最新美国发明专利第2013-02-26期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

Document	Document Title
US08385757B2	Temperature control in image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a reception unit, an image forming unit, a drive unit, a detection unit, a prediction unit, and a control unit. The image forming unit forms an image based on image information received by the reception unit. The drive unit controls an imaging forming unit drive. The detection unit detects temperature within the image forming apparatus. The prediction unit predicts a transition of temperature within the image forming apparatus and an image formation time based on the image information and the temperature within the image formation unit. The control unit is responsive to detected temperature and predicted image forming time. The control unit switches between image forming modes and controls the image forming apparatus to form an image in a short image forming time.
US08385756B2	Failure diagnosis device, failure diagnosis method, image forming device, and recording medium A first feature quantity computing unit that computes a first feature quantity representing an average of a plurality of driving loads recorded by a driving load of a fixing section recording unit of an image forming device that records the driving load acquired by a driving load acquiring unit that acquires the driving load, a second feature quantity computing unit that computes a second feature quantity representing a deviation of the plurality of the driving loads, and a diagnosis unit that performs failure diagnosis including estimation of a cause of a failure of the fixing section using the first feature quantity and the second feature quantity are used.
US08385754B2	Image forming apparatus featuring forced discharging of excessive developer An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member for bearing a latent image; a developing device, including a developer carrying member for carrying and feeding a developer including toner and a carrier to a developing position in which the developer opposes the image bearing member, for developing the latent image formed on the image bearing member; a discharging portion for permitting discharge of an excessive developer present in the developing device by supplying the developer into the developing device; a feeding member for feeding the developer in the developing device; a controller for controlling a forced discharging operation for discharging the excessive developer from the discharging portion by changing a driving condition of at least one of the developer carrying member and the feeding member; and a detecting device for detecting information correlating to flowability of the developer in the developing device. The controller is capable of controlling the forced discharging operation on the basis of a detection result of the detecting device.
US08385750B2	Optical transmission device An optical transceiver includes an optical transmitter. The optical transmitter varies the wavelength of its output beam in accordance with the setting of a digital to analog converter. Two split beams emerging respectively from beam splitters are introduced into a photodetector and a wavelength filter, respectively. A quotient is calculated by dividing the digital value output from an analog to digital converter (ADC) by the digital value output from another ADC. A memory address m is then determined based on this quotient without making any calculation for compensating for the imperfect characteristics of the wavelength filter. A wavelength notification value is then selected from a wavelength notification table based on the determined memory address m, and sent to the system host.
US08385747B2	Signal equalizer in a coherent receiver A signal equalizer for compensating impairments of an optical signal received through a link of a high speed optical communications network. At least one set of compensation vectors are computed for compensating at least two distinct types of impairments. A frequency domain processor is coupled to receive respective raw multi-bit in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) sample streams of each received polarization of the optical signal. The frequency domain processor operates to digitally process the multi-bit sample streams, using the compensation vectors, to generate multi-bit estimates of symbols modulated onto each transmitted polarization of the optical signal. The frequency domain processor exhibits respective different responses to each one of the at least two distinct types of impairments.
US08385746B2	Optical interface device, and abnormality monitoring method for input frequency deviation An optical interface device determines whether frequency deviation of a clock signal corresponding to an optical signal from a client side is abnormal based on a stuff amount when subjecting a data signal corresponding to an optical signal input from the client side to a stuffing process, inserts an alarm indication signal (AIS) indicating that the frequency deviation is abnormal into a predetermined region of a data signal when the deviation is determined to be abnormal, and outputs an optical signal generated corresponding to the data signal to a WDM line side so as to transfer the AIS to another component disposed downstream therefrom, so that locating a site where an abnormal state occurs is made easier.
US08385744B2	Delay control method in passive optical network, an optical line terminal and a passive optical network A method for controlling delay in a Passive Optical Network (PON) is applicable when a Precision Timing Protocol (PTP) message is transmitted in a downlink direction. The method includes obtaining a buffer duration of the PTP message destined for an Optical Network Unit (ONU), storing the PTP message destined for the ONU, and sending the PTP message to the ONU when a duration for storing the PTP message reaches the buffer duration.
US08385743B2	Channel allocation method for multi-channel optical transmission and optical transmission system utilizing the method Signal wavelengths λ1, λ2, λ3 of signal light components multiplexed at signal multiplexing sections 31, 41, 51 of multiplexing stations 3, 4, 5 installed on the input end side of an EDFA 2 on an optical transmission line 1 are set such that the wavelength-dependent noise figure of EDFA 2 successively decreases from the signal wavelength λ1 multiplexed at the signal multiplexing section 31 closest to the input end of EDFA 2 to λ2 and λ3. On the other hand, the transmission length of individual signal light component before being fed into the EDFA 2 is the shortest in the signal light component at λ1 and successively increases at λ2 and λ3. Thus, the order of magnitude of input signal light power is the same as the order of highness of noise figure in EDFA 2, whereby fluctuations in S/N ratio in the resulting amplified light are reduced.
US08385734B2	Focus control apparatus and focus control method A focus control apparatus for use in an imaging apparatus includes an exchangeable lens and a camera body. The exchangeable lens includes an optical system including a focus lens. The camera body is able to hold the exchangeable lens and includes an imaging element. The apparatus further includes a pan•tilt detection unit, a decision unit, and a control unit. The pan•tilt detection unit detects a pan and tilt of the camera body. The decision unit determines whether the exchangeable lens is able to achieve wobbling. The control unit controls an automatic focusing process of the focus lens in accordance with an image data generated by the imaging element. The control unit executes a different automatic focusing process in accordance with a decision made by the decision unit, when the pan or tilt of the camera body is detected to have started.
US08385731B2	Heat exchanger for high flow rate infusion A heat exchanger has a laminar fluid flow path receivable between the heating plates of a high flow rate infusion unit to which heat is conducted by contact with the heating plates. A bubble trap and a valve are integrated with the heat exchanger. The bubble trap collects air from the infusate exiting the laminar flow path, and includes an air vent in contact with the infusate that vents the air from the bubble trap. The valve shuts off the flow of infusate if air is detected in the bubble trap.
US08385730B2	Air care unit allowing for customization of fragrance strength and character An air freshener with customizable fragrances is disclosed. The air freshener accepts a plurality of fragrance modules, which allow a user to create customized fragrant environments. A fan and/or heating element are included to increase fragrance dispersal. Additional components may be included into the air freshener to provide enhancements to the user experience, including but not limited to a clock, timer, or a music player. The air freshener obtains power from a number of sources, such as AC mains or DC batteries. Energy storage devices located on board the air freshener may be charged by inductive or solar power. The air freshener may also include lighting elements and styling cues to integrate into the local environment.
US08385729B2	Heat pump water heater and associated control system A heat pump water heater has a tank portion, an electric heating structure for adding electrical heat to water stored in the tank, and a heat pump for adding refrigerant heat to the tank water. A control system associated with the water heater has three user-selectable heating modes for heating the tank water during a given heating demand cycle—a first mode that initially heats the tank water with refrigerant heat while the electric heat is locked out for a first predetermined period before supplementing the refrigerant heat if necessary, a second mode similar to the first mode but with a longer electric heat lockout period, and a third mode in which only the electric heat is utilized to satisfy a tank water heating demand. Illustratively, the heat pump is disposed in a compact component arrangement on the top end of the water heater tank.
US08385727B2	Recording apparatus, recording method, program and storage medium In a recording apparatus, a succeeding chapter of a video stream is recorded by being connected to the preceding chapter of the video stream contained in a multiplexed stream. When transfer of the succeeding chapter of the video signal from a video encoder to a VBV buffer starts, a multiplexer is controlled in such a manner that the fullness of the VBV buffer will exceed a set threshold value.
US08385726B2	Playback apparatus and playback method using the playback apparatus A playback apparatus includes an output unit configured to output main video data used as a main image, sub-video data used as a subsidiary image, cursor data to display a cursor, graphics data to display operation guidance, and sub-picture data to display subtitles, a first blend processing unit configured to superimpose the sub-video data, the sub-picture data, the cursor data and the graphics data, and a second blend processing unit configured to superimpose the superimposed data obtained by the first blend processing unit and the main video data.
US08385718B1	Process for programming actions of resources in a domestic communication network A process for programming actions of resources in a network of domestic devices to enable a user to program an action to be performed by one of the devices from another device. The process includes sending a request for programming an action, the request including a set of parameters defining the action, a time indication, and a list of resources involved in the action. An actions manager verifies the availability of the resources at the time the action is to be carried out, and a message of acceptance or refusal of the programming action is sent out in response to the verification.
US08385716B2	Imaging apparatus An imaging apparatus includes an image unit, a video recording medium configured to store video data generated by the imaging unit, and a controller configured to control recording of the video data in the video recording medium. The video recording medium includes a first recording medium having a data area in which data can be recorded, and at least one second recording medium having first and second data areas in which data can be recorded. The second data area can be written data at a higher speed than a speed for writing data in the first data area. The controller records video data and management data for managing the video data in the first recording medium, using whole data area of the first recording medium. The controller records video data in the second recording medium, using only the second data area of the second recording medium.
US08385715B2	Image processing apparatus, method for controlling the same, and storage medium and program used therewith An image processing apparatus is intended to display an image arbitrarily selected between an original image and an edited image in accordance with a user's preference after image editing. The image processing apparatus is designed so that an image displayed after the image editing can be selected depending on a user's intention. The image processing apparatus specifies and displays an unedited or edited image on the basis of a user operation, whereby the user can easily view a desired image.
US08385711B2	Multi-configurable splice holder Splice holders for managing and storing splices between optical fibers in fiber optic hardware and equipment are disclosed herein. The splice holder include a base portion and an array of splice holding partitions extending from the base portion. In some embodiments the array of splice holding partitions define a plurality of rows for receiving a respective first splice component along a first direction and a plurality of columns intersecting the plurality of fiber rows for receiving a second splice component along a second direction. Similarly, in some embodiments, selected pairs of splice holding partitions define a column width and selected pairs of splice holding partitions define a row width. Additionally, in some embodiments, the column width is sufficiently greater than the row width to accommodate the second splice component oriented along one of the plurality of columns that could not otherwise be accommodated if oriented along one of the plurality of rows.
US08385709B2	Structured cabling solutions Structured cabling solutions may include techniques and systems usable to route, organize, and otherwise manager wires, optical fibers, and other cables. Structured cabling solutions may include one or more chassis coupled to and movable relative to a frame to provide access to signal connectors on the chassis. Structured cabling solutions may also include labeling schemes that identify patch connectors that correspond to outlets in a structured cabling installation.
US08385707B2	Layered light guide for producing ambient lighting A device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) including an ambient image light source (110, 210, 310) and a stacked plurality of ambient imaging light guides (120, 220, 320) The ambient image light source (110, 210, 310) is arranged to couple light into the stacked light guides (120, 220, 320). The stacked light guides (120, 220, 320) are arranged to couple out corresponding ambient image light portions onto a reflective surface (130, 230). The stacked light guides (120, 220, 320) may be arranged to provide the ambient image light portions extending outward from the device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) such that a first one of the ambient image light portions extends substantially outward from a second one of the ambient image light portions. The second one of the ambient image light portions may be projected closer to the device (100, 200, 300, 400, 500) and may be projected to reflect brighter than the first one of the ambient image light portions.
US08385706B2	Optical element and method for the production thereof Described is an optical element for guiding electromagnetic radiation. The optical element includes a base body and at least one film, wherein the film is configured to adhere to the base body and to form an intimate connection with the base body without using an adhesion and is arranged such that the electromagnetic radiation passes through it.
US08385702B2	Bend resistant multimode optical fiber Bend resistant multimode optical fibers are disclosed herein. Multimode optical fibers disclosed herein comprise a core region and a cladding region surrounding and directly adjacent to the core region, the cladding region comprising a depressed-index annular region, wherein the inner boundary of said depressed index region is an extension of the graded index core, the depressed region having a moat volume greater than 105%-um2.
US08385701B2	Low bend loss optical fiber An optical fiber includes a central glass core region comprising maximum refractive index delta percent Δ1, a first inner annular region surrounding said core comprising refractive index delta percent Δ2, a depressed annular region surrounding said inner annular region and comprising Δ3 and a third annular region surrounding the depressed annular region comprising refractive index delta percent Δ4; wherein Δ1MAX>Δ4>Δ2>Δ3. The difference between Δ4 and Δ2 is greater than 0.01 and profile volume, \|V3\| is at least 60% Δμm2.
US08385699B2	Amplified broadband fiber laser source Methods and systems for generating a supercontinuum light source, including generating electromagnetic radiation from a seed laser; coupling the seed laser electromagnetic radiation to a fiber amplifier comprising: a pump laser, a fiber coupler comprising an input and an output, and a nonlinear gain fiber comprising an input and an output, wherein the nonlinear gain fiber is configured to amplify and broaden the electromagnetic radiation from the seed laser; generating electromagnetic radiation from the pump laser; coupling the pump laser electromagnetic radiation and the seed laser electromagnetic radiation into the input of the fiber coupler; coupling the output of the fiber coupler into the input of the nonlinear gain fiber; and coupling out the amplified and broadened electromagnetic radiation from the nonlinear gain fiber. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08385694B2	Automated optical switch and method An automated optical switch for use in a central office to increase coupling density including a frame having a mating plate defining a plurality of precision alignment holes formed therethrough. In one embodiment, the precision alignment holes are sized and configured to receive corresponding pairs of optical fibers with polished end faces disposed within ferrules free of connector housings. In another embodiment, the precision alignment holes are sized and configured to receive optical fibers with polished end faces free of ferrules and connector housings.
US08385693B2	Integrated optical vapor cell apparatus for precision spectroscopy An optical waveguide is provided comprising a non-solid core layer surrounded by a solid-state material, wherein light can be transmitted with low loss through the non-solid core layer. A vapor reservoir is in communication with the optical waveguide. One implementation of the invention employs a monolithically integrated vapor cell, e.g., an alkali vapor cell, using anti-resonant reflecting optical waveguides, or ARROW waveguides, on a substrate.
US08385692B2	On-line fiber Bragg grating dithering An apparatus for determining a property, the apparatus including: an optical fiber having a series of fiber Bragg gratings, each fiber Bragg grating in the series being characterized by a light reflection frequency at which the fiber Bragg grating reflects light; wherein: the light reflection frequency for each fiber Bragg grating is different from the light reflection frequency of each adjacent fiber Bragg grating to minimize resonance of light between at least two of the fiber Bragg gratings in the series; at least two fiber Bragg gratings in the series have light reflection frequencies that overlap; and a change in the light reflection frequency of each fiber Bragg grating in the series is related to the property at the location of the each fiber Bragg grating.
US08385691B2	Method and apparatus for photograph finding Digital image data including discrete photographic images of a variety of different subjects, times, and so forth, are collected and analyzed to identify specific features in the photographs. In an embodiment of the invention, distinctive markers are distributed to aid in the identification of particular subject matter. Facial recognition may also be employed. The digital image data is maintained in a database and quarried in response to search requests. The search requests include criteria specifying any feature category or other identifying information, such as date, time, and location that each photograph was taken, associated with each photograph. Candidate images are provided for review by requesters, who may select desired images for purchase or downloading.
US08385684B2	System and method for minimal iteration workflow for image sequence depth enhancement Movies to be colorized/depth enhanced (2D->3D) are broken into backgrounds/sets or motion/onscreen-action. Background and motion elements are combined into composite frame which becomes a visual reference database that includes data for all frame offsets used later for the computer controlled application of masks within a sequence of frames. Masks are applied to subsequent frames of motion objects based on various differentiating image processing methods, including automated mask fitting/reshaping. Colors/depths are automatically applied with masks throughout a scene from the composite background and to motion objects. Areas never exposed by motion or foreground objects may be partially or fully realistically drawn/rendered/applied to the occluded areas and applied throughout the images to generate artifact-free secondary viewpoints during 2D->3D conversion. Iterative workflow is eliminated for simple artifact correction through real-time manipulation of images to avoid re-rendering of images and associated delays of sending work product to other workgroups for correction.
US08385683B2	Self-positioning device and method thereof A self-localization device and a method thereof are provided. The self-localization device has a movable carrier, a first laser image-taking device and a processor. The movable carrier can be moved and rotated on a plan. During the motion of the movable carrier, the first laser image-taking device disposed on the movable carrier acquires an i-th lot point data in the space at a time point ti, where i is one index number from 1 to n, and n is an integer. The processor controls the first laser image-taking device, and receives coordinates of the i-th lot point data. The processor executes a K-D tree algorithm to perform a comparison and merge process between the first and the i-th lots point data, so as to establish a two dimensional profile.
US08385679B2	Apparatus and method for enhancing image base on luminance information of pixel An image enhancement apparatus and method based on luminance information of a pixel. The image enhancement apparatus may determine luminance data of each of a plurality of pixels, and may adaptively determine a conversion ratio according to the luminance data to apply the conversion ratio to an input image, thereby performing image-enhancing. The image enhancement apparatus may adaptively converse the input image according to luminance data, thereby precisely and effectively performing image-enhancing.
US08385678B2	Image restoration apparatus and method Provided is an image restoration method and apparatus, in which an image is restored by estimating the blur level of the image. The image restoration apparatus includes a block generation module which generates a plurality of overlapping blocks for an input image; a blur estimation module which generates a plurality of unit step responses for a current overlapping block from the overlapping blocks; a feature-map generation module which generates a feature map for the current overlapping block based on the unit step responses of the current overlapping block; and a filter application module which deblurs the current overlapping block by using a deconvolution filter to filter the feature map of the current overlapping block.
US08385672B2	System for detecting image abnormalities An image capture system for capturing images of an object, the image capture system comprising a moving platform such as an airplane, one or more image capture devices mounted to the moving platform, and a detection computer. The image capture device has a sensor for capturing an image. The detection computer executes an abnormality detection algorithm for detecting an abnormality in an image immediately after the image is captured and then automatically and immediately causing a re-shoot of the image. Alternatively, the detection computer sends a signal to the flight management software executed on a computer system to automatically schedule a re-shoot of the image. When the moving platform is an airplane, the detection computer schedules a re-shoot of the image such that the image is retaken before landing the airplane.
US08385670B2	Image restoration by vector quantization utilizing visual patterns The restoration of images by vector quantization utilizing visual patterns is disclosed. One disclosed embodiment comprises restoring detail in a transition region of an unrestored image, by first identifying the transition region and forming blurred visual pattern blocks. These blurred visual pattern blocks are compared to a pre-trained codebook, and a corresponding high-quality visual pattern blocks is obtained. The high-quality visual pattern block is then blended with the unrestored image to form a restored image.
US08385667B2	Generalized scalability for video coder based on video objects A video coding system that codes video objects as scalable video object layers. Data of each video object may be segregated into one or more layers. A base layer contains sufficient information to decode a basic representation of the video object. Enhancement layers contain supplementary data regarding the video object that, if decoded, enhance the basic representation obtained from the base layer. The present invention thus provides a coding scheme suitable for use with decoders of varying processing power. A simple decoder may decode only the base layer of video objects to obtain the basic representation. However, more powerful decoders may decode the base layer data of video objects and additional enhancement layer data to obtain improved decoded output. The coding scheme supports enhancement of both the spatial resolution and the temporal resolution of video objects.
US08385662B1	Principal component analysis based seed generation for clustering analysis Clustering algorithms such as k-means clustering algorithm are used in applications that process entities with spatial and/or temporal characteristics, for example, media objects representing audio, video, or graphical data. Feature vectors representing characteristics of the entities are partitioned using clustering methods that produce results sensitive to an initial set of cluster seeds. The set of initial cluster seeds is generated using principal component analysis of either the complete feature vector set or a subset thereof. The feature vector set is divided into a desired number of initial clusters and a seed determined from each initial cluster.
US08385659B2	System for and method of displaying non-rectangular images in electronic content on a reader device A system for and method of displaying non-rectangular images in electronic content on an electronic device in accordance with exemplary embodiments may include identifying, using a template identification computing apparatus, an image shape template associated with a non-rectangular image that is part of electronic content to be displayed on the electronic device, determining, using a boundary region determination computing apparatus, a boundary region of the image shape template, placing, using an image placement computing apparatus, the non-rectangular image inside the boundary region of the image shape template and on the electronic content, flowing, using a text flow computing apparatus, text that is part of the electronic content outside and along the boundary region of the image shape template, and transmitting, using a communication computing apparatus, the electronic content along with the non-rectangular image to the electronic device via a network.
US08385657B2	Multiscale edge detection and fiber enhancement using differences of oriented means Method, apparatus and computer program product that uses a novel algorithm for edge detection suitable for both natural as well as noisy images. A scale adaptive threshold is used along with a recursive decision process to reveal the significant edges of all lengths and orientations and to localize them accurately even in low-contrast and very noisy images. Further the algorithm is use for fiber detection and enhancement by utilizing stochastic completion-like process from both sides of a fiber. The algorithm relies on an efficient multiscale algorithm for computing all “significantly different” oriented means in an image in 0(N log p), where N is the number of pixels in the image, and p is the length of the longest structure of interest. Experimental results on both natural and noisy images present confirmation of the method, apparatus and computer program product.
US08385650B2	Image processing apparatus, information processing apparatus, and information processing method Information on at least one object specified by a user is obtained from an external apparatus. In accordance with attribute information included in the object information, at least one object is retrieved from among objects registered in an object storage unit. Then, an order of display of at least one retrieved template is determined. Thereafter, the retrieved template is transmitted to the external apparatus in the determined display order.
US08385645B2	Object detecting device, imaging apparatus, object detecting method, and program An object detecting device includes a calculating unit configured to calculate gradient intensity and gradient orientation of luminance for a plurality of regions in an image and calculate a frequency distribution of the luminance gradient intensity as to the calculated luminance gradient orientation for each of the regions, and a determining unit configured to determine whether or not an identified object is included in the image by comparing a plurality of frequency distributions calculated for each of the regions.
US08385643B2	Determination of inputted image to be document or non-document A preprocessing section binarizes input image data and calculates a total black pixel ratio. A feature extracting section detects connected components included in the binary image data and detects circumscribing bounding boxes of the connected components. Predetermined connected components are removed from all of the connected components based on the sizes of the detected circumscribing bounding boxes and bounding box black pixel ratios. By using the connected components that remain after removing the unnecessary connected components, a histogram is generated by specifying the sizes of the circumscribing bounding boxes as classes and numbers of the connected components as the frequencies of occurrence. A determining section determines whether the input image data is document image data or non-document image data based on information related to the generated histogram and the total black pixel ratio.
US08385642B2	Method for removing color fringe in digital image A method for removing color fringe is presented. Separated luminance and chrominance (YCbCr) signals of a digital image are analyzed through specific color detection, luminance detection, and gradient color detection, so as to determine whether color fringe occurs to each pixel in the digital image, thereby correcting pixels with color fringe.
US08385639B2	Compressive coding device and visual display control device A compressive coding device converts three color components of pixel data from the RGB presentation to the YCbCr presentation according to a mapping rule. Converted pixel data are subsequently subjected to irreversible compressive coding, thus producing compressive coded data. Pixel data ascribed to transparency control are converted to a prescribed value out of a mapping range according to the mapping rule. Compressive coded data are supplied to a visual display control device, in which they are decoded and reproduced into original pixel data of the first color presentation. Compressive coded data corresponding to pixel data ascribed to transparency control are rendered with a prescribed color in the RGB presentation which is designated as transparency in advance or not rendered on screen. Thus, it is possible to precisely perform the transparency control without causing a reduction of the compression factor regardless of the irreversible compressive coding and decoding.
US08385637B2	Illuminant estimation In a method of chromagenic illuminant estimation pixels from mutually-corresponding images with different filtering (e.g. a filtered image and an unfiltered image) are compared, a fraction of the brightest pixels being selected for a subsequent chromagenic estimation. The pixels may be at corresponding locations or they may correspond in that their mean brightness is in the same rank order. In one method, in which, in a first preprocessing stage, for a database of m lights Ei (λ) and n surfaces Sj (λ) there is calculated Ti˜QF Q+ where Q1F and QF represent the matrices of unfiltered and filtered sensor responses to the n surfaces under the i th light and + denotes an inverse, and in a second operation stage, given P surfaces in an image and 3×P matrices Q and QF, from these matrices there are chosen the r % brightest pixels giving the matrices Q′ and Q′F, and the scene illuminant Pest is estimated where formula (I) and (II).
US08385631B2	Calculation processing apparatus and control method thereof A calculation processing apparatus, which executes calculation processing based on a network composed by hierarchically connecting a plurality of processing nodes, assigns a partial area of a memory to each of the plurality of processing nodes, stores a calculation result of a processing node in a storable area of the partial area assigned to that processing node, and sets, as storable areas, areas that store the calculation results whose reference by all processing nodes connected to the subsequent stage of that processing node is complete. The apparatus determines, based on the storage states of calculation results in partial areas of the memory assigned to the processing node designated to execute the calculation processing of the processing nodes, and to processing nodes connected to the previous stage of the designated processing node, whether or not to execute a calculation of the designated processing node.
US08385630B2	System and method of processing stereo images The present invention is a system and a method for processing stereo images utilizing a real time, robust, and accurate stereo matching system and method based on a coarse-to-fine architecture. At each image pyramid level, non-centered windows for matching and adaptive upsampling of coarse-level disparities are performed to generate estimated disparity maps using the ACTF approach. In order to minimize propagation of disparity errors from coarser to finer levels, the present invention performs an iterative optimization, at each level, that minimizes a cost function to generate smooth disparity maps with crisp occlusion boundaries.
US08385629B2	Method for acquiring phase information and system for measuring three dimensional surface profiles The present invention provides a band-pass filter, being capable of fitting a frequency spectrum area having phase information in a frequency spectrum image, to obtain a spectrum information corresponding to the phase information during the process of obtaining the phase information from the frequency spectrum image with respect to an object's surface profile. In another embodiment, the present invention further provides a method to optimize the spectrum range of the band-pass filter so as to enhance measuring accuracy and efficiency while restoring the surface of the object. In addition, by employing the foregoing method, the present invention further provides a measurement system for measuring three-dimensional surface shapes in which a deformed fringe pattern with respect to the measured object's surface is acquired and the phase information is obtained from the fringe pattern according to the foregoing method so as to restore the surface profile of the measured object.
US08385623B2	Radiographic apparatus A radiographic apparatus of this invention, imaging (slot imaging) is carried out in one operation for obtaining a plurality of radiographic images based on radiation detected with an irradiation field restricted to be narrow by the irradiation field control device. Since these plurality of radiographic images are images picked up with the irradiation field restricted to be narrow, a center calculating device can determine a shifted center of the radiographic images. A shift calculating device derives a shift of the center of the X-ray images from a positional relationship between the shifted center of the radiographic images determined and the irradiation field of a radiation detecting device. Since the shift is corrected for the plurality of radiographic images per se based on the shift determined, the shift can be corrected in one slot imaging operation. At a time of slot imaging, the shift can be corrected while determining a central point at a point of time when each image is acquired, or determining a central point all together after acquiring a series of images.
US08385621B2	Method for reconstruction images and reconstruction system for reconstructing images A reconstruction method for an image of an object, the reconstruction method comprising receiving a first projection data set representing information about said object, receiving a second projection data set representing information about said object, reconstructing a first image of said object using the first projection data set, reconstructing a second image of said object using the second projection data set, performing a registration between the first image and the second image, and fusing the first image and the second image to said image of said object, wherein the first projecting data set and the second projecting data set are achieved by using a single radiation type.
US08385617B2	Imaging device for dental treatment, and instrument unit for dental treatment with imaging device An imaging device for dental treatment for use in an instrument for dental treatment with a head to which a rotary cutting tool can be attached. The imaging device for dental treatment comprises: an imaging module with an imaging element; and a mounting section through which the imaging module is detachably attached to the instrument for dental treatment such that the imaging module is on the bottom side or on the lateral side of the head, and that the imaging module is in a posture that causes the imaging axis of the imaging module and the rotary axis of the rotary cutting tool to be substantially parallel.
US08385615B2	Spectral imaging of biological samples The invention features a method including: (i) providing spectrally resolved information about light coming from different spatial locations in a sample comprising deep tissue in response to an illumination of the sample, wherein the light includes contributions from different components in the sample; (ii) decomposing the spectrally resolved information for each of at least some of the different spatial locations into contributions from spectral estimates associated with at least some of the components in the sample; and (iii) constructing a deep tissue image of the sample based on the decomposition to preferentially show a selected one of the components.
US08385614B2	Slice image display apparatus, method and recording-medium having stored therein program A shadow area in a lung-field area of a subject is detected from tomographic images constituting a three-dimensional image representing the subject. A hilum-of-lung area in the lung-field area of the subject is detected from the tomographic images. Further, a slice image that passes through a first point that is a predetermined point in the detected shadow area, a second point that is a predetermined point in the detected hilum-of-lung area, and an arbitrary point that has been set in advance is generated. The generated slice image is displayed.
US08385611B2	Fingerprint authentication device and information processing device with a sweep fingerprint sensor that acquires images of fingerprint at least two different sensitivity levels in single scan A fingerprint authentication device includes a sweep fingerprint sensor that acquires images of a fingerprint on a finger at at least two different sensitivity levels in a single scan, and a counterfeit-finger determining unit that determines whether the finger is counterfeit based on the images acquired by the sweep fingerprint sensor.
US08385610B2	Face tracking for controlling imaging parameters A method of tracking faces in an image stream with a digital image acquisition device includes receiving images from an image stream including faces, calculating corresponding integral images, and applying different subsets of face detection rectangles to the integral images to provide sets of candidate regions. The different subsets include candidate face regions of different sizes and/or locations within the images. The different candidate face regions from different images of the image stream are each tracked.
US08385609B2	Image segmentation Systems, methods, and computer readable media for forming a mugshot from a digital color image are provided in which a dominant face is determined using the digital color image. Person segmentation is also performed using the digital color image. An image and a mask are cropped based on the dominant face thereby forming a cropped image. Rough segmentation is performed on the cropped image. A mask is averaged in projection space based on the cropped image. The mask is refined mask and prepared for the mugshot.
US08385602B2	Image processing device method, program, and recording medium for improving detection precision of a motion vector An image processing device and method, a program, and a recording medium whereby the detection precision of a motion vector by the gradient method is further improved. A counter value computing unit acquires the number of valid pixels, the number of pixels having no gradient in the horizontal direction, and the number of pixels having no gradient in the vertical direction from a valid pixel number counter, a no-horizontal-gradient counter, and a no-vertical-gradient counter, computes the ratio between valid pixels within a computation block and one-sided gradient pixels among the valid pixels, and controls the value of a flag which a flag setting unit sets in accordance with the computation results. The flag setting unit sets the value of a gradient flag, and outputs the gradient flag to the subsequent stage. At the subsequent stage, gradient method computation and vector evaluation processing are executed based on the gradient flag. The above can be applied to a signal processing device for performing frame frequency conversion processing from a 24P signal to a 60P signal.
US08385596B2	First person shooter control with virtual skeleton A virtual skeleton includes a plurality of joints and provides a machine readable representation of a human target observed with a three-dimensional depth camera. A relative position of a hand joint of the virtual skeleton is translated as a gestured aiming vector control, and a virtual weapon is aimed in proportion to the gestured aiming vector control.
US08385594B2	Method and apparatus for determining the position of a vehicle, computer program and computer program product The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for determining the position of a vehicle moved along a path, markers, particularly code carriers or barcodes being located along the path. The method is characterized in that the markers are detected with a digital camera placed on the vehicle and that by means of image processing from a position of at least one marker image in the detection or coverage range of the digital camera a position of the vehicle relative to the given marker or the given markers in the main vehicle movement direction along the path and in at least one direction at right angles to the main movement direction is determined. The invention also relates to a computer program and a computer program product.
US08385593B2	Selecting representative images for establishments Establishments are identified in geo-tagged images. According to one aspect, text regions are located in a geo-tagged image and text strings in the text regions are recognized using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) techniques. Text phrases are extracted from information associated with establishments known to be near the geographic location specified in the geo-tag of the image. The text strings recognized in the image are compared with the phrases for the establishments for approximate matches, and an establishment is selected as the establishment in the image based on the approximate matches. According to another aspect, text strings recognized in a collection of geo-tagged images are compared with phrases for establishments in the geographic area identified by the geo-tags to generate scores for image-establishment pairs. Establishments in each of the large collection of images as well as representative images showing each establishment are identified using the scores.
US08385592B2	Digital watermarking system and method Embodiments of the invention provide a digital watermarking system and method for producing watermarked images from a sequence of original images. The system includes a storage unit and a processor to encode watermark data, create a watermark bitmap template of the encoded watermark data, load and scale the original images, composite the watermark bitmap template and the scaled original images to produce the watermarked images, and store the watermarked images. The system can also produce a single watermarked image from a single original image.
US08385591B1	System and method of using images to determine correspondence between locations In one aspect, a system and method is provided that matches images that are associated with street addresses with images that are associated with locations that are stored with respect to another reference system, such as latitude/longitude. If the images match, the street address is associated with the location. In a further aspect, text contained in the images is extracted and associated with the street address as well.
US08385584B2	Diaphragm and loudspeaker using the same A diaphragm includes a central portion and an edge portion around the central portion. The central portion includes a plurality of carbon nanotubes therein. The central portion is a carbon nanotube structure or a carbon nanotube composite structure. A loudspeaker using the diaphragm is also disclosed. The loudspeaker includes the diaphragm and a voice coil connected to the diaphragm. The voice coil is connected to an outer periphery of the central portion or a joint portion between the central portion and the edge portion.
US08385583B2	Methods and apparatus for reduced distortion balanced armature devices An example apparatus comprises a drive coil energizable by a drive signal, at least one permanent magnet, and at least one magnetic return path element for flux induced by the drive signal, the magnetic return path element, such as a balanced armature, being configured to provide a variable reluctance, so as to reduce nonlinearities in a displacement versus drive signal relationship. Modifying the reluctance versus flux properties of the magnetic return path of a transducer, e.g. the armature of a balanced armature device, allows compensation for nonlinearity arising in another part of the apparatus.
US08385582B2	Damper and loudspeaker using the same cross-reference to related applications A damper has ridges and furrows thereon and a through hole therein. The damper includes a carbon nanotube film structure and an amorphous carbon structure. The carbon nanotube film structure defines a number of micropores therein. The amorphous carbon structure is composited with the carbon nanotube structure. The amorphous carbon structure comprises a number of amorphous carbon particles received in the micropores.
US08385575B2	Reflex enclosure A reflex enclosure, includes an enclosure body, a loudspeaker, a waveguide portion and a vibration unit; a rearward sound wave generated from the loudspeaker is guided 360 degree (in all directions) from the outside of the waveguide portion to the inside of the waveguide portion, and then push the vibration unit to generate vibration to generate a corresponding sound wave, thereby reducing a standing wave ratio of the rearward sound wave in a sound room to obtain a better timbre. Furthermore, the length of a rearward sound wave guiding distance can be extended, allowing the sound wave to have the effect of extending toward a low frequency compass. In addition, the rearward sound wave is allowed to compress to increase a vibration unit pushing force, thereby obtaining a better sound effect.
US08385572B2	Method for reducing noise using trainable models The object is to improve the effect of a noise reduction algorithm for hearing apparatuses and in particular hearing aids. This is achieved by a method wherein the input signal is modeled by a wanted signal model and a noise signal model. In addition, a signal statistic of the input signal is recorded in a data logging unit. The wanted signal model and/or the noise signal model can now be changed as a function of said signal statistic. Finally the noise component of the input signal is reduced using the noise signal model and/or the wanted signal model. This means that the models used can be continuously adapted to the hearing apparatus user's current situation.
US08385565B2	Apparatus and method of operating an audio system An audio system includes a level controller receiving an input audio signal from an audio medium. The level controller includes a gain adjust module producing an output audio signal based on the input audio signal. A filter arrangement is communicatively coupled to the level controller. The filter arrangement receives the output audio signal and divides the output signal into a plurality of filtered signals. Each of the filtered signals corresponds to a respective frequency band. A multiband dynamics controller is communicatively coupled to the filter arrangement. The multiband dynamics controller receives the filtered signals and applies a respective gain characteristic to each of the filtered signals to thereby produce a plurality of gain adjust signals. The gain adjust signals are combined into a multiband dynamics controller output signal.
US08385561B2	Digital power link audio distribution system and components thereof An audio distribution system in one embodiment includes a master device, a powered speaker unit, and an expander device. The master device has an output port for receiving a cable carrying an electrical power signal along with a digital audio signal. The speaker unit includes a first port for receiving the electrical power signal and the digital audio power signal, and a second port for sending the signals. A digital-to-analog converter in the speaker unit converts the digital audio signal to an analog audio signal, and a speaker driver uses the signal to produce sound. The expander device is electrically connectable to the second port of the speaker unit for providing electrical power to one or more further speaker units. In another embodiment, the invention provides a master mixer device and a speaker unit. The master mixer device includes a digital signal processor for receiving and separately processing a speech channel having digital audio containing speech content and a music channel having digital audio containing music content. In an embodiment a powered speaker unit employing a class D amplifier for reproducing sound is further disclosed. A digital power link in port is provided in the powered speaker for receiving a cable carrying a digital audio signal and electrical power.
US08385553B1	Portable secure element Transferring control of a secure element between TSMs comprises a zone master key established between the TSMs that facilitates encryption of a temporary key. The TSMs create the zone master key prior to initiation of transfer of control. Once transfer of control is initiated, the first TSM establishes a communication channel and deletes its key from the secure element. The first TSM creates a temporary key that is encrypted with the zone master key established between the first TSM and the second TSM. The encrypted temporary key is communicated to the second TSM with a device identifier. The second TSM decrypts the temporary key using the zone master key and identifies the user device using the device identifier. The new TSM establishes a communication channel and deletes the temporary key from the secure element. The new TSM then inputs and saves its key into the secure element.
US08385551B2	Highly available cryptographic key storage (HACKS) A system and method for managing trusted platform module (TPM) keys utilized in a cluster of computing nodes. A cluster-level management unit communicates with a local TPM agent in each node in the cluster. The cluster-level management unit has access to a database of protection groups, wherein each protection group comprises one active node which creates a TPM key and at least one standby node which stores a backup copy of the TPM key for the active node. The local TPM agent in the active node automatically initiates a migration process for automatically migrating the backup copy of the TPM key to the at least one standby node. The system maintains coherency of the TPM keys by also deleting the backup copy of the TPM key in the standby node when the key is deleted by the active node.
US08385547B2	Method and apparatus for secure digital communications using chaotic signals A system and method for encoding zero and one bits for transmission, including generating a first signal from a non-linear chaotic system to represent the one bit, with the signal's embedded vectors being within the non-linear system's attractor set, and generating a second signal from the non-linear system to represent the zero bit, with the signal's embedded vectors being outside the non-linear system's attractor set. The second signal encoding the zero bit can be generated by adding together two chaotic signals arising from the non-linear system initialized with different initial conditions, and weighting the second signal to have approximately the same energy as the first signal. One suitable chaotic systems is a Lorenz system. Systems and methods for decoding a transmitted stream of signals compare a detection statistic of the received stream of signals to a threshold value that depends on the chaotic system.
US08385544B2	Packet based high definition high-bandwidth digital content protection A packet based high bandwidth copy protection method is described that includes the following operations. Forming a number of data packets at a source device, encrypting selected ones of the data packets based upon a set of encryption values, transmitting the encrypted data packets from the source device to a sink device coupled thereto, decrypting the encrypted data packets based in part upon the encryption values, and accessing the decrypted data packets by the sink device.
US08385543B1	Method and apparatus providing confidentiality, integrity and authenticity for a video file A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing confidentiality, integrity and authenticity for a video file is presented. An encryption header is produced for the video file, the video file including a plurality of packets that carry content, the encryption header containing information necessary to successfully decrypt the video file. The encryption header is added to the video file. An encryption key is generated from a master key identified in the encryption header and, using the encryption key, individual packets of the video file that carry content are encrypted. The video file comprises one of the group consisting of pre-recorded streaming video, live streaming video and randomly accessed video.
US08385541B2	Method of performing elliptic polynomial cryptography with elliptic polynomial hopping The method of performing elliptic polynomial cryptography with elliptic polynomial hopping allows for the encryption of messages through elliptic polynomial cryptography, i.e., using elliptic polynomials with multi x-coordinates, and particularly with the utilization of elliptic polynomial hopping based upon both the elliptic polynomial and its twist, regardless of whether the elliptic polynomial and its twist are isomorphic with respect to one another. Each plaintext block is encrypted by a different elliptic polynomial, and the elliptic polynomials used are selected by an initial secret key and a random number generator. The method is particularly useful for symmetric encryption systems, and provides a block cipher fundamentally based upon a computationally hard problem.
US08385538B2	Method, system, and apparatus for a differential transformer-free hybrid circuit A differential transformer-free hybrid circuit includes a first amplifier configured to receive a first signal from a transmitter and output the first signal to a telephone loop, and a second amplifier configured to receive a second signal from the telephone loop and output the second signal to a receiver. Further, the differential transformer-free hybrid circuit also includes at least one balanced network element and a transformer-less interface configured to couple the first amplifier and the second amplifier to the telephone loop, wherein the transformer-less interface includes at least one current blocking device.
US08385536B2	Automatic telephone number favorites list A system stores a set of telephone numbers dialed by a user. The system selects a subset of telephone numbers from the stored set of telephone numbers as the user's favorite telephone numbers based on one or more first scores, where the one or more scores include a frequency score associated with a frequency that the telephone numbers have been dialed by the user and/or a recency score associated with how recently that the telephone numbers have been dialed by the user. The system stores the list of the user's favorite telephone numbers in memory.
US08385530B2	Enhanced directory assistance system An enhanced directory assistance system includes a telephone switch for receiving calls from at least one caller desiring to receive directions. A direction module is configured to receive a desired destination information provided by the caller and the location of the caller. The direction module is further configured to provide directions to the caller based on the destination and the caller location information, where the system maintains a preferred destination listing configured to store a preferred destination information relating to a destination request frequently requested by the caller, such that when the system recognizes the caller, the desired destination is populated directly from the preferred destination information.
US08385528B2	Communication management feature A method for screening incoming communications includes the steps of receiving an incoming communication intended for a communication device or a recipient and identifying a sender of the communication and a communication type, which can includes an email. The method also includes the steps of identifying screening settings based on the sender and the communication type and determining whether the communication is allowed in accordance with the identified settings. Further, the method includes the steps of notifying a recipient of the communication, if the communication is allowed. In addition, the method includes the step of processing the communication without notifying a recipient, if the communication is not allowed.
US08385527B2	Method and apparatus for overlaying whispered audio onto a telephone call Information may be provided to a telephony customer from an overlay service by causing a second stream of audio information to be overlayed on a primary stream of audio information. The overlayed information may be whispered to the user by causing the overlayed information to be compressed into a limited frequency spectrum which is inserted into a manufactured gap in the primary audio stream. This allows the user to continue to hear the main audio stream while also hearing the overlayed information. The overlay service may provide administrative information, advertisements, music, and/or Internet search results via the overlayed audio. Users may issue commands to the overlay service, to have particular information transmitted via overlayed audio. Where the user is also associated with a telephony application running on a computer platform, the overlayed information may be incorporated onto the information being shown to the user on a computer display.
US08385524B2	System and method for control of communications connections and notifications A method and system for selectively establishing a communications connection between an origin and destination in a communications network based on one or mediations rules and one or more lists of prohibited and exempted destination identifiers either in real-time using a control unit or with a pre-check using an analysis unit while also providing notification messages associated with the allowed or designated allowed communications connections.
US08385523B2	System and method to facilitate voice message retrieval Some embodiments provide transmission of a request to access a voice message mailbox to a voice mailbox provider, transmission of caller information to the voice mailbox provider, and reception of a voice message associated with the caller information from the voice mailbox provider. According to various embodiments, the caller information may be associated with a selected contact, with a caller who initiated a missed voice call, and/or with a particular voice message mailbox.
US08385518B1	Integrated call handler and email systems and methods Apparatuses, systems and methods are presented for handling calls. In one embodiment, an emergency call handling system capable of receiving visual information from callers and correlating the visual information to particular incidents is disclosed. To obtain visual information, a call handler may generate and send an electronic mail message to the caller. The caller may reply to the electronic mail message and attach an image captured with, for example, a camera phone. The visual information may then be correlated to the call between the caller and call handler. The visual information may be used to assess an emergency situation. The visual information may be forwarded to emergency service providers.
US08385517B2	Replying through different channels An apparatus includes a display and a processor connected to the display. The processor being configured to transmit at least one reply communication in response to an incoming communication, the at least one reply communication being formatted by the processor for a communication protocol that is different from a communication protocol of the incoming communication.
US08385516B2	Ringback blocking and replacement system A smart ringback blocking and replacement system for delivering and/or selectively blocking signal content from a communications network is disclosed. Communications devices interact with the smart ringback blocking and replacement system to allow for modifications of the network service.
US08385514B2	Providing an advertisement to a calling party before ringback Communication networks and associated methods are disclosed that provide an advertisement or other type of informational message to a calling party before providing ringback tones. A communication network described herein receives a call from the calling party to the called party, and temporarily interrupts call processing for the call. The communication network then selects an advertisement for the call, and initiates delivery of the advertisement to the calling party. After the advertisement is delivered to the calling party, the communication network resumes call processing for the call. In resuming call processing, the communication network provides ringback tones to the calling party and attempts to connect the call to the called party.
US08385511B2	Dial capture alarm interface with integrated voice In one aspect of the present invention there is provided a system that provides for one or more of the following: (a) allows a dial capture alarm communicator to both send event data and provide a voice path to an alarm receiver at the central station; (b) is not integrated into the alarm panel, which allows it to be added to almost any preexisting installation; (c) uses industry-standard event reporting protocols, it can be used with any alarm panel that provides industry-standard event notifications; and/or (d) provides transparent transport for both the voice and the data, meaning that neither the alarm panel nor the alarm communicator at the central station is aware of the communicator's intermediary function.
US08385510B2	Method for transmission line analysis A FDR SELT measurement is made in a stop band of a DSL band plan, using a PSD allowed by the PSD mask. Further measurements may also be made in an adjacent pass band and further bands, and the results combined to create a wide-band measurement result. When transformed into the time domain (e.g. by inverse Fourier transform to produce the line impulse response) greater resolution in time (and hence greater spatial resolution) is achieved. In order to compensate for AGC calibration errors measurements using different AGC steps may be scaled to fit smoothly to each other. If measurements overlap, measurement results in the region of overlap may be combined in various ways to limit the influence of noise and to create a smooth transition from one measurement to the next.
US08385505B2	X-ray tube bearing assembly In one example, an x-ray tube comprises an evacuated enclosure and a cathode disposed within the evacuated enclosure. An anode is also disposed within the evacuated enclosure opposite the cathode so as to receive electrons emitted by the cathode. A rotor sleeve is coupled to the anode, the rotor sleeve being responsive to applied electromagnetic fields such that a rotational motion is imparted to the anode. A magnetic assist bearing assembly rotatably supports the anode.
US08385504B2	DC/AC power inverter control unit of a resonant power converter circuit, in particular a DC/DC converter for use in a high-voltage generator circuitry of a modern computed tomography device or X-ray radiographic system A DC/AC power inverter control unit of a resonant-type power converter circuit (400), in particular a DC/DC converter, for supplying an output power for use in a high-voltage generator circuitry of an X-ray radiographic imaging system, a 3D rotational angiography device, or X-ray computed tomography device, comprises an interphase transformer (406) connected in series to at least one series resonant tank circuit (403a and 403a′ or 403b and 403b′) at the output of two DC/AC power inverter stages (402a+b) supplying a multi-primary winding high-voltage transformer (404). The interphase transformer (406) removes a difference (ΔI) in resonant output currents and (I1 and I2) of the DC/AC power inverter stages (402a+b). In addition, a control method is disclosed which assures that the interphase transformer (406) is not saturated. Furthermore, the control method ensures zero current operation and provides for minimized input power losses.
US08385498B2	Boosted charge transfer circuit A charge transfer circuit, such as a charge coupled device or other bucket brigade device, which incorporates an amplifier to assist with charge transfer.
US08385494B2	Full range offset correction for coherent optical OFDM systems A method includes synchronizing a received signal with at least two orthogonal frequency division multiplexed OFDM training signals having only in-phase values and being real in the time domain and determining a frequency offset correction from the synchronization of the received signal and training symbols responsive to a cross-correlation between said training symbols to enable estimating all possible frequency offsets for correction for enabling OFDM demodulation of said received signal.
US08385492B2	Receiver circuit architectures Described are methods and circuits for margin testing digital receivers. These methods and circuits prevent margins from collapsing in response to erroneously received data, and can thus be used in receivers that employ historical data to reduce intersymbol interference (ISI). Some embodiments detect receive errors for input data streams of unknown patterns, and can thus be used for in-system margin testing. Such systems can be adapted to dynamically alter system parameters during device operation to maintain adequate margins despite fluctuations in the system noise environment due to e.g. temperature and supply-voltage changes. Also described are methods of plotting and interpreting filtered and unfiltered error data generated by the disclosed methods and circuits. Some embodiments filter error data to facilitate pattern-specific margin testing.
US08385489B2	Methods and apparatus for wireless channel estimation using interpolation elimination in the Eigen domain Methods and apparatus are provided for wireless channel estimation using interpolation elimination in the Eigen domain. Channel components at known OFDM symbol locations are interpolated to other OFDM symbol locations. Methods and apparatus are provided for interpolating in the Eigen domain between reference signals (i.e., training signals) to estimate the equalizer coefficients with a reduced complexity. In particular, one aspect of the present invention performs the required interpolation before a required matrix inversion in the Eigen domain.
US08385488B2	Inter-cell interference mitigation method using spatial covariance matrix estimation method for inter-cell interference mitigation of MIMO antenna OFDM system Disclosed is an inter-cell interference mitigation method using a spatial covariance matrix (SCM) estimation method in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication system for mitigating interference between asynchronous cells. The inter-cell interference mitigation method includes extracting a reference symbol (RS) of a received OFDM symbol and performing channel estimation, estimating an initial SCM using the RS signal and the channel estimation result, applying time-domain sinc type weighting to the initial SCM and applying an SCM, and demodulating a data symbol with mitigated inter-cell interference using the channel estimation result and the estimated SCM. By applying time-domain sinc type weighting to SCM estimation, it is possible to reduce an SCM estimation error occurring due to a spectral leakage induced by an abrupt change in a signal at a border point between an effective sub carrier zone and a guard band zone, and a simple design of a moving average filter form for a frequency domain signal can be made instead of frequency-time-frequency domain transformation using an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) and fast Fourier transfer (FFT).
US08385484B2	Method and apparatus for detection and cancellation of single-tone or multi-tone interference in communication systems A method and system for canceling an interference signal are provided. In the method, a received signal is transformed from a time domain to a frequency domain at relative low precision to obtain an estimated frequency and an estimated amplitude of the interference signal. A reference signal is generated using the estimated frequency and the estimated amplitude. An error signal is generated using the received signal and the reference signal based on minimum correlation criteria. The reference signal is adjusted using the error signal based on an adaptive algorithm. The reference signal is subtracted from the received signal to obtain the useful signal.
US08385482B2	Start-up automatic frequency control (AFC) method and apparatus A method and apparatus for use in connection with wireless communication to adjust the frequency of an oscillator to synchronize with a received signal by correlating a synchronization code channel with training sequences to estimate relative offsets which are employed to estimate an error, which is then filtered. The filtered output preferably provides a voltage controlling a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The same technique may be employed to control a numeric controlled oscillator (NCO).
US08385481B2	Radio communication apparatus and offset correction method An apparatus includes: an offset adjustment unit that supplies an offset correction signal corresponding to a frequency switching to an adder unit that receives an output from a mixer; a timing adjustment unit that adjusts the timing of a frequency switching signal supplied to a local oscillator and the timing of an offset correction amount switching signal supplied to the offset adjustment unit for changing an offset amount in correspondence with the frequency switching in the local oscillator; a noise amount measurement and calculation unit that receives a signal obtained by amplifying and filtering of the signal from the adder unit, to measure a noise amount of the signal and generates a timing determination signal based on the measured noise amount; and a control unit that controls the timing of the frequency switching signal and the offset correction amount switching signal supplied to the timing adjustment unit, based on the timing determination signal from the noise amount measurement and calculation unit.
US08385479B2	Apparatus and method for canceling interference in multi-antenna system An apparatus and a method for canceling interference based on Maximum Likelihood (ML) at a receiver of a multi-antenna system are provided. The method includes estimating a channel using a signal received over one or more receiver antennas; generating one or more weights using the estimated channel to cancel interference; detecting a candidate symbol having the shortest Euclidean distance through Maximum Likelihood using a first weight; and soft-decoding the candidate symbol using a second weight. Therefore, by receiving the signal based on the ML under the interference, the system capacity can be increased and the reception performance can be enhanced.
US08385478B1	Channel estimation method and device using the same A channel estimation method is provided. The method includes the following steps of: receiving an input symbol of an input signal and obtaining several pilot channel gains through calculation; executing an operation of interpolation on the pilot channel gains by a Wiener filter to obtain several data channel gains through calculation; calculating an adaptive alteration for the first and second multi-path statistical characteristic parameters according to the data channel gains and the pilot channel gains, and accordingly having the first and the second multi-path statistical characteristic parameters adjusted; generating an updated Wiener filter according to the adjusted first and second multi-path statistical characteristic parameters to execute an operation of channel estimation on a next input symbol of the input signal.
US08385477B2	Decision boundary estimation for MIMO wireless receivers In a wireless receiver, an estimated decision boundary for use in detecting symbol values from one group of combined received symbols is calculated based on a estimated traffic-to-pilot channel scaling ratio or an estimated decision boundary corresponding to another group of combined received symbols. By properly combining the information derived from the latter group of combined received symbols with channel estimation information for the former group, a decision boundary estimate for the former group can be obtained without the use of amplitude or power information for the latter group of symbols.
US08385474B2	Signal generator with adjustable frequency Frequency of an oscillating signal is temporarily adjusted to adjust frequency and/or phase of an output signal. For example, the frequency of the oscillating signal may be adjusted for a very short period of time to adjust the phase of the output signal. In addition, the frequency of the oscillating signal may be temporarily adjusted in a repeated manner to adjust the effective frequency of the output signal. In some aspects the frequency of the oscillating signal is adjusted by reconfiguration of reactive circuits associated with an oscillator circuit.
US08385472B2	Context-sensitive overhead processor An overhead processor for data transmission in digital communications, where a state machine, including a logic element and a flip-flop, is able to process a “previous” data state and a “next” data state simultaneously by storing the previous state in an external elastic storage element until the next state arrives along the datapath. By employing flip-flops on the path from the logic element to the elastic store and on the path from the elastic store to the logic element, data is transmitted faster, resulting in the ability for both the previous data state and the next data state to be transmitted simultaneously, in one clock cycle, requiring half of the transmission time required by prior art.
US08385471B2	Multi-channel receiver This invention relates to a method, a computer program product, a device, and a system, wherein a receiver unit (200,300,300′,500,500′,600,600′) is configured to operate in a single-channel mode and in a multi-channel mode, wherein in the single-channel mode the receiver unit (200,300,300′,500,500′,600,600′) is configured to output exactly one channel of a received signal, and in the multiple-channel mode the receiver unit (200,300,300′,500,500′,600,600′) is configured to output at least two channels of the received signal.
US08385467B2	Method and apparatus for information transmission in a radio communication system The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for information transmission in a radio communication system. The method includes the steps of creating a first symbol and a second symbol relevant to information, creating a first transmission vector and a second transmission vector on the basis of Alamouti code from the first symbol and the second symbol, and transmitting the first transmission vector via a first antenna and transmitting the second transmission vector via a second antenna.
US08385461B1	On-off keying using vector modulation A system and method including deriving a subcarrier frequency from a binary data stream having a clock frequency, wherein the subcarrier frequency is substantially the same as the clock frequency; gating the subcarrier frequency using the data stream to produce a modulated OOK signal; determining a OOK subcarrier center frequency based on the modulated OOK signal with the clock frequency; delaying the modulated OOK signal relative to the binary data stream by a predetermined amount to produce a delayed modulated OOK signal; conditioning the modulated OOK signal and the delayed modulated OOK signal to create a differential transition signal in an I channel and a Q channel to provide a stable amplitude signal level reference at an input to an I and Q vector modulator.
US08385454B2	Robust linear precoder designs for multi-cell downlink transmission Methods and systems for optimizing the utilities of receiver devices in a wireless communication network are disclosed. Precoder design formulations that maximize a minimum worst-case rate or a worst-case sum rate are described for both full base station cooperation and limited base station cooperation scenarios. In addition, optimal equalizers are also selected to optimize the worst-case sum rate.
US08385453B2	Data processing method and base station for downlink transmit diversity A data processing method and a base station for downlink transmit diversity are disclosed. One embodiment of the method comprises: obtaining data symbol groups formed by arranging a first type data symbol and a second type data symbol in an interval, wherein the first type data symbol is more important; determining a first antenna port pairing mode corresponding to a current slot; performing, for OFDM symbols including the reference signal in the current slot, an antenna port and subcarrier mapping on symbols in a transmit diversity matrix corresponding to the data symbol groups according to the first antenna port pairing mode, wherein a subcarrier in which a symbol related to the first type data symbol is located is nearer to a subcarrier in which a reference signal at the same antenna port is located; and performing an inverse fast fourier transform and a cyclic prefix insertion processing on symbols mapped to subcarriers and then mapping the time domain symbols to a physical antenna for transmission. According to embodiments of the invention, comparatively important symbols may obtain better protection.
US08385451B2	Method and apparatus for improved spatial temporal turbo channel coding (STTCC) using eigen-beamforming The present invention is a method and apparatus for improving the performance of spatial temporal turbo channel coding (STTCC) used in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems called eigen-STTCC (E-STTCC) that employs eigen-beamforming to make use of orthogonal eigen streams in the MIMO channel. Singular value decomposition (SVD) is applied to the channel matrix producing a linear precoding matrix containing the orthonormal basis for the eigen streams. In a first embodiment, the turbo encoded codeword containing concatenated systematic and parity bits is precoded with the linear precoding matrix such that the systematic bits are transmitted over the eigen streams with highest power. In a second embodiment, the codeword is made up of interleaved systematic bits and parity bits prior to eigen beamform preceding, effectively interleaving the systematic and data bits spatially over the eigen streams. In an alternate embodiment, the data stream is interleaved at the input to the encoder.
US08385450B2	Metrics calculations utilizing pre-stored values A trellis processing technique for estimating a transmitted signal from a received signal acquired through a channel achieves a reduced computational structure when implementing a DDFSE-like branch metrics calculation by pre-storing computed values, which can be re-used. The technique involves storing differences between a received symbol and different products, each of which is a product of a channel coefficient corresponding to a least time delay and a different possible transmitted symbol. A summation of products is calculated, each product being a product of a possible transmitted signal symbol and a channel coefficient other than the channel coefficient corresponding to the least time delay, the summation being specific to a branch-start state in a trellis. The summation is combined with different stored differences in a calculation of branch metrics leading to different branch-end states in the trellis.
US08385449B2	Method and device for detecting simultaneous double transmission of AM signals A device that detects the presence of several amplitude-modulated high-frequency signals in a sum signal with closely-adjacent carrier frequencies. The sum signal is phase-demodulated by a phase demodulator and Fourier-transformed by a Fourier-transformation device. On the basis of the Fourier transform, the presence of several carrier frequencies is determined by an evaluation device.
US08385445B2	Method for processing digital signals, and transmission/reception system implementing said method The present invention relates to a method for processing digital signals and to a transmission/reception system implementing said method; the present invention is based on the use of LDPC codes, in particular the LDPC code of the DVB-S2 standard, in combination with a QAM modulation, in particular the 1024QAM and 4096QAM modulations; in transmission, a bit permutation (Demux) is carried out prior to the QAM constellation mapping function; in reception, the bit permutation is carried out after the QAM constellation demapping function.
US08385439B2	Polarization mode dispersion compensation in multilevel coded-modulation schemes using blast algorithm and iterative polarization cancellation Receivers and methods are provided for polarization mode dispersion compensation in multi-level coded-modulation schemes using a BLAST algorithm and iterative polarization cancellation. A receiver includes a vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time Architecture (V-BLAST) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) detector configured to receive input sequences and partially cancel polarization interference with respect to the input sequences to output symbol estimates for the input sequences. The receiver further includes one or more low-density parity-check (LDPC) decoders coupled to the V-BLAST OFDM detector configured to receive channel bit reliabilities and output code words. The channel bit reliabilities are indirectly calculated from the symbol estimates. The one or more LDPC decoders iteratively provide extrinsic soft information feedback to the V-BLAST OFDM detector to compensate for the polarization interference.
US08385437B2	Transport stream generating device, transmitting device, receiving device, and a digital broadcast system having the same, and method thereof A transport stream (TS) generating apparatus, a transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus, a digital broadcast system having the above, and a method thereof are provided. The digital broadcast system includes a transport stream (TS) generating apparatus which generates a multi transport stream (TS) by multiplexing a normal stream and a turbo stream having a variable coding rate, a transmitting apparatus which re-constructs the multi TS by processing the turbo stream, and transmits the re-constructed multi TS, and a receiving apparatus which receives the re-constructed multi TS, and decodes the normal stream and the turbo stream respectively, to recover normal data and turbo data. Accordingly, a multi TS, which includes normal stream and a turbo stream of various coding rates, can be transmitted and received efficiently.
US08385433B2	Linear precoding for spatially correlated channels Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate estimating transmit covariance from evaluation of a channel (e.g., forward link channel, reverse link channel, . . . ) to be utilized in linear precoding for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. Predefined codebooks that include any number of precoding matrices may be modified based upon transmit covariance estimations to yield improved precoding performance. Further, channel related feedback may be generated and analyzed by utilizing the modified codebooks.
US08385429B2	Video compression encoder A video compression encoder which does not require a video frame buffer is disclosed. Without a frame buffer, incoming pixels can not be compared to pixels previously sent to the decoder. Instead, the disclosed encoder only stores check values for groups of pixels sent. If a group's check value has not changed, the encoder sends a command to the decoder not to change that pixel group. Also, without a frame buffer, an incoming video frame can not be captured and later sent to the decoder as network throughput permits. Instead, if throughput is insufficient to send an encoded group of pixels, the encoder leaves the check value for that group unchanged and sends a command instructing the decoder not to change those pixels. This defers updating that group until the next screen update is sent to the decoder. Grouping of pixels can be done in any fashion, for example; a group can be a single video line, a portion of a line, multiple lines or screen rectangles containing portions of multiple lines.
US08385425B2	Temporal video filtering for real time communication systems Background vs. foreground decisions for video frames to be compressed and transmitted in a real time video communication system are made based on a non-parametric approach using signs of pixel value changes in sequential frames. Pixel value changes are tracked as negative or positive. Cost functions may be assigned to rows and columns of predefined blocks and a decision made based on randomness of the signs within the block whether the block represents background (noise) or foreground. Recursive temporal filtering is then employed to reduce the background noise progressively resulting in increased compression and transmission efficiency. Offset tiling is used to increase accuracy of randomness determination when blocks include background and foreground combinations.
US08385424B2	Reduction of errors during computation of inverse discrete cosine transform Techniques are described to reduce rounding errors during computation of discrete cosine transform using fixed-point calculations. According to these techniques, an inverse discrete cosine transform a vector of coefficients is calculated using a series of butterfly structure operations on fixed-point numbers. Next, a midpoint bias value and a supplemental bias value are added to a DC coefficient of the matrix of scaled coefficients. Next, an inverse discrete cosine transform is applied to the resulting matrix of scaled coefficients. Values in the resulting matrix are then right-shifted in order to derive a matrix of pixel component values. As described herein, the addition of the supplemental bias value to the DC coefficient reduces rounding errors attributable to this right-shifting. As a result, a final version of a digital media file decompressed using these techniques may more closely resemble an original version of a digital media file.
US08385423B2	Motion vector detecting device, motion vector detecting method, image encoding device, and program A motion vector detecting device includes: a motion predicting and compensating circuit calculating cost values of a plurality of motion vectors, which is candidates of an optimal motion vector, using a cost function indicating an encoding efficiency with a first pixel precision every prediction mode and calculating the optimal motion vector with a second pixel precision and the cost value of the optimal motion vector with the second pixel precision using a profile of the cost values with the first pixel precision.
US08385415B2	System and method for intracoding and decoding video data A video system for coding a stream of video data that includes a stream of video frames divides each video frame into a matrix of a plurality of subblocks, wherein each subblock includes a plurality of pixels. The video system operates in accordance with nine prediction modes. Each prediction mode determines a prediction mode according to which a present subblock is to be coded. One of the nine prediction modes is selected to encode the present subblock, wherein the selected prediction mode provides for a minimum error value in the present subblock.
US08385406B2	Method and apparatus of coding/decoding image An apparatus and a method of coding/decoding an image are provided. The apparatus includes: a low resolution image coding unit that codes a low resolution image corresponding to an input image using motion estimation and compensation; and a residual image coding unit that performs intra mode coding with respect to a residual image which indicates a difference between a reconstructed image of the coded low resolution image and the input image by considering temporal correlation between neighboring residual images.
US08385405B2	Recorded medium having program for coding and decoding using bit-precision, and apparatus thereof A coding/decoding device using a bit-precision is disclosed. A coding device includes a bit-precision selecting unit, selecting a bit-precision value according to data to be coded; and a coding unit, generating a bit-stream by coding the data according to the selected bit-precision value, whereas the selected bit-precision value is inserted into the bit-stream.With the present invention, video data can be entropy-coded by selectively determining the number of bits and there can be provided the decoding method with a little complexity which has not only the identical compression rate to the conventional entropy coding method but also no necessity of additional computation when video data is decoded.
US08385400B2	Adaptive equalization in the presence of burst errors Methods for providing adaptive equalization in the presence of a burst error are provided. If an equalization algorithm has converged and burst errors are present during a symbol interval, the equalizer coefficients remain unchanged during the symbol interval. If the burst error is no longer present during the next symbol interval, the equalizer coefficients are updated based on the previously converged coefficients.
US08385394B2	Circuit and method for on-chip jitter measurement Disclosed herein are embodiments of an improved built-in self-test (BIST) circuit and an associated method for measuring phase and/or cycle-to-cycle jitter of a clock signal. The embodiments of the BIST circuit implement a Variable Vernier Digital Delay Locked Line method. Specifically, the embodiments of the BIST circuit incorporate both a digital delay locked loop and a Vernier delay line, for respectively coarse tuning and fine tuning portions of the circuit. Additionally, the BIST circuit is variable, as the resolution of the circuit changes from chip to chip, and digital, as it is implemented with standard digital logic elements.
US08385393B2	Transmission power control method for a wireless communication system Transmission power relative to a propagation path having a variation in gain is controlled to increase communication channel capacity, and a data rate is controlled in accordance with the variation of the increased communication channel capacity. In order to increase the communication channel capacity, the transmission power is determined so that the sum of noise power (=received noise power/propagation path gain) converted into one at a transmitter and the transmission power becomes constant. As a result, contrary to the background art, the transmission power is controlled to be reduced when the propagation path gain decreases and to be increased when the propagation path gain increases.
US08385392B2	Network and method for transmitting data in a system of pipes A network contains a main pipe, a branch pipe leading to the main pipe, an electric data line laid in the main pipe and one laid in the individual connecting pipe, one central data distribution unit and a terminal unit. A data line is introduced into the main pipe and is connected to the data distribution unit, its other end laid in the system of pipes being configured as a transmitting or receive antenna. An additional data line is introduced into the system of pipes via the individual connecting pipe and is connected to the terminal unit with one end and another end is configured as a transmitting or receive antenna. The transmitting or receive antenna of the data line serving as an antenna and the transmitting or receive antenna of the additional data line form a pair of antennas between the antennas of which a radio link exists.
US08385390B2	PHY preamble format for wireless communication system A system and method of extracting data from data packets transmitted over a wireless network includes receiving a data packet having a preamble portion and a payload portion. The preamble portion is cross correlated with a first known spreading sequence to generate a first timing signal and the preamble portion is cross correlated with a second known spreading signal to generate a frame timing signal. An impulse is detected in the first timing signal and a first timing parameter is set based upon the detected impulse in the first timing signal. An impulse is detected in the frame timing signal and a frame timing parameter is set based upon the detected impulse in the frame timing signal. Data is extracted from the received payload portion according to the first timing parameter and the frame timing parameter.
US08385387B2	Time dependent equalization of frequency domain spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing using decision feedback equalization System and method for equalizing an orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signal having been encoded by spreading subcarriers in the frequency domain using orthogonal codes includes receiving the signal at a receiver (300), demodulating the signal to produce demodulated information, producing a spread frequency domain representation of the demodulated information, determining an equalized representation by adjusting the power and phase of the spread frequency domain representation at least one frequency based on adjustment values, de-spreading the equalized spread frequency domain representation using the orthogonal codes to produce a de-spread frequency domain representation including received subcarriers, determining a subcarrier value for each of the received subcarriers, orthogonally spreading the determined subcarrier values using the orthogonal codes to produce a model spread frequency representation, calculating expected error values based upon the model spread frequency representation and the equalized spread frequency domain representation, and calculating new adjustment values based upon the expected error values.
US08385386B2	Method for transmitting multiple streams in wireless broadcast networks Accordingly, a method and apparatus are provided to convert received content into a first stream and a second stream, to transmit said first stream using a first tone and to transmit said second stream using an orthogonal scheme. A layering scheme is used to transmit the base stream covering a smaller area and an enhanced stream is used to cover a large utilizing orthogonal scheme.
US08385384B1	System, method and apparatus for selecting frequency hopping sequences Systems, apparatuses and methods for selecting an appropriate frequency hopping sequence in a system of communicating devices. A random seed value is generated at the host device at its point of deployment. A frequency hopping sequence is generated using the random seed value. Other embodiments involve verifying whether the randomly generated seed value is indeed random in the operational vicinity.
US08385383B2	Transmitting/receiving system and method of processing broadcast signal in transmitting/receiving system A receiving system and a method of processing broadcast signal. The receiving system includes a signal receiving unit, an equalizer, a turbo decoder, a demultiplexer, first and second error correctors, and a block interleaver. The signal receiving unit receives a broadcast signal, the broadcast signal comprising a data group, which includes mobile service data, a plurality of known data sequences, and signaling data, and demodulating the received broadcast signal. The equalizer channel-equalizes the data group using at least one of the plurality of known data sequences. The turbo decoder turbo-decodes the signaling data contained in the channel-equalized data group. The demultiplexer distinguishes transmission parameter channel (TPC) data and fast information channel (FIC) data from the turbo-decoded signaling data. The first error corrector corrects an error in the TPC data. The block deinterleaver block-deinterleaves the FIC data. The second error corrector corrects an error in the block-deinterleaved FIC data.
US08385382B2	Compact multi-wavelength and multi-beam laser A compact solid state laser that generates multiple wavelengths and multiple beams that are parallel, i.e., bore-sighted relative to each other, is disclosed. Each of the multiple laser beams can be at a different wavelength, pulse energy, pulse length, repetition rate and average power. Each of the laser beams can be turned on or off independently. The laser is comprised of an optically segmented gain section, common laser resonator with common surface segmented cavity mirrors, optically segmented pump laser, and different intra-cavity elements in each laser segment.
US08385381B2	Vertical cavity surface emitting laser In a VCSEL, a first multilayer film reflector, an active layer having a light emitting central region, a second multilayer film reflector, and a transverse mode adjustment layer are layered in this order. The first multilayer film reflector has a quadrangle current injection region with an intersection of diagonal lines corresponding to the light emitting central region. The second multilayer film reflector has a light emitting window provided in a region corresponding to one diagonal line of the current injection region and a pair of grooves provided with the light emitting window in between. The transverse mode adjustment layer is provided correspondingly to the light emitting window, and reflectance of a peripheral region thereof is lower than that of a central region thereof.
US08385380B2	Monochromatic light source Light emitting systems are disclosed. The light emitting system includes an electroluminescent device that emits light at a first wavelength. The light emitting system further includes an optical cavity that enhances emission of light from a top surface of the light emitting system and suppresses emission of light from one or more sides of the light emitting system. The optical cavity includes a semiconductor multilayer stack that receives the emitted first wavelength light and converts at least a portion of the received light to light of a second wavelength. The semiconductor multilayer stack includes a II-VI potential well. The integrated emission intensity of all light at the second wavelength that exit the light emitting system is at least 10 times the integrated emission intensity of all light at the first wavelength that exit the light emitting system.
US08385376B2	Compact laser source with reduced spectral width The invention relates to a laser source with an external cavity generating a useful laser beam (Fu), that comprises at least one laser diode DL (10) mounted in an extended optical cavity (30, 82) defined between two reflecting surfaces (92, 48) forming an optical path for a laser beam Fd generated by the laser diode DL, a mode selection filter (44, 86) in the optical path of the cavity for selecting a resonance mode from a range of resonance modes of the laser beam in the cavity. The extended cavity (2) includes in the optical path thereof an optical device (94) including a polariser (100) that is 100% permissive to a rectilinear polarisation of the beam Fd generated by the laser diode, the reference polarisation angle θ0being of 0 degrees, a polarisation rotator (102) of the beam at the output of the polariser (Fc1) by a predetermined rotation angle θ−1, a polarisation separator (04) of the beam (Frt) at the output of the polarisation rotator, the polarisation separator being inclined in the cavity so that its transmission axis (tt′) is oriented at an angle (−θ−1) having an opposite sign to and the same value as the polarisation angle of the beam (Frt) at the output of the rotator (102), wherein the optical device prevents any feedback of a reflection beam (Fretum) of the useful beam (Fu) towards said laser diode DL. The invention can be used in a laser for cooling atoms, in interferometry experiments, inertial sensors and atomic clocks.
US08385373B2	Method and apparatus for frame detection in a communications system A method of determining a boundary of a subframe in a time division duplexing (TDD) system is provided. The method detects a power level of a signal on at least one radio frequency, the signal comprising at least one subframe. A time-domain correlation is done on the detected signal with a first reference signal, wherein the first reference signal represents at least one subframe. The location in time of a boundary of the at least one subframe of the detected signal is determined based on the correlation of the detected signal and the first reference signal.
US08385366B2	Apparatus and method for transmitting a sequence of data packets and decoder and apparatus for decoding a sequence of data packets In the context of packet-oriented data transmission via a network, an apparatus for transmitting a sequence of data packets checks whether a packet is missing or faulty. In this case, a replacement packet is provided which is a valid packet with regard to a packet syntax which, however, has a predetermined contents characteristic. On the decoder side, a basic decoder recognizes the packet as a valid packet and decodes same, whereas an extension decoder can enable an error concealing measure on the basis of an indication in the replacement packet to the fact that this is a replacement packet, in order to provide a higher-quality audio reproduction.
US08385365B2	Communication system, communication apparatus, and packet length control method There is provided a communication apparatus includes a soft decision data detection section which detects soft decision data from a received digitally modulated signal; an indicator calculation section which calculates an indicator indicating a degree of variation in the soft decision data detected by the soft decision data detection section; and a packet length control section which controls a packet length in accordance with the indicator calculated by the indicator calculation section.
US08385363B2	System and method for adapting analog systems to communicate with packet networks A system for adapting an analog system to a packet network may include an electronic signal adapter in communication with the analog system and packet network. The electronic signal adapter may be configured to convert information received in data packets from the packet network into dual-tone multiple frequency (DTMF) signals and single tone analog signals and to communicate the DTMF and single tone analog signals to the analog system. The single tones may have a signal strength below approximately −25 dBm. The electronic signal adapter may further be configured to receive and convert analog signals into digital data for communication in data packets over a packet network.
US08385361B2	Multicast transmission to a radio access network The present invention relates to a method and system for performing a multicast transmission in a cellular network, wherein an identification information, which indicates terminal devices and/or areas in which authorized terminal devices are assumed to be located, is transmitted from a core network (100) to a radio access network of the cellular network by using a control information transmission protocol. Then, a signalling connection of a control and user data transmission protocol is establishing based on said identification information and used for transmitting multicast related data and corresponding control information between the core network (100) and the radio access network. Thereby, already defined protocol layers can be used for implementing multicast transmission, while modifications are minimized.
US08385356B2	Data frame forwarding using a multitiered distributed virtual bridge hierarchy Systems and methods to forward data frames are provided. A particular method may include evaluating address data of a first data frame at a first virtual bridge coupled to a first virtual machine of a first server computer of a plurality of server computers. Based upon the evaluation at the first virtual bridge, the first data frame may be forwarded to a second virtual bridge associated with an adapter that is coupled to the first virtual machine. The address data of the first data frame may be evaluated at the second virtual bridge. Based upon the evaluation, the data frame may be forwarded to a third virtual bridge configured to forward the data frame based upon the address data to a second server computer of the plurality of server computers.
US08385355B1	E-Trees over MPLS and PBB-TE networks An E-Tree is disclosed which includes a root node associated with a Metro Ethernet network. The E-Tree includes a first Virtual Bridge (VB), associated with the root node, which is configured to process Ethernet traffic, and a second node associated with the Metro Ethernet network. The E-Tree includes a second VB, associated with the second node, configured to process Ethernet traffic and having a first connection between the first VB and the second VB. The second VB is configured to be able to send Ethernet traffic to the first VB via the first connection, if appropriate. In the event there is a second connection between the second VB and a third VB and the second connection has been assigned a down direction from the point of view of the second VB, the second VB is not permitted to send traffic received from the second connection to another connection which from the point of view of the second VB has been assigned a down direction.
US08385354B2	Scalable hardware mechanism to implement time outs for pending POP requests to blocking work queues Methods and apparatus for minimizing resources for handling time-outs of read requests to a work queue in a work queue memory are described. According to one embodiment of the invention, a work queue execution engine receives a first read request when the work queue is configured in a blocking mode and is empty. A time-out timer is started in response to receiving the first read request. The work queue execution engine receives a second read request while the first read request is still pending, and the work queue is still empty. When the time-out timer expires for the first read request, the work queue execution engine sends an error response for the first read request and restarts the time-out timer for the second read request taking into account an amount of time the second read request has already been pending.
US08385344B2	Transmitting a packet from a distributed trunk switch A method of transmitting a packet from a distributed trunk switch and a computer-readable medium storing instructions therefor is described. The method comprises populating an address table of the distributed trunk switch. The method also comprises receiving a packet from a device connected to the distributed trunk switch and transmitting the received packet via a distributed trunk (DT) port of the distributed trunk switch if the destination address of the received packet corresponds to a distributed trunk port in the address table.
US08385343B2	Method and apparatus for searching IP address The present disclosure provides IP address lookup method and apparatus. In one embodiment of the disclosure, an IP address lookup apparatus stores node information generated for a binary search-on-levels architecture in a universal multi-hashing table prior to searching with an advance filtering by a universal Bloom filter minimizing the number of accesses to the universal multi-hashing table before executing the IP address lookup.
US08385339B1	Transmitting and receiving messages The different advantageous embodiments provide a system and method for transmitting messages. In one advantageous embodiment, a system comprising a number of transceiver units, a first computer system, and a second computer system is provided. The number of transceiver units are configured for use in a cabin of a vehicle, each of the number of transceiver units being configured to receive a number of messages and transmit the number of messages to a subsequent transceiver unit, wherein the subsequent transceiver unit is identified based on a physical position of each of the number of transceiver units to one another. The first computer system is configured for use in the cabin, the first computer system receiving the number of messages on a first number of physical network media and transmitting the number of messages over a first wireless communications link to a first transceiver unit in the number of transceiver units.
US08385337B2	Determining packet forwarding information for packets sent from a protocol offload engine in a packet switching device Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, computer-readable media, mechanisms used in one embodiment configured for, and means for, determining packet forwarding information for packets sent from a protocol offload engine in a packet switching device. The protocol offload engine performs the protocol processing for a protocol application (e.g., BGP) running on a separate control plane processing system, and generates packets to be sent to external devices. The protocol offload engine sends these packets to one of the line cards without using the routing information lookup facility of the control plane processing system, thereby, freeing the control plane processing system to use those processing cycles to perform other tasks.
US08385334B2	Communication via address modulation Systems and methods are provided for communication via address modulation on an communication channel. A first processing component is configured to produce a plurality of data packets. Each data packet has an associated address from a plurality of available addresses. The system further comprises a plurality of addressable entities, with each of the addressable entities being represented by a proper subset of at least two of the available addresses. A second processing component is configured to apply at least one conditioning process to the series of data packets. The first processing component is configured to select an address for each packet from the subset of available addresses representing the addressable entity associated with the packet as to communicate data between the first processing component and the second processing component.
US08385332B2	Network-based macro mobility in cellular networks using an extended routing protocol A new architecture provides network-based mobility in cellular networks that is built on Internet Protocol (IP)/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies, such as Virtual Private Local Area Network (LAN) Service (VPLS), the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and BGP MPLS Layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The architecture consists of several building blocks that provide functionality for different aspects of cellular network mobility. One building block is network-based macro mobility in IP/MPLS networks. The macro mobility techniques described herein are built on extensions to a routing protocol such as BGP. Another building block relates to transferring subscriber context between network devices while preserving the IP address of the subscriber. The techniques described herein provide a subscriber context transfer mechanism for mobile subscriber management that is built on extensions to a routing protocol such as BGP. Another building block of the mobility architecture is network-based micro mobility based on VPLS.
US08385329B2	Method and system of voice carry over for instant messaging relay services A method of assisting communication for a user is provided. The method includes receiving an IM message including a request for a voice carry over from the user, and transmitting to the user an invitation to join a first voice connection. The method further includes initiating the first voice connection with the user, and initiating a second voice connection with a recipient. Additionally, the method includes communicating to the recipient a first voice communication from the user over the first and second voice connections, and communicating to the user a response IM message including a transcribed version of a second voice communication from the recipient. An apparatus for assisting communication for a user is provided. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions is provided. The computer-executable instructions cause a processor to perform a method when executed.
US08385322B2	Distributed ad hoc network protocol using synchronous shared beacon signaling A method for forming a protocol structure for use in an ad hoc, distributed, scaleable wireless sensor node network which enables nodes to join the network autonomously without there being a designated, permanent central time reference and for enabling such nodes to synchronize timing with each other and with other nodes in the network. The method involves discovering the active channel changing sequence used by the network, synchronizing communications of a new node with the remainder of the nodes in the network and scanning communications channels to detect merging clusters of nodes.
US08385320B2	System and method for uplink timing synchronization A system and method are disclosed for providing uplink timing synchronization in a wireless communication system. The uplink timing synchronization may be provided via a specific message sent from the user equipment to a network access device, or may be calculated based upon data received at the network access device from the user equipment.
US08385317B2	Methods and apparatus supporting multiple timing synchronizations corresponding to different communications peers Methods and apparatus related to peer to peer communication networks are described. A wireless communications device supports peer to peer communications with multiple peers. The wireless communications device determines its transmit timing synchronization based on a reference signal received from a node such as a base station, a satellite, or a beacon transmitter which does not transmit user data. The wireless communications device determines a plurality of different receive timing adjustments corresponding to different peer communications devices based on signals received from those peer communications devices. The wireless communications device stores the plurality of determined receive timing adjustment information corresponding to the different peer communications devices. The wireless communications device retrieves and applies stored receive timing adjustment information which matches the particular device which transmitted the signal attempting to be recovered.
US08385313B2	Multi-tier polling A polling arrangement where polling frequency and/or rates may be adjusted according to activities of end stations or other elements being polled. The ability to adjust the polling activities may be used to facilitate reducing or otherwise controlling network resources allocated to the supporting the polling or other messaging depending operations.
US08385312B2	Wireless communication terminal includes a setting section which sets frame transmission intervals A wireless communication terminal includes a setting section and a communication control section. The setting section sets frame transmission intervals IFSh and IFSt (IFSh
US08385311B2	Hierarchical random acces method for wireless communication system having significantly large cell Disclosed is a hierarchical random access method for a wireless communication system having a significantly large cell. According to the present invention, a length of a preamble sequence and a length of a reference slot may be designed based on a terminal having greatest capacity of adjusting a timing error arrived at a base station, and a slot length may be designed to be an integer multiple of the length of the reference slot depending on a timing error correction capacity, thereby enabling terminals to use various slot lengths.
US08385306B2	Power control arrangement for long term elvolution time division duplex method and apparatus Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems and apparatuses for optimizing downlink path loss (PL) measurements in time division duplex (TDD) systems enabling fast power control targeting to decrease fading margin. In one embodiment, a method of power control in a long term evolution time division duplex (TDD) system is provided. The method includes controlling a length of a path loss measurement filter based on an allocation type. A width and frequency position of the path loss measurement filter is made dependent on the allocation type.
US08385304B2	System and method for configuration of network-capable appliances A controlling device is used to configure an appliance for wireless network communications through use of a setup wizard installed on a computing device. The setup wizard is used to obtain from a user information required to perform communications on a wireless network via a wireless network router and a digital representation of the information obtained from the user through use of the setup wizard is provided to the controlling device. The controlling device is then used to transfer the digital representation of the information to the appliance whereupon the appliance will use the digital representation of the information to configure itself for wireless network communications.
US08385303B2	System and method for inter-radio access technology signal measurement A multi-mode user equipment is provided. The multi-mode user equipment includes a processor configured to promote measurement of a signal strength of a microtechnology based communication during a portion of a macrotechnology based communication, wherein the portion is assigned by a macrotechnology based network component.
US08385296B2	Multi-carrier CDMA transmitting device and method using block-based multi-carrier spreading A multi-carrier CDMA transfer device using block-based partial-carrier spreading uses block-based partial-carrier spreading in the multi-cell environment to be applied to MC-CDMA models (FH-MC/CDMA TDD) that are strong against multi-path fading. A transmitter of the transfer device spreads carriers per block in the frequency domain by using the block-based partial-carrier spreading, and a receiver despreads received signals by using the block-based partial-carrier and restore original data. Optionally, an array antenna having a plurality of antenna elements is applied to the transmitter and the receiver, and weights are adaptively applied depending on the channel quality when transmitting and receiving signals through the antenna elements. Therefore, frequency diversity is obtainable and inter-cell interference and inter-code interference is optimized in the MC-CDMA method. Also, changes of frequency hopping reduce temporal variations of channels and prevent a high SN ratio.
US08385293B2	Cell base station neighbor list self configuration A code division multiple access telecommunications network including an underlay base station in a private premises and a plurality of overlay macro base stations. The underlay base station includes a GPS receiver and a mobile unit receiver. The underlay base station uses its geographic location to obtain information identifying macro base stations within a preselected distance of the underlay base station. It uses the mobile receiver to measure pilot signal strength of the macro base stations. It generates a neighbor list of the identified macro base stations ranked according to pilot signal strength.
US08385292B2	Apparatus, and an associated method, for preserving communication service quality levels during hand-off of communications in a radio communication system A mobile station is configured to transmit a sequence of data packets over a wireless network. The station includes a data sequence expander. The expander receives an indication of a pending hand-off for the mobile station from a first network access point to a second network access point and estimates an amount of time prior to occurrence of the hand-off. The expander inserts a number of delay packets into the sequence of data packets in response to receiving the indication of the pending hand-off. The number of delay packets is determined based on the estimated amount of time prior to the occurrence of the hand-off such that the insertion of the delay packets into the sequence of data packets will cause a delay that corresponds to the amount of time prior to occurrence of the hand-off.
US08385289B2	Procedure processing method for packet mode locating services in a mobile radiocommunication system Systems and methods are provided for procedure processing for packet mode location services in a mobile radio communications cellular system, which may include entities of a base station subsystem (BSS) type, a network service entity (NSE), and a serving GPRS support mode (SGSN). In accordance with the systems and methods provided herein, in the event of an inter-NSE cell change, a current location procedure is not aborted if it can be maintained by the BSS.
US08385288B2	Multi-channel SDMA Certain embodiments provide a method for scheduling packet transmissions in a multi-channel wireless communications system. The method generally includes requesting, from a plurality of wireless network nodes, an identification of channels available for communicating with the wireless network nodes, receiving an identification of channels available for communicating with the wireless network nodes, determining a schedule for packet transmission for the wireless network nodes based on the identification of channels, and communicating the schedule to the wireless network nodes.
US08385285B2	System, method and devices for enabling efficient hybrid route optimization between two mobile endpoints A network, a method and devices (i.e., mobile node, access router, home agent, destination home agent) are described herein for enabling an efficient hybrid route optimization between two mobile endpoints so they can re-direct their data traffic to an optimal path without exchanging any mobility signaling messages.
US08385283B2	Real-time service transmission method and resource allocation method The invention discloses a method for real-time service transmission and a method for resource allocation, wherein, the method for resource allocation of real-time service transmission includes the following processing: through the resource allocation control channels, the base station allocates the semi-static service channel resources to the terminal to be used for the initial transmission of hybrid automatic repeat request of the real-time service packets; wherein, before the base station reconfigures or releases the semi-static service channel resources, the terminal can use the semi-static service channel resources continuously; through the resource allocation control channels, the base station allocates the dynamic service channel resources to the terminal to be used for the retransmission of the hybrid automatic repeat request of the real-time service packets; wherein, the terminal can only use the dynamic service channel resources within the allocated time frame. The present invention can ensure the real time of service transmission and reduce the control signaling overhead during service transmission, thereby ensuring the QoS requirements of service.
US08385279B2	Resource allocation apparatus and method for reducing overhead in mobile communication system An operating method of a base station for changing a fixed resource allocation to reduce overhead in a mobile communication system includes calculating a total amount of resources allocated to a corresponding subframe in a period of a corresponding fixed allocation resource; when the total amount of the resources allocated to the corresponding subframe is greater than a threshold, temporarily canceling one or more corresponding fixed allocation resources to make the total amount of the resources allocated to the corresponding subframe less than or equal to the threshold; and reallocating the one or more canceled fixed allocation resources according to a corresponding rule.
US08385278B2	Mobile radio terminal and communication processing method A mobile radio terminal includes a radio transmission/reception unit and a control unit. The radio transmission/reception unit uses a radio signal to perform transmission and reception to and from a base station belonging to a circuit switching network, and also uses a radio signal to perform transmission and reception to and from a base station belonging to a mobile communication network. The mobile communication network is connected to the circuit switching network and forms an integrated communication network together with the circuit switching network. When the mobile radio terminal is on standby in a base station belonging to the mobile communication network, the control unit activates the radio transmission/reception unit and controls the radio transmission/reception unit so as to maintain synchronization with a base station belonging to the circuit switching network.
US08385276B2	Frequency tracking loop for wireless communications Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate computing discriminator signals for frequency tracking in wireless communications. The discriminator signal can be computed based at least in part on representations of a received signal shifted upward by a portion of a frequency tone and downward by the portion of the frequency tone. The shifted signals can be summed, and a dot product of the summed signals and a channel estimation of the original signal can be computed to remove uncertain frequency response due to fading. The discriminator signal can be computed as the imaginary portion of the dot product. A frequency error offset can be determined from the discriminator signal and applied to a receiver to tune alignment of the receiver with frequencies of received signals.
US08385270B2	Apparatus and method for operating a communications device in a mobile communications network Apparatus and a method for handling discard of a service data unit in universal mobile telecommunications system user equipment. Strategies for the radio resource control entity to handle discard of a service data unit by the radio link control entity are presented.
US08385269B2	Enabling IPv6 mobility with sensing features for AD-HOC networks derived from long term evolution networks A wireless communication device includes a plurality of different wireless interfaces to facilitate communications with a remote device over a corresponding plurality of networks. The device can switch between the different interfaces to migrate an on-going communications session from one that requires the infrastructure of a fixed wireless communication network to one that does not require the infrastructure of a fixed wireless communication network. Switching between the various interfaces allows the migration to occur while protecting the device against malicious third-party impersonation attacks.
US08385268B2	Method and apparatus for efficient control decoding for transparent relaying operation in a wireless communication system Systems and methodologies are described herein that facilitate efficient control decoding to facilitate management of cooperative relay operation in a wireless communication environment. As described herein, a relay node (RN) and/or another entity cooperating with a serving network node for respective users in a potentially assisted group can prune a search space of control decoding candidates corresponding to the respective users. For example, respective control decoding candidates corresponding to, e.g., common and/or user-specific search spaces, aggregation levels, control channel sizes, etc., can be eliminated from a reduced control search space based on various criteria. Further, sets of control decoding candidates corresponding to respective users not schedulable at a given time interval can be eliminated. In addition, control search space pruning can be performed in addition to or in place of increased cyclic redundancy check (CRC) protection for control information, thereby further decreasing the probability of false control detection.
US08385267B2	Client routing in a peer-to-peer overlay network A method of client routing in a peer-to-peer (“P2P”) overlay network is provided. In one embodiment, the method of client routing in a P2P overlay network comprises requesting communication with a client by a first peer using the P2P overlay network, wherein said first peer is directed to a second peer to which said client is registered in the P2P overlay network; determining that said client is not attached to said second peer in the P2P overlay network and said client has access to another network; providing said second peer with said client's location in the P2P overlay network using said other network, wherein said client's location is associated with a third peer to which said client is attached and not registered in the P2P overlay network; forwarding said client's location from said second peer to said first peer using the P2P overlay network, and using said client's location to communicate with said client by said first peer using the P2P overlay network.
US08385263B2	Communication system, domain managing device, edge device and mobile terminal device A technique disclosed enables a node having a plurality of interfaces to conduct connection of the plurality of interfaces simultaneously in a communication network domain. A mobile node having a plurality of interfaces connects one of the interfaces with a MAG (mobile access gateway) 11a to take part in a NetLMM domain 18 using a NetLMM protocol, and a LMA (local mobility anchor) 13 includes association information with the MAG 11a registered therein. When the mobile node connects another interface with another MAG 11b, the LMA receives a registration request for association information of this mobile node with the MAG 11b, and makes an inquiry to the already registered MAG 11a as to whether link with the mobile node is still valid or not. If the link is valid, the LMA keeps association information of the mobile node with both of the MAGs 11a and 11b.
US08385262B2	Transferring data in a dual transfer mode between a mobile network and mobile stations A circuit mobility management entity (CMM) is intended a mobile network adapted for transferring data in a dual transfer mode to and from mobile stations. The CMM is arranged, when it has established a circuit-switched (CS) connection between a mobile station and the mobile network and when it receives from a radio resource entity (RR) of the mobile network, a message informing that the CS procedure corresponding to this CS connection is ended, to determine if a GPRS Tunnelling Transport Protocol (GTTP) procedure is running for a packet-switched (PS) signalling procedure which concerns the mobile station, then either i) require release of the CS connection near the RR entity if the GTTP procedure is ended, or ii) maintain the CS connection as long as the GTTP procedure is running, and require release of the CS connection near the RR entity when the GTTP procedure is ended.
US08385260B2	Wireless base station, communication system, belonging information management method and storage medium for storing program The present invention is to allow prompt and reliable synchronization of belonging information management table even in environments where there is a possibility of receiving update notification information from a plurality of wireless base stations, without needing unnecessarily large traffic for synchronization of belonging information management table. Wireless base station stores belonging information management table, to which belonging information of a terminal belonging to the base station is associated with, to new/old judgment information for judgment of new/old of update. Belonging information update unit performs update of belonging information including the new/old judgment information thereof. Further, upon receiving update notification information from other wireless base station, the belonging information update unit updates the belonging information management table based on the update notification information. The update notification information includes at least updated portion in the belonging information and new/old judgment information.
US08385257B2	Method for relaying and forwarding the feedback information in HARQ scenario A method for relaying and forwarding feedback information in hybrid automatic repeat request scenario is provided, wherein the method for sending feedback information includes that: a relay station receives a resource allocation message; the relay station determines the time of sending the feedback information according to the resource allocation message, and sends the corresponding feedback information when the feedback time arrives. The processes of triggering the relay station to perform feedback or sending in multiple HARQ scenarios such as initial transmission and retransmission of downlink and uplink, and uplink feedback loss of subordinate node etc. are integrally and uniformly defined according to the present invention.
US08385256B2	Method and system for efficient synchronization in a wireless communication system Embodiments herein provide a method and system for synchronization in a Wireless Communication Network using a new frame, Synchronization Frame (SF), and a configurable length of the same that is transmitted from a Network Controller (NC) to the Network Elements (NEs) in the network. The periodicity of the SF could be changed, to align with the data exchange periodicity, while still keeping synchronization. The length of the SF is made configurable to achieve this effect. It is directly proportional to the period, with which it needs to be transmitted, i.e., a larger delay between two SFs is achievable through the use of a larger SF frame size. This method provides a mechanism in which synchronization between the NC and NEs is achieved by listening to only a part of the SF, which is constant in size. This method also provides tolerance to failure by using acknowledgement schemes.
US08385251B2	Data communication control apparatus, data communication system, data communication method, and computer-readable storage medium recording data communication program A user location monitoring unit of a data communication control apparatus monitors a message sent from a wireless device via a repeater. Upon detection of a change in the location of the wireless device, the user location monitoring unit updates the location information in the database and notifies via the Internet a management server of the location change. Upon receipt of the message via the Internet, a destination address confirming and correcting unit of the data communication control apparatus uses the user ID of a destination wireless device as a search keyword to search the database. In turn, the destination address confirming and correcting unit corrects the destination address of the message to the latest address of the pertinent user ID and outputs the corrected message to a received message forwarding unit.
US08385247B2	Communication systems and methods with resource management for overlapping multicast and broadcast service zones A method for providing resource allocation in a communication network includes identifying at least two broadcast zones for receiving broadcast services in the communication network and generating a first index based on a relative relationship among the at least two broadcast zones. The first index includes information indicative of whether a first broadcast zone overlaps with at least one other broadcast zone. The method further includes generating a second index based on the relative relationship among the at least two broadcast zones; assigning at least one identifier to each of the at least two broadcast zones based on the first index and the second index; and enabling data transmissions to the at least two broadcast zones based on the assigned identifiers and using the at least one communication resource associated with the identifiers. The second index may include information indicative of a number of broadcast zones overlapped with the first broadcast zone. Each identifier may be associated with at least one communication resource, with distinct identifiers being assigned to overlapping broadcast zones of the at least two broadcast zones.
US08385242B2	Optimised messaging patterns A fixed phase shift for each of a plurality of radio frequency signal components directed to or received from a plurality of antenna elements (100A, 100B) is formed in a phase shifter (102). A desired antenna beam pattern with at least one grating lobe is formed on the basis of the phase-shifted radio frequency signal components of the antenna elements (100A, 100B) in a predefined antenna structure.
US08385235B2	Full division duplex system and a leakage cancellation method An exemplary embodiment of a full division duplex system comprises a receiver, a transmitter and an auxiliary circuit. The receiver receives an inbound RF signal of a first band to generate an inbound baseband signal, and the transmitter up converts an outbound baseband signal by an oscillation signal to generate an outbound RF signal of a second band for transmission. The auxiliary circuit calculates leakages from the outbound RF signal to generate a blocker replica, in which a LNA is coupled to a non-conductive coupling path extended from the input of receiver to collect leakages from the outbound RF signal to produce an induction signal. The induction signal is down converted to perform an adjustment, and thereafter up converted again to generate the blocker replica. In this way, the inbound baseband signal is generated from a subtraction of the inbound RF signal and the blocker replica.
US08385232B1	Flexible alerting for integrated cellular and VoIP An integrated cellular/Voice over IP (VoIP) telephone system including a flexible alerting system, which in response to an inbound call placed to a pilot telephone number, routes a first call leg to a cellular telephone assigned to the pilot telephone number and a second call leg to a first telephone number. The telephone system further includes a VoIP server, adapted to establish an inbound call to a VoIP client in response to an inbound call leg routed to the first telephone number. To provide an integrated one-number service, the VoIP server also establishes an outbound call but sets the caller identification data to correspond to the pilot telephone number, in response to an outbound call originated by the VoIP client.
US08385231B2	Disseminating link state information to nodes of a network Techniques are generally disclosed for disseminating link state information to one or more nodes of a network of nodes, the network of nodes interconnected via a plurality of communication channels.
US08385225B1	Estimating round trip time of a network path A base round trip time (RTT) for a path in a network is determined. The RTT along a network path between a source node and a destination node is measured one or more times. A sample set of fitting parameters based on a distribution of historical queue delays is obtained. A Monte Carlo simulation is performed using the fitting parameters in the sample set to generate a distribution of queue delays for the measured network path. A base RTT for the network path is determined using the measured RTT and the distribution of queue delays.
US08385224B2	Shared Wi-Fi / wireless broadband access A subscriber device detects a potential node for providing supplemental bandwidth to the subscriber device. The subscriber device sends, to a control server, an indication of the potential node. The subscriber device requests, via a primary data path, data from a content server and detects high bandwidth usage of the primary data path. The subscriber device sends, to the control server and based on the detected high bandwidth usage, a request for supplemental bandwidth. The subscriber device receives a portion of the data via the primary data path and another portion of the data from the potential node via a secondary data path that differs from the primary data path.
US08385223B2	Interference resistant satellite link power control using downlink beacon A method for determining EIRP of user terminals in a satellite communication system comprises obtaining a frequency gain of a gateway at one or more frequencies, obtaining a path gain of the gateway for one or more signal paths, and obtaining a satellite beacon signal power at a receiver of the gateway. The method also comprises determining a target signal power at the gateway for one or more frequency channels, where the target signal power based at least in part on the frequency gain, the path gain, and the satellite beacon signal power. The method also comprises obtaining a message signal power at the gateway of a message from a user terminal, and determining the EIRP of the user terminal based at least in part on a difference between the target signal power and the message signal power.
US08385221B2	System and method for monitoring of user quality-of-experience on a wireless network Embodiments of the invention provide monitoring of the Quality-of-Experience (QoE) of a mobile user of a wireless network without introducing any additional packets or requiring user feedback. Furthermore, embodiments of the invention provide QoE information based on certain control messages that may be utilized for reporting, research, or monitoring purposes. As such, a service provider could utilize the QoE information provided by embodiments of the invention to, among other possibilities, manage, upgrade, or enhance their wireless network to ensure a quality network experience for end users.
US08385220B2	Systems and methods for determining time varying radio frequency isolation characteristics between network cells A networked computing system including multiple network base stations, user equipment, and a data communications network facilitating communications amongst all devices of the networked computing system. The radio frequency isolation between two network base stations is determined by taking measurements of a radio operating parameter associated with at least one interference source. A regional network device located near one of the two base stations is configured measures the radio operating parameter on a periodic basis and then transfers the measurements to a radio communications controller. The radio communications controller then allocates network communications resources to user equipment, and optionally designates radio operation levels for one or more network base stations, based on a comparison of the received measurements to known broadcast levels of the radio operating parameter.
US08385219B2	Upstream bandwidth level measurement device A measurement device is provided for measuring an upstream bandwidth. The measurement device includes a return path extending at least a portion of a distance between a supplier side connector and a user side connector. A coupler is connected within the return path, the coupler providing a secondary path. A detection circuit is connected electrically downstream the coupler. A level detector is connected electrically downstream the detection circuit, and a microprocessor is connected electrically downstream the level detector. The microprocessor includes a first buffer and a second buffer.
US08385210B1	System and method for detection and delay control in a network environment A method is provided in one example embodiment and includes indentifying a delay within one or more queues in a service element by evaluating a type of packet sought for processing in the service element. The method also includes comparing the delay to a threshold value to determine whether to adjust a processing mode of the service element. In more specific embodiments, the method includes providing a flow table that maps specific packets of a flow traversing the service element for receiving a certain amount of processing from a processor engine. The adjustment can include avoiding opening new flows for the service element, or providing continued service to a selected few flows and not others, or avoiding processing for certain types of services having less priority.
US08385207B2	Method and apparatus for end-to-end network congestion management The invention provides a method and apparatus for network congestion management. The method includes inserting a probe frame into data traffic in the network from a first endpoint in the network, reflecting the probe frame from a second endpoint in the network back to the first endpoint, receiving the reflected probe frame at the first endpoint via the network, determining a round-trip delay based on flow of the probe frame through the network, and throttling network traffic according to the determined delay to manage network traffic congestion.
US08385205B2	Modeling packet traffic using an inverse leaky bucket An apparatus, method, and computer program of modeling packet traffic in terms of Leaky Bucket parameters. The Leaky Bucket parameters are tested based on conformance of packet traffic. If a result of the testing is nonconformance of the packet traffic, one or more of the Leaky Bucket parameters is modified such that the packet traffic is conforming. The one or more modified Leaky Bucket parameters is stored in a computer-readable storage medium.
US08385200B2	Wireless network selection management Providing for network selection management for a mobile communication environment is provided herein. By way of example, the network selection can supersede default network selection configurations of a mobile terminal. Usage behaviors of mobile terminals can be monitored to gauge service demand for individual terminals. Based on the service demand, a particular network can be selected as a default for a terminal. The network selection can be utilized for load balancing terminals among suitable mobile networks, optimizing network resources, improving services for terminal devices, or the like.
US08385195B2	System and method for message processing in a broadband gateway A system and method for message processing in a broadband gateway comprising at least one receiver to receive one or more inbound messages, wherein the one or more inbound messages correspond to one or more senders, at least one module to process the one or more messages and to provide broadband network service to the one or more senders, and at least one transmitter to transmit one or more outbound messages to the one or more senders, where the system provides a decoupled processing architecture.
US08385193B2	Method and apparatus for admission control of data in a mesh network An apparatus and method of controlling a traffic stream in a mesh network comprising receiving at a second node a traffic stream admission request to admit a traffic stream from a first node, determining a traffic load for the second node, and determining whether to admit or deny the traffic stream from the first node using the traffic load.
US08385187B2	Method for retrieving data from ultra wideband radio transmission signals and receiver implementing said method The present invention concerns a receiver and a method for retrieving data from Ultra wideband radio transmission signals received by a receiver and transmitted in packets containing at least a preamble known to the receiver and a payload containing data unknown to the receiver. The payload data is formed of at least one burst containing at least one pulse. The method comprises the steps of receiving a signal corresponding to the preamble of a packet by a receiver; determining the energy of the received signal; determining weighting coefficients from the energy of the received signal; receiving a signal corresponding to the payload of a packet by a receiver; determining the energy of the received signal; calculating a threshold depending on the weighting coefficients; and applying a decision rule based on the sampled energy, weighted by said weighting coefficients and depending on said calculated threshold.
US08385186B2	Base station, mobile communication system, mobile station and communication control method A base station for communicating to a mobile station that transmits an uplink signal in accordance with a SC-FDMA scheme or an OFDMA scheme includes an adjustment amount range setting unit configured to set an adjustment amount for adjusting a transmit timing of the uplink signal to have different ranges depending on types of a channel transmitted by the mobile station.
US08385183B2	Light delivery waveguide A light source and a waveguide are mounted on a recording head slider. Light rays are emitted from the light source into the waveguide. The waveguide may include two core layers for light ray transmission. The first core layer enhances light coupling efficiency from the light source to the second core layer. The second core layer transforms a profile of the light. The waveguide may include a tapered portion with a narrow opening near the light source and a wider opening near the tapered portion exit. The light rays passing through the waveguide may be directed toward a collimating mirror. The collimating mirror makes the light rays parallel or nearly parallel and re-directs the light rays to a focusing mirror. The focusing mirror focuses the collimated light rays to a spot on a magnetic media disc.
US08385182B2	Optical pickup apparatus An optical-pickup apparatus includes: a laser diode; an objective lens; a diffraction grating; a photodetector including main-beam-, first-sub-beam-, and second-sub-beam-light-receiving portions; a quarter-wave plate having either a second area allowing a reflected-laser beam to pass therethrough without polarization or a third area allowing the reflected beam to pass therethrough at a polarization angle different from that of the first area; and a polarizing member having a separate-light-amount ratio set therefor with respect to the reflected beams passing through the second or third area and an area excluding the second or third area from the first area, such that proportions of the reflected beams passing therethrough toward the photodetector are different, thereby decreasing an irradiation level when the first- and second-sub-beam-light-receiving portions are irradiated, as stray light, with the reflected beam reflected from either one, not subjected to a signal-reading operation, of the first- and second-signal-recording layers of an optical disc.
US08385174B2	Method for evaluating read signal A method for evaluating a read signal obtained by irradiating a medium with a laser beam through an objective lens and reading data from the reflected laser beam by a PRML detection method is provided. The method includes: a sampling step of sampling the data obtained from the reflected laser beam at clock timings to obtain sampled values; and a step of, when a constraint length of a PR class in the PRML detection method is an even number, computing an intermediate sampled value for evaluation using at least adjacent two of the sampled values arranged in the order sampled at the clock timings. The provided method is an objective evaluation method when the PRML detection method is used, whereby the selection of a recording medium and a reading apparatus is facilitated.
US08385172B2	Method for recording critical patterns with different mark lengths onto optical storage medium and related controller thereof An exemplary method for recording a first mark with a first length and a second mark with a second length onto an optical storage medium includes: when recording of the first mark requires a power transition from a first laser power level to a second laser power level, making a specific control signal have a logic transition from a low logic value to a high logic value and other control signals have no logic transition; and when recording of the second mark requires a power transition from a third laser power level to a fourth laser power level, making the specific control signal have the logic transition from the low logic value to the high logic value and other control signals have no logic transition.
US08385171B2	Information recording apparatus, and control method therefor According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an information recording apparatus, such as a digital camera, arranged to record information on a detachably mountable storage medium, such as for example to record video data on the storage medium. In one version of the apparatus, when a connection of an AC adapter is cancelled, the storage medium is detected by a storage medium detection unit, and in a case where the storage medium is not mounted to the mounting unit, a warning is issued, for example in an audio output unit or a display unit. Accordingly, the user can find out that the storage medium is not mounted before the digital camera has been brought outside for use. Thus, it may be possible to prevent a failure in which the user first realizes that they forgot to mount the storage medium only when they are already away from home.
US08385168B2	Measuring apparatus for hard disk drive A measuring apparatus includes a first connector connected to a storage controller through a second connector of a motherboard. A control circuit receives voltage signals from the storage controller and converts the voltage signals to hard disk drive (HDD) power signals. A detecting circuit includes an AND gate and first to fourth resistors. A first input terminal of the AND gate is grounded through the first resistor and connected to the control circuit through the second resistor. A second input terminal of the AND gate is grounded through the third resistor and connected to the control circuit through the fourth resistor. An output terminal of the AND gate is connected to a measuring pin of the first connector. The AND gate receives the HDD power signals and outputs a power good (PWG) signal to the measuring pin of the first connector to be measured.
US08385157B1	Method and system for performing EAMR recording at high density using a large thermal spot size A method and system for writing data to a media utilizing an energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) head are described. The EAMR head includes at least one laser and at least one EAMR transducer. The laser(s) provide energy. The EAMR transducer(s) are coupled with the laser. The EAMR transducer(s) are configured to direct the energy to spot(s) on the media and to write a plurality of tracks of data in a block. The method and system include writing a track of the plurality of tracks on the media within the spot(s) using the EAMR transducer and stepping a track pitch along a particular radial direction on the media. The method and system also include repeating the writing and stepping steps until the plurality of tracks for the block is written.
US08385154B2	Weapon identification using acoustic signatures across varying capture conditions A computer implemented method for automatically detecting and classifying acoustic signatures across a set of recording conditions is disclosed. A first acoustic signature is received. The first acoustic signature is projected into a space of a minimal set of exemplars of acoustic signature types derived from a larger set of exemplars using a wrapper method. At least one vector distance is calculated between the projected acoustic signature and each exemplar of the minimal set of exemplars. An exemplar is selected from the minimal set of exemplars having the smallest vector distance to the projected acoustic signature as a class corresponding to and classifying the first acoustic signature. The first acoustic signature and the plurality of acoustic signatures may correspond to one of gunshots, musical instruments, songs, and speech. The minimal set of exemplars may correspond to a hierarchy of acoustic signature types.
US08385148B2	Scalable, dynamic power management scheme for switching architectures utilizing multiple banks According to one general aspect, a method may include receiving data from a network device. In some embodiments, the method may include writing the data to a memory bank that is part of a plurality of at least single-ported memory banks that have been grouped to act as a single at least dual-ported aggregated memory element. In various embodiments, the method may include monitoring the usage of the plurality of memory banks. In one embodiment, the method may include, based upon a predefined set of criteria, placing a memory bank that meets the predefined criteria in a low-power mode.
US08385146B2	Memory throughput increase via fine granularity of precharge management Methods and apparatus to improve throughput in memory devices are described. In one embodiment, memory throughput is increased via fine granularity of precharge management. In an embodiment, three separate precharge timings may be used, e.g., optimized per memory bank, per memory bank group, and/or per a memory device. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US08385144B2	Utilizing two algorithms to determine a delay value for training DDR3 memory A method for training an electronic memory may include receiving a first delay value and a second delay value. The first delay value and the second delay value may be associated with a first data strobe indicating when to sample data on a first memory lane of the electronic memory. The method may also include determining a difference between the first delay value and the second delay value. The method may further include receiving a third delay value associated with a second data strobe indicating when to sample data on a second memory lane of the electronic memory. The method may also include determining a fourth delay value for the second memory lane of the electronic memory utilizing the third delay value and the determined difference between the first delay value and the second delay value.
US08385141B2	Structure and method for biasing phase change memory array for reliable writing A memory array having memory cells comprising a diode and a phase change material is reliably programmed by maintaining all unselected memory cells in a reverse biased state. Thus leakage is low and assurance is high that no unselected memory cells are disturbed. In order to avoid disturbing unselected memory cells during sequential writing, previously selected word and bit lines are brought to their unselected voltages before new bit lines and word lines are selected. A modified current mirror structure controls state switching of the phase change material.
US08385136B2	Memory circuit and method of operating the same The present application discloses a memory circuit having a first data line configured to carry a first data line signal and a second data line configured to carry a second data line signal. Further, a first driver is coupled to the first data line and the second data line and configured to establish a first current path for the first data line responsive to the second data line signal. Similarly, a second driver is coupled to the first data line and the second data line and configured to establish a second current path for the second data line responsive to the first data line signal. The memory circuit further has a first driver enabling line configured to selectively enable the first driver and a second driver enabling line configured to selectively enable the second driver.
US08385131B2	Memory devices supporting simultaneous programming of multiple cells and programming methods thereof Some embodiments of the present invention provide methods of programming memory devices that include an array of vertical channels passing through a stacked plurality of word plates, wherein respective columns of vertical channels are configured to be coupled to respective bit lines. In some method embodiments, potentials of the vertical channels are boosted, followed by selectively applying respective data to vertical channels via the bit lines to thereby selectively change the potentials of the vertical channels according to the data. A program voltage is subsequently applied to a selected word plate to thereby program a plurality of cells.
US08385128B2	Semiconductor memory A semiconductor memory includes a sense amplifier which operates in response to activation of a sense amplifier enable signal and determines logic held in a nonvolatile memory cell according to a voltage of a bit line, the voltage varying with a cell current flowing through a real cell transistor, a replica cell transistor coupled in series between a first node and a ground line, and a timing generation unit. The timing generation unit activates the sense amplifier enable signal when the first node coupled to the ground line via the replica cell transistor changes from a high level to a low level. The replica cell transistor includes a control gate receiving a constant voltage and a floating gate coupled to the control gate. Thus, the activation timing of the sense amplifier can be optimally set in accordance with the electric characteristic of the memory cell.
US08385126B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: a memory cell array and a control circuit. The control circuit executes a first reading operation and a second reading operation. The first reading operation is an operation of reading a threshold voltage set in the selected memory cell by setting a voltage between a control gate electrode and source of the selected memory cell to a first value. The second reading operation is an operation of reading a threshold voltage set in the selected memory cell by setting a voltage between the control gate electrode and source of the selected memory cell to a second value lower than the first value. When executing the second reading operation, the control circuit keeps a voltage of the control gate electrode of the selected memory cell to 0 or a positive value.
US08385123B2	Programming to mitigate memory cell performance differences Methods for programming and memory devices are disclosed. In one such method for programming, a first programming voltage applied to control gates of a group of memory cells generates a maximum threshold voltage of the group of memory cell threshold voltages. A voltage difference between the maximum threshold voltage and a maximum target voltage is used as a gate step voltage for a second programming voltage. Fast and slow programming memory cells are determined from the distribution resulting from the second programming voltage. An effective gate voltage applied to the control gates of the fast programming memory cells is less than an effective gate voltage applied to the control gates of the slow programming memory cells during the third programming voltage.
US08385122B2	Non-volatile memory device having stacked structure, and memory card and electronic system including the same Provided are a non-volatile memory devices having a stacked structure, and a memory card and a system including the same. A non-volatile memory device may include a substrate. A stacked NAND cell array may have at least one NAND set and each NAND set may include a plurality of NAND strings vertically stacked on the substrate. At least one signal line may be arranged on the substrate so as to be commonly coupled with the at least one NAND set.
US08385117B2	Semiconductor memory device and decoding method A memory card decodes three bits of data stored in one memory cell and belonging to different pages, each being a unit of reading, by iterative calculation using probability based on eight threshold voltage distributions. The memory card includes a word line controlling section configured to select one required to read 1-bit data belonging to one of the pages to be read from among seven voltage sets which are composed of seven reference voltages for hard bit reading and a plurality of intermediate voltages for soft bit reading and perform control to apply the voltages of the selected voltage set as read voltages to the memory cell, a log likelihood ratio table storing section, and a decoder configured to decode read data using a log likelihood ratio.
US08385111B2	Semiconductor memory apparatus A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a plurality of unit cell arrays having a plurality of word lines which are disposed in a row direction and a plurality of global bit lines which are disposed in a column direction; a row decoder configured to activate at least two word lines among the plurality of word lines in response to a row address which designates one word line; a global column switch block configured to select two different global bit lines among the plurality of global bit lines in response to column control signals; and a column decoder configured to generate the column control signals in response to a column address.
US08385109B2	Nonvolatile memory device and method for controlling the same A nonvolatile memory device includes a cell array including a plurality of phase change memory cells, a switching unit configured to select any one of the plurality of phase change memory cells, a clamping unit coupled between the switching unit and a sensing line and configured to adjust an amount of a clamping current flowing through the sensing line, a program switching unit configured to couple the switching unit to the sensing line during a program operation, a voltage driving unit configured to supply the sensing line with a write voltage corresponding to data to be written during the program operation, and supply the sensing line with a constant read voltage during a data sensing operation, and a sense amplifier configured to compare and amplify a voltage of the sensing line and a preset read reference voltage.
US08385106B2	Method and system for providing a hierarchical data path for spin transfer torque random access memory A method and system for providing a magnetic memory are described. The method and system include providing memory array tiles (MATs), intermediate circuitry, global bit lines, global word lines, and global circuitry. Each MAT includes magnetic storage cells, bit lines, and word lines. Each of the magnetic storage cells includes at least one magnetic element and at least one selection device. The magnetic element(s) are programmable using write current(s) driven through the magnetic element(s). The bit lines and the word lines correspond to the magnetic storage cells. The intermediate circuitry controls read and write operations within the MATs. Each global bit line corresponds to a first portion of the plurality of MATs. Each global word line corresponds to a second portion of the MATs. The global circuitry selects and drives part of the global bit lines and part of the global word lines for the read and write operations.
US08385102B2	Alternating bipolar forming voltage for resistivity-switching elements A method and system for forming reversible resistivity-switching elements is described herein. Forming refers to reducing the resistance of the reversible resistivity-switching element, and may refer to reducing the resistance for the first time. Prior to forming the reversible resistivity-switching element it may be in a high-resistance state. The method may comprise alternating between applying one or more first voltages having a first polarity to the memory cell and applying one or more second voltages having a second polarity that is opposite the first polarity to the memory cell until the reversible resistivity-switching memory element is formed. There may be a rest period between applying the voltages of opposite polarity.
US08385101B2	Memory resistor having plural different active materials Methods and means related to memory resistors are provided. A memristor includes at least two different active materials disposed between a pair of electrodes. The active materials are selected to exhibit respective and opposite changes in electrical resistance in response to changes in oxygen ion content. The active materials are subject to oxygen ion reconfiguration under the influence of an applied electric field. An electrical resistance of the memristor is thus adjustable by way of applied programming voltages and is non-volatile between programming events.
US08385100B2	Energy-efficient set write of phase change memory with switch Embodiments of apparatus and methods for an energy efficient set write of phase change memory with switch are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08385098B2	Ferroelectric memory devices and operating methods thereof A ferroelectric memory device having a NAND array of a plurality of ferroelectric memory cells includes: a fully depleted channel layer; a gate electrode layer; and a ferroelectric layer located between the channel layer and the gate electrode layer. The data of the plurality of ferroelectric memory cells is erased by applying a first erase voltage to a bit line and a common source line and applying a second erase voltage to a string selection line and a ground selection line.
US08385094B2	Multiple-output switching power source apparatus A multiple-output switching power source apparatus has a series resonant circuit connected in parallel with a switch Q2 and including a primary winding and a current resonant capacitor, a first rectifying-smoothing circuit rectifying and smoothing a voltage of a secondary winding in an ON period of the switch to provide a voltage Vo1, a series resonant circuit connected in parallel with the switch and including a primary winding and a current resonant circuit, a second rectifying-smoothing circuit rectifying and smoothing a voltage of a secondary winding in the ON period of the switch Q2 to provide a voltage Vo2, and a control circuit controlling an ON period of a switch Q1 according to the output voltage Vo1 and the ON period of the switch Q2 according to the voltage Vo2 and limit the ON period of the switch Q1 if the voltage Vo2 exceeds a predetermined voltage.
US08385093B2	Voltage converter A voltage converter is provided in which a first terminal (A) and a second terminal (B) are provided, each coupled to a switching means, the switching means is coupled to respective terminals for connecting a first capacitor (C1), a second capacitor (C2) and a third capacitor (C3), and the voltage converter is configured for being operated in first and second modes of operation each comprising at least three phases, and in which the three capacitors (C1, C2, C3) are inserted in series connection (S) between the first terminal (A) and a reference potential terminal (10) in one phase, and in each of the two other phases a first path and a second path (P1, P2) are provided in each case in parallel connection with at least one of the three capacitors (C1, C2, C3) related to the second terminal (B).
US08385091B2	3-phase high-power UPS According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide power converter circuitry including an input including a plurality of input lines each configured to be coupled to a phase of a multiphase AC power source having a sinusoidal waveform, a plurality of DC buses including a first positive DC bus having a first nominal DC voltage, a second positive DC bus having a second nominal DC voltage, a first negative DC bus having a third nominal DC voltage and a second negative DC bus having a fourth nominal DC voltage; a first power converter coupled to the input and configured to supply power from the multiphase AC power source to the plurality of DC buses during a first positive region of the sinusoidal waveform and a first negative region of the sinusoidal waveform; and a second power converter coupled to the input and configured to supply power from the multiphase AC power source to at least some of the plurality of DC buses during a second positive region of the sinusoidal waveform and a second negative region of the sinusoidal waveform.
US08385087B2	Extending achievable duty cycle range in DC/DC forward converter with active clamp reset Novel system and methodology are provided for controlling a DC/DC forward converter having a transformer with primary and secondary windings, a reset switch, and a first switch coupled to the primary winding of the transformer. The control system involves a PWM control circuit responsive to an output signal of the converter for producing a PWM signal to control switching of the reset switch, and the first switch. A period of the PWM signal includes an on-time interval for enabling transfer of power via the transformer when the first switch is on, and a reset time interval for enabling reset of the transformer when the reset switch is on. A maximum value of the on-time interval is pre-set to provide sufficient time for the reset. The reset switch is turned off when the PWM signal goes from a first level to a second level. A first delay period is set between time when the reset switch turns off and time when the first switch turns on. A first delay control circuit is provided for reducing the first delay time when the on-time interval approaches the maximum value. Further, the converter may include a second switch coupled to the secondary winding of the transformer. A second delay period shorter than the first delay period may be set between time when the reset switch turns off and time when the second switch turns on. A second delay control circuit may be provided for reducing the second delay period when the on-time interval approaches the maximum value.
US08385084B2	Shielding structures for signal paths in electronic devices A shielding structure is provided for shielding a signal path extending between a first layer and a second layer in an electronic device at a transition region with a transition that extends in a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The shielding structure includes a shielding structure portion, which includes a first shielding via in proximity to a first area of the signal path at the transition; a second shielding via in proximity to a second area of the signal path at the transition; and an area metallization electrically coupled to the first shielding via.
US08385080B2	Semiconductor module, socket for the same, and semiconductor module/socket assembly A semiconductor module, a socket for the same, and a semiconductor module/socket assembly are disclosed. The semiconductor module includes a printed circuit board including a plurality of semiconductor devices, a plurality of insulating layers and a plurality of metal layers, the plurality of insulating layers and the plurality of metal layers are alternately stacked. Exposed portions of the metal layers are exposed to the outside of the semiconductor module at a first and a second ends of the printed circuit board. The first end and the second end are at opposite ends of the printed circuit board.
US08385075B2	Successively layered modular construction for a portable computer system A modular portable computer system is described. A top modular layer with a coupled display interface and adapted to be interconnected with other modular layers. A second modular layer is interconnected with the top modular layer and other modular layers, for providing a power source to supply operating power to said top modular layer and to those other modular layers present and is disposed beneath the top modular layer. A third modular layer is interconnected with the top modular layer and the second modular layer for providing baseline logic electronics and communication components to the modular portable computer system and is disposed beneath the top modular layer. A universal interconnect for providing electronic and communicative interconnection of each modular layer is disposed at least once on each modular layer.
US08385071B2	Heat radiator A heat radiator is in the form of a rectangular body having two opposite longer sides and two opposite shorter sides, and includes a contact section located at an end surface of the heat radiator for contacting with a heat source and having at least one extension wall outward extended therefrom to divide the heat radiator into a first heat-dissipating zone, which consists of a plurality of curved radiation fins outward extended from the contact section toward the two longer sides, and a second heat-dissipating zone, which consists of a plurality of straight or curved radiation fins outward extended from the contact section and the extension wall toward the two shorted sides. These radially outward extended radiation fins not only provide increased heat radiating areas, but also guide airflow produced by a cooling fan to smoothly flow therethrough to carry heat away from the heat radiator in different directions.
US08385070B2	Portable electronic device A portable electronic device comprises a housing, a circuit board, a heat-conduction structure and a heat-dissipation structure. The circuit board is disposed in the housing. The heat-conduction structure is disposed in the housing and contacts the circuit board. The heat-dissipation structure is disposed outside the housing and connected to the heat-conduction structure, wherein heat is transmitted from the circuit board, passing the heat-conduction structure and the heat-dissipation structure to be dissipated out of the housing.
US08385066B2	Flow control device and cooled electronic system employing the same A flow control device and a related cooled electronic system are provided. The electronic system comprises a first heat dissipation component and a second heat dissipation component. The flow control device controls an amount of an air flow to the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component. In one illustrative embodiment, the flow control device comprises: a memory metal component coupled to the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component and a movable component comprising a first end and a second end. The first end is coupled to a point between two ends of the memory metal component and the second end is movable with respect to the first end. In response to a temperature difference between the first heat dissipation component and the second heat dissipation component, the second end approaches the first heat dissipation component or the second heat dissipation component.
US08385061B2	System and method for implementing a meta-disk aggregation model for storage controllers The present invention is a system for implementing a meta-disk aggregation model for storage controllers. The system includes a storage controller configured for communicatively coupling with a server. The system further includes a meta-disk drive group having a plurality of disk drives, the meta-disk drive group configured for being communicatively coupled with the storage controller, each of the plurality of disk drives including a drive interface connector. Additionally, each drive interface connector of the plurality of disk drives of the meta-disk drive group is configured for being communicatively coupled to each of the remaining drive interface connectors of the plurality of disk drives, thereby allowing the plurality of disk drives to communicate as a single device with the storage controller.
US08385059B2	Multi-displays electronic book having a retractable display A multi-displays electronic book having a retractable display, including a first display; a reel device, installed at one side of the first display, having a rotatable axle; and a flexible second display, having a first side and a second side opposing to each other, the first side being fixed at the rotatable axle, and the second side providing a force application end for spreading the flexible second display on the first display.
US08385057B2	Fully extendable dual-segmented housing assembly for mobile computing device A mobile computing device formed from at least two housing segments that can be moved between positions, including an open position that fully exposes a display surface or façade of each of the housing segments, and a closed position in which at least one of the facades or display surfaces is occluded or overlaid by the other housing segment, according to at least some embodiments.
US08385056B2	Two-axis hinge and mobile device A two-axis hinge unit is provided with a first rotating shaft that rotates so as to open in the vertical direction from a folded state with a first casing and a second casing overlapping and a second rotating shaft that rotates so as to open in the horizontal direction from a folded state with the first casing and the second casing overlapping, and is provided with a restriction member positioned between the first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft that, when one of the rotating shafts is in a predetermined rotational position, is pressed by this one rotating shaft and engages with the other rotating shaft, thereby restricting rotation of that other rotating shaft.
US08385051B2	Electrode structure, capacitor, battery, and method for manufacturing electrode structure Provided are an electrode structure which is excellent in adhesiveness between an aluminum material as a base material and a dielectric layer and adhesiveness between the dielectric layers and allows a higher capacitance than the conventional one to be obtained, even when a thickness of the dielectric layer is thick; a method for manufacturing the above-mentioned electrode structure; and a capacitor and a battery, each of which includes the above-mentioned electrode structure. An electrode structure comprises: an aluminum material; a dielectric layer formed on a surface of the aluminum material; and an interposing layer formed in at least one part of a region of the surface of the aluminum material between the aluminum material and the dielectric layer and including aluminum and carbon, the dielectric layer includes dielectric particles including valve metal, and an organic substance layer is formed on at least one part of a surface of the dielectric particle. A mixture layer of dielectric particles including the valve metal and a binder is formed on a surface of the aluminum material, and thereafter, the aluminum material is heated in a state where the aluminum material is placed in a space including a hydrocarbon-containing substance.
US08385040B1	Conductive wheel with static dissipation function A conductive wheel for a cart includes a hub, a tread mounted on the hub, two bearings mounted in the hub and each having a axle, and an electrically conductive assembly mounted in the hub and the tread. Thus, the electrically conductive assembly will form a grounding effect to conduct and release the static charges produced between the two bearings and the cart to the ground so as to prevent from causing an electrical shock to a user when the user touching the cart, thereby protecting the user's safety when operating the cart.
US08385039B2	Electronic device with automatic mode switching An electronic device for predicting or anticipating a user's operational desires. The electronic device is ready to perform the anticipated function without input from the user by using sensors to sense environmental attributes. The sensors can include an ambient light sensor, a force sensor, a temperature sensor, an ambient noise sensor, and a motion sensor. The electronic device also includes a control mechanism for switching between modes for the device.
US08385038B2	Circuit breaker switching control system The system of the invention includes a circuit breaker switching control section (100) and a setting control section (700) connected therewith through a communication network (500). The circuit breaker switching control section (100) transmits a circuit breaker state quantity acquired by a signal input section (120) through the communication network to a set value calculation section (740) of the setting control section (700). The set value calculation section (740) of the setting control section calculates a set value to be set in the switching control section (100) of the circuit breaker, using the state quantity of the circuit breaker that was transmitted thereto. The setting control section (700) transmits to the circuit breaker switching control section the set value calculated by the set value calculation section (730) through the communication network. A switching control calculation processing section (140) provided in the switching control section of the circuit breaker corrects the circuit breaker switching actuation time in accordance with this set value and calculates a delay time in respect of the zero-cross point in accordance with this corrected switching actuation time and power system period.
US08385037B2	Protective switching device for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user and method for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user by way of a protective switching device A protective switching device is disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user, including a switching functionality, an excess current triggering functionality and a short circuit triggering functionality. In at least one embodiment, the protective switching device includes a first microcontroller with a first input signal filter, wherein the first microcontroller is configured for monitoring the excess current triggering functionality and wherein a second microcontroller is provided with a second input signal filter that is configured for monitoring the short circuit triggering functionality, wherein the two input signal filters are designed differently, and wherein the switching functionality is provided in one of the two microcontrollers. A method is further disclosed for monitoring the electrical current flow to an electrical user by way of a protective switching device.
US08385032B1	High efficiency bridgeless PFC converter and method An embodiment bridgeless power factor correction circuit comprises a first boost converter and a second boost converter connected in parallel. A first switch is coupled between the input of the first boost converter and ground. A second switch is coupled between the input of the second boost converter and ground. Both the first switch and the second switch help to reduce the common mode noise of the bridgeless power factor correction circuit. The bridgeless power factor correction circuit further comprises two surge protection diodes coupled between the inputs of two boost converters and the output of the bridgeless power factor correction circuit.
US08385030B2	Component fault detection for use with a multi-phase DC-DC converter Provided herein are circuits, systems and methods that monitor for a fault within a multi-phase DC-DC converter. This can include monitoring the channels of the DC-DC converter for way out of balance (WOB) conditions, and monitoring for a component fault in dependence on detected WOB conditions. A fault can be detected if, during a predetermined period of time, one of the WOB conditions occurs at least a specified amount of times more than another one of the WOB conditions. The DC-DC converter and/or another circuit can be shut-down in response to a fault being detected. Additionally, or alternatively, a component fault detection signal can be output in response to a fault being detected.
US08385029B2	Over-current protection device for a switched-mode power supply An over-current protection device is employed to control switching associated with a switched mode power supply to prevent the excessive buildup of current. The device includes a function for relating the switching of the SMPS with a monitored output of the SMPS. This function is selectively modified to ensure the current associated with the SMPS does not exceed a maximum value and does not fall below a minimum value.
US08385027B2	TMR device with novel free layer structure A composite free layer having a FL1/insertion/FL2 configuration is disclosed for achieving high dR/R, low RA, and low λ in TMR or GMR sensors. Ferromagnetic FL1 and FL2 layers have (+) λ and (−) λ values, respectively. FL1 may be CoFe, CoFeB, or alloys thereof with Ni, Ta, Mn, Ti, W, Zr, Hf, Tb, or Nb. FL2 may be CoFe, NiFe, or alloys thereof with Ni, Ta, Mn, Ti, W, Zr, Hf, Tb, Nb, or B. The thin insertion layer includes at least one magnetic element such as Co, Fe, and Ni, and at least one non-magnetic element selected from Ta, Ti, W, Zr, Hf, Nb, Mo, V, Cr, or B. In a TMR stack with a MgO tunnel barrier, dR/R>60%, λ˜1×10−6, and RA=1.2 ohm-um2 when FL1 is CoFe/CoFeB/CoFe, FL2 is CoFe/NiFe/CoFe, and the insertion layer is CoTa or CoFeBTa.
US08385026B2	Tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) read head with low magnetic noise A tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) device, like a TMR read head for a magnetic recording disk drive, has low magnetic damping, and thus low mag-noise, as a result of the addition of a ferromagnetic backing layer to the ferromagnetic free layer. The backing layer is a material with a low Gilbert damping constant or parameter α, the well-known dimensionless coefficient in the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. The backing layer may have a thickness such that it contributes up to two-thirds of the total moment/area of the combined free layer and backing layer. The backing layer may be formed of a material having a composition selected from (CoxFe(100-x))(100-y)Xy, (Co2Mn)(100-y)Xy and (Co2FexMn(1-x))(100-y)Xy, where X is selected from Ge, Al and Si, and (Co2Fe)(100-y)Aly, where y is in a range that results in a low damping constant for the material.
US08385023B2	Printed circuit cable assembly for a hard disk drive A printed circuit cable assembly (PCCA) for a hard disk drive (HDD) is disclosed. The PCCA includes a stiffener portion having an elongated shape that includes an integrated circuit (IC) chip. The PCCA also includes a flexible portion extending from the elongated stiffener portion, wherein the PCCA is configured to be mountable on a headstack of the HDD such that an entire footprint of the IC chip overlays a metallic portion of the headstack of the HDD.
US08385022B2	Suspension for supporting a magnetic head slider A load beam part main body portion's side edges include a proximal end region inclined at a first angle and a distal end region inclined at a smaller second angle. Where “L” is a distance in a suspension longitudinal direction between a supporting part's distal end portion and a dimple, a distance “a” in the same direction from the supporting part's distal end portion until an inflection point between the proximal end region and the distal end region satisfies 0.44L≦a≦0.78L. A support plate's side edges fixed to the load beam part main body portion's lower surface is located, in the suspension width direction, inward from a virtual line connecting the proximal end region's proximal end and the distal end region's distal end and outward from the proximal end region and the distal end region, and extends, in the suspension longitudinal direction, across the inflection point.
US08385018B2	Magnetic writer having multiple gaps with more uniform magnetic fields across the gaps A magnetic device according to one embodiment includes a source of flux; a magnetic pole coupled to the source of flux, the magnetic pole having two or more gaps; and a low reluctance path positioned towards at least one of the gaps and not positioned towards at least one other of the gaps for affecting a magnetic field formed at the at least one of the gaps when the source of flux is generating flux. Other disclosed embodiments include devices having coil turns with a non-uniform placement in the magnetic yoke for altering a magnetic field formed at the at least one of the gaps during writing. In further embodiments, a geometry of the magnetic pole near or at one of the gaps is different than a geometry of the magnetic pole near or at another of the gaps to help equalize fields formed at the gaps when the source of flux is generating flux.
US08385017B2	Spindle motor including fluid bearing and storage disk drive including the same In a motor, an annular radially extending gap is defined between an outer annular surface and a lower surface of an annular cover portion. The radially extending gap has an axial width smaller than a maximum width of an upper seal portion defined between an outer circumferential surface of an upper thrust portion and an inner circumferential surface of a tubular portion. An annular axially extending gap is defined between an inner cylindrical surface and a radially inner edge of the annular cover portion. The axially extending gap has a radial width smaller than the maximum width of the upper seal portion.
US08385016B1	Asymmetric correction circuit In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an amplifier configured to receive an asymmetric signal. Correction control circuitry is configured to control gain control circuitry based on the asymmetrical signal to adjust a gain of the amplifier to correct the asymmetric signal. A first adjustment of the gain control circuitry is performed during a first interval and a second adjustment of the gain control circuitry is performed during a second interval to correct the asymmetric signal.
US08385012B2	Thermal management for a solid immersion lens objective in optical probing A method for thermal management of a solid immersion lens is described. In one example, a method includes applying a lens tip assembly of a solid immersion lens to a device under test, focusing an image of the device under test on an optical probe, applying a first thermally controlled fluid to a first heat exchanger thermally coupled to the objective near the lens tip assembly, applying a second thermally controlled fluid to a second heat exchanger thermally coupled to the objective farther from the lens tip assembly than the first heat exchanger, to independently alternately heat or cool a portion of the objective different from that of the first heat exchanger.
US08385007B2	Micro-lens module A micro-lens module including a first lens group and a second lens group is provided. The first lens group is disposed between an object side and an image side, wherein a surface closest to the object side in the first lens group is a first aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature is r1. A surface closest to the image side in the first lens group is a second aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature is r2. The second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the image side, wherein a surface closest to the first lens group in the second lens group is a third aspheric surface, whose radius of curvature thereof is r3. A surface closest to the image side in the second lens group is a fourth aspheric surface. The micro-lens module satisfies: 0.6>r1>0.4 mm, and 0.3
US08385006B2	Photographing optical lens assembly An photographing optical lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element with positive refractive power having a convex object-side surface, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element having at least one aspheric surface, a fifth lens element having a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface with at least one surface being aspheric and at least one inflection point being formed, and a sixth lens element having a concave image-side surface with at least one surface being aspheric. By adjusting the curvature radii of the fifth lens element, the photographing optical lens assembly can stay compact and correct the aberration while obtaining superior imaging quality.
US08385005B2	Lens structure having low pass filter characteristic A lens structure includes a surface devoid of cusps that includes a seamless profile wherein the surface includes at least one segmented parabolic function forming a filtering surface for producing a controlled amount of spherical aberration.
US08384996B2	Double image pickup optical system and image pickup apparatus provided therewith According to the present invention, a small-sized double-lens imaging optical system whose chromatic aberration is corrected even at a super wide angle of 150° or more can be provided. The double-lens imaging optical system of the present invention includes a concave lens, and a convex lens having a diffraction grating provided thereon, and satisfies the following conditional expression (1): 4.5
US08384995B2	Rear-surface projection-type video display apparatus A rear-type projection board apparatus (rear-surface projection-type video display apparatus), of new structure, having no necessity of a housing, being superior in portability, cheaply producible, comprises a transmission-type screen, being disposed within an interior space, under a condition of exposing both surfaces thereof in the space, and for transmitting a visual light projected onto a rear surface therethrough, so as to display it on a video display surface on a front surface, and a video projection apparatus (projector), being disposed at a predetermined position on a rear surface side of the transmission-type screen, and for projecting the visual light from a rear surface of the transmission-type screen, enlargedly, wherein the transmission-type screen has a Fresnel lens having Fresnel lens surfaces, covering over an entire light receiving surface for receiving the visual light, which is enlargedly projected from the video projection apparatus, whereby guiding the visual light received from the video projection apparatus into a direction perpendicular to the video display surface, while guiding external lights within the interior space downwards.
US08384992B2	Correcting spatial beam deformation The invention disclosed here teaches methods and apparatus for altering the temporal and spatial shape of an optical pulse. The methods correct for the spatial beam deformation caused by the intrinsic DC index gradient in a volume holographic chirped reflective grating (VHCRG). The first set of methods involves a mechanical mean of pre-deforming the VHCRG so that the combination of the deflection caused by the DC index gradient is compensated by the mechanical deformation of the VHCRG. The second set of methods involves compensating the angular deflection caused by the DC index gradient by retracing the diffracted beam back onto itself and by re-diffracting from the same VHCRG. Apparatus for temporally stretching, amplifying and temporally compressing light pulses are disclosed that rely on the methods above.
US08384989B2	Electromagnetic wave oscillating devices A device of oscillating an electromagnetic wave having a frequency of 0.1 THz to 3 THz from pump and idler waves by parametric effect. The device includes a supporting body, an oscillating substrate of a non-linear optical crystal, an adhesive layer adhering the supporting body and the oscillating substrate, and a film for reflecting the electromagnetic wave formed on a surface of the supporting body on the side of the adhesive layer. The oscillating substrate has an upper face, a bottom face and an incident face on which the pump wave is made incident, with the adhesive layer having a refractive index with respect to the pump wave lower than that of the oscillating substrate.
US08384988B2	Photonic crystal and method of fabricating the same A three-dimensional geometric photonic crystal and a method of fabricating the photonic crystal are disclosed. The photonic crystal includes a geometric structure having a plurality of electrophoretic self-assembled particles and the plurality of particles are periodically arranged at any cross sections of the geometric structure. The method includes preparing an electrophoresis deposition suspension, installing first and second electrodes in the electrophoresis deposition suspension with the first electrode being encircled by the second electrode, and applying a voltage to the first electrode and the second electrode to form an electric field between the first and second electrodes, such that particles in the electrophoresis deposition suspension are electrophoretic self-assembled, and a periodically arranged geometric structure is formed. A photonic crystal thus may have a three-dimensional geometric structure in any shape.
US08384987B2	Electrophoretic display device and method of manufacturing the device An electrophoretic display (EPD) device and a method of manufacturing the EPD are disclosed. An EPD device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and an electrophoretic layer. The first substrate includes a plurality of pixel areas, and each pixel area includes a first electrode. The second substrate faces the first substrate and includes a second electrode to form an electric field with the first electrode and a color filter corresponding to the first electrode. The electrophoretic layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate and is controlled by an electric field formed by the first electrode and the second electrode to display an image. An end portion of the color filter extends beyond an end portion of the first electrode.
US08384981B2	Electrochromic material and electrochromic device including the same An electrochromic material including at least one compound represented by Chemical Formulas 1 to 3, for use in an electrochromic device: wherein Z1 to Z3 are each independently selected from a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C30 arylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C2 to C30 heteroarylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C3 to C30 cycloalkylene group or a combination thereof, R1 to R3 are each independently selected from a single bond, a substituted or unsubstituted C1 to C30 alkylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C3 to C30 cycloalkylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C6 to C30 arylene group, a substituted or unsubstituted C2 to C30 heteroarylene group or a combination thereof.
US08384980B2	Semiconductor optical modulation device, Mach-Zehnder interferometer type semiconductor optical modulator, and method for producing semiconductor optical modulation device A semiconductor optical modulation device includes a substrate; a first semiconductor cladding layer of a first conductivity type disposed on the substrate; an optical waveguide layer disposed on the first semiconductor cladding layer, the optical waveguide layer including a first semiconductor optical confinement layer, a second semiconductor optical confinement layer, and an insulating layer disposed between the first semiconductor optical confinement layer and the second semiconductor optical confinement layer, the insulating layer being made of aluminum oxide; a second semiconductor cladding layer of a second conductivity type disposed on the optical waveguide layer; a first electrode electrically connected to the first semiconductor cladding layer; and a second electrode electrically connected to the second semiconductor cladding layer.
US08384976B2	Fluid display device having a central reservoir The invention relates to a display device (1) based on the use of fluids for visualizing information. In order to ensure simple exchangeability of fluids, the invention provides a central fluid reservoir (6) in combination with a fluid display device (1) of any desired design. For this purpose, the central fluid reservoir (6) is coupled to the fluid display elements, which can be refilled with the colored fluid.
US08384973B2	Method and device for reconstructing a three-dimensional scene with corrected visibility A method is disclosed for reconstructing a 3D scene made of object points in a holographic display, wherein the reconstruction is visible from a visibility region. Visibility and/or covering of parts of the 3D scene corresponding to the real parameters is realized, with the reconstruction, for a viewer from every place of the visibility region. Processor means generate a spatial point matrix for defining the positions of individual object points, which are assigned predetermined intensity and phase values. Within the visibility region, a complex-value wave front for each single object point is calculated. The intensity values of the object points are multiplied with the associated visibility function, to determine a common modified wave front of the object points, transformed into the plane of a light modulator to calculate modified control values for the object points.
US08384972B2	Image input/output control apparatus, image processing apparatus, image processing method, data communication apparatus, and data communication method An image input/output control apparatus includes a control device for controlling input/output of image data with an external apparatus, plural image processing devices for performing predetermined image processes to the image data, and plural data transfer devices for connecting each of the plural image processing devices and the control device like a ring and performing data transfer among them. The plural image processing devices and the control device are composed respectively on different units, whereby the structure of the apparatus can be easily changed, and a decrease in processing speed due to the competition for buses can be reduced without increasing the number of parts necessary for bus control.
US08384970B2	Image reading apparatus and image forming apparatus having the same A document setting position on a document set tray 101 where a small-sized document is set is determined by positionally matching a near-side reference position (a position of or set in the vicinity of a user-side end of a document placement surface of the document set tray 101) and a user-side edge of the document. An output tray 114 has a window 115 made from a transparent material so as to allow a user to see a document setting position on the document set tray 101 where the user sets a small-sized document. This makes it possible to adjust a position on the document set tray 101 where a document is placed, in use of an image reading apparatus 100 in which the document set tray 101 for placing thereon a document to be read is provided below the output tray 114 for placing a read document thereon.
US08384969B2	Transmission device A transmission device for driving an automatic document feeder (ADF) and a scanner individually is provided. The transmission device includes a transmission shaft, an actuator, a first transmission module coupled to the scanner, a second transmission module coupled to the ADF, and a power switching module. The actuator is movably attached around the transmission shaft. The power switching module is assembled to the transmission shaft. When the power switching module is coupled to the first transmission module and the transmission shaft rotates in a first direction such that the scanner moves to a first position, the scanner drives the actuator to drive the power switching module to be coupled to the second transmission module. When the transmission shaft rotates in a second direction, the power transmission module is coupled to the first transmission module to drive the scanner to move away from the transmission device.
US08384966B2	Image forming device and image forming method Another code image may be added so that a code image previously embedded in an original document image can be read. An image forming device may be configured to use, when a second code image is combined with the original document image including a first code image, a result of decoding of the first code image to generate a third code image; and also configured to combine the second code image with the original document image and combine the third code image on the second code image.
US08384965B2	Communication apparatus and communication systems including image data retransmitting units A communication system includes a printing apparatus and a data transmitting apparatus configured to transmit image data to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus includes a printing unit, a recording medium information obtaining unit that obtains information identifying the recording medium on which an image has not be printed normally, and a retransmission requesting unit that requests the data transmitting apparatus to retransmit image data corresponding to the recording medium on which an image has not been printed normally in accordance with the recording medium information. The data transmitting apparatus includes an image data storage unit that stores the image data transmitted to the printing apparatus, and an image data retransmitting unit configured such that, when retransmission of the image data is requested by the printing apparatus, the image data retransmitting unit retrieves the image data from the image data storing unit and transmits te same to the printing apparatus.
US08384962B2	Device for setting color print limit mode according to preference set on per-page basis An image processing system includes a preference designating unit and a printer. The preference designating unit is configured to designate one or more preferential print pages from pages included in a print job so as to be color printed preferentially to non-designated pages included in the print job. The printer performs color printing of the one or more preferential print pages.
US08384960B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes: an image bearing member; an image forming unit configured to form a toner image on the image bearing member based on an image input signal; a detection sensor configured to detect a detection image at multiple density levels, which is formed by the image forming unit; a correction unit configured to correct image output characteristics of the image forming unit with respect to the image input signal, based on a detection result of the detection sensor; and a change unit configured to change the density levels at which the detection image is formed so that the detection image is preferentially formed in a density area of a large absolute value of a rate of change of slope of the image output characteristics.
US08384958B2	Image forming apparatus, density-shift correction method, and computer program product A density detector detects a first density of a first pattern and a second density of a second pattern from a density-correction determination patch. A density-correction-value calculator calculates a density correction value from the first and the second densities. A noise-occurrence determination unit determines whether a target pixel is a noise generating pixel that causes a change of a local density due to a change in a relation with a nearby pixel. A density correction processor performs a density correction process on the target pixel by adding or subtracting the density correction value to or from the target pixel or the nearby pixel.
US08384955B2	Method, apparatus, and image forming system to process additional data of printing job A method, apparatus, and image forming system to process additional information in a printing task. The method includes receiving a printing task which includes data to be printed, determining whether the received printing task includes additional information, and, if the printing task includes additional information, printing out the data to be printed and the additional information after changing color of the data to be printed or the additional information according to a printing mode. Thus, unnecessary driving of a driving unit of a color image forming device due to additional information added to a printing task can be prevented.
US08384954B2	Image processing apparatus, method and computer-readable medium for converting monochrome image into color image with the determination of pixel attributes and selected colorization methods An apparatus for converting a monochrome image into a color image includes a selection portion that select, for a plurality of attributes, individual colorization methods from among a plurality of colorization methods that are defined individually such that the plurality of colorization methods correspond to at least one attribute among the plurality of attributes relating to the plurality of regions, a processing portion that colorizes the monochrome image to produce a colorized image by applying the individual colorization methods selected by the selection portion, and a determination portion that determines whether or not the colorized image satisfies a setting condition. In this apparatus, when the determination portion determines that the setting condition is not satisfied, the selection portion changes a combination of the colorization methods such that at least one among the plurality of colorization methods applied to the plurality of regions is changed. The processing portion performs re-colorization on a region having an attribute for which the selection of the colorization method is changed among colorization methods included in the combination.
US08384953B2	Image forming apparatus, information registration method, and computer program product An image forming apparatus includes an operating and display unit that displays information and receives inputs entered by a user; a display control unit that displays, on the operating and display unit, a detailed display, on which setting contents of setting items are specifiable, and a simplified display that contains function-selection information that represents setting contents of a predetermined setting item among the setting items displayed on the detailed display in a manner that setting contents of the predetermined setting item are specifiable; an input control unit that receives selection of a desired setting item made on the detailed display displayed on the operating and display unit; and a registration unit that registers the function-selection information of the setting item, the selection of which has been received, on the simplified display.
US08384949B2	Image-forming apparatus, control method for image-forming apparatus, and storage medium An image-forming apparatus providing connection which is capable of realizing a user-friendly system environment in connection of a print-control apparatus and an image-forming apparatus present on an identical network. It is determined whether the image-forming apparatus is connected to the print-control apparatus (201). When it is determined that the image-forming apparatus is connected to the print-control apparatus (201), the image-forming apparatus responds to, without responding an inquiry associated with a part of a plurality of service functions, an inquiry associated with another part of the plurality of service functions.
US08384947B2	Handheld scanner and system comprising same A handheld scanner system and method is disclosed. The depicted embodiment is a mouse scanner system operable to scan a document. In this embodiment, the mouse scanner system includes a scanner built into a computer mouse and a scanner software application operating on a computer. The scanner includes a positioning system operable to output position indicating data and an imaging system operable to output captured image data. The data is sent to the scanner software application where a feedback image is constructed and displayed on a display in real-time or near real-time to allow the user to view what areas have been scanned. The scanner software application also constructs an output image that can be printed, saved or communicated.
US08384946B2	Image forming apparatus, method, and computer product for positioning images of different size on a given paper size An image forming apparatus prints images of different document sizes on paper having a predetermined paper size. The image forming apparatus includes a computation processing part to compute a print position of the image with respect to the paper, based on the document size, the paper size and moving amount computation information that is input thereto, and a print processing part to arrange and print the image on the paper, based on the print position computed by the computation processing part.
US08384944B2	Printing apparatus and control method with adjustment unit correcting the displacement of the print position by pixel unit, and another unit correcting the displacement by the unit smaller than the pixel Provided is a print position control method whereby displacement of a print position in a wide range can be corrected very accurately, without reducing a printing speed or increasing a manufacturing cost. Thus, a printing apparatus includes: a first correction unit, for correcting a print position at accuracy equal to the resolution of the printing apparatus; and a second correction unit, for correcting the print position at accuracy higher than the resolution and in the range of an area that corresponds to one pixel of the resolution. With this arrangement, the print position displacement in a wide range equal to or greater than one pixel can be corrected by the first correction unit, and a print position displacement smaller than one pixel can be corrected by the second correction unit. Therefore, correction of a print position displacement in a wide range is enabled at a higher accuracy.
US08384940B2	Image forming apparatus, image forming system and control methods thereof This invention provides an image forming apparatus which prevents unauthorized printing without impairing the user's convenience. To accomplish this, upon reception of the print job, the image forming apparatus determines if the print job is a storage target job. If the print job is a storage target job, the image forming apparatus temporarily stores the print job in a memory without starting printing. The image forming apparatus creates and transmits a URL which is required to access a Web server included in the self apparatus and is uniquely assigned to the print job, to the external apparatus which transmitted the print job. After that, when an access to the URL is generated, the image forming apparatus starts printing the temporarily stored print job.
US08384936B2	System which performs resolution-dependent vectorization of print data Even when vector data contains resolution dependent data, the vector data is generated at a resolution of quality without deterioration even if the vector data is output from any device on a network. When spooling the vector data, an MFP 1, receiving PDL data containing resolution information on a data processing resolution from a PC 2, analyzes the resolution information, and determines a processing resolution used at a time when an image forming device executes resolution dependent processing. After that, when the resolution dependent processing is necessary to generate the vector data, the MFP 1 executes the resolution dependent processing in accordance with the determined processing resolution.
US08384931B2	Image processing system and control method therefor An image processing apparatus which permits service providing an image forming that has high priority is selected as an image processing apparatus for storing count information by using service information representing whether each image processing apparatus permits counting the usage of printing materials in order to allow charging of service for providing the image forming associated with each user identification information, and a priority table for storing count information based on the contents of image forming. When image forming is executed, the count information representing the contents of the executed image forming is transmitted to the selected image processing apparatus, thereby causing the selected image processing apparatus to store the count information.
US08384930B2	Document management system for vouchers and the like An information processing system includes: an information processing apparatus; and an image input apparatus. The information processing apparatus performs: storing a correspondence relationship between a document and a user in charge of the image input of the document; transmitting a request for the image input to the user; picking out information on the document from the correspondence relationship on the basis of information on the user; and transmitting the information on the document to the image input apparatus. The image input apparatus performs: authenticating the user; transmitting a name specifying the authenticated user to the information processing system; receiving information on a document associated with the user from the information processing system; requesting the image input based on the received information on the document; inputting an image; registering the input image; and transmitting to the information processing system information on the registered image and the document.
US08384928B2	Image forming apparatus, method of controlling same and control program Disclosed is an image forming apparatus in which even in the event that a print job is suspended by reason of payment of an insufficient fee, image formation continues effectively and appropriately. The image forming apparatus, which charges for image formation processing, has determination means for determining whether or not a fee necessary in order to execute a specified print job has been received; printing suspension means for suspending the print job if the determination means has determined that a fee received is insufficient; and authentication means for authenticating user information during suspension of printing. The apparatus further includes printing control means for saving data relating to the suspended print job and accepting a print job from a different user if use of user information that is identical with user information of the suspended print job has not been sensed by the authentication means.
US08384925B2	Methods and systems for imaging device accounting data management Embodiments of the present invention comprise systems, methods and devices for maintaining imaging device (IDev) accounting data in the event that an imaging device's primary accounting server becomes unavailable.
US08384924B2	Image processing apparatus with a reconstruction circuit, and control method for image processing apparatus An image processing apparatus includes an input unit, a first storage unit, a selection unit, a second storage unit, an image processing unit, a generation unit, a control unit, and a decision unit. The image processing unit is configured to include a reconfiguration circuit, which enables reconfiguration according to circuit configuration data stored in the second storage unit, and to execute image processing on image data input by the input unit. The control unit, after performing a first setting processing for rewriting a part of the circuit configuration data stored in the second storage unit, according to the rewriting data generated by the generation unit, configured to execute control to perform reconfiguration processing for reconfiguring a circuit configuration of the image processing unit according to the circuit configuration data stored by the second storage unit.
US08384922B2	Printing condition setting apparatus, printing condition setting method, and computer readable recording medium stored with printing condition setting program A printing condition setting apparatus having a setting parameter data storage unit for storing a plurality of setting parameter data each including at least one setting parameter registered by the user's operation among a plurality of setting parameters specifying printing conditions; a setting parameter data reception unit for receiving the user's selection of one setting parameter data among a plurality of setting parameter data stored in said setting parameter data storage unit; and a setting parameter data call unit for calling up said one setting parameter data selected by the user to display the setting parameters included in said setting parameter data on a specific operating screen.
US08384920B2	Image processing apparatus and method, and program for implementing the method An image processing apparatus and method which are capable of reducing waiting time of an operator, and improving operation feeling and productivity. An input image is registered as usable data before completion of generation of vectorized data from the input image stored in a HDD. Even for a job in which the vectorization of the input image has not been completed, it is possible to set various processes, such as preview, change of the order of pages, and designation of editing of an image, other than printing.
US08384919B2	Information processing apparatus and peripheral apparatus control method An information processing apparatus has a peripheral apparatus control unit which controls a peripheral apparatus and an operation control unit which controls the operation in the peripheral apparatus by using operation instructing information regarding such an operation. The peripheral apparatus control unit forms first operation instructing information having a non-hierarchical structure from operation setting information including a specific setting, sets the specific setting into a private area in the first operation instructing information, and forms second operation instructing information having a hierarchical structure and including the specific setting from the first operation instructing information.
US08384918B2	Enforcing a minimum font size A method for enforcing a user specified minimum font size (USMFS) in a hardcopy document (HD). The method includes: receiving a request to print an electronic document (ED) according to a magnification ratio; identifying a first character in the ED having a first font size smaller than a quotient of the USMFS divided by the magnification ratio; and increasing the first font size by a scale factor to match the quotient; where the HD is generated by scaling the ED according to the magnification ratio, and wherein the HD comprises the first character in the USMFS.
US08384916B2	Dynamic three-dimensional imaging of ear canals The attenuation and other optical properties of a medium are exploited to measure a thickness of the medium between a sensor and a target surface. Disclosed herein are various mediums, arrangements of hardware, and processing techniques that can be used to capture these thickness measurements and obtain dynamic three-dimensional images of the target surface in a variety of imaging contexts. This includes general techniques for imaging interior/concave surfaces as well as exterior/convex surfaces, as well as specific adaptations of these techniques to imaging ear canals, human dentition, and so forth.
US08384908B2	Image forming method and optical coherence tomograph apparatus using optical coherence tomography An image forming method uses an optical coherence tomography as to an optical axis direction of plural pieces of image information of an object. First image information of an object is obtained at a first focus with respect to an optical axis direction to then object. A focusing position is changed by dynamic focusing from the first focus to a second focus along the optical axis. The second image information of the object is obtained at the second focus. A third image information, tomography image information of the object and including a tomography image of the first focus or the second focus, is obtained by Fourier domain optical coherence tomography. A tomography image or a three-dimensional image of the object is formed in positional relation, in the optical axis direction, between the first image information and the second image information using the third image information.
US08384907B2	Method and apparatus for optical imaging via spectral encoding Method, apparatus and arrangement according an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for generating an image of at least one portion of an anatomical structure. For example, the portion can have an area greater than about 1 mm2, and the image can have a resolution a transverse resolution that is below about 10 μm. For example, light can be scanned over such portion so as to generate first information which is related to the portion, where the light may be provided through a diffraction arrangement to generate a spectrally dispersed line. Method, apparatus and arrangement according to a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be provided for positioning a radiation or optical beam within an anatomical structure based on signals generated by scanning a portion of the structure using the same or a different beam.
US08384906B2	Range adjustable real-time autocorrelator An autocorrelator to measure pulse width of an incident laser divides the incident laser to a reference beam and a controlled beam. Two rotating parallel mirrors are used as an optical delay component for the controlled beam. The axis of rotation of the rotating parallel mirrors and the incident beam on the parallel mirrors are on the same horizontal plane. There is a small angle δ between them. The scan range can be easily adjustable by changing this angle δ. Using this arrangement, real-time and range adjustable autocorrelator is realized.
US08384904B2	Method and apparatus for determining the junction depth of a semiconductor region A method of determining a value of a depth of a semiconductor junction of a substrate using a photomodulated optical reflectance measurement technique is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes obtaining a substrate which has at least a first region including the semiconductor junction. The method further includes obtaining a reference region. the method further includes performing at least one sequence of: a) selecting a set of measurement parameters for the photomodulated optical reflectance measurement, b) measuring on the at least a first region a first optical signal representative of the substrate with the semiconductor junction using the selected set of parameters, c) measuring on the reference region a second optical signal using the selected set of parameters, and d) determining the ratio of the first optical signal to the second optical signal, and thereafter extracting from the ratio the depth of the semiconductor junction.
US08384902B2	Optical gas-analysis system and a gas flow cell A gas flow cell for an optical gas-analysis system, including a cylindrical cell body; and a single sample-gas introduction port configured to introduce sample-gas. The single sample-gas introduction port is provided at a location at a substantial center of the cell body with respect to a long axis direction of the cell body, and the single sample-gas introduction port is aligned along a direction orthogonal to the long axis direction so that the cylindrical cell body and the single sample-gas introduction port together form a shape of a character T.
US08384898B2	DNA sequencing system An apparatus for detecting labeled beads is provided. The apparatus can include: one or more irradiation sources disposed for irradiating the one or more detection zones with radiation; at least one detector disposed for collecting charges corresponding to light signals emitted from labeled beads in the one or more detection zones, which have been excited by the radiation; and a system coupled to the at least one detector for effecting time delay integration of the charges by accumulating the charges before reading the charges at the output of the at least one detector.
US08384897B2	Method of analyzing particle size distribution of particles in metal material A method according to the present invention has: isolating, by extraction, particles contained in a metal material to be analyzed in a solution using a particle isolator; dispersing the particles isolated by extraction into a solvent to prepare a dispersion, and fractionating the dispersion into a plurality of particle dispersions based on particle sizes, using a field flow fractionator; and irradiating laser light on each of the particle dispersions separated based on predetermined particle sizes, to thereby measure absolute values of the particle size based on angular dependence of reflection intensity, and also to thereby measure the number density based on magnitude of reflection intensity.
US08384886B2	Fiber optic building monitoring system A building roof monitoring system that includes a fiber optic filament positioned between a water barrier layer (e.g., roof membrane) and a roof substrate layer of the building roof. The fiber optic filament may be part of a sensing layer that includes the fiber optic filament carried by a water transport layer configured to draw water coming into contact with the water transport layer into contact with the fiber optic filament. An optical analyzer injects laser light into the fiber optic filament and detects changes in propagation of the laser light through the fiber optic filament indicative of water coming in contact with the fiber optic filament to detect a roof leak. A response system including a controller, alarm or remote communication unit operatively connected to the optical analyzer responds to the roof leak detected by the optical analyzer.
US08384882B2	Calibration method and lithographic apparatus for calibrating an optimum take over height of a substrate A calibration method for calibrating an optimum take over height of a substrate in a lithographic apparatus between a substrate table and an ejector element moveable to load and unload the substrate from the substrate table, the method including clamping the substrate on one of the substrate table and ejector element; moving the ejector element between an unloaded state wherein the substrate is supported by the substrate table and a loaded state wherein the substrate is at least partly supported by the ejector element; determining a reference height of the ejector element at the moment that the weight of the substrate is at least partly taken over between the substrate table and the ejector element; and determining the optimum take over height for the ejector element from the determined reference height.
US08384878B2	Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method An apparatus includes a stage configured to move a substrate, an optical system configured to project an image of a pattern on an original onto the substrate, an alignment detection system configured to detect an image of an alignment mark formed on the substrate and measure a position of the alignment mark, and a focus detection system having an index mark and configured to measure a height of the substrate by projecting an image of the index mark onto the substrate. The stage includes an alignment measurement mark and a focus measurement mark that has a positional relationship with the alignment measurement mark. The alignment detection system measures a position of the alignment measurement mark. The focus detection system measures a position of the image of the index mark by projecting the image of the index mark onto the focus measurement mark.
US08384877B2	Exposure apparatus and method for producing device There is provided an exposure apparatus capable of forming a desirable device pattern by removing unnecessary liquid when performing exposure by projecting a pattern onto the substrate via a projection optical system and the liquid. The exposure device projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate P via the projection optical system and the liquid so as to expose the substrate P. The exposure device includes a liquid removing mechanism 40 which removes the liquid remaining on a part 7 arranged in the vicinity of the image plane of the projection optical system.
US08384872B2	Bistable nematic liquid crystal device A liquid crystal device comprises a layer (2) of a nematic liquid crystal material contained between two cell walls (3, 4) each carrying electrode structures (6, 7) and an alignment surface (20, 21). The alignment layer (20, 21) on one or both cell wall (4), is formed of a plurality of small (<15 μm) surface features each separably capable of providing a bistable pretilts and an alignment direction and collectively causing larger variations of molecular orientation across the layer (2). The device may be switched between a light transmissive state and a light non-transmissive state. The small surface features may be areas of grating (21), protrusions (25), or blind holes (26), separated by mono stable flat surfaces (Fm) coated with a homeotropic alignment layer. Preferably, the grating etc provides bistable switching operation between a low surface tilt and high surface tilt, and the low tilt alignment direction varies between adjacent grating areas.
US08384868B2	Liquid crystal display panel A liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposite to the first substrate, a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines intersecting with the scan lines, a plurality of pixel areas defined by the scan lines and the data lines, and a plurality of electrodes. Each electrode is positioned in a corresponding pixel area. Each pixel area has an inner surface. The electrode includes a branch portion, a frame connected to the branch portion, and a plurality of first slits defined by the frame and the branch portion, away from the inner surface of the pixel area.
US08384866B2	Liquid crystal display device comprising first and second organic alignment films having slow axes arranged to cross each other by aligning polymer chains The present invention is directed to a VA-mode liquid crystal display panel wherein, by radiating light such as ultraviolet rays to a first alignment film, main chains in molecules of the alignment film are arranged to form a first slow axis. By also radiating the light to a second alignment film, a second slow axis is formed. The first slow axis and the second slow axis are arranged to cross each other. When an electric field is applied to a liquid crystal layer, liquid crystal molecules tilt in the direction which crosses the extending direction of projections formed on a substrate. The projections are formed such that the direction along which the liquid crystal molecules tilt and a first slow axis or a second slow axis differ from each other.
US08384864B2	System for forming alignment layer of liquid crystal display device and operation method thereof A system for forming an alignment layer of a liquid crystal display device includes a rubbing apparatus to perform a rubbing process on the alignment layer on a substrate, a pre-treatment apparatus to thermally treat the substrate, and a light irradiation apparatus to irradiate light onto the substrate. The rubbing apparatus, the pre-treatment apparatus and the light irradiation apparatus are constructed in an in-line type.
US08384863B2	Liquid crystal display screen having carbon nanotubes A liquid crystal display screen includes a first electrode plate, a first alignment layer, a liquid crystal layer, a second alignment layer, and a second electrode plate opposite to the first electrode plate. The liquid crystal layer is sandwiched between the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate. The first alignment layer and the second alignment layer are respectively disposed on the first electrode plate and the second electrode plate, and face the liquid crystal layer. The first alignment layer and the second alignment layer respectively include a plurality of parallel first grooves and second grooves perpendicular to the first grooves formed thereon facing the liquid crystal layer. Furthermore, the first alignment layer and the second alignment layer respectively include a plurality of parallel and spaced carbon nanotube structures.
US08384860B2	Liquid crystal display device and method of manufacturing liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device has a plurality of pixels and a reflection section for reflecting incident light toward a display surface. The reflection section includes a metal layer having a plurality of apertures, and a reflective layer formed on the metal layer with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. A surface of the reflective layer includes a plurality of recesses or protrusions formed in accordance with a cross-sectional shape of the metal layer.
US08384851B2	Reflective display system with enhanced color gamut A display system includes a reflective display panel and a light source tailored to enhance the color gamut of the system. The panel, which may be a Cholesteric liquid crystal display panel, includes an array of reflective pixels, each pixel comprising a first, second, and third subpixel of different first, second, and third colors. The light source illuminates a front of the display panel with source light to enable observers to view images formed by the panel. The light source includes a lamp and an enhancing element. The lamp, which may be a metal halide lamp, emits lamp light that includes the first, second, and third colors. The enhancing element may be an optical filter, a supplemental LED light source or other light source, or both. The enhancing element enhances the system color gamut, for example, by increasing the color gamut area relative to illumination with the lamp alone.
US08384850B2	Liquid crystal display device The first line and the plurality of second lines are formed on the light-emitting diode substrate and on the connection substrate. The plurality of second lines are arranged, on the connection substrate, in the same direction as a direction in which the plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on the light-emitting diode substrate are arranged. The first line is formed outside the plurality of second lines, on the connection substrate. The plurality of second lines are formed without intersecting with one another, on the light-emitting diode substrate. The first line is formed, on the light-emitting diode substrate, so that the first line extends along with a periphery of the light-emitting diode substrate from a connection part with respect to the connection substrate so as to come around to an opposite side of the connection part with respect to the connection substrate.
US08384848B2	Edge-lighting LED backlight and LCD thereof The present invention relates to an edge-lighting LED backlight and LCD. The edge-lighting LED backlight comprises an LED light bar and a light guide plate, wherein a reflector is disposed between the LED light bar and the light guide plate, holes are set on the reflector, and light emitted from the LED light bar enters into the light guide plate through the holes. An LCD comprises the above edge-lighting LED backlight. In the above solution, the surface reflectance of the LED light bar is improved, the light loss is decreased and the utilization rate of light is improved by disposing the reflector between the LED light bar and the light guide plate, which decreases the quantity of the LEDs and the cost of the backlight.
US08384843B2	Liquid crystal display device An object of the invention is to reduce the effect of moisture on the inside of a liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel in which a display surface including a display area is disposed upright, a first frame including an aperture opposed to the display area, disposed leaving a space between it and the display surface of the liquid crystal display panel, and a rail-shaped member extending in a horizontal direction affixed to the display surface of the liquid crystal display panel, below the display area, in such a way that it does not come into contact with the first frame.
US08384842B2	Display device A display device which narrows a width of a frame thereof is provided. A display device includes a first substrate on which a plurality of switching elements is formed, a second substrate which is arranged to face the first substrate in an opposed manner, and a frame which is mounted on an outer peripheral portion of the first substrate by way of an adhesive layer. The adhesive layer and the frame each have an opening at a position corresponding to the plurality of switching elements formed on the first substrate, and an inner peripheral surface of the opening of the frame and an inner peripheral surface of the opening of the adhesive layer are made coplanar with each other.
US08384841B2	Liquid crystal display module A liquid crystal display (LCD) module includes a back bezel, a backlight module, a frame, an LCD panel, a circuit board, an assembling element, and a gasket. The frame has a top part and a bottom part opposite to the top part, and the bottom part faces the back bezel. The circuit board is configured on the top part of the frame and has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The second surface faces the frame, and the circuit board has a ground area on the second surface. The assembling element pierces through the frame and connects the frame to the back bezel. The gasket leans against the ground area of the circuit board and the assembling element to form a conductive path from the ground area, the gasket, the assembling element to the back bezel.
US08384840B2	Liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel on a mold, and a backlight placed in the mold. The backlight includes a light guide panel, an LED provided on a side surface of the liquid guide panel, and other components. A main flexible wiring substrate is attached to the liquid crystal display panel, and extends to a back surface of the mold. The LED is mounted on an LED flexible wiring substrate. At least one electronic component mounted on the main flexible wiring substrate is arranged on an end surface of the mold. Then, an insulating sheet is provided between the at least one electronic component and the LED to prevent short circuit between them, instead of using a partition wall for electrical insulation.
US08384838B2	Liquid crystal display with framed backlight unit having fixing member A liquid crystal display device is provided, capable of minimizing deterioration in display quality of a liquid crystal panel due to external force generated by connection with an external chassis such as a customer's chassis. The liquid crystal display device has, at least, a front frame, a liquid crystal panel, and a backlight unit having at least a rear frame, arranged in this order. A back fixing frame to be fixed to the front frame is provided on the back face of the liquid crystal display device, and attachment portions to be attached to an external chassis are provided in the back fixing frame. This makes it difficult for external force generated by connection with the external chassis to be transmitted to the liquid crystal panel or the backlight unit, suppresses deformation of the liquid crystal panel or reflection sheet and prevents deterioration in display quality.
US08384836B2	Liquid crystal display device A liquid crystal display device having thin film transistors which can alleviate the required alignment accuracy of a semiconductor film while suppressing the generation of an optical leak current is provided. The liquid crystal display device includes: a transparent substrate; gate electrodes which are stacked above the transparent substrate; source electrodes and drain electrodes which are stacked above the gate electrodes; and semiconductor films each of which is stacked above the gate electrode and controls an electric current between the source electrode and the drain electrode based on an electric field generated by the gate electrode, wherein the semiconductor film is formed into a planar shape, and includes a first region which overlaps with the gate electrode in plane and a second region which does not overlap with the gate electrode in plane, and the source electrode and the drain electrode are not connected to the semiconductor film in the second region, and are connected to the semiconductor film in the first region.
US08384834B2	Electronic imaging device and driving method thereof An electronic imaging device includes a display unit having a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines, and a plurality of pixels, and a barrier layer disposed in front of the display unit and divided into a plurality of areas along a scan direction. The barrier layer includes a plurality of first barrier electrodes and a plurality of second barrier electrode. The plurality of first barrier electrodes includes a plurality of first and second sub-electrodes in a zigzag pattern along the scan direction, the plurality of second barrier electrodes includes a plurality of third and fourth sub-electrodes in a zigzag pattern along the scan direction, and the third and fourth sub-electrodes being offset with respect to the first and second sub-electrodes along the scan direction.
US08384831B2	Broadcast viewing system In a broadcast viewing system including a television receiver A and a recording/reproducing device B, the television receiver A and the recording/reproducing device B are connected by an HDMI cable. By using a remote control device C on the recording/reproducing device B side, a setting data required for viewing a broadcast is requested by using a control signal from the recording/reproducing device B side, and subsequently, the television receiver A replies with the setting data required for viewing a broadcast to the recording/reproducing device B by a control signal by using data required for viewing a broadcast set in the television receiver A side in advance through the HDMI cable. This simplifies the operation of setting for viewing a television program.
US08384827B2	System and method for in-band A/V timing measurement of serial digital video signals A system and method for characterizing the relative offset in time between audio and video signals and enables the receiver of the audio and video signals to resynchronize the audio and video signals. Signal characterization data is dynamically captured and encoded into frames of video and audio data that is output by a television origination facility. The signal characterization data is extracted by the receiver and signal characterization data is captured for the received frames. The extracted signal characterization data is compared with the captured signal characterization data to compute the relative offset in time between the video and one or more audio signals for a frame. The receiver may then resynchronize the video and audio signals using the computed relative offset.
US08384825B2	Video image transfer device and display system including the device A video image transfer device includes a transfer section arranged to selectively transfer to a display device a plurality of video signals acquired from at least one image pickup device, an assigning section arranged to divide a refresh rate of the display device into portions and assign the portions among the plurality of video signals, and a transfer controller arranged to control the transfer section in such a manner that each of the video signals is transferred to the display device at a timing according to the portion of the refresh rate assigned to each of the video signals. This makes it possible to prevent a dropped frame and an insufficient resolution of an important video image.
US08384822B2	Digital camera and interchangeable lens A digital camera includes: a mirror box that defines a space in which a light flux from a photographic lens is guided to an imaging unit; a mirror unit that is arranged inside the mirror box and is configured to rotate between a viewing position in which the mirror unit is inserted in a photographic light path from the photographic lens to the imaging unit to reflect the light flux and a photographing position in which the mirror unit is retracted from the photographic light path; and an opening section that discharges from the mirror box air that is moved when the mirror unit is rotated.
US08384818B2	Solid-state imaging device including arrays of optical elements and photosensitive cells Light-splitting elements are arranged in at least two columns and two rows to form two pairs 1a, 1b and 1c, 1d. Each element splits incident light into light rays and makes them fall on a portion of a photosensing section right under itself and an adjacent photosensitive cell. The element 1a splits the incident light so that a primary color ray C1 and its complementary color ray C1′ enter an adjacent cell 2b and an underlying cell 2a, respectively. The element 1b makes a primary color ray C2 and its complementary color ray C2′ enter an underlying cell 2a and an adjacent cell 2a, respectively. The element 1c does the same as the element 1b. And the element 1d makes a primary color ray C3 and its complementary color ray C3′ enter an adjacent cell 2c and an underlying cell 2d, respectively. These photosensitive cells 2 perform photoelectric conversion, thereby outputting an electrical signal representing the intensity of the incident light. By carrying out simple calculations between the outputs of these cells, a color signal and a luminance signal are generated.
US08384816B2	Electronic apparatus, display control method, and program An electronic apparatus includes an operation receiving unit configured to receive a selection operation for selecting, in a case where index images for allowing selection of content to be reproduced are displayed in list form on a display unit, an index image from among the index images displayed in list form, an image processing unit configured to sequentially scale up an image related to content corresponding to the selected index image from a size of the selected index image to a certain size, and a control unit configured to cause the display unit to display the image that is being sequentially scaled up, with an arrangement position of the selected index image serving as a reference position, and cause the display unit to display the content corresponding to the selected index image when a size of the image that is being sequentially scaled up reaches the certain size.
US08384815B2	Imaging apparatus An imaging apparatus includes: an imaging device for performing photoelectric conversion to convert light from an object into an electrical signal; a phase difference detection section for receiving the light from the object to the imaging device while the imaging device receives the light, and performing phase difference detection; a focus lens group for adjusting a focus position; a focus lens position detection section for detecting a position of a focus lens; and a control section for calculating an object distance based on an output of the focus lens position detection section and an output of the phase difference detection section and automatically selecting one of a plurality of shooting modes according to the calculated object distance.
US08384812B2	Imaging device formed by lamination of a plurality of layers A technique capable of satisfying both higher functionality and higher accuracy in a compact imaging device is sought to be provided. In order to accomplish the above object, an imaging device is formed by lamination of a plurality of layers including: an imaging element layer that has an imaging element part; a lens layer that has a lens part whose distance from the imaging element part is changeable, and is disposed between a subject and the imaging element part; and an actuator layer that has an actuator part to move the lens part, and is disposed between the subject and the imaging element part.
US08384808B2	Imaging apparatus An imaging apparatus includes a half mirror that splits light from a subject having passed through a photographic optical system into transmitted light and reflected light, a first light receiving sensor that receives the transmitted light, the first light receiving sensor having a spectral sensitivity characteristic with a sensitivity peak at a specific wavelength of light, and a second light receiving sensor that receives the reflected light. The wavelength of a transmission peak in the spectral transmission characteristic of the half mirror matches the wavelength of the sensitivity peak of the first light receiving sensor.
US08384799B2	Image processing apparatus and image processing method Both a high signal-to-noise ratio and wide dynamic range of the output video signal of a one-CCD color television camera are realized. An image signal processing apparatus of an imaging device using a solid-state image sensor in which different color filters are arranged includes an amplifying unit which amplifies color signals from the solid-state image sensor with a predetermined amplification factor, a separating unit which separates the color signals amplified by the amplifying unit into individual color signals, a white balance adjusting unit which subjects the separated color signals to white balance adjustment, a level detecting unit which detects a saturation level from the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment depending on the amplification factor of the amplifying unit, a correction signal generating unit which generates correction signals from the other color signals than the color signal from which the saturation level is detected by the level detecting unit, and a first adding unit which adds the correction signals to the color signals subjected to the white balance adjustment.
US08384798B2	Imaging apparatus and image capturing method An imaging apparatus includes an acquisition unit; a filter unit carrying out average differential filtering for image data acquired; a face area detection unit which detects the face area of the subject from image data subjected to average differential filter by the filter unit on the basis of the feature quantity stored; a focusing unit carrying out focusing control to be focused on the face area when the face area of the subject is detected; an image capturing unit capturing an image focused on the face area as a still image when the face area of the subject is detected; and a shutter speed control unit, when the face area of the subject is detected, increasing a shutter speed during the focusing control and during capturing the still image compared to a shutter speed when the face area of the subject is not detected.
US08384793B2	Automatic face and skin beautification using face detection Sub-regions within a face image are identified to be enhanced by applying a localized smoothing kernel to luminance data corresponding to the sub-regions of the face image. An enhanced face image is generated including an enhanced version of the face that includes certain original pixels in combination with pixels corresponding to the one or more enhanced sub-regions of the face.
US08384792B2	Imaging apparatus, method for controlling the same, and program An imaging apparatus includes the following elements. An operation acceptance unit accepts an operation input to specify an attribute associated with a predetermined object. An imaging unit converts incoming light from a subject into a captured image. An object detection unit detects one or more objects included in the captured image. An attribute determination unit determines an attribute of each detected object. A priority object determination unit determines at least one of the detected objects as a priority object on the basis of the specified attribute and the determined attribute.
US08384791B2	Video camera for face detection A video camera arrangement comprises an image capture device; a face detector for detecting human faces in the captured video material and for generating face data identifying detected occurrences of faces in the captured video material; a data handling medium by which data representing the captured images is transmitted and/or stored; and a processor for generating data to be transmitted or stored by the data handling medium in dependence on the detection of faces in the captured images.
US08384783B2	Infrared camera and method for calculating output power value indicative of an amount of energy dissipated in an image view An IR camera includes a thermal radiation capturing arrangement for capturing thermal radiation of an imaged view in response to input control unit(s) receiving user inputs from a user of the IR camera; a processing unit arranged to process the thermal radiation data in order for the thermal radiation data to be displayed by an IR camera display as thermal images; and an IR camera display arranged to display thermal images to a user of the IR camera. The processing unit is further arranged to determine at least one temperature reference value representing the temperature of the surrounding environment of the imaged view; and calculate at least one output power value indicative of an amount of energy dissipated in a part of the imaged view by using the temperature value of the thermal radiation data corresponding to said part of the imaged view and the at least one determined temperature reference value.
US08384781B2	Stereo camera device A stereo camera device includes: plural picture image taking sections, an image correction section which makes correction of picture images taken, a parallax calculating section which calculates parallax, an amount of dislocation between the left and right images, and an image recognition section which carries out image recognition processing using both the image taken and the calculated parallax, or either of them. The stereo camera device further includes: a processing area setting up section which sets up the image area to be processed and reduction ratio differently depending on the driving environment of the vehicle on which the stereo camera device is mounted, wherein, by using the image area and the reduction ratio set up by the processing area setting up section, the image correction section makes correction to the picture image, the parallax calculating section calculates parallax, and the image recognition section carries out processing of image recognition.
US08384776B2	Detection of topological structure from sensor data with application to autonomous driving in semi-structured environments A method of creating an obstacle-free diagram using topological sensor data to form a graph corresponding to a driving path, transforming the graph using discrete heuristics, locally smoothing a plurality of edges of the graph after the transforming, and globally smoothing the graph after the locally smoothing. Transforming includes deleting an edge of the graph, merging two intersections of the graph into a single intersection, and collapsing a plurality of edges forming a loop into a single edge. Locally smoothing includes smoothing a lane segment of the graph by minimizing a sum of a function of smoothness and a function of distance. Globally smoothing includes defining an intersection potential and minimizing a sum of the function of smoothness, the function of distance, a function of intersections and a function of direction.
US08384775B2	Scanning type image display device A scanning-type image display device includes: a light source section; a horizontal scanner; a vertical scanner; and a vertical scanner control section that controls the vertical scanner in such a manner that, when a second video signal is input, the vertical scanner control section controls the vertical scanner so as to perform vertical scanning with a scanning speed of vertical scanning which is higher than that of vertical scanning in the case of a first video signal being input, and after temporarily retuning a drawing position to an initial position within a time range from a point of time at which horizontal scanning of a current frame is completed to a start time of a next frame, the vertical scanner control section restarts the vertical scanning from the initial position in synchronization with a start timing of the next frame.
US08384768B2	Pass-through compartment for persons and method for monitoring a spatial volume enclosed by a pass-through compartment for persons It is customary to produce a three-dimensional image using a camera pair in order to ensure that people are isolated in a lock for separating people and to check that no more than one person at a time passes through the lock for separating people. It is an object of the invention to improve known systems and to accelerate them. To this end, a plurality of camera pairs are used according to the invention, which monitor a spatial volume which is to be monitored from several spatial directions at the same time. To this end, each camera pair monitors the space, determines a height profile and supplements shadowed points in the height profile with data of other camera pairs. Monitoring of a spatial volume, for example a passage lock.
US08384761B2	Image pickup device for correcting chromatic aberration by switching a coordinate conversion parameter according to a type of light source or illumination light An image pickup device includes an optical system having a wide angle, wherein at least magnification chromatic aberration is large; an image sensor configured to read an image picked up through the optical system; and a magnification chromatic aberration correction unit configured to perform magnification chromatic aberration correction by performing coordinate conversion on the image read by the image sensor. The magnification chromatic aberration correction unit includes plural coordinate conversion parameters used for the magnification chromatic aberration correction, and switches the coordinate conversion parameter used for the magnification chromatic aberration correction in the event that there is a change in a light source or an illumination light.
US08384760B2	Systems for establishing eye contact through a display Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to video-conferencing systems configured and operated to create eye contact between video conference participants. In one embodiment, video conferencing system includes a display, a video camera positioned to capture a video image of a first video conference participant through the display, and a projector positioned to project a video image of a second video conference participant onto the display screen such that the first participant can view the second participant. The display screen is positioned between the first participant and the video camera. The video camera and the projector can be operated during a video conference to establish eye contact between the first participant and the second participant by creating a line-of-sight that passes through a point of the head of the second participant's image between the video camera and the first participant.
US08384756B2	Video telephony device having functionality to mute incoming messages that are being recorded A method of responding to an incoming call includes receiving the incoming call from a caller. The incoming call includes caller ID information having image data associated with the caller included therein. The image data is displayed on a video telephony device display while audibly announcing receipt of the incoming call. A communication session is established with the caller by presenting a pre-recorded announcement to the caller. In response to the pre-recorded announcement, a message from the caller is received and recorded. The message is rendered while it is being recorded only if a user-selectable mute setting option has not been activated.
US08384752B2	Optical scanning unit and image forming apparatus using same An optical scanning unit used in an image forming apparatus having a latent image carrier includes a light emitter, a rotary deflector, an inclination adjustment unit, and a controller. The light emitter emits a light beam. The rotary deflector deflects and scans the light beam onto a surface of the latent image carrier. The inclination adjustment unit adjusts an inclination of a scan line corresponding to the light beam relative to a reference scan line on the latent image carrier. The controller changes at least one of a linear velocity of the latent image carrier and a rotation speed of the rotary deflector so as to change a ratio between the linear velocity of the latent image carrier and a scan speed of the light beam, and controls the inclination adjustment unit based on the ratio to keep the scan line from inclining relative to the reference scan line.
US08384750B2	Printing apparatus In a printing apparatus, each application period is set as fixed period of time ranging from main heating start point to next main heating start point to form successive printed dots on a printing medium in sub-scanning direction of thermal head. A control unit executes application of sub pulse for auxiliary heating which, when applied independently, cannot realize color development on the printing medium, but, when applied for compensating main heating by main pulse as applied in next application period can realize color development thereon, relating to each of heater elements under constraint such that sub pulse is applied within current application period wherein color development cannot be realized on the printing medium, irrespective of whether next application period wherein main pulse for main heating is applied to realize color development on the printing medium starts immediately after current application period wherein color development is not realized.
US08384749B2	Thermal head, printer, and manufacturing method for the thermal head A thermal head has a support substrate that has a concave portion having an opening portion formed in a surface of the support substrate, and an upper substrate bonded to the surface of the support substrate in a stacked state to close the opening portion. The upper substrate has an external dimension which is smaller than an external dimension of the support substrate and is slightly larger than an external dimension of the opening portion for closing the opening portion. A heating resistor is formed on a surface of the upper substrate in a position opposed to the concave portion of the support substrate. The thermal head is high in durability and reliability with increased printing efficiency as well as increased manufacturing yields.
US08384746B2	Color management method and device The embodiments of the present invention relate to a color management method and device, the method comprises: RGB values is acquired from image signal inputted from external device; the corresponding transmittance of red pixel, transmittance of green pixel, and transmittance of blue pixel are calculated with an formula according to said RGB values and pre-stored system transition matrix with standard transition matrix; a control signal to control a driving voltage and/or luminance of light source corresponding to the red, green and blue pixels of the display device is generated according to the calculated transmittance of red pixel, transmittance of green pixel, and transmittance of blue pixel, so as to control the display device to perform the color display. The color management method enables the display device to accurately restore the reproduction color information, thereby effectively solving the color distortion problem of the display device.
US08384743B2	Linking and browsing media on television Techniques for linking and browsing media on a television (TV) are provided. A selected program, which is associated with a channel of the TV, is detected and additional content, which is associated with that channel and/or the selected program, is dynamically acquired from one or more external sources. The additional content is formatted as links and simultaneously presented within a display of the TV along with the selected program that continues to play on the TV. Furthermore, activation of any link results in the additional content being dynamically acquired and presented within the display.
US08384740B1	Method and system for virtually placing a tangible item on an appendage A method, system and computer program product for virtually placing an object on an image of a human appendage is provided. First, image boundaries are detected in the image of the appendage and converted into a set of line segments. A pair of line segments is evaluated according to a function that combines subscores of the pair of line segments to produce a score. The subscores of the line segments are computed based on various properties such as orientation difference, extent, proximity to the center of the image, bilateral symmetry, and the number of skin-colored pixels. A pair of line segments with the highest score is chosen as the appendage boundaries and is used to determine the position, orientation, and extent of the object. The image of the object is then transformed according to the determined parameters and combined with the image of the appendage to produce the desired result.
US08384737B2	Method and system for fast clipping of line segments A method of static graphics rendering in a mobile device. Panning increments are received for panning a previously rendered frame to a panned frame. A rendering region is then determined based on the panning increments. A candidate line segment or polyline is then clipped to create clipped line segments contained within the rendering region. The clipped line segments can then be rendered, and a portion of the previously rendered frame can be copied, to provide the panned frame.
US08384735B2	Image display apparatus, image display control method, and computer readable medium having an image display control program recorded therein Specification is received regarding which structure identifying information, each corresponding to an anatomical structure, is specified as display target structure identifying information to be displayed with a display target image when displaying the display target image, in which the positions of each pixel correspond to positions within an original image. The position of the anatomical structure identified by the structure identifying information is specified, based on structure information, in which structure identifying information that identifies anatomical structures and structure position information that represents the positions of the anatomical structures within the original image are correlated, and the correspondence of positions between the original image and the display target image. The display target structure identifying information is displayed with the display target image such that a user can recognize that the anatomical structure identified by the display target structure identifying information is displayed at the specified position.
US08384733B2	System and method for adjusting display input values Disclosed are various embodiments of a display device. The display device includes an LED RGB backlight as well as a color gamut mapping engine configured to adjust a plurality of input values and output a plurality of adjusted input values to an LCD panel having a native transfer function such that the transformation of the adjusted input values to visible light displayed by the LCD panel can comply with various output device specifications.
US08384731B2	Color transformation method and corresponding color display method A color transformation method includes following steps. First, a color signal is received. Then, a saturation calculation step is performed to generate a saturation value of the color signal, and a hue-angle-weighting calculation step is performed to generate a first hue-angle weighting of the color signal corresponding to a first LUT and a second hue-angle weighting of the color signal corresponding to a second LUT. Next, a color calculation step is performed to transform the color signal into a first color output signal according to the saturation value and the first hue-angle weighting and to transform the color signal to a second color output signal according to the saturation value and the second hue-angle weighting.
US08384729B2	Medical image display system, medical image display method, and medical image display program A multi-modality medical image display system, having a storage device that stores image attributes indicating attributes of an image, and information indicating a plurality of display layouts, each combination set in accordance with at least one of a first or second modality type, and corresponding to one of the plurality of display layouts. The system further includes a unit configured to select a combination of image attributes for the requested medical image information based on incidental information that is assigned to the requested medical image information. The system further includes a unit configured to compare the combination of image attributes of the requested medical image information with the combination of the image attributes and, based on the comparison, and to search the storage device and obtain therefrom one of the plurality of display layouts that corresponds with the combination of image attributes of the requested medical image information.
US08384726B1	Selective rendering of off-screen content Computer-implemented methods for selectively pre-rendering off-screen content for display before the content comes on-screen on a device are provided. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a request to display content on a device and dividing the content into a first displayable portion that is based on a size of a viewport of the device and a second displayable portion that is outside the viewport. The method also includes rendering and displaying the first displayable portion of content within the viewport, and selecting a subset of the second displayable portion of content for rendering off-screen based on a predetermined rule. Systems, graphical user interfaces, and machine-readable media are also provided.
US08384724B2	Coordinating apparatus and image processing system utilizing the same A coordinating apparatus for coordinating data transmission between a data providing device and a display device is provided. The display device conforms to a transmission standard. The coordinating apparatus includes a programmable coordinating module and an outputting module. The programmable coordinating module is programmed according to the transmission standard. The programmable coordinating module is used for receiving M bits of image data from the data providing device, extracting N bits of image data among the M bits of image data, and arranging the N bits of image data into N bits of arranged data. The outputting module is used for outputting the N bits of arranged data to the display device.
US08384720B2	Distinguishing requests for presentation time from requests for data time Techniques are provided for managing Presentation Time in a digital rendering system for presentation of temporally-ordered data when the digital rendering system includes a Variable Rate Presentation capability. In one embodiment, Presentation Time is converted to Data Time, and Data Time is reported instead of Presentation Time when only one time can be reported. In another embodiment, a predetermined one of Presentation Time and Data Time is returned in response to a request for a Current Time.
US08384716B2	Image processing method A modified VOMAC mesh generation method for image data sampled from an actual object in which mesh resolution can vary locally within the mesh while permitting control of the distortion of cells in the mesh to maintain suitability for performing finite element (or finite volume) analysis on a representation of the object.The method includes computer-implemented instructions that calculate a variable sampling point distribution (SPD) in image data space, the variable SPD having localized variations in SPD within the image data space, and the distribution of sampling points having the same topology as a uniform SPD suitable for obtaining a regular structured is mesh. The method includes generating an indication of the magnitude of cell distortion between the generated mesh and the regular structured meshVarying the mesh resolution may enable smaller elements to be located in regions of particular interest or activity when subsequently performing analysis using the mesh model.
US08384713B2	Lightweight three-dimensional display A computer-implemented imaging process method includes generating a progression of images of a three-dimensional model and saving the images at a determined location, generating mark-up code for displaying image manipulation controls and for permitting display of the progression of images in response to user interaction with the image manipulation controls, and providing the images and mark-up code for use by a third-party application.
US08384712B2	Systems and methods for imaging waveform volumes Systems and methods for imaging waveform volumes. An image of the waveform volume may be drawn on a display device as a two-dimensional image or a three-dimensional image of a sampling probe and redrawn in real-time at interactive rates using a graphics accelerator or a graphics card. The image of the waveform volume may also include seismic-data traces that are color-filled according to texture coordinates for pixels on the display device that intersect the waveform volume.
US08384710B2	Displaying and using 3D graphics on multiple displays provided for gaming environments 3D images (or graphics) are effectively displayed across multiple displays provided in a gaming environment based on a 3D imaging (or graphics) model (or world). A game scene for a game played on a gaming machine is effectively displayed as a larger 3D scene across multiple displays configured for multiple gaming machines when a gaming criteria, event or condition is met (e.g., when a slot game generates a particular outcome on a gaming machine, a 3D scene is displayed on multiple gaming machines). 3D images (or objects) effectively displayed across multiple displays configured for multiple gaming machines can effect and/or complement the game being played on one or more of the gaming machines and/or used as an independent game. Animation (or movement) of one or more 3D objects can be used to trigger a gaming criteria, event or condition (e.g., start a bonus period for a game being played in a gaming machine). The gaming criteria, event or condition can be triggered solely based on the animation (or movement) of the 3D object(s) or in a combination with another condition.
US08384708B2	Apparatus and method for dividing liquid crystal display device An apparatus and method for driving a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) device are disclosed. The apparatus includes a liquid crystal panel in which a plurality of subpixels arranged on each horizontal line are commonly connected to at least one adjacent data line, and on at least one horizontal line basis, a plurality of subpixels are connected to at least one adjacent data line through Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) of the subpixels from a same direction with respect to the at least one adjacent data line, a data driver for driving a plurality of data lines, a gate driver for driving a plurality of gate lines, and a timing controller for arranging externally received image data according to arrangement of subpixel columns commonly connected to each data line, providing the arranged image data to the data driver, and controlling driving timings of the gate driver and the data driver.
US08384707B2	Method for synchronizing display of images in a multi-display computer system An image display system synchronizes the display of images on a plurality of display devices. The method entails generating at a first computer system a first signal representing first image data to be displayed on a first display device, generating at a second computer system a second signal representing second image data to be displayed on a second display device, and a method for synchronizing the first and second image data. The synchronizing method includes using a phase-locked loop circuit having a digital rate controller. The digital rate controller allows programmable control of the speed of the phase-locked loop.
US08384700B2	Linked shell An apparatus and method is provided for controlling a display device for displaying a user interface associated with an application. A processor for controlling peripheral devices and/or the display may be selected based on characteristics of a requested function to be performed. For example, a processor may be selected with a power characteristic corresponding to a power level needed to perform the requested function. Also, an instantiation of a user interface may be switched based on selection of the processor for controlling peripheral devices. In another example, the transition from one instantiation of the user interface to another instantiation of the user interface may be smooth such that a user may be unaware a change has been made.
US08384696B2	Carrier for a digital pen A carrier for a digital pen includes a main case with an internal channel to closely receive and align the digital pen with an electronic package contained within the main case. In addition, the carrier includes an upper lid rotationally coupled to the main case. In one embodiment, the upper lid may be both partially and fully opened with a dual-action latch mechanism. In addition, the carrier may include a lower lid that may be opened to provide access to an electronic package. In one embodiment, an extendable serial communication device may be extended from the electronic package when the lower lid is open. Further, the carrier is configured to sufficiently protect the digital pen from harsh environmental conditions and even from harsh user-induced conditions, such as drops onto a hard surface, exposure of the carrier to rain, dust, and sand particulate, brief water submersion, and even temperature extremes.
US08384695B2	Automatic impedance adjuster and control method thereof Provided are an automatic impedance adjuster and a control method thereof. The automatic impedance adjuster includes a specific channel for checking an operating environment. When an operation signal of the specific channel is detected or operation signals of all the channels are detected, the automatic impedance adjustment operation is performed to prevent malfunction of the impedance adjustment operation. In addition, malfunction of a touch sensor due to variation of the operating environment can be prevented to improve operating reliability of the touch sensor.
US08384691B2	Touch screen sensor A touch screen sensor includes a visible light transparent substrate and an electrically conductive micropattern disposed on or in the visible light transparent substrate. The micropattern includes a first region micropattern within a touch sensing area and a second region micropattern. The first region micropattern has a first sheet resistance value in a first direction, is visible light transparent, and has at least 90% open area. The second region micropattern has a second sheet resistance value in the first direction. The first sheet resistance value is different from the second sheet resistance value.
US08384686B1	Constrained keyboard organization The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method for generating a keypad layout. The method may include determining a frequency distribution of characters for a text sample and generating character groupings using the frequency distribution. The method may further comprise assigning the character groupings to keys on the keypad so that characters that appear most frequently in the text sample can be selected with a single keystroke.
US08384685B2	Switchable three-dimensional display A switchable three-dimensional display includes a display panel and a switchable parallax barrier. The switchable parallax barrier is configured over the display panel and includes a first substrate, a second substrate, an insulating layer, a common electrode, and a light-valve layer. The first substrate has a touch-sensing circuit. The second substrate has a plurality of control electrodes and is configured between the first substrate and the display panel. The touch-sensing circuit and the control electrodes are located between the first substrate and the second substrate. The insulating layer is configured over the first substrate and covers the touch-sensing circuit. The common electrode is configured on the insulating layer. The light-valve layer is configured between the common electrode and the control electrodes.
US08384679B2	Piezoelectric actuator arrangement A portable electronic device includes a touch-sensitive display and a piezoelectric actuator arranged to provide tactile feedback to the touch-sensitive display in response to an actuation signal. A pad is disposed in alignment with a force sensor such that depression of the touch-sensitive display causes the force sensor to generate a force signal. A processor configured to receive the force signal and to generate the actuation signal based on the force signal.
US08384678B2	Touch sensing device and method for correcting output thereof A touch sensing device and a method for correcting an output thereof are disclosed. The touch sensing device includes a touch sensor array including a plurality of touch sensors, a plurality of integrated circuits (ICs) that converts an output of the touch sensor array into digital data and generates raw data, and a data correction unit that generates correction values using differential values between adjacent raw data in the raw data generated by the ICs and removes successive correction values equal to or greater than a predetermined critical value from the correction values when a number of successive correction values equal to or greater than the predetermined critical value is less than a predetermined reference value.
US08384677B2	Electronic device including touch-sensitive input surface and method of determining user-selected input A method of determining input at a touch-sensitive input surface of a portable electronic device includes detecting a touch event at the touch-sensitive input surface, sampling touch attributes during the touch event, determining an actual touch location and determining at least one shift in touch location based on the touch attributes sampled during the touch event, and determining an input based on the actual touch location and the direction of shift of the touch location.
US08384676B2	Keyboard device and keyboard cover A label having an identifier 41L is applied to the upper left corner of the key top of each character key in a left hand region of a keyboard device. A label having an identifier 41R is applied to the upper right corner of the key top of each character key in a right hand region. The identifier 41L is a mark of a reversed L shape and the identifier 41R is a mark of a mirror image pattern of the identifier 41L. Further, different colors are applied to the identifiers 41L and 41R depending on regions for individual fingers. As a consequence, the identifiers 41L and 41R have a function to visually display information representing which hand is to be used to press a key and information representing which finger is to be used to press the key. The keyboard device enables a user to naturally understand the arrangement of the keys and the use of the fingers.
US08384670B1	Method and apparatus for binding peripheral devices to a computer A non-keyboard computer peripheral device represents itself to a host computer as having a keyboard function in addition to representing its actual function. Keyboard status signals are generated by the host computer in response to a user pressing different keys on an actual keyboard. The peripheral device uses the keyboard status signals to identify different peripheral device operations selected by the user. In one example, a radio receiving device represents itself to the host computer as including the keyboard function. Pressing a button on the receiving device causes the receiving device to send a sequence of keystroke commands to the host computer that cause the host computer to initiate software applications and to display operating instructions to a user. A series of further binding operations are then executed in accordance with the displayed operating instructions.
US08384662B2	Display device and icon display method therefor A display device is provided. The display device includes an input unit, a display unit, a storage unit, and a processing unit. The input unit it for generating input signals in response to user input. The display unit is for displaying interfaces with a plurality of icons. The storage unit is for storing a movement track and a speed of each icon. The processing unit is for selecting an icon in response to an input signal from the input unit, acquiring a movement track and a speed of the icon from the storage unit, controlling the icon to move at the speed along the movement track and the display unit to display a movement of the icon, and performing a function associated with the icon.
US08384661B2	Program, information storage medium, determination device, and determination method A determination device stores a plurality of pieces of reference data associated with a predetermined movement pattern of a controller, and determines whether or not output values that respectively have a given relationship with reference data have been output from an acceleration sensor in a predetermined order within an input reception period in which an input that moves the controller in the predetermined movement pattern is received. The determination device receives an input that moves the controller in the predetermined movement pattern and performs a game process when the determination device has determined that the output values that respectively have the given relationship with the reference data have been output from the acceleration sensor in the predetermined order within the input reception period.
US08384659B2	Display element including electrodes and a fluid with colorant particles A display element includes a first electrode including conductive lines, a second electrode, and a dielectric layer on the first electrode. The dielectric layer has recess regions therein exposing at least portions of the conductive lines. The display element includes a fluid with colorant particles between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US08384658B2	Electrostatically addressable electrophoretic display Novel addressing schemes for controlling electronically addressable displays include a scheme for rear-addressing displays, which allows for in-plane switching of the display material. Other schemes include a rear-addressing scheme which uses a retroreflecting surface to enable greater viewing angle and contrast. Another scheme includes an electrode structure that facilitates manufacture and control of a color display. Another electrode structure facilitates addressing a display using an electrostatic stylus. Methods of using the disclosed electrode structures are also disclosed. Another scheme includes devices combining display materials with silicon transistor addressing structures.
US08384656B2	Driving device, electro-optical device, and electronic apparatus A driving device for driving an electro-optical device includes an outputting section that divides original image signal into and outputs a number of signal portions. The number corresponds to a number of groups of data lines. An assigning section assigns the signal portions to the data lines of corresponding group. A changing section determines an order that the signal portions are to be supplied to the data lines of the corresponding group and changes the order. A correcting section corrects the signal portions to reduce a difference in brightness in the display area generated by the changed order of the signal portions. A supplying section supplies the corrected signal portions to the data lines in accordance with the changed order.
US08384653B2	System and method for enhancing saturation of RGBW image signal A system and method for improving the saturation of a red-green-blue-white (RGBW) image signal, the system including: an image signal classification unit to classify a frame of an image signal into an image classification unit using an image classification parameter based on a luminance and a saturation of the frame; a backlight luminance controller to increase a backlight luminance with respect to the frame if the image classification unit thereof is a saturation improvement target; and a W sub-pixel controller to decrease a luminance of a W sub-pixel of the frame according to an amount of increase in the backlight luminance.
US08384651B2	Lamp protection system and method A video display system such as a liquid crystal display television receiver projection system typically uses a high-intensity discharge lamp of the type that should not be re-started or turned on immediately after being turned off. An improved system protecting the lamp from restarts during a cooling off period. The system maintains the lamp, once energized to produce an image, in an off condition during a predetermined cool-down period following receipt of a power-off. Advantageously, the system automatically powers the lamp on at the end of the cool-down period upon receipt a power-on command during the cool-down period.
US08384649B2	Gate drive device for a liquid crystal display including multiple stages of shift register units A gate drive device for liquid crystal display including multiple stages of shift register units and plurality of clock signal lines, said plurality of clock signal lines all being connected to the multiple stages of shift register units, to enable the multiple stages of shift register units to generate a gate drive signal, each stage of shift register unit all includes a signal output terminal, a first discharge circuit modular is connected between the signal output terminal for the i-th stage of shift register unit and the signal output terminal for the (i+1)-th stage of shift register unit, said first discharge circuit modular is used to cause the charges of a high level signal outputted from the signal output terminal for the i-th stage of shift register unit to be discharged to the signal output terminal for the (i+1)-th stage of shift register unit.
US08384646B2	Liquid crystal display A liquid crystal display including a liquid crystal display panel including a plurality of data lines, a plurality of gate lines intersecting the data lines, and liquid crystal cells respectively formed at intersections of the data lines and the gate lines, and divided into a first area, a second area and a third area, a first data integrated circuit (IC) that drives the first area, a second data IC that drives the second area, a third data IC that drives the third area, and a timing controller that analyzes an input digital video data, generates a first selection signal and a second selection signal for controlling whether charge sharing is used, and independently controls the first, second, and third data ICs using the first and second selection signals, wherein the second area is divided into a first block adjoining the first area, a third block adjoining the third area and a second block located between the first block and the third block; and the first selection signal controls whether the charge sharing is used for the first and third data ICs, and the second selection signal controls whether the charge sharing is used for the second block and controls a charging delay variation so that the charging delay variation is lessened between the second block and the first area or between the second block and the third area in the first or third block.
US08384645B2	Method for driving LCD panel and LCD using the same A method for driving an LCD panel and an LCD using the same are provided. The method includes following steps. Firstly, a number of scan signals are provided sequentially, and an enabling time of the scan signals excluding the last scan signal is adjusted according to a compensation time, so as to unfix the enabling time of these scan signals. Next, the scan signals having the unfixed enabling time are sequentially provided to an LCD panel, so as to turn on a number of row pixels of the LCD panel one by one. Thereby, the entire brightness of the LCD can be uniformed by applying the method disclosed in the present invention.
US08384644B2	Display device and driving apparatus In one embodiment of the invention, a display device includes a plurality of gate lines transferring gate signals, a plurality of data lines transmitting data voltages, a plurality of storage electrode lines transferring storage signals, and a plurality of pixels arranged in a matrix, each pixel comprising a switching element connected to a gate line and a data line, a liquid crystal capacitor connected to the switching element and a common voltage, and a storage capacitor connected to the switching element and a storage electrode line. The display device may further include a plurality of signal generating circuits generating the storage signals, wherein the signal generating circuit is connected to a k-th storage electrode line, where k is a natural number.
US08384640B2	Image processing method and related apparatus for a display device An image processing method for a display device, for enhancing image quality, includes receiving video signals, sequentially generating a plurality of image data according to the video signals, and sequentially displaying the plurality of image data on a panel of the display device. Each of the plurality of image data includes a frame data and a low-gray-level frame data respectively corresponding to a frame output duration and a vertical blanking duration in a timing sequence of the video signals.
US08384635B2	Gamma voltage generator and source driver A gamma voltage generator adapted in a source driver and a source driver adapted in a display panel are provided. The source driver comprises a DAC and a gamma voltage generator comprising a first and a second arithmetic circuit and a gamma voltage string. The first arithmetic circuit receives a first gamma reference voltage and at least one first tuning voltage to supply a first reference voltage. The second arithmetic circuit receives a second gamma reference voltage and at least one second tuning voltage to supply a second reference voltage. The gamma resistor string has two ends coupled to the first and the second arithmetic circuits to receive the first and the second reference voltages respectively to generate a plurality of gamma voltages. The DAC receives digital pixel data and the gamma voltages to generate a plurality of driving voltages to a pixel array of the display panel.
US08384634B2	Display with reduced parasitic effects Visual artifacts in a display are reduced by moving, to the extent possible, display driver components to the display surface itself, thereby shortening conductor distances and reducing the parasitic effects caused by parasitic resistance of the conductors between the display power supply and the display, and between the stabilizing capacitors and the display. To avoid interference with the device housing, low-profile driver components, including either or both of stabilizing capacitors and power supply terminals, can be provided and bonded to the surface of the display side of the outer layer of the display. Alternatively, the stabilizing capacitors can be formed on the display side in the same way that, e.g., in an LCD display, the transparent electrodes for controlling the liquid crystals are formed.
US08384629B2	Pixel drive apparatus, light emitting apparatus, and drive control method for the light emitting apparatus An offset voltage generating circuit sets an offset voltage through binary search based on a voltage value of the initial voltage, and a voltage controlling circuit generates an output voltage which is a predetermined gradation voltage added with the offset voltage, and applies a voltage based on the output voltage to a control terminal of a drive transistor. A current comparison circuit applies a supply voltage from a power supply to the other end of current path of the drive transistor. The current comparison circuit compares the current value of a reference current corresponding to the gradation voltage with a current value of the current flowing in the current path of the drive transistor at this time. The offset voltage generating circuit acquires a specific offset voltage corresponding to variation of the characteristic of the drive transistor based on a result of comparison performed by the current comparison circuit.
US08384628B2	Document with an integrated display device A document including an integrated display device that has several triggerable display elements, each of which is designed to emit an optical signal for representing first data stored in the document whereby the display device is designed for cyclical activation of the display elements for rendering the first data in sequential image regeneration periods, and whereby the display device is designed in such a way that the emission of the optical signals of at least a subset of the display element takes place with a chronological delay, whereby it is not possible to visually perceive the chronological delay.
US08384626B2	EL display panel module, EL display panel, integrated circuit device, electronic apparatus and driving controlling method Disclosed herein is an EL display panel module, including: a pixel array section including a panel serving as a substrate, and a plurality of pixels disposed in a matrix on the panel and each including a pixel circuit, and a light emitting region; and a driving circuit for driving the pixel circuits such that a threshold value correction operation is carried out commonly for plural ones of the pixel circuits which are connected to each signal line and writing of a signal potential corresponding to a gradation value is executed time-sequentially for the individual pixel circuits, the driving circuit applying a reset potential lower than a reference potential for the threshold value correction to the plural ones of the pixel circuits before first writing of the signal potential after the threshold value correction operation is completed; the pixel array section and the driving circuit being mounted on the same substrate.
US08384617B2	Nose bridge sensor Systems and methods for selecting an action associated with a power state transition of a head-mounted display (HMD) in the form of eyeglasses are disclosed. A signal may be received from a sensor on a nose bridge of the eyeglasses indicating if the HMD is in use. Based on the received signal, a first powers state for the HMD may be determined. Responsive to the determined first power state, an action associated with a power state transition of the HMD from an existing power state to the first power state may be selected. The action may be selected from among a plurality of actions associated with a plurality of state transitions. Also, the action may be a sequence of functions performed by the HMD including modifying an operating state of a primary processing component of the HMD and a detector of the HMD configured to image an environment.
US08384613B1	Deployable structures with quadrilateral reticulations A non-planar surface support structure that is compatible with deployable thin shell reflector segments. The structure is composed of multiple four strut closed loops connected to compliant hinges at the nodes to create an effective surface. The deployed surface shape is determined by the strut lengths (L) and the node locations and the packaged compatibility constraint in which L1+L3−L2−L4 approximately equals zero. Each of the compliant hinges have degrees of freedom such that the compact configuration of the support structure is obtained by the translation of two opposite nodes of each loop upwards and the remaining two nodes downwards in a continuous process until all struts are approximately parallel and tightly bundled and the hinges lock out all degrees of freedom in the deployed configuration.
US08384609B2	RF aperture coldplate An RF aperture coldplate for positioning in heat transfer proximity to heat-generating elements of an RF antenna system is presented. The RF aperture coldplate has a front side and a rear side. The RF aperture coldplate includes waveguides each forming an opening therethrough from the front side to the rear side, and passages substantially around the waveguides. The passages are configured to conduct cooling medium around the waveguides and between the front side and the rear side of the RF aperture coldplate.
US08384605B2	Wireless communication between a rotating frame of reference and a non-rotating frame of reference A communication system includes a first communication module within a rotating frame of reference and a second communication module within a fixed frame of reference. The first communication module and the second communication module in wireless communication at least partially through a hollow shaft.
US08384603B2	PCB and embedded antenna for mobile communication terminal having double feed points using the same A Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and an embedded antenna for a mobile communication terminal having double feed points using the same are provided. The embedded antenna includes a PCB having an emission carrier. The emission carrier includes first and second feed points connected to a feed wiring layer of the PCB, as well as an emission pattern to which the feed points are connected. The feed wiring layer supplies a current to one of the feed points, and has a connection wiring for supplying a current from the feed point to the other feed point. Through overlapping between a first resonance spot created by the first feed point, and a second resonance spot, which branches off from the first feed point and connects to the PCB, the frequency bandwidth can be expanded, which accommodates any frequency shift minimizes deterioration resulting from the influence of human bodies, and maintains stable antenna characteristics.
US08384601B2	Semiconductor device An object of the present invention is to prevent electrical characteristics of circuit elements from being adversely affected by copper diffusion in a semiconductor device having an integrated circuit and an antenna formed over one substrate, which uses copper plating for the antenna. Another object is to prevent a defect of a semiconductor device due to poor connection between an antenna and an integrated circuit in a semiconductor device having the integrated circuit and the antenna formed over one substrate. In a semiconductor device having an integrated circuit 100 and an antenna 101 formed over one substrate 102, when a copper plating layer 108 is used for a conductor of the antenna 101, it is possible to decrease an adverse effect on electrical characteristics of circuit elements due to copper diffusion because a base layer 107 of the antenna 101 uses a nitride film of a predetermined metal.
US08384600B2	High gain metamaterial antenna device An antenna is presented having a flared structure wherein charge is induced from one portion of the structure to another. The flared structure may be a V-shaped or other shaped element. The antenna includes at least one parasitic element to increase the gain of the antenna and extend the radiation pattern generated by the antenna in a given direction.
US08384598B2	Surface-mounted antenna, antenna device using the same, and radio communication equipment A surface-mounted antenna has a base having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, an antenna element formed on the surface of the base and having a first radiation electrode subjected to direct power supply, and an antenna element formed on the surface of the base and having a radiation electrode subjected to capacitive coupling power supply. With this, the smaller surface-mounted antenna of a combo antenna type can be provided.
US08384596B2	Method and system for inter-chip communication via integrated circuit package antennas Methods and systems for inter-chip communication via integrated circuit package antennas are disclosed and may include communicating one or more signals between or among a plurality of integrated circuits via one or more antennas integrated in a multi-layer package. The integrated circuits may be bonded to the multi-layer package. The antennas may be configured via switches in the integrated circuits or by MEMS switches integrated in the multi-layer package. The signals may include a microwave signal and a low frequency control signal that may configure the microwave signal. The low frequency control signal may include a digital signal. The antennas may comprise metal and/or ferromagnetic layers deposited on and/or embedded within the multi-layer package.
US08384595B2	Position estimation through iterative inclusion of measurement data In a wireless location system configured to use a baseline correlation method, an iterative approach to increasing location accuracy is disclosed. The quality of received signals is ordered from highest to lowest and used to calculate an initial location. The initial location is modified using the lower quality signals as constrained by the time and frequency deviation from the initial location and velocity estimate.
US08384594B2	Closed shape beam forming network A network distributes input microwave signals into a output signals having a Gaussian amplitude and in-phase distribution per the input signal. The network includes N input ports providing N different input signals; M output ports, M being a multiple of N; and layers disposed between the inputs ports and the outputs ports. The input signals are distributed through the layers. Each layer includes an arrangement of power combiners and/or power dividers. The arrangement has an angular rotational configuration of k2π/N radians around a symmetry symmetrical axis of a closed polygonal shape formed by the input ports, where k is an integer between 1 and N.
US08384593B2	Synchronized measurement sampling in a navigation device In a hot start mode of a navigation device, the process of obtaining pseudo-range measurements can be synchronized with the processes of tracking navigation satellites and initializing a positioning unit to compute a position, velocity, and time (PVT) solution of the navigation device. This can influence a time instant at which the pseudo-range measurements are determined and a time to first fix, depending on whether the navigation device is in a strong or weak signal environment. A measurement unit can receive a first indication that a predetermined number of navigation satellites have been acquired and that navigation signals transmitted by the acquired navigation satellites have been locked. The measurement unit can receive a second indication that the positioning unit has been initialized to compute the PVT solution. In response to receiving both indications, the measurement unit can obtain the pseudo-range measurements. Accordingly, the positioning unit can compute the PVT solution.
US08384592B1	FFT based acquisition techniques for satellite based navigation systems A satellite navigation receiver receives a combination of radio frequency signals from satellites in satellite navigation systems and process the radio frequency signals to calculate an approximate current location of the satellite navigation receiver. Satellite acquisition plays an important part in identifying the current location of the satellite navigation receiver. Acquisition involves identifying the satellites in the satellite navigation that can be used to provide navigation information. Fast Fourier transform based acquisition involves using FFT and subsequently inverse FFT (IFFT) to correlate a coarse acquisition (C/A) code transmitted by a satellite with a C/A code locally generated on the GPS receiver to identify and acquire a transmitting satellite.
US08384588B2	Beam stabilization for wideband phase comparison monopulse angle estimation with electronically steered antennas A method for estimating a target angle of a wideband signal received on an electronically steered antenna array includes: generating spatial frequency data from the received wideband signal; stabilizing the spatial frequency data to a beam steering direction; compressing the stabilized spatial frequency data to a plurality of frequency range bins; calculating a monopulse discriminant from the stabilized spatial frequency data; and calculating the target angle using the monopulse discriminant.
US08384587B2	Radar for aerial target detection fitted to an aircraft notably for the avoidance of obstacles in flight A radar being carried by an aircraft includes means for transmitting an RF wave towards a target, said wave having a double form, a first waveform being composed of at least two sinusoids of different frequencies transmitted simultaneously, the radar comprising reception circuits receiving the signals reflected by the target and analysis means performing the detection of the target on the basis of the signals received. The second waveform is of the pulse type. The transmitted waveform is dependent on the relative speed of the target with respect to the carrier and on the absolute speed of the carrier.
US08384586B2	Mixer structure for doppler radar applications A Mixer structure (210) for Doppler radar applications and a Doppler radar sensor (30) having an oscillator input port (LO) for output signals from an electric oscillator (32), having a radio frequency input port (RF) for output signals from receiving means (34), having an output port (IF) for an overall output intermediate signal produced in the mixer structure (210) and having two mixer branches (12a, 12b) each with a diode (18a, 18b). The mixer branches (12a, 12b) are connected to the oscillator input port (LO) and to the radio frequency input port (RF) in such a manner that intermediate signals (IF1, IF2), which are produced in these mixer branches (12a, 12b) and correspond to a Doppler shift between the oscillator signal and the radio frequency signal, are processed to the overall output signal.
US08384583B2	Synthetic-aperture radar system and operating method for monitoring ground and structure displacements suitable for emergency conditions A synthetic-aperture radar system, and related operating method, for the monitoring of ground and structure movements, particularly suitable for emergency conditions, characterized by a ground based platform with polarimetric capabilities, that able to quickly acquire, embeddedly process and post-process data by a novel data acquisition “On the Fly” mode of operation, reducing by at least an order of magnitude the data acquisition time. The inventive system characteristics allows to achieve on-field measurement results on three-dimensional maps georeferenced to absolute coordinate systems (WGS84, Gauss-Boaga, and so on). The operating method includes the step of installing the system, the acquiring of the first measurements, the quick data processing and post-processing to provide sub-millimetric precision georeferenced bi-dimensional and three-dimensional displacement maps for the objects belonging to the monitored scenario, with an improved performance and in a measurement time compatible to that required in an emergency condition, with an higher degree of integration with other sensors and autonomously and embeddendly.
US08384581B2	Reducing radar signatures A structure and a method for modifying an existing design of structure are provided, wherein the structure is provided to at least partially enclose an object that has a large radar cross section. The structure comprises a non-metallic portion having a radar-reflective layer applied to an inclined surface of the structure. The inclined surface is arranged with one or more angles of inclination selected so that the radar cross-section for the structure has a value that is lower than that for the object enclosed in one or more frequency ranges. In a preferred variation, an at least partially detached and appropriately shaped radar-reflective structure may be provided as an alternative to or to supplement the modification of an existing enclosure.
US08384574B2	Reconfigurable bandpass delta-sigma modulator A delta-sigma modulator is disclosed which has a filter comprising a filter input, two LC resonators (LC1-1, LC1-2), and two switches (CBT/CGT). An input of each one of the two switches is connected to the filter input and a corresponding output of each one of the two switches is connected to a corresponding one of said LC resonators. Each one of the two switches is individually controllable for selectively connecting the corresponding one of the LC resonators with the filter input. The invention also relates to a method for changing the mode of operation of a delta-sigma modulator.
US08384573B2	Low-power digital-to-analog converter A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with a digital segment having a digital data input and an analog segment coupled to the digital segment and having an analog output to output an analog signal corresponding to the digital data. The analog segment includes one or more gain stages and a feedback structure to couple the analog output to the one or more gain stages to attenuate signal distortion at the analog output. A combined gain of the one or more gain stages determines a signal distortion attenuation characteristic of the analog segment.
US08384571B2	A/D conversion circuit and A/D conversion method An analog-to-digital conversion circuit includes: comparators to compare an input analog signal and one of reference voltages corresponding to each operation in an analog-to-digital conversion; an interpolating comparator to compare the input analog signal and a determination voltage between first and second reference voltages corresponding to two comparators; a correction value acquisition circuit to calculate a correction value to correct an error between the input analog signal and the determination voltage; a correction value application circuit to set the correction value in the interpolating comparator; a test voltage generation circuit to supply the two comparators with a first test voltage corresponding to one of the determination voltages; a common voltage generation circuit to supply the two comparators with a second test voltage; and a correction value calculation circuit to calculate respective correction values corresponding to the determination voltages based on errors corresponding to the first and second test voltages.
US08384570B2	Encoder interpolator with enhanced precision A method is presented for converting the sine/cosine signals from an optical encoder into a high-resolution position signal for use by a position control system while eliminating common noise and error sources. The improved noise performance resulting from the alias-free demodulation of encoder signals improves precision and reduces power consumption in precision motion control applications. The adaptive compensation of harmonic distortion eliminates errors related to offset, gain and quadrature of the encoder channels. The interpolator is able to process encoder signals at extremely high resolution without the speed limitation of prior art encoder interpolators.
US08384569B2	Circuit and method for generating the stochastic signal A stochastic signal generation circuit includes a signal output circuit and a signal processing circuit connected with the signal output circuit. The signal output circuit includes two matching semiconductor components, wherein the signal output circuit detects a slight mismatch between the two matching semiconductor components, converts the detected slight mismatch into a corresponding electric signal, amplifies the electric signal, and outputs an analog voltage signal. The signal processing circuit converts the analog voltage signal into a stochastic digital signal. Also, a method for generating a stochastic signal is provided. The present invention decreases the cost of the integrated circuit, and better ensures the information security of the electronic products.
US08384568B2	Decoder circuit for down-sampling a differential manchester encoding Decoder circuits and methods down-sample the samples that oversample an input signal having a differential Manchester encoding. A first input port receives first, second, and third samples. A second input port receives a state indicating whether a clock transition or a data transition precedes the first, second, and third samples. A third input port receives first, second, and third down-sampled bits. A detector circuit is configured to generate a detection signal indicating a presence of a short pulse within the samples when the state indicates the clock transition and the second and third down-sampled bits are equal and differ from the first down-sampled bit and the third sample. A generator circuit is configured to generate a fourth down-sampled bit that equals the third sample when the detection signal indicates the presence of the short pulse, and that equals the second sample when the detection signal does not indicate the presence.
US08384567B2	Encoding apparatus and method, recording apparatus and method, and decoding apparatus and method An encoding apparatus that converts m-bit data words into n-bit code words, where m and n are both integers and satisfy an expression 2n≧2m×2, includes a first conversion table in which 2m m-bit data words are associated with 2m n-bit code words selected from 2n n-bit code words, a second conversion table in which the 2m m-bit data words are associated with 2m n-bit code words that have been selected from the 2n n-bit code words and that do not overlap with the 2m n-bit code words in the first conversion table, and an encoder configured to select and output an n-bit code word with which an m-bit data word that has been input is associated in the first conversion table or an n-bit code word with which the m-bit data word that has been input is associated in the second conversion table, the selected and output n-bit code word having a smaller number of symbols “1”.
US08384564B2	Method and system for adding gadgets to a traffic report A method and system for adding traffic gadgets to a traffic report is disclosed. A traffic gadget is a dynamic object defined by a relatively small code module that is separate from the main traffic report application code. A programmer develops the traffic gadget's visual functionality and specifies the type of data that the traffic gadget can receive. An artist configures the visible appearance of the traffic gadget for a specific end-user application. The end-user may then select a traffic gadget and add the selected traffic gadget to a visual traffic report. The user may also select data to control the functionality of the traffic gadget during the traffic report.
US08384563B2	Device for confirming the engine thrust of an aircraft A device for confirming the engine thrust of an aircraft is disclosed. The device, via an operating logic unit (14) of each engine processing different information, including a warning indicator (15) connected to the unit (14) delivers or not thrust confirmation information at the level of the cockpit.
US08384561B2	Parking assist device A parking assist device comprises an image obtaining portion for obtaining a surrounding image of a vehicle, a display controlling portion for displaying the surrounding image and a pair of vehicle width extended lines on a displaying device provided at an interior of the vehicle in such a way that the pair of vehicle width extended lines is superposed on the surrounding image, the vehicle width extended lines serving as indicative lines for notifying a driver of a width of the vehicle and a stall line detecting portion for detecting a pair of stall lines indicating a parking stall, wherein, when the pair of the stall lines is detected, the display controlling portion changes a distance between the vehicle width extended lines corresponding to a distance between the stall lines.
US08384558B2	Extending contact life in remote disconnect applications Disclosed are apparatus and methodology subject matters for providing improved functionality of a meter in a 2-way communications arrangement, such as an Advanced Metering System (AMS) or Infrastructure (AMI). More particularly, the present technology relates to methodologies and apparatus for providing load sensing for utility meters which preferably are operable with remote disconnect features in an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) open operational framework. Meters per the present subject matter utilize a detection circuit, and separately utilize certain remote disconnect functionality. In particular, disconnect functionality is coupled with consideration of electric load information, such as load current as determined by the metering functionality. Providing such functionality allows for the following, all in accordance with the present subject matter: (a) frequent on/off cycling of the electrical service, (b) disconnection of service while full rated current is being delivered through the switch contacts, (c) preservation of switch contact integrity by selective switch operation based on current load, and (d) providing immediate override functionality if needed.
US08384557B2	Proximity sensing Wire antennas (14, 22) define a target region (18), primarily between them. A generator (16) generates an electric field in the target region (18). A sensor arrangement (20) senses the electric field. Control means (25) is operable to analyze the field strength sensed by the sensor arrangement (20), for changes indicative of a change in conditions in the target region, such as the presence of a body (30).
US08384555B2	Method and system for automated detection of mobile phone usage A method and apparatus for automated detection of mobile phone usage by drivers of vehicles includes at least one mobile phone signal receiving device, at least one image capturing device, at least one infrared illuminator and at least one computer. The mobile phone signal receiving device is operative to detect a mobile phone signal transmitted from a vehicle. The at least one image capturing device is operative to capture infrared light reflected off of the driver of the vehicle. The at least one computer is operative to store, in a storage device, information associated with at least one of the mobile phone signals transmitted from the vehicle and the at least one image of the vehicle. The information stored in the storage device may be used to determine if a person associated with the vehicle should be prosecuted for illegal use of a mobile phone while driving the vehicle.
US08384554B1	Audible current monitoring device A device and methods for detecting current changes over a preset threshold in a circuit are provided. The device includes a housing for securing at least a circuit board therein. The device further includes at least one alerting device in electrical communication with and controlled by a micro-controller. The device also includes at least one input device fixed with the housing and configured so that a user may set conditions for the micro-controller. The meter also includes at least one detecting device for measuring a current reading in a circuit, and in electrical communication with the micro-controller. The micro-controller stores a current reading in the memory and the micro-controller then compares subsequent current readings to the stored current readings to calculate a current change. If the current change is greater than the preset threshold, the micro-controller activates the at least one alerting device.
US08384552B2	Radiation portal with occupancy and motion sensing system Disclosed is a radiation monitoring system that has a radiation detector for making radiation measurements within a monitored area. An occupancy sensor may be provided for detecting a presence of an entity in the monitored area, and a motion sensor may be provided for detecting a motion of the entity in the monitored area. In a typical embodiment, a radiation measurement collection system is provided which has a first program logic element for collecting the radiation measurements as collected radiation measurements when the presence of the entity is detected and the motion of the entity is detected. Also provided is a method for monitoring an area for intermittent sources of radiation.
US08384550B2	Interaction analyzer A method of analyzing participant activity includes providing an identification unit to a participant, receiving signals from the identification unit, determining location of the participant based on the received signals, storing the location information and the associated timestamp and analyzing the stored information.
US08384549B2	Event communication system for providing user alerts An event communication system involves facilitating entry by a user of one or more device addresses via a network accessible user interface of the event communication system. The device addresses are associated with alerts provided by the event communication system. Test alert messages targeted for the device addresses are sent via the user interface. The system sends alerts user devices corresponding to the one or more tested device addresses in response to predetermined events. The system may provide user access to historical copies of data relating to the alerts. Registration on the system involves storing a personal identity data of a student on a database and comparing the personal identity data to registration data entered via the user interface. Authentication is automatically provided based on the comparison.
US08384548B2	System and methods for ensuring proper use of personal protective equipment for work site hazards Electronic monitoring systems and methods for detecting and verifying the adequacy of personal protective equipment needed by a person to complete a potentially hazardous task. Items providing different predetermined levels of protection may be identified and evaluated in light of specific risk potentials posed at specific locations, such as different portions of energized electrical circuitry presenting different arc flash hazard risks. Individuals may also be identified and determined to be authorized or unauthorized to perform a potentially hazardous task at a specific location. Confirmation features, alarm features, and event logs may be provided, and the monitoring systems and methods may be integrated with circuit protector monitoring systems and functionality.
US08384542B1	Autonomous and federated sensory subsystems and networks for security systems Security systems may include sensing, networked communications, stealth, alarms, and countermeasures, any or all of which may adapt to threats. These systems may also include armor and barriers of concrete and/or steel. They can adapt to severity of threats, weather, and/or other situational aspects. They can anticipate at least some threats in order to obtain early warning and react more quickly to those threats. They can adapt by altering their configurations, including alterations in communication networking structures and methods, and changes in data-storage and processing duties at processing nodes. Defensive and/or offensive countermeasures can be employed to deter, confuse, trap, and/or disable terrorists. The systems are capable of self-maintenance, self-healing, and self-restoration as threats subside. The systems can include subsystems capable of autonomous operation. At least some of the systems and/or their subsystems are capable of allocating power among subsystems, and of regulating bandwidth utilizations.
US08384540B2	Systems and methods for detecting and geo-locating hazardous refuse The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for scanning refuse (garbage, trash) from a large geographic area to detect the presence of hazardous materials in the refuse. Hazardous material may comprise CBRNE agents, components of terrorist devices, environmental pollutants and toxins and illegal drugs and may include trace particulates of such agents as well as by-products thereof. Systems and methods, according to some embodiments, may further comprise geo-locating to a small geographic area the origin of hazardous material. Accordingly, in some embodiments the disclosure provides systems and methods to geo-locate facilities or addresses where hazardous materials are generated, thereby geo-locating facilities that make terrorist devices, sources of environmental pollutants and/or sources of illegal drugs. According to some embodiments, systems and methods of the disclosure enable focusing efforts of law enforcement authorities to identify terrorists, drug activities and/or environmental offenders to small geographic areas (e.g. a street address).
US08384536B2	Customizable and reconfigurable virtual instrument panel The invention provides an instrument control panel that is easily customized and reconfigured, and yet provides the familiar tactile sensation of physical knobs, sliders, and buttons. The instrument control panel comprises one or more interface components that are removably coupled to an interface display wherein the interface components communicate with one or more control components disposed behind the interface display. The present invention lends itself particularly well to an instrument panel.
US08384535B2	System and method for controlling early low fuel warning based on driver status A system and method is provided for controlling the operation of notifying drivers of the fluid level. Primary and secondary keys are adapted to be associated to primary and secondary drivers. A key ignition device is positioned on the primary and secondary keys and generates driver status signals. A fluid level sensing device is operable to generate a fluid level signal indicative of the fluid level. A controller is coupled to the fluid level sensing device and the key ignition device. The controller determines whether the driver of the vehicle is the primary or secondary driver in response to the driver status signals. The controller notifies the primary or secondary driver of the fluid level in response to the fluid level signal. The controller selectively controls the operation of notifying the primary or the secondary driver based on whether the driver is the primary or secondary driver.
US08384534B2	Combining driver and environment sensing for vehicular safety systems An apparatus for assisting safe operation of a vehicle includes an environment sensor system detecting hazards within the vehicle environment, a driver monitor providing driver awareness data (such as a gaze track), and an attention-evaluation module identifying hazards as sufficiently or insufficiently sensed by the driver by comparing the hazard data and the gaze track. An alert signal relating to the unperceived hazards can be provided.
US08384530B2	Seat occupant determining apparatus A seat occupant determining apparatus includes a first load detecting sensor at a right of a seat, a second load detecting sensor at a left of the seat, a third load detecting sensor at a front or a rear of the first and second load detecting sensors, in order to detect a part of the load, respectively, a right-left sum value calculating portion calculating a right-left sum value, a threshold changing portion for changing an occupant determining threshold on the basis of the load value of the third load detecting sensor, and an occupant determining portion determining an occupant of the seat to be an adult when the right-left sum value is equal to or more than the occupant determining threshold and determining an occupant of the seat to be a child in a child seat when the right-left sum value is less than the occupant determining threshold.
US08384529B2	Mobile apparatus including two force-sense generating mechanisms A mobile apparatus includes a casing; a first force-sense generating mechanism which selectively imparts, to the user who is carrying the casing; a force-sense of a first translation force directed toward one side in a first direction, and a force-sense of a second translational force directed toward the other side in the first direction; and a second force-sense generating mechanism which is arranged in the casing, at an opposite side of the first force-sense generating mechanism with respect to a straight line passing through a center of gravity of the mobile apparatus, and which selectively imparts a force-sense of a third translational force directed toward one side in a second direction which is substantially parallel to the first direction, and a force-sense of a fourth translational force directed toward the other side in the second direction.
US08384528B2	Method and apparatus for selectively varying motor vehicle sounds An apparatus and method for customizing the sound emitted from an automotive vehicle during operation. Specifically, the vehicle operator uses a controller to vary the sound emitted from the engine exhaust and intake or engine compartment sounds during vehicle operation. In addition, the operator can control the sound level, sound type and sound aspect in the vehicle interior or passenger compartment and the vehicle exterior. Further, the apparatus uses an active sound control system, such as those using microphones and speakers, to customize and/or tune the sound emanating from the vehicle.
US08384521B2	Systems, methods, and apparatus for RFID tag detection A system for tracking objects that include radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated therewith. The system including a structure substantially defining an enclosure, a reflective interior of the enclosure configured for the reflection of radio signals, at least one conveyor belt that transports the objects through the structure, at least one RFID reader panel inside the structure, wherein the at least one RFID reader panel transmits a radio signal into the interior of the structure such that the radio signal will reflect off of the interior of the structure to increase a probability that the RFID tags associated with the objects that enter the structure are read, and an operator terminal that receives and stores information regarding read RFID tags from the at least one reader panel.
US08384518B2	Illuminable latch A computing device is disclosed. The computing device includes a data capture device such as a camera. In one aspect, the data capture device may integrated with the housing of the computing device and further detachable therefrom. In another aspect, the data capture device may swivel and/or translate relative to the housing of the computing device. In another aspect, the computing device may include a positioning device for controlling the movement of the data capture device relative to the housing. In yet another aspect, the computing device may include a latch that is automatically positioned in a home position when a housing component of the computing device is positioned in first position, and is automatically positioned in a lock position when the housing component of the computing device is positioned in a closed position.
US08384517B2	Programmable digital labels for a medicine container A label for a product includes an electronic display for displaying label information. The digital label includes an operating system program with an applications interface to allow development of custom applications by manufacturers, retailers, and users of the product. The digital label also includes a communications interface enable communication with external devices, such as other computer systems. The processor in the digital label can process, display, and transmit information.
US08384516B2	System and method for radio frequency identifier voice signature Conventional techniques for logging and using a user's signature are insecure and inflexible. A system and method are provided which: i) translate a user's first signature, such as a user's voice signature, into a user's second signature, such as a radio frequency identifier signature; and ii) deploy the user's second signature. By translating the user's first signature into the user's second signature and deploying the user's second signature, the provided technique assures the authenticity of the user. Furthermore, the provided system and method enable additional authentication factors, such as a user's personal identification number, to be used with the user's first and second signatures in multiple combinations and sequences to assure the authenticity of the user. As such, the invention provides a security layer offering added security and added flexibility previously unavailable, and which may be applied in a variety of contexts, such as a user device or a retail transaction.
US08384515B2	Biometric processing using random projection transforms To provide cancelable biometrics, random projection transforms are used to produce transformed biometric data that may be used for authentication purposes. Each random projection transform provides a one-way or irreversible transformation such that the resulting transformed biometric data alone cannot be used to reconstruct the biometric data. Enrollment and backup transforms are produced based on enrollment biometric data. Authentication is possible by similarly transforming authentication biometric and then securely reconstructing the enrollment and authentication biometric data for comparison. In a similar manner, the enrollment and backup transforms may be used to reenroll biometric data when its corresponding transformed biometric data is compromised without requiring further user intervention.
US08384511B2	Photoreceptor device, liquid crystal apparatus, and electronic apparatus A photoreceptor device includes a photoreceptor unit, a detector, an amount-of-light controller, and a correcting unit. The photoreceptor unit includes one or more photoelectric converter elements, and converts received light into an electric signal and outputs the electric signal. The detector detects an illuminance of ambient light received by the photoreceptor unit, on the basis of the electric signal. The amount-of-light controller controls an amount of light incident on the photoreceptor unit. The correcting unit corrects the illuminance of ambient light detected by the detector, on the basis of the electric signal output from the photoreceptor unit when the photoreceptor unit is shielded from light.
US08384509B2	Holder for fuses The invention relates to holders for receiving fuses, with a housing having a receiving shaft, the receiving shaft containing contacts which are provided for contacting at least one fuse inserted into the receiving shaft, a cover which is adjustably arranged in the receiving shaft, a fuse holding device which is adjustably guided in the receiving shaft, wherein the cover has a unit being engageable with a guiding mechanism and which holds the cover at a predetermined position within the housing, a coupling device for detachably coupling the cover to the fuse holding device, wherein the unit of the cover is formed by feet which protrude laterally from the cover and are engageable with the guides in the housing, and wherein the guiding mechanism comprises stops and/or stop faces which are provided in the guiding mechanism, and which hold the cover in a top position of the cover.
US08384507B2	Through via inductor or transformer in a high-resistance substrate with programmability A through via inductor or transformer in a high-resistance substrate in an electronic package. In one embodiment, the package comprises a target inductor which includes a through-via formed in the substrate through which a signal passes and a tuner inductor which includes a through-via formed in the substrate such that the through-via has an independent signal passing therethrough. The direction of the signal passing through the tuner inductor can be independently controlled to adjust the total inductance of the target inductor. In another embodiment, a transformer can comprise a primary loop and a secondary loop, each of which includes a plurality of through-vias that are coupled to a plurality of conductive traces. The primary loop forms a first continuous conductive path and the secondary loop forms a second continuous conductive path. A signal passing through the primary loop can induce a signal in the secondary loop such that the induced signal is dependent on the transformer ratio.
US08384503B2	Magnetic switching device A switching device (1) with a pole element (2) which exhibits a plurality of magnets (10) arranged one next to the other with alternating polarity, a first switching element (4), wherein the pole element (2) is situated next to the first switching element (4) and is movable relative to the first switching element (4), and wherein the first switching element (4) exhibits magnetisable area segments (16). According to the invention the switching device (1) exhibits magnetisable force coupling elements (8), which, in dependence on a relative motion between the pole element (2) and the first switching element (4), are arranged in such a way as to be movable with respect to the switching element.
US08384497B2	Piezoelectric resonator structure having an interference structure A piezoelectric resonator structure, comprising: (i) a substrate, (ii) an acoustic mirror, (iii) a first electrode, (iv) a piezoelectric layer, and (v) a second electrode, wherein each of the substrate, the acoustic mirror, the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer, and the second electrode has a top surface and a bottom surface, a first end portion and an opposite, second end portion, and a body portion defined therebetween, wherein the overlapped area of body portions of the substrate, the acoustic mirror, the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the second electrode is defined as an active area A. A plurality of air gaps and interference structures is formed at the first end portion of the piezoelectric layer and the second electrode, and the second end portion of the piezoelectric layer and the second electrode to enhance the performance of the piezoelectric resonator.
US08384493B2	Emulation of anisotropic media in transmission line In one exemplary embodiment, a transmission line geometry or structure may readily be realized as periodic printed coupled/uncoupled microstrip lines on dielectric and/or suitable biased ferromagnetic substrates. An example of a transmission line geometry or structure may be adapted to emulate extraordinary propagation modes within bulk periodic assemblies of anisotropic dielectric and magnetic materials. For instance, wave propagation in anisotropic media may be emulated by using a pair of coupled transmission lines (30, 32) having a specially designed geometry, thereby enabling mold wave dispersion in a microwave or optical guided wave structure. Degenerate band edge resonances, frozen modes, other extraordinary modes, and other unique electromagnetic properties such as negative refraction index may be realized using unique geometrical arrangements that may, for example, be easily manufactured using contemporary RF or photonics/solid state technology.
US08384490B2	Non-reciprocal circuit and non-reciprocal circuit device, and central conductor assembly used therein A central conductor assembly for use in a non-reciprocal circuit comprising a first inductance element between a first input/output port and a second input/output port, and a second inductance element between the second input/output port and a ground port, a magnetic substrate being integrally provided with a first central conductor constituting the first inductance element and a second central conductor constituting the second inductance element; and the second central conductor being crossing the first central conductor on a main surface side of the substrate via a magnetic layer or a dielectric layer, with at least one end portion thereof bent such that high-frequency current flows therethrough in the same direction as or in an opposite direction to that of high-frequency current flowing through the first central conductor.
US08384488B2	Phase-lock in all-digital phase-locked loops This disclosure relates to an all digital phase-lock loop (ADPLL). The ADPLL determines an error generated by a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) which is operated using a tuning word, stores information related to the error, and compensates for the error based on the stored information.
US08384487B2	Orthogonally referenced integrated ensemble for navigation and timing An orthogonally referenced integrated ensemble for navigation and timing includes a dual-polyhedral oscillator array, including an outer sensing array of oscillators and an inner clock array of oscillators situated inside the outer sensing array. The outer sensing array includes a first pair of sensing oscillators situated along a first axis of the outer sensing array, a second pair of sensing oscillators situated along a second axis of the outer sensing array, and a third pair of sensing oscillators situated along a third axis of the outer sensing array. The inner clock array of oscillators includes a first pair of clock oscillators situated along a first axis of the inner clock array, a second pair of clock oscillators situated along a second axis of the inner clock array, and a third pair of clock oscillators situated along a third axis of the inner clock array.
US08384482B2	Wideband Doherty amplifier circuit with impedance combiner An amplifier circuit includes a first amplifier operable to turn on at a first power level, a second amplifier operable to turn on at a second power level below the first power level and a third amplifier operable to turn on at all power levels. A first power combiner is operable to combine an output of the third amplifier with an output of the second amplifier at a first power combining node to form a first combined amplifier output. A second power combiner is operable to combine the first combined amplifier output with an output of the first amplifier at a second power combining node to form a second combined amplifier output. An impedance transformer is operable to transform a load impedance of the amplifier circuit to a transformed impedance at the second power combining node, the transformed impedance matching an impedance of the first and second power combiners.
US08384476B2	Adaptive digital predistortion of complex modulated waveform using peak and RMS voltage feedback from the output of a power amplifier Exemplary embodiments of the invention includes an amplifier and a processor that adapts a baseline or previous model of the input-output signal characteristic of the amplifier using metrics of the system, including peak power, peak voltage, average power, root mean square (RMS) voltage, samples of the output signal of the amplifier, or environmental metrics such as temperature, power supply voltage, signal frequency, etc. In particular, the system comprises an amplifier; a device to measure a metric of the system; a processor to generate a present model of the input-output signal characteristic of the amplifier based on the system metric; and a predistortion device to predistort the input signal for the amplifier based on the present amplifier model.
US08384469B2	Voltage divider circuit and semiconductor device Provided are a voltage divider circuit with high detection precision, a small circuit area, and a reduced chip size, and a semiconductor device including the voltage divider circuit. The voltage divider circuit includes: a first resistor circuit formed to have a resistance that is weighted according to a binary code; a second resistor circuit formed to have a resistance that is weighted according to the same binary code; and a third resistor circuit including a third resistor having a resistance that is weighted according to the same binary code to have a maximum weighted bit count, in which both ends of the third resistor are alternatively connected to an output terminal by two transmission gates.
US08384468B2	Multi-supply voltage compatible I/O ring Systems and methods for achieving multiple supply voltage compatibility of an input/output (I/O) ring of an integrated circuit (IC) chip. The IC chip includes a core surrounded by the I/O ring which includes a voltage detector circuit. An I/O supply voltage of the IC chip is sensed by the voltage detector circuit to generate a control signal. The control signal is used to configure the I/O ring to operate at the I/O supply voltage of the I/O ring, thus enabling the IC to operate at multiple supply voltage levels.
US08384465B2	Amplitude-stabilized even order pre-distortion circuit An amplitude-stabilized second-order predistortion circuit includes a main cell having a differential input for receiving a differential input voltage, a differential output for providing a differential output voltage, and a load control input for receiving a load control voltage; a replica cell having a differential input for receiving a differential level of peak input voltage, a differential peak output voltage, and a load control input; and a control circuit coupled to the differential output of the replica cell and driving the load control inputs of the main cell and the replica cell. The main cell and the replica cell are multiplier cells each having a variable load. The control circuit includes a first amplifier for generating a single-ended peak signal and a second amplifier for generating the load control voltage from the difference between the replica cell single-ended peak output signal and a single-ended peak reference signal.
US08384464B1	Low jitter clock interpolator Low jitter clock interpolator circuits in accordance with embodiments of the invention are illustrated. In many embodiments, the low jitter clock interpolator incorporates a time based numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) to generate a clock signal, and different phases of the resulting clock are created using a clock interpolator. Information from the time based NCO and the interpolator is then used to select phases and create an output clock that is jitter free within the precision of the interpolator. One embodiment of the invention includes a time based numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) configured to produce a NCO output in response to a high speed clock (hsclk) input and a frequency control word (FCW), where the output periods of the NCO output are integer multiples of the hsclk period and the average output period of the NCO output corresponds to the FCW, a clock interpolator circuit configured to receive the NCO output and the hsclk input and to generate a plurality of different phases of the NCO output, and a phase calculator circuit configured to select phases generated by the clock interpolator to produce a low jitter clock signal output having an output period that corresponds to the FCW.
US08384459B2	Delay line circuit and phase interpolation module thereof A phase interpolation module comprising a first, second, and third phase interpolation units is proposed. Each of the first, second, and third phase interpolation units comprises a first through third inverters, a first and second resistors, wherein the first resistor is coupled between an output end of the first inverter and an input end of the third inverter, and the second resistor is coupled between an output end of the second inverter and the input end of the third inverter. The first and second inverters of the first phase interpolation unit receive a first signal, the first and second inverters of the third phase interpolation unit receive a second signal, and the first and second inverters of the second phase interpolation unit respectively receive the first and second signals.
US08384458B1	Phase interpolation circuit A phase interpolation circuit including a first multiplexer, a second multiplexer, an interpolator and a duty-cycle repeater is provided. The first multiplexer receives a plurality of even order signals. The second multiplexer receives a plurality of odd order signals. The interpolator receives a first reference signal composed of one of the even order signals through the first multiplexer, and receives a second reference signal composed of one of the odd order signals through the second multiplexer. The interpolator divides a phase difference between the first reference signal and the second reference signal into a plurality of sub-phases according to a digital control signal, and selects one of the sub-phases to generate a differential input signal. The duty-cycle repeater adjusts the duty cycle of the differential input signal and accordingly generates a differential output signal with 50% duty cycle.
US08384457B2	Duty cycle correction Method and circuitry for controlling duty cycle of an input signal towards a desired value comprising a sequence of at least two inverters arranged in series and feedback circuitry. A first inverter is arranged to receive the input signal and a last inverter is arranged to output a signal having the same frequency as the input signal. The output signal is an adjusted version of the input signal. The feedback circuitry is arranged to receive the output signal and comprises a comparing and supplying means. The comparing means compares the output signal with a reference signal indicative of a desired value and generates a feedback signal based on the comparison of the output and reference signal. The supplying means supplies the feedback signal to adjust operating conditions of at least one of the inverters, such that the duty cycle of the output signal is controlled towards the desired value.
US08384452B1	Integrated jitter compliant low bandwidth phase locked loops A phase difference between a reference clock signal and a feedback signal is digitally detected. A resultant phase detection signal is digitally filtered, and a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) output signal is synthesized in a fractional synthesizer under control of the digitally filtered phase detection signal. A feedback path, which could include an integer divider and/or a fractional N divider, provides the feedback signal based on the PLL output signal. The combination of a wide bandwidth fractional synthesizer and a low bandwidth digital PLL provides for a low bandwidth jitter filtering function with a wide bandwidth PLL to suppress VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) noise and crosstalk.
US08384447B2	Semiconductor apparatus and method for controlling the same A semiconductor apparatus comprises a power-up signal generation section configured to generate a power-up signal, a driver configured to drive and output the power-up signal, and a main circuit block configured to perform predetermined functions in response to an output from the driver, wherein the power-up signal generation section and an input terminal of the driver are connected by a disconnectable element.
US08384442B2	Integrated circuit signal generation device An electronic integrated-circuit device is described in which mode control commands are stored. Mode parameters are also stored in the device. One or more inputs are used according to a predetermined process as determined by the stored parameters according to the stored commands and current mode. One or more output signals are produced. In various applications an output signal may be input to a sound amplifier, a lamp, a motor, a servo, etc. One application is a variety of sensor fusion. Procedural programming is avoided. The device operates with more speed and flexibility than other available configurations. Higher level supervisory management and control is useful for setup and initialization and is optional during operation. Selected platforms include microcontrollers; field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
US08384436B2	Clock-tree transformation in high-speed ASIC implementation A method includes providing a first clock tree including a root clock and a plurality of levels of integrated clock gates (ICGs) under the root clock. The plurality of levels of ICGs in the first clock tree is flattened to generate a second clock tree including a plurality of ICGs in a same level under the root clock. A fake module is formed to reserve a region between the root clock and the plurality of ICGs. The fake module includes the root clock as a first input, and a first plurality of outputs coupled to clock-inputs of the plurality of ICGs. A skew balancing is performed on the second clock tree using a clock tree synthesis (CTS) tool to generate a third clock tree, wherein no buffers are inserted into the fake module, and wherein buffers are inserted by the CTS tool under the plurality of ICGs.
US08384435B2	Clock switching circuit with priority multiplexer A glitch free clock switching circuit includes a first enable synchronization logic that generates a first clock enable in response to a first enable from a first enable generation logic. The clock switching circuit includes a second enable synchronization logic that generates a second clock enable in response to a second enable from a second enable generation logic. A logic gate is coupled to an output of the second enable synchronization logic that selects the second clock signal as a logic gate output if the second enable is logic high. A priority multiplexer receives a first clock signal, the first enable and the logic gate output. The multiplexer configured to select the first clock signal as the clock output if the first enable is logic high, irrespective of the logic gate output.
US08384432B2	Semiconductor device and information processing system including the same A semiconductor device includes a plurality of core chips and an interface chip stacked together. Each of the core chips and the interface chip includes plural through silicon vias that penetrate a semiconductor substrate and a bidirectional buffer circuit that drives the through silicon vias. The interface chip also includes a logic-level holding circuit that holds a logic level of the through silicon vias. The bidirectional buffer circuit includes an input buffer and an output buffer. The driving capability of a first inverter of the logic-level holding circuit is smaller than the driving capability of the output buffer of the bidirectional buffer circuit.
US08384430B2	RC delay detectors with high sensitivity for through substrate vias A die includes a plurality of through-substrate vias (TSVs) penetrating a substrate of the die, wherein the plurality of TSVs are grouped as a plurality of TSV pairs. A plurality of contact pads is coupled to the plurality of TSVs, wherein the plurality of contact pads is exposed on a first surface of the die. The die further includes a plurality of balanced pulse comparison units, wherein each of the plurality of balanced pulse comparison units includes a first input and a second input coupled to a first TSV and a second TSV of one of the plurality of TSV pairs. The die further includes a plurality of pulse latches, each including an input coupled to an output of one of the plurality of balanced pulse comparison units.
US08384429B2	Integrated circuit and method for manufacturing same An integrated circuit has one or more logic gates and a control circuit. The control circuit has one or more control elements coupled to the logic gates. The control circuit controls the states of the one or more logic gates. The one or more control elements have one or more programmable resistance elements and/or one or more threshold switching elements.
US08384425B2	Arrays of transistors with back control gates buried beneath the insulating film of a semiconductor-on-insulator substrate This invention provides a semiconductor device structure formed on a conventional semiconductor-on-insulator (SeOI) substrate and including an array of patterns, each pattern being formed by at least one field-effect transistor, each FET transistor having, in the thin film, a source region, a drain region, a channel region, and a front control gate region formed above the channel region. The provided device further includes at least one FET transistor having a pattern including a back control gate region formed in the base substrate beneath the channel region, the back gate region being capable of being biased in order to shift the threshold voltage of the transistor to simulate a modification in the channel width of the transistor or to force the transistor to remain off or on whatever the voltage applied on its front control gate. This invention also provides methods of operating such semiconductor device structures.
US08384423B2	Reference voltage and impedance calibration in a multi-mode interface A memory controller includes a transmit circuit coupled to an output node and a receive circuit coupled to an input node. The transmit circuit transmits first data to a memory device through the output node and the receive circuit is configured to receive second data from the memory device through the input node. The memory controller includes a calibration circuit and control logic coupled to the calibration circuit, where the calibration circuit and the control logic are configured to select a first reference voltage and a driver impedance for the transmit circuit and are configured to select a second reference voltage and a termination impedance for the receive circuit. The first reference voltage, the second reference voltage, the driver impedance and the termination impedance are selected from a set of pre-determined values, which are associated with different signaling modes for communication of the first data and the second data.
US08384422B2	Terminal resistance device, semiconductor device, and control method for terminal resistance One aspect of the invention is a terminal resistance device including a variable terminal resistance unit including a plurality of first terminal resistance elements connectable to a transmission path and a terminal resistance control unit that transmits a first control signal of a thermometer code to the variable terminal resistance unit. The first terminal resistance elements have the same resistance value and the first control signal is a signal for selecting the first terminal resistance elements to be connected to the transmission path.
US08384420B2	Preventing hangs in a system with synchronized operation using stalls This invention is a method of operating a system having multiple finite state machines where each finite state machine generating a ready signal when its operation is complete. This invention selects a set of the finite state machines to participate in an operation. If one or more of the finite state machines are selected for operation, the method waits until all selected finite state machines generate the ready signal. If none of the finite state machines are selected for operation, the method waits until at least one non-selected finite state machine generates the ready signal. This waiting can be accomplished with a precharge-conditional discharge circuit used for voting.
US08384415B2	Method and system for identifying counterfeit programmable logic devices A method for combating counterfeiting and tampering of integrated circuits includes the steps providing a programmable logic device, the programmable logic device including an arithmetic circuit implemented into the substrate, and constructing an arithmetic feedback oscillator using the arithmetic circuit. The step of constructing the arithmetic feedback oscillator includes incorporating a feedback loop into the arithmetic circuit and feeding output bits back into an input of the arithmetic circuit. The method also includes the step of selecting input values producing repeating values in a lesser order bit of a product of the arithmetic circuit when first and second input are applied to the arithmetic circuit and monitoring the lesser order bit and determining a predicted pattern.
US08384409B2	Ultra-thin organic TFT chemical sensor, making thereof, and sensing method An embodiment of the invention is an organic thin film transistor chemical sensor. The sensor includes a substrate. A gate electrode is isolated from drain and source electrodes by gate dielectric. An organic ultra-thin semiconductor thin film is arranged with respect to the gate, source and drain electrodes to act as a conduction channel in response to appropriate gate, source and drain potentials. The organic ultra-thin film is permeable to a chemical analyte of interest and consists of one or a few atomic or molecular monolayers of material. An example sensor array system includes a plurality of sensors of the invention. In a preferred embodiment, a sensor chip having a plurality of sensors is mounted in a socket, for example by wire bonding. The socket provides thermal and electrical interference isolation for the sensor chip from associated sensing circuitry that is mounted on a common substrate, such as a PCB (printed circuit board). A method of operating an organic thin film transistor chemical sensor exposes the sensor to a suspected analyte. A low duty cycle voltage pulse train is applied to the gate electrode to reduce baseline drift while sensing for a conduction channel change.
US08384406B2	Semiconductor test apparatus and test method In a semiconductor test apparatus, a first device is tested as a device under test in a state where the first device provided with a transmitter transmitting a signal and a second device provided with a receiver receiving the signal transmitted by the transmitter, are connected together. The transmitter includes an equalizer circuit that shapes the waveform of the differential signal to be transmitted. The receiver includes a latch circuit that latches data corresponding to the differential signal thus received with the use of a clock, the timing of which is variable. A control unit varies, in a matrix, a parameter of the equalizer circuit and an edge timing of the clock CLK supplied to the latch circuit.
US08384404B2	Systems and methods of preparation of photovoltaic films and devices Described herein are processes and apparatuses for preparation and optimization of photovoltaic films and film stacks with application of electrical pulses. The process achieves high photovoltaic efficiency upon application of conditioning electrical pulses to the stack or layers of deposited photovoltaic films. This may be done at manufacture, or in the field at certain time intervals. The films of photovoltaic devices may be optimized by application of programmed voltage pulses. Furthermore, it is possible to deliver larger portion of energy from the pulse to a particular layer of a multi-stack film by rendering one or more layers of the film relatively more conductive using exposure to selected narrow wavelength of light corresponding to the band gap of the particular layer.
US08384403B2	Method and device for detecting electric potential and electric charges in a printer or copier In a system or method to detect an electrical potential and layer thickness of a layer of toner particles in a printer or copier, a measurement arrangement is provided having a first electrode and at least one second electrode situated opposite the first electrode. An intermediate image carrier is provided on a surface of which a toner image is generated. A drive unit drives the intermediate image carrier so that its surface is directed past the first electrode situated opposite the surface. An evaluation unit is electrically connected with the first electrode. The evaluation unit detects an electrical current flowing between the first electrode and the evaluation unit. The evaluation unit determines an electrical charge of toner particles arranged in a detection region in a first measurement procedure with aid of the detected current. The evaluation unit also determines the layer thickness of the layer of toner particles in an inked region via at least one second measurement procedure.
US08384402B2	Analysis tool The present invention relates to an analysis tool including a reagent portion and electrodes. The electrodes include a porous conductive portion where the reagent portion is formed. The porous conductive section is formed by, for instance, coating at least a part of a surface and an inner surface of a porous body with a conductive film. The porous body is, for instance, an insulating fiber mesh cloth. Preferably, the electrodes are formed in a sheet shape.
US08384401B2	Fast time-tagged event detection using resistive switching devices A system for event detection uses a resistive switching device to record a detected event. The resistive switching device has a resistance adjustable by an applied voltage. The operation of the resistive switching device is controlled by a controller, which is configured to apply a switching voltage to the resistive switching device at a start time, and turn off the switching voltage in response to an event signal indicative of occurrence of an event. The resistance value of the resistive switching device resulting from the application of the switching voltage is indicative of the detection of the event and also the time of the occurrence of the event.
US08384399B2	System including capacitively coupled electrodes and circuits in a network A system including a first electrode, a second electrode, a first circuit and a second circuit. The second electrode is capacitively coupled to the first electrode. The first circuit is configured to receive data via a network and transmit a signal via the first electrode based on the data. The second circuit is configured to receive data via the network and receive a current that corresponds to the signal via the second electrode based on the data.
US08384397B2	Method and system for controlling filter operation A particulate filter control system and method for controlling the same is disclosed. The particulate filter load monitoring system may transmit radio frequency signals through the resonant cavity and filter medium across a frequency range sufficient to generate more than one resonant mode. The system may contain additional sensors for monitoring additional exhaust characteristics and parameters. Further, a control unit may be configured to determine the amount of material accumulated in the particulate filter, detect failures and malfunctions of the exhaust after-treatment system and its associated components, and initiate an action based on the amount of material accumulated in the particulate filter, the determination of a system failure or malfunction, or input from one or more exhaust sensors.
US08384396B2	System and method for measuring retentate in filters A system and method for determining loading of a filter having a first dielectric constant with a material having a different dielectric constant, is disclosed. The filter is contained within a metallic container forming a microwave cavity, and microwave or RF energy is created within the cavity and changes in the cavity microwave response are monitored. The changes in cavity microwave response are related to filter loading. In a preferred embodiment, the microwave energy includes multiple cavity modes thereby allowing determination of spatial distribution of the contaminant material loading. In one embodiment, the microwave cavity response includes a shift in frequency of a resonant mode. Alternatively, the microwave cavity response includes a shift in quality factor Q of a resonant mode. The microwave cavity response may include a shift in amplitude or peak width of the microwave's signal at resonance.
US08384390B2	Systems and methods for determining battery capacity level A battery gas gauge includes a voltage detection unit and a processor. The voltage detection unit is coupled to a battery pack and can measure a plurality of open circuit voltages of a plurality of cells in the battery pack respectively. The processor is coupled to the voltage detection unit and can determine a minimum open circuit voltage of the open circuit voltages, and can determine a first relative state of charge of the battery pack based on a relationship between the minimum open circuit voltage and a corresponding relative state of charge of a cell having the minimum open circuit voltage. The processor can further determine a capacity level of the battery pack based on the first relative state of charge and a rated full capacity level of the battery pack.
US08384383B2	Method and device for reconstructing a sequence of magnetic resonance images A method for reconstructing a sequence of magnetic resonance (MR) images of an object under investigation, includes the steps of (a) providing a series of sets of image raw data including an image content of the MR images to be reconstructed, the image raw data being collected with the use of at least one radiofrequency receiver coil of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device, wherein each set of image raw data includes a plurality of data samples being generated with a gradient-echo sequence, in particular a FLASH sequence, that spatially encodes an MRI signal received with the at least one radiofrequency receiver coil using a non-Cartesian k-space trajectory, each set of image raw data includes a set of homogeneously distributed lines in k-space with equivalent spatial frequency content, the lines of each set of image raw data cross the center of k-space and cover a continuous range of spatial frequencies, and the positions of the lines of each set of image raw data differ in successive sets of image raw data, and (b) subjecting the sets of image raw data to a regularized nonlinear inverse reconstruction process to provide the sequence of MR images, wherein each of the MR images is created by a simultaneous estimation of a sensitivity of the at least one receiver coil and the image content and in dependency on a difference between a current estimation of the sensitivity of the at least one receiver coil and the image content and a preceding estimation of the sensitivity of the at least one receiver coil and the image content.
US08384376B2	Magnetic angle sensor In order to be able to measure over more than 360° with a magnetic angle sensor, it is proposed not to adjust the distance between the encoder magnet and the sensor element in addition to the rotation, e.g. by means of a thread, like in the prior art, but to maintain said distance constant, but instead to adjust a magnetic variator with respect to its axial distance from the sensor element, or also in transversal direction, which variator can be a flux conductor or also a secondary magnet.
US08384374B2	Apparatus for automatically testing integrated CMOS magnetoresistive biochips An apparatus for automatically testing CMOS magnetoresistive biochips is disclosed. The apparatus includes: means for directly or indirectly applying physical pressure to the fluid pumping chamber in a cartridge; a liquid injector for injecting liquid into the reaction chamber in the cartridge through an inlet or inlets in fluid connection to said reaction chamber; a CMOS magnetoresistive biochip located in the reaction chamber in the cartridge; means for applying a magnetic field to said CMOS magnetoresistive biochip in the cartridge; an electronic module for communicating with and supplying power as well as control signals to said biochip; a microprocessor to control and coordinate the aforementioned components; and a user interface for information processing. The apparatus provided by the present invention reduces the complexity of operation and enhances the detection sensitivity to a great extent.
US08384370B2	Voltage regulator with an overcurrent protection circuit Provided is a voltage regulator in which a maximum output current and a short-circuit output current may be accurately set. As a circuit for determining respective current values of a maximum output current (Im) and a short-circuit output current (Is) of an overcurrent protection circuit, the voltage regulator includes a current mirror circuit for mirroring a current in accordance with an output current so as to be capable of current control, without employing a resistor for converting a current into a voltage. Therefore, the maximum output current (Im) and the short-circuit output current (Is) may be accurately set with respect to an output current (Iout).
US08384367B2	Step-down switching regulator A step-down switching regulator includes a switching device coupled to an input terminal to which an input voltage is applied, an inductor having a first end and a second end, the first end being connected to the switching device, a smoothing unit having an output terminal and configured to smooth a voltage at the second end of the inductor and generate an output voltage at the output terminal, a rectifier configured to flow a current to the inductor when the switching device is in an OFF state, and a control circuit configured to drive the switching device so that the output voltage becomes equal to a set target voltage. The control circuit detects a difference voltage between the input voltage and the output voltage or a difference voltage between the input voltage and the set target voltage, and causes the switching device to be in an ON state when the difference voltage is lower than or equal to a predetermined voltage value.
US08384365B2	Multi-phase modulator An architecture is described for digital multi-phase modulators (MPM) that leads to an efficient, high performance hardware realization. The combined modulator, switching phases and output filter can be viewed as a multi-level digital to analog converter with high power output, or a power D/A, and concepts used in D/A converters are leveraged to achieve high performance and hardware efficiency. The modulator can be split into three functional blocks including a decoder that determines how many phases are on at any time, a selector that determines which phases are on at any time, and a single high resolution module that is time shared among all phases. The resulting architecture scales favorably with a large number of phases, fs, facilitates fast update rates of the input command well above the single phase switching frequency and is compatible with a wide range of known DPWM techniques for the LSB module and resolution-enhancement techniques such as dithering or Σ-Δ modulation.
US08384364B2	Unit inverter system In a unit inverter system where multiple unit inverters are connected in parallel, the quantity of operating unit inverters is determined in accordance with an amount of power to be converted. A gate signal of a semiconductor switching element of a unit inverter is turned off after an output current of the inverter is reduced when reducing the quantity of inverter units, thereby improving the partial load efficiency of the system without an adverse effect on the system. A regulator connected to the inverter determines dead time of the inverter according to the output current value and an average output current value of the unit inverters, waits for the determined dead time so as to reduce the output current of the unit inverter, and then turns off the gate signal.
US08384359B2	System, charging device, and method of charging a power storage device A system for charging a plurality of power storage devices includes a first charging device and at least one other charging device coupled to the first charging device to form a network. The first charging device includes a processor programmed to determine whether said first charging device possesses a network token, and if so, to determine a first charging parameter and a first priority associated with said first charging device, a second charging parameter and a second priority associated with said second charging device, and to determine a second amount of current to be at least one of received from the electrical supply or supplied to the first power storage device, based on the determined first and second charging parameters and first and second priority.
US08384355B2	Battery state monitoring circuit and battery device Provided are a battery state monitoring circuit and a battery device that are capable of reliably controlling charge by a charger even if a voltage of a secondary battery drops to around 0 V. In the battery device provided with the battery state monitoring circuit, respective gate voltages of a P-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor and an N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor, which together form a voltage detection circuit for detecting a voltage of around 0 V of the secondary battery, are applied by a voltage dividing resistor circuit that is connected across terminals of the secondary battery.
US08384352B2	Battery voltage balance apparatus and battery charge apparatus In the related art, the measurement error due to the internal resistance of the battery is not considered in the battery balance method, such that the battery balance is not accurate, or the battery balance process is frequently started and stopped. In exemplary embodiments of the invention, detecting battery voltage and balancing battery voltage are performed in different time, such that the difference of charge current/discharge current among the batteries due to the battery voltage balance process do not affect the battery voltage detecting.
US08384347B2	Methods and systems for charging an energy storage device A charging device for charging an energy storage device is described. The charging device includes a memory for storing a plurality of state machines and a processing device coupled to the memory. The processing device is configured to select a state machine of the plurality of state machines and to operate the charging device in accordance with the selected state machine.
US08384339B2	Control system for a compressor actuated by an electric motor, an assembly composed of an electric induction motor, an electronic control and an arrangement for motor-compressors, and a method of controlling an electric motor The present invention relates to a control system, a method and arrangement for motors and motor-compressors, designed for operation in a wide voltage range of the feed network. The control system, method and arrangement for motors and motor-compressors basically consist in associating an electronic control (10) capable of regulating the voltage supplied to a motor with windings and a magnetic core suitably dimensioned so as to fully meet the start and operation torques in the minimum voltage expected for the electric energy network, the electronic control (10) incorporating the method of limiting the effective value on the motor windings so as to keep its capability of meeting the minimum torques specified for the application, independently of the rise in the network voltage to values higher than the minimum voltage expected for the network.
US08384336B2	Multiphase motor driving device A multiphase motor driving device has an inverter circuit. The inverter circuit includes a pair of upper and lower switching elements, a shunt resistor for phase current detection, and a voltage for driving a multiphase motor. The device includes a determination unit for shifting a detection timing of the current flowing to the shunt resistor from the OFF period to the ON period of the switching element on the upper side in the phase. The determination unit determines whether or not ON failure occurs based on the current flowing to the shunt resistor of the phase in the ON period. The device has a current value estimation unit for estimating a current value of the phase in a case where the detection timing is shifted based on currents flowing to the shunt resistors of other phases.
US08384334B2	Normal-condition-off-type protection element and control unit having the normal-condition-off-type protection element A first terminal of a protection element of a control unit is connected to a wire between a motor and a switching element, and a second terminal is directly connected to a ground-side wire shared by a controller and the switching element. The protection element has a normal-condition-OFF-type switch including a movable contact and a fixed contact. When an overheating caused by the switching element attains a predetermined temperature or higher, the movable contact and the fixed contact are closed to short-circuit the first terminal and the second terminal, and an electric current is branched to the protection element side to reduce an electric current flowing into the switching element, and the control unit is shifted to a temperature range safe from the overheating caused by the switching element without stopping a cooling system.
US08384333B2	Alternating voltage control apparatus The alternating voltage control apparatus which is inserted serially between an alternating-current power source and an inductive load and which controls adjustment of load voltage of the inductive load with a magnetic energy recovery switch reduces a voltage burden of a reverse conduction type semiconductor switch within the magnetic energy recovery switch and a capacitor and controls voltage to be supplied to the inductive load with a small advancing amount of a phase of current to be supplied to the inductive load.
US08384328B2	Control methodology for an AC starter-generator system An aircraft engine starting system may comprise a starter motor, a start controller for controlling the starter motor to operate with a desired torque output, and a processor for determining torque profiles for the starter motor. The processor may provide an initial torque profile responsively to ambient condition of the engine. The processor may also provide modifications to the initial torque profile responsively to temperature of the start controller.
US08384327B2	Control apparatus for electric rotating machine The control apparatus controls a controlled variable of the electric rotating machine by manipulating an output voltage of a power converter circuit including switching elements operated at a set modulation index to connect positive and negative terminals of a DC power source to corresponding terminals of the electric rotating machine. The control apparatus includes a prediction section configured to predict the controlled variable for each of a plurality of cases where the power converter circuit is set in a corresponding one of a plurality of predetermined operating states, a manipulation section configured to determine one of the predetermined operating states depending on a result of evaluation by an evaluation function, and set the converter circuit to the determined operating state, and a feedback control section configured to feedback-control the output voltage of the power converter circuit at a target value by manipulating the input parameters of the evaluation function.
US08384324B2	Motor drive circuit A motor drive circuit is configured to drive a motor based on first and second position detection signals opposite in phase to each other, the signals having a frequency corresponding to a rotational speed of the motor and indicating a rotational position of the motor. The circuit includes a first level-shift circuit, a second level-shift circuit, a timing detecting circuit, and an output circuit. The first level-shift circuit is configured to shift a level of at least either one of the first and second position detection signals so that a first period, during which a first output signal corresponding to the first position detection signal is higher in level than a second output signal corresponding to the second position detection signal, becomes longer than a second period, during which the second output signal is higher in level than the first output signal.
US08384322B2	Motor control device and motor drive system Provided is a motor control device including a voltage specifying unit which generates a specified voltage signal indicating a target value of an applied voltage to a motor on the basis of a specified current signal indicating a target value of supplied current to the motor, so as to control the motor in accordance with the specified voltage signal. An update unit is further provided, which sequentially updates a specified field current signal that is a field current component of the specified current signal to be given to the voltage specifying unit on the basis of difference information between a value of the specified voltage signal and a limit voltage value defined as an upper limit value of the applied voltage. The update unit includes a low pass filter. The specified field current signal after the update is generated on the basis of a signal obtained by passing the specified field current signal before the update through the low pass filter and the difference information. Otherwise, the specified field current signal after the update is generated on the basis of a signal obtained by passing an intermediate signal derived from the specified field current signal before the update and the difference information through the low pass filter.
US08384321B2	Motor, apparatus for controlling motor, and method for starting motor When it is determined that a rotor is initially in a stationary state, a current vector is applied to a coil by a vector control method so as to rotate the rotor in a forward direction from a present position of the rotor regardless of a predetermined start position of the rotor. Therefore, a motor can be stably started with less power consumption and noise/vibration.

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