Broadcast information including cell selection information is transmitted in the cell of the mobile phone network. This cell selection information has cell change judgment parameters whose patterns are less than the WLAN cells. The mobile terminal reads the cell selection information from the broadcast information of the mobile phone network, determines a parameter to be used for the judgment on cell selection of a WLAN cell, and judges whether the cell can be changed or not. The cell reselection system restricts the amount of data in the broadcast information even with an increase in the number of WLAN cells included in the cell of the mobile phone network. |
| US08374150B2 |
Re-synchronization of temporary UE IDs in a wireless communication system
Techniques for re-synchronizing Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifiers (C-RNTIs) in a wireless communication system are described. In one design, a user equipment (UE) sends a random access preamble for random access. A base station receives the random access preamble, assigns a Temporary C-RNTI to the UE, and sends a random access response including the Temporary C-RNTI. The UE uses the Temporary C-RNTI as a C-RNTI for itself if a valid C-RNTI is not already available. The UE discards the Temporary C-RNTI and uses the valid C-RNTI if available. The UE sends a transmission after receiving the random access response, and the transmission may include the valid C-RNTI if available. For handover, the base station (a target base station) receives a handover request from a source base station, assigns the valid C-RNTI to the UE, and sends the valid C-RNTI to the source base station for forwarding to the UE. |
| US08374147B2 |
System and method for protecting payload information in radio transmission
System and method for improving the protecting radio channels in transmission, according to which the payload information of the signal to be transmitted is divided into a plurality of data portions of smaller size which are then grouped into packets and the packets are labeled based on a criterion from among a plurality of criteria, said criterion being indicative of a level of priority associated to said packets. The packets are subsequently radio transmitted in accordance with their level of priority indicated by their associated label. |
| US08374145B2 |
Method for requesting and reporting channel quality information in wireless portable internet system
A method for requesting and reporting channel quality information (CQI) in a wireless portable Internet system is disclosed. Timing of a channel quality information request by a base station is determined, existence of an automatic repeat request acknowledgment (ARQ_ACK) message of downlink data is determined on requesting the channel quality information from the subscriber station, the automatic repeat request acknowledgment message and the radio resource for the channel quality report to the subscriber station is allocated, the automatic repeat request acknowledgment message and the channel quality report information is received, and a modulating and coding level of downlink data is determined by extracting the channel quality report information form the automatic repeat request acknowledgment message. |
| US08374143B2 |
Method of transmitting uplink data in wireless communication system
A method of transmitting uplink data in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes receiving an uplink grant and transmitting uplink data through a resource block which is indicated by the resource block index in a control region of a slot indicated by the slot indicator in the subframe. |
| US08374142B2 |
Link adaptation in directional wireless networks
Embodiments of techniques to perform link adaptation in directional wireless networks are presented herein. |
| US08374139B2 |
Low latency synchronization scheme for wireless OFDMA systems
In advanced wireless OFDMA communication systems, hierarchical synchronization is adopted to synchronize between a base station (BS) and a mobile station (MS). In a hierarchical synchronization architecture, primary advanced preamble (PA-Preamble) is used for coarse time domain synchronization while cell ID is detected using several accumulated secondary advanced preambles (SA-Preambles). Network entry latency can be reduced by adjusting the relative location of superframe header (SFH), PA-Preamble and SA-Preambles within a superframe. Three different synchronization channel (SCH) architectures are proposed to provide different tradeoffs between network entry latency and the robustness of SA-Preamble design and cell ID detection. |
| US08374138B2 |
Femtocell base station apparatus and self-configuring method thereof
A self-configuring method of a femtocell base station extracts preambles from signals received from adjacent macrocells and femtocells. Transmission power of the femtocell base station is set using the extracted macrocell preambles. In addition, the preambles of the femtocell base station are selected using the correlation values between the macrocell preambles and the pre-stored femtocell preambles. Moreover, the resources for data transmission of the femtocell base station are allocated considering the adjacent macrocells and the femtocells. |
| US08374136B2 |
Transmission diversity scheme on physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) with ACK/NACK differentiation
A method for transmitting uplink control information (UCI) using a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmit diversity scheme is described. A UCI is coded with a Reed-Muller code to obtain a coded UCI. The coded UCI is mapped to quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbols to obtain a mapped coded UCI. A phase shift is applied to the mapped coded UCI based on an acknowledge/negative-acknowledge (ACK/NACK) to obtain a phase shifted mapped coded UCI. The mapped coded UCI is sent using a PUCCH resource on a first antenna. The phase shifted mapped coded UCI is sent using a PUCCH resource on a second antenna. |
| US08374134B2 |
Local broadcast of data using available channels of a spectrum
In general, this disclosure relates to techniques for transmitting data for applications using one or more available channels of a spectrum. One example method comprises transforming data into a digital broadcast format, identifying at least one available channel of a spectrum, and transmitting the transformed data in the at least one identified available channel. |
| US08374132B2 |
Base station device, method for controlling base station device, receiving device, adaptation algorithm control method, radio communication device, and radio communication method
A base station device according to the present invention includes: a first reception weight calculator 122 configured to calculate weight of each antenna element of an array antenna 114 to be used in communications with a first mobile station device by using a reference signal transmitted from the first mobile station device; and a second reception weight calculator 124 configured to calculate weight of each antenna element of the array antenna 114 to be used in communications with a second mobile station device, which is different from, the first mobile station device of the multiple mobile station devices, the second reception weight calculator 124 calculating the weight so that null can be directed to an arriving direction of the reference signal transmitted from the first mobile station device, the arriving direction being determined on the basis of weight calculated by the first reception weight calculator 122. |
| US08374129B2 |
Circuit switched millimeter wave communication network
A high bandwidth, low latency middle-mile core communications network providing low-cost and high-speed communications among the users of the network. Embodiments of the invention include a number of network access points located at a number of spaced apart sites. At least some of these network access points in the network are in communication with each other via millimeter radio links with microwave backup links. In preferred embodiments the millimeter radio links include two millimeter radios, one transmitting in the frequency range of 71-76 GHz and receiving in the frequency range if 81 to 86 GHz and the other radio transmitting in the frequency range of 81-86 GHz and receiving in the frequency range if 71 to 76 GHz. |
| US08374126B2 |
Communication route controller, radio communication device, communication route controlling method and communication method for radio communication device
A switching server 100 relays VoIP packets transmitted from a cellular phone terminal 300A to an IP phone terminal 42, and sequentially acquires the receiving times of the VoIP packets received from the cellular phone terminal 300A. In addition, the switching server 100 switches a communication route R1 via a radio IP network 10A to a communication route R2 via a radio IP network 10B, on the basis of the multiple receiving times thus acquired. |
| US08374123B2 |
Collision avoidance systems and methods
Disclosed herein are various embodiments of collision avoidance systems and methods. One method embodiment, among others, comprises a client sending an end of transmission (EOT) request to an access point (AP), and responsive to the EOT request, the AP responding with an EOT frame. |
| US08374122B2 |
System and method for integrated WiFi/WiMax neighbor AP discovery and AP advertisement
A system and method wherein mobile nodes scan both 802.16 and 802.11 radio channels for neighbor access points. A mobile node reports both WiMax and WiFi neighbor access points to its parent access point. A parent access point advertises both WiMax and WiFi neighbor access points to child mobile nodes to facilitate faster roaming and load balancing. A parent WiMax AP can direct a mobile node to roam to a neighbor WiFi access point that has a lighter load or offers enhanced services. As an option, a location tracking protocol is used to determine the location of a mobile node and the mobile node's parent AP advertises neighbor APs that offer services in the mobile node's location. |
| US08374121B2 |
Methods and apparatus for efficiently establishing and maintaining a data connection between a mobile station and a wireless network
One illustrative method for use in efficiently establishing a data connection, such as a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) Context, between a mobile station and a wireless communication network includes the steps of causing at least one data connection request to be transmitted to the wireless network in attempt to establish a data connection between the mobile station and the wireless network; setting a delay timer to an initial value and running the delay timer; if the data connection has not been established in response to transmitting the at least one data connection request, causing at least one subsequent data connection request to be transmitted after expiration of the delay timer set to the initial value; setting the delay timer to a subsequent initial value which is greater than the initial value and running the delay timer; and if the data connection has not been established in response to transmitting the at least one subsequent data connection request, causing at least one other subsequent data connection request to be transmitted after expiration of the delay timer set to the subsequent initial value. This technique continues until the data connection is established with the wireless network, if at all. If a new wireless network is selected during the technique, the process is reset such that the first initial value is again utilized first for the delay timer. Preferably, the technique works in combination with relatively more quick retries implemented in lower radio layer(s) (i.e. the physical, data link, or network layer). Thus, each data connection request may be a plurality of data connection retries which are performed much closer together in time than other retry attempts. |
| US08374116B2 |
Method and apparatus to establish communication with wireless communication networks
Briefly, a method of transmitting over a first wireless network a message not addressed to mobile units of the first wireless network, wherein receiving said message causes transmitting stations of the first wireless station to cease transmissions for a predetermined time interval and to enable the access point to be in communication with mobile units or access points of a second wireless network. |
| US08374114B2 |
Method and system for organizing broadcast content
Embodiment methods and systems enable a broadcast network, such as a MediaFLO network, to maintain the presentation quality of video data received from content providers when transforming it to a format suitable for broadcasting to mobile devices. Methods enable encoding of H.264 frames received from a third-party encoder into superframes for broadcast over MediaFLO FLO TV®. The methods group individual image frames together into superframes for broadcast, making allowances for frames which are supposed to be decoded in one second but presented or displayed in a subsequent second. The various embodiments ensure that image frames are group together into superframe so that frames that are supposed to be presented together in the same second are displayed together and so that frames that are dependent on those frames for decoding are not put ahead of the frames from which they depend. |
| US08374112B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving feedback information in a communication system including user terminals with different numbers of antennas
A method and apparatus is provided for transmitting feedback information by each of user terminals in a communication system including the user terminals with different numbers of antennas. A multicast data packet is received from a base station through a downlink multicast transmission channel. If the multicast data packet has never been successfully decoded before, the multicast data packet is decoded and the success/failure in decoding the multicast data packet is determined. Upon the failure in decoding the multicast data packet, a NACK signal indicating the failure in decoding the multicast data packet is generated with sequences, the number of which is equal to the number of antennas of the user terminal. The NACK signal is transmitted to the base station through a shared feedback channel. If the user terminal has at least two antennas, sequences corresponding to the at least two antennas are orthogonal to each other and constitute sequence signals. |
| US08374110B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting packet
Provided are an apparatus and method for transmitting a packet. The apparatus and method indicate a policy with respect to an acknowledgement packet and a retransmission packet, which correspond to the type of data to be transmitted, in a packet included in the data. The apparatus includes a Media Access Control (MAC) control unit which determines the type of packet to be transmitted, and sets the packet to indicate an acknowledgement policy and a retransmission policy with respect to the packet; and a communication unit which transmits the packet. |
| US08374102B2 |
Intelligent collection and management of flow statistics
A system and method for collecting packet flow statistics within a network node includes forwarding packet flows received at the network node between subscribers of one or more network services and one or more providers of the network services. The flow statistics related to each of the packet flows passing through the network node are collected and statistics summaries are generated in real-time within the network node summarizing the flow statistics on a per subscriber basis. |
| US08374097B2 |
Fast DRX for DL speech transmission in wireless networks
A user equipment (UE) operating in a wireless network receives a sequence of speech frames on a speech channel. The UE demodulates at least a portion of a speech frame of the sequence of received speech frames to produce a metric value. The UE discontinues processing of the speech frame and enters a low power discontinuous reception (DRX) mode if the metric value indicates absence of valid speech data, and ignores and does not demodulate at least the next remaining bursts of the speech frame after entering DRX mode. |
| US08374096B2 |
Method for selecting antennas and beams in MIMO wireless LANs
A computer implemented method selects antennas in a multiple-input, multiple-output wireless local area network that includes multiple stations, and each station includes a set of antennas. Multiple consecutively transmitted sounding packets are received in a station. Each sounding packet corresponds to a different subset of the set of antennas. A channel matrix is estimated from the multiple consecutively transmitted sounding packets. A frame including a high throughput (HT) control field is sent to initiate a selecting of antennas, and a subset of antennas is selected according to the channel matrix. |
| US08374095B2 |
Connection verification for MPLS label switched paths and pseudowires
In one embodiment, a connection verification (CV) message is initiated from an initiating maintenance end point (MEP) for an MPLS LSP, the CV message carried in a packet having a time-to-live (TTL) value of 1. Each maintenance intermediate point (MIP) along the MPLS LSP receives the packet and decrements the TTL, and in response to determining that the TTL equals 0, examines a payload of the packet to determine that the packet carries the CV message. The MIP may then append its MIP ID to a route record field of the payload having any previous MIP IDs of upstream MIPs, and forwards the CV message downstream along the MPLS LSP in a packet having a TTL value of 1. The end MEP receives the CV message, and sends a CV reply having the route record field with MIP IDs and an end MEP ID to the initiating MEP. |
| US08374094B2 |
Methods and systems to verify a communication path between a field device and a process controller in a process control system
Example methods and systems to verify a communication path between a field device and a process controller in a process control system are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes transmitting via a first wireless communication path to a first portion of a process control system associated with one of the field device or the process controller, a command signal from a verification controller. In response to receiving the command signal in the first portion of the process control system, transmitting a verification signal via a first wired communication path from the first portion of the process control system to a second portion of the process control system associated with the other one of the field device or the process controller. Then, in response to receiving the verification signal in the second portion of the process control system, transmitting a reception signal via a second wireless communication path from the second portion of the process control system to the verification controller and in response to receiving the verification signal in the verification controller, verifying the communication path between the field device and the process controller. |
| US08374091B2 |
TCP extension and variants for handling heterogeneous applications
An extension to TCP is generally provided that allows TCP to handle heterogeneous applications, especially those with delay and smoothness-sensitive contents, and wireless transmission media having noisy, fading radio channels. The TCP extension decouples reliability control from rate control, sacrificing reliability for delay control (transmission rate and retransmission decision) that may be suitable for delay and smoothness-sensitive contents. Furthermore, the TCP extension may select TCP variants and modifications to the TCP variants based on one or more of application needs, channel conditions, or local observables such as loss and delay to better adapt to different types of applications and physical layers. |
| US08374077B2 |
Bandwidth management for MPLS fast rerouting
Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method comprising: in a network at a node located on a label switched path: selecting a backup path to respond to a failure; and for each link along the backup path, reserving a backup bandwidth, wherein the backup bandwidth is sufficient to reroute traffic around the failure. |
| US08374071B2 |
Data storage device
The present invention relates to a data storage device comprising: a polymer layer for storing data in the form of topographic features; a substrate comprising a conductor, a first surface of the polymer layer being provided on the substrate; and at least one probe which, when the device is in use, interacts with a second surface of the polymer layer, wherein, when in use, the data storage device is operable to apply a first electrical potential to the at least one probe relative to the substrate, thereby to cause a protrusion to be formed on the second surface of the polymer layer. |
| US08374069B2 |
Storage medium, reproducing method, and recording method
According to one embodiment, a write-once type information storage medium comprises an organic dye based recording material having sensitivity at a wavelength of 405 nm and at a recording wavelength in the range of 600 nm to 700 nm, wherein, when absorbance of a maximum absorption wavelength in the vicinity of 405 nm is defined as 1, the absorbance is 5% or more at any wavelength in the range of 600 nm to 700 nm. |
| US08374066B2 |
Optical pickup
An optical pickup having a one-plane, two-wavelength diffraction grating and a two-wavelength laser generator is provided in which crosstalk noise caused by leakage of a track error signal into a focus error signal is reduced to improve focus control performance. A main beam and sub-beams generated by the one-plane, two-wavelength diffraction grating and reflected from the surface of an optical disc are incident on corresponding light receiving elements among which the one to receive the main beam and those to receive the sub-beams are relatively shifted in a linear-speed direction of the optical disc. The distance of the shifting is determined based on the characteristic, relative to the relative positions of the light receiving elements, of the leakage of the tracking error signal into the focus error signal detected based on the main beam and sub-beams. |
| US08374065B2 |
Data library background operations system apparatus and method
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for performing data library background operations. The present invention teaches one or more data storage drives capable of entering a phantom load mode and a library controller capable of initiating the phantom load mode for the data storage drives. The phantom load mode operates to hide the media status of the data storage drives from host computers during background operations involving the data storage drives. In certain embodiments, the data storage drives exit the phantom load mode as a result of a media unload request. In some embodiments, the library controller receives a media load request from a host computer during the background operation and completes the media load request upon completion of the background operation. |
| US08374063B2 |
Heat-assisted magnetic write head, head gimbals assembly, head arm assembly, and magnetic disk device
A heat-assisted magnetic write head includes: a magnetic pole having an end surface exposed to an air bearing surface; a waveguide extending toward the air bearing surface to propagate light; a plasmon generator provided between the magnetic pole and the waveguide and generating near-field light from the air bearing surface, based on the light propagated through the waveguide; and a clad provided to surround both the waveguide and the plasmon generator collectively, the clad having a refractive index lower than that of the waveguide, and exhibiting a thermal conductivity higher than that of the waveguide. The clad may be provided to collectively surround the magnetic pole, as well. |
| US08374062B2 |
Heat assist magnetic write head, head gimbals assembly, head arm assembly, and magnetic disk device
The magnetic read write head has a read head and a write head, each having an end face exposed on an air bearing surface. The write head performs heat assist magnetic recording, and is provided with: a magnetic pole having an end face exposed on the air bearing surface; a waveguide extending toward the air bearing surface to propagate light; and a plasmon generator provided between the magnetic pole and the waveguide, and generating near-field light based on the light propagated through the waveguide to emit the generated near-field light from the air bearing surface. The waveguide is surrounded by a clad layer, and the magnetic pole is in contact with a heat sink having a heat conductivity higher than that of the clad layer. Although the near-field light causes temperature rise, heat energy from the plasmon generator to the magnetic pole is released through the heat sink. |
| US08374060B2 |
Thermally-assisted magnetic recording method for writing data on a hard disk medium
A thermally-assisted magnetic recording method includes first and second steps. The first step applies heat to part of a hard disk medium and forms a moving high-temperature region in a magnetic recording layer of the hard disk medium. The high-temperature region is higher in temperature than a region therearound and has a temperature equal to or higher than the maximum coercivity vanishing temperature of a plurality of magnetic grains contained in the magnetic recording layer. At least one magnetic grain that is adjacent to the rear end of the high-temperature region in the direction of movement of the high-temperature region has a coercivity of a value other than 0. The second step applies a write magnetic field to the hard disk medium such that the write magnetic field applied to the at least one magnetic grain adjacent to the rear end of the high-temperature region is 3 kOe or smaller in magnitude. |
| US08374058B2 |
Gong for timepiece striking work
The striking work device of a timepiece includes a gong (4) surrounding a movement and extending in approximately one plane, and a gong-carrier secured to a watch plate of the timepiece. The gong is fixed to the gong-carrier. At least one hammer (6) of the striking work device strikes an impact surface (8) of the gong (4) to cause the gong to vibrate. The surface (8) of the gong, which the hammer strikes, is inclined relative to the normal to the one plane. |
| US08374055B2 |
Acoustic communication and locating devices for underground mines
A system and method are described for locating and communicating with miners in an underground mine, in which miners carry a battery-powered signal unit with an impact actuator engagable with a wall, floor, or ceiling surface of the mine to transmit acoustic signals through the ground, and actuate controls on the unit to send a predefined message or a specific message via the impact actuator to ground-coupled acoustic receivers coupled with a base station that includes a decoder to determine the message sent by the miner and a location component to determine the miner's location based on the received signals. |
| US08374054B1 |
Apparatus and method for grazing angle independent signal detection
An apparatus and method for relating echoes from a surface or object produced by irradiation, such as by sonar or radar, from different grazing angles according to the relationship: f s = cf x 2 cos θ where fx is the spatial frequency corresponding to the size of the surface or object, θ the grazing angle, and fs the temporal frequency. In this manner one can relate to one another echoes from the same surface or object generated at different grazing angles, permitting good correlation between the echoes. |
| US08374052B2 |
Information storage devices using magnetic domain wall movement and methods of operating the same
An information storage device includes a first portion comprising at first at least one magnetic track, each of the at least one magnetic track in the first portion including a first plurality of magnetic domains and being configured to store a first type of data therein and a second portion comprising a second at least one magnetic track, each of the at least one magnetic track in the second portion including a second plurality of magnetic domains and being configured to store a second type of data therein, the second type of data being related to the first type of data. |
| US08374051B2 |
Three dimensional memory system with column pipeline
A monolithic three dimensional array of non-volatile storage elements is arranged in blocks. The non-volatile storage elements are connected to bit lines and word lines. The bit lines for each block are grouped into columns of bit lines. The columns of bit lines include top columns of bit lines that are connected to selection circuits on a top side of a respective block and bottom columns of bit lines that are connected to selection circuits on a bottom side of the respective block. Programming of data is pipelined between two or more columns of bit lines in order to increase programming speed. One embodiment of the programming process includes selectively connecting two columns of bit lines to a set of one or more selection circuits, using the one or more selection circuits to selectively connect one of the two columns of bit lines to one or more signal sources, programming non-volatile storage elements for the column of bit lines that is currently connected to the one or more signal sources, and changing one of the columns of bit lines connected to the set of one or more selection circuits while another column of bit lines is being programmed. |
| US08374050B2 |
Multi-port memory using single-port memory cells
A memory operative to provide multi-port functionality includes multiple single-port memory cells forming a first memory array. The first memory array is organized into multiple memory banks, each of the memory banks comprising a corresponding subset of the single-port memory cells. The memory further includes a second memory array including multiple multi-port memory cells and is operative to track status information of data stored in corresponding locations in the first memory array. At least one cache memory is connected with the first memory array and is operative to store data for resolving concurrent read and write access conflicts in the first memory array. The memory includes a controller operative: to receive the status information and to determine a validity of data stored in the first memory array as a function of the status information; to control a manner in which data is stored in the memory for avoiding data overflow in the cache memory; and to resolve concurrent read and write access conflicts in the first memory array during the same memory cycle. |
| US08374049B2 |
DIMM memory module reference voltage switching circuit
A non-volatile memory module includes a volatile memory circuit and a reference voltage generator coupled to supply a reference voltage to the volatile memory circuit. The reference voltage provides a level by which the volatile memory and external devices may communicate reliably at high speeds. The reference voltage is applied to an external interface of the non-volatile memory module through an isolation circuit. A control circuit coupled to the isolation interface and to a circuit which is adapted to detect when the non-volatile memory module no longer draws power from an external source. |
| US08374046B2 |
Computing device and method for clearing data stored in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor chip
A method for clearing data stored in a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip of a computing device. The computing device further includes a CMOS jumper connected to the CMOS chip, and a general purpose input/output (GPIO) interface connected to the CMOS jumper. The method configures a GPIO pin of the GPIO interface as an output port, controls the GPIO pin to generate a GPIO signal with a high level, and outputs the GPIO signal with the high level to the CMOS jumper. After receiving a command of clearing data stored in the CMOS chip, the method pulls down the GPIO signal from the high level to a low level, to clear the data stored in the CMOS chip. |
| US08374045B2 |
Methods circuits devices and systems for operating an array of non-volatile memory cells
Disclosed are methods, circuits, devices and systems for operating one or more non-volatile memory (NVM) cells within an array of NVM cells. According to embodiments, there may be provided a nonvolatile memory (NVM) device comprising an array of NVM data cells including one or more border/periphery data cells and one or more non-periphery cells. Array control circuitry may be adapted to gauge a state of the one or more periphery data cells differently than non-periphery data cells. |
| US08374040B2 |
Write bandwidth in a memory characterized by a variable write time
A memory system that includes a plurality of memory arrays having memory cells characterized by a variable write time. The memory system also includes a memory bus configured to receive write commands, and a plurality of data buffers configured to communicate with the memory arrays. The memory system further includes an address buffer configured to communicate with the memory arrays to store the write addresses. A mechanism configured to receive a write command and to split a data line received with the write command into a number of parts is also included in the memory system. The parts of the data line are stored in different data buffers and the writing of the parts of the data line to memory arrays at the write address is initiated. The write command is completed when write completion signals specifying the write address have been received from all of the memory arrays. |
| US08374030B2 |
Semiconductor memory device capable of suppressing peak current
A memory cell array includes a plurality of memory cells, in which n (n is a natural number equal to 3 or larger) cells are simultaneously written. A control circuit controls the memory cell array. A conversion circuit converts data constituted of k (k is equal to n or smaller, and is a natural number equal to 3 or larger) bits stored in the memory cells into data of h (h is equal to k or larger, and is a natural number equal to 2 or larger) bits on the basis of a conversion rule. |
| US08374029B2 |
Electrically addressed non-volatile memory maintentance
An electrically addressed non-volatile memory is maintained by measuring a voltage threshold for each selected memory cell in the electrically addressed non-volatile memory. The voltage threshold is a voltage around which a controllable voltage signal applied to a control gate of a selected memory cell produces a change in value read from the selected memory cell. A measured voltage threshold distribution of the measured voltage thresholds is generated for the selected memory cells. The voltage threshold distribution is analyzed to identify memory cells having greater probabilities of read errors, for example. In response to the analysis, an operating parameter that affects the memory cells identified as having greater probabilities of read errors is selectively changed. |
| US08374026B2 |
System and method of reading data using a reliability measure
In a particular embodiment, a data storage device includes a memory array including a target memory cell and one or more other memory cells. The data storage device also includes a controller coupled to the memory array. The controller is configured to directly compute a reliability measure for at least one bit stored in the target memory cell of the memory array based on a voltage value associated with the target memory cell and based on one or more corresponding voltage values associated with each of the one or more other memory cells of the memory array. |
| US08374024B2 |
System for handling data in a semiconductor memory apparatus
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a memory cell, a data transfer unit configured to adjust an access to the memory cell according to a voltage level of a selection signal, a selection signal output unit configured to output the selection signal having a first control voltage level in a data write mode and a second control voltage level in a data read mode. A data detection unit may also be configured to detect a voltage formed by a sensing current supplied to the memory cell through the data transfer unit in the data read mode, and output read data according to the detection result, wherein the second control voltage level is lower than the first control voltage level. |
| US08374023B2 |
Semiconductor memory apparatus
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes: a first write control code generation unit configured to generate first write control codes which are updated with different cycles in a plurality of respective periods, in response to a programming verification flag signal and a programming enable signal, the first write control code generation unit determining the number of the plurality of periods depending upon a code value of the repetition times setting codes and an update cycle of the first write control codes in an initial period among the plurality of periods depending upon a code value of initial setting codes; and a data write unit configured to output a first programming current pulse with a magnitude corresponding to a code combination of the first write control codes which are updated. |