最新美国发明专利
Document Document Title
US08413261B2 Sharing private data publicly and anonymously
Sharing a secret that can later be revoked. A client sends data to a server that makes the data available to other clients. The data is shared generically without specifically identifying the client. The data can be considered quasi-secret data or data that is secret except for the anonymous sharing of the data. The client can later make the shared data private again by changing or deleting the sharing of the data.
US08413260B2 Methods and apparatuses for automatically initiating an application
In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses detect an application associated with a requester; suggest the application based on a requester parameter; select the application by the requester; and automatically initiate the application for the requester.
US08413259B2 Methods and systems for secure gated file deployment associated with provisioning
A software provisioning server can be configured to communicate with a certificate authority to evaluate security credential requests received from one or more target machines prior to a software installation. The certificate authority can issue certificates to the one or more target machines and notify an administrator and the software provisioning server of the issued certificates. The software provisioning server can manage the software installation to the one or more target machines based on the issued certificates and other specifications.
US08413258B2 Optical information recording medium, information recording method for optical information recording medium and optical information recording device
This object aims to propose an optical information recording medium configured to make copyright protection possible, an information recording method for an optical information recording medium and a recording device. An optical information recording medium is proposed to have a recording area available for recording data by laser light, wherein the recording area is provided with a user data area and a management area. The management area written in the optical information recording medium includes a recording format management area provided with information for carrying out operations that identify a format recorded in the user data area, convert the format into a predetermined signal system in accordance with an identified result and record the converted format; a recording condition management area provided with information to make the control of recording conditions of the laser light feasible when the data are recorded at the user recording area; and an authentication identification area provided with information for carrying out an operation that identifies whether or not the optical information recording medium is authenticated by a third party.
US08413256B2 Content protection and digital rights management (DRM)
An end to end content protection system that includes enhanced digital rights management (DRM). The system provides content delivery to devices over a managed multimedia home network. The system includes a domain manager for receiving content, wherein the domain manager includes a cable card, conditional access component and a MSO security application and a managed client device, coupled to and registered with the domain manager, the managed client device running a security DRM application client, the managed client device communicates with the MSO security application in the domain manager, wherein the MSO security application of the domain manager and the security DRM application client of the managed client instantiate a preferred DRM as an overlay on top of any other content protection scheme.
US08413253B2 Protecting persistent secondary platform storage against attack from malicious or unauthorized programs
A high integrity storage manager protects critical system files by maintaining a list of protected disk blocks in hardware, such as in a memory of a microcontroller. The memory is inaccessible to software running on a host system comprising the microcontroller. This list of protected disk blocks is protected as “read only” by the hardware so that no write operation issued by software running on the host platform can overwrite a protected disk block. The high integrity storage manager intercepts write operations issued by applications via the operating system and file system running on the host processor and compares the disk blocks targeted by those write operations to the list of protected disk blocks. A write operation that would overwrite a disk block in the list of protected disk blocks is prevented from completion. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08413243B2 Method and apparatus for use in a communications network
A method is provided for use in a Mobile IP network in which it is determined whether a Mobile Node (10) in a visited network is reachable on a new claimed Care-of Address for the Mobile Node (10) using information relating to a pre-established cryptographic relationship between the Mobile Node (10) and an Access Router (20) of the visited network. It may be determined, through communication between a Home Agent (30) for the Mobile Node (10) in the Mobile Node 10's home network and the Access Router (20), whether such a pre-established cryptographic relationship exists. The existence of such a pre-established relationship would indicate that the Mobile Node (10) is reachable on the claimed Care-of Address.
US08413239B2 Web security via response injection
System and methods for injecting content into a response for improving client-side security. The system includes a content injection service external to network edges of at least one system. The content injection service receives a request from a client within the at least one system and identifies or anticipates a potential threat associated with the response. The content injection service is configured to determine an appropriate counter for the identified or anticipated potential threat and in response injects content into the response according to the potential or anticipated threat identified.
US08413236B1 Clickjacking protection
A clickjacking protector in an electronic system helps prevent unwanted clickjacking. The elements clicked on by the click position are evaluated to determine whether any of the elements clicked on by the click position is obscured (including being transparent or partially transparent). A protective action is generated in response to a determination that an element clicked on by the click position is obscured.
US08413231B1 Document control
Embodiments of methods, apparatuses, systems and/or devices for document control are disclosed.
US08413229B2 Method and appliance for authenticating, by an appliance, a client to access a virtual private network connection, based on an attribute of a client-side certificate
In a method and appliance for authenticating, by an appliance, a client to access a virtual network connection, based on an attribute of a client-side certificate, a client authentication certificate is requested from a client. A value of at least one field in the client authentication certificate received from the client is identified. One of a plurality of types of access is assigned responsive to an application of a policy to the identified value of the at least one field, each of the plurality of access types associated with at least one connection characteristic.
US08413228B2 Signal transfer point front end processor
In an SS7 network, each of a plurality of Signal Transfer Points is fronted by a front-end processor (STP-FEP) that has a network presence. The STP-FEP implements at least the MTP2 layer of the SS7 protocol stack and implements security rules at the MTP2 and MTP3 layers.
US08413226B2 User-type handling in a wireless access network
A system, method, and apparatus in an access network such as the Generic Access Network (GAN) for providing user-type information to a Security Gateway (SEGW) or for enabling the SEGW to obtain user-type information for different user types so that the SEGW can apply specific security functions based on the user type. The invention may also provide user-type information to a controller node such as a GAN Controller (GANC) or may enable the GANC to obtain user-type information for application of security settings toward GAN-clients. An Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) Server may create a user-type indication internally, or may obtain an indication from a Home Location Register and forward the indication to the SEGW. The SEGW may forward the indication to the GANC, or the GANC may determine the user-type information internally or retrieve it from a database.
US08413223B2 Content display device
A content display device includes a content setting storage means 106 for storing a content setting which associates a content selection request with a content which an external device has, a content setting server means 107 for accepting a content setting from a content setting client 108 on a network to update and manage content settings stored in the content setting storage means 106, and a display content management means 109 for reading a content setting corresponding to the content selection request from the content setting storage means 106 to present the content which the content setting client 108 has to a display means 102, or, when the content setting corresponding to the content setting request does not exist, displaying a method of accessing the content setting server means 107 and identification information for identifying the content setting client 108 on the display means 102.
US08413220B1 System and method for user authentication
A method for user authentication involves initiating an authentication process, receiving images associated with the authentication process, selecting an image from the images to generate a selection; and obtaining authentication based on the selection, where the image is associated with the authentication process and sent prior to initiating the authentication process.
US08413214B2 Terminal system for guaranteeing authenticity, terminal, and terminal management server
In a terminal system for managing terminals coupled to a network, a terminal management server includes: a terminal information registration module for registering, in advance, information unique to each user of the terminal; an authentication module for executing authentication by comparing an ID and authentication information which are contained in an authentication request received from the terminal to user information set in advance; an authenticity determination module for determining, based on a predetermined investigation result received from the terminal, whether or not the terminal suffers falsification; and a unique information transmission module for transmitting, when the authentication is successful, and when the authenticity determination module has determined that the terminal does not suffer the falsification, the information unique to the each user to the terminal. The terminal outputs the information unique to the each user received from the terminal management server to a display unit.
US08413213B2 System, method and device for secure wireless communication
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, apparatus and system for selecting a wireless communication device for establishing a connection. The method according to some exemplary embodiments of the invention may include selecting a communication device for establishing a connection by determining whether one or more security-related characteristics of the communication device satisfy a security policy corresponding to a selected security class. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08413201B2 Method for deciding radio bearer of mobile IPTV system
In a mobile IPTV system, a multicast coordination entity (MCE) acquires information for radio resource allocation for satisfying all terminals through a counting procedure, and determines a radio bearer by considering a share of usage anticipation subcarrier for respective identifiers of contents. A scheduling subject is variable by a characteristic of the determined radio bearer.
US08413195B2 Channel change to an available channel of a spectrum
In general, this disclosure relates to techniques for transmitting data in a spectrum, and seamlessly switching from one transmission channel to an available channel in the spectrum. One example method comprises identifying, by a device, at least a first channel of a spectrum, transmitting at least one command to a second, different device, wherein the at least one command contains information that allows the second device to determine at least the first identified channel, and transmitting data in at least the first identified channel.
US08413194B2 Digital broadcasting system and method of processing data in digital broadcasting system
A digital broadcast receiver and a control method thereof are disclosed. The digital broadcast receiver includes a reception unit for receiving a broadcast signal which mobile service data and main service data are multiplexed, an extractor for extracting transmission parameter channel signaling information and fast information channel signaling information from a data group in the received mobile service data, an acquirer for acquiring a program table describing virtual channel information and a service of an ensemble by using the extracted fast information channel signaling information, the ensemble being a virtual channel group of the received mobile service data, a detector for detecting a descriptor defining a destination telephone number of a message service by using the acquired program table, and a controller for controlling such that the destination telephone number of the message service of the detected descriptor and the mobile service data are displayed.
US08413193B2 Program guide with a digital storage device
An interactive television program guide system with digital storage is provided. The program guide gives users the ability to store information associated with recorded programs in a directory in the digital storage device thereby providing easy access to program information. The program guide may also provide a global media library for indicating the programs stored on removable storage media used with the program guide. The guide may also allow the user to manage and maintain a user media library to do the same. Non-time-sensitive data associated with recorded programs may be stored in a way that allows the user to interact with the data on playback as if the program were being originally aired. The program guide also allows the user to define “super-programs” for playback of a sequence of stored programs or program segments.
US08413192B2 Video content viewing apparatus
A multifunction video navigation display is achieved without adding an extra load onto hardware or software of a viewing apparatus. In such a video content viewing apparatus, a memory unit acquires video contents and metadata to execute video navigation functions from an external server and stores them, a metadata analysis unit verifies completeness of the acquired metadata and corrects/complements an incomplete portion of the metadata, and a navigation unit executes the selected video navigation function according to an analysis result provided from the metadata analysis unit.
US08413189B1 Dynamic selection of advertising content in a social broadcast environment
A method of determining advertising content to be included in a broadcast is disclosed. An inclusion criterion is received for each of a plurality of items of advertising content to be used to determine one or both of whether and how that item of advertising content is to be included in a broadcast. Stored user profile data associated with a plurality of users who provided within an observation period an indication that the user was consuming the broadcast is processed, and the respective inclusion criteria of the items of advertising content, to select and integrate into the broadcast selected ones of the items of advertising content.
US08413188B2 System and method for processing image objects in video data
A system, method and computer program product are disclose for processing an object in a video data stream. The method runs on a processor programmed to execute the method and includes but is not limited to receiving at a client device, the video data stream from a server; displaying the video data stream at the client device on a client device display; receiving input data at the client device for rendering on the client device display a first functional indicator indicating one of a plurality of functions and surrounding a first region of pixel locations representing a first image object in the video data stream; and performing a function indicated by the first functional indicator on meta data for the first image object in the first region of pixel locations.
US08413187B1 Method and system to request audiovisual content items matched to programs identified in a program grid
A method to obtain visual content items matched to scheduled programs comprising: providing a program guide display that includes a grid with grid locations that identify scheduled programs, and that correspond to respective a scheduled program air times and a respective program sources; wherein the program guide extends over a time frame prior to the current date; providing an icon associated with a grid location that indicates that a visual content item matched to the program identified by the grid location currently is available; providing an identifier that is encoded in computer readable storage device and that is associated with the grid location and that indicates a location where the visual content item can be obtained; and accessing the location indicated by the identifier in response to a user selection of the grid location associated with the icon.
US08413179B2 Disk holding device and disk processor for a disk having a center hole
A disk holding device for a disk having a center hole is provided. A disk holding mechanism is movable between a holding position and a release position, for engagement with an edge of the center hole when in the holding position, and for coming away from the edge when in the release position. A solenoid as actuator shifts the disk holding mechanism, to hold the disk by setting the disk holding mechanism in the holding position, and to release the disk by setting the disk holding mechanism in the release position. A regulating portion contacts a peripheral portion of an upper surface of the disk, to keep the disk retained on the disk holding mechanism by preventing skew relative to the disk holding mechanism. Preferably, the disk holding mechanism enters the center hole downwards and holds the disk on a lower side.
US08413177B2 Information-processing equipment
There is provided an information-processing equipment including an optical disc drive 40 within a chassis 31 thereof, the optical disc drive comprising: a turntable 41 for rotatably supporting an optical disc; an optical pickup 42 for recording an information signal onto the optical disc and/or reproducing an information signal recorded on the optical disc, and a movement mechanism 43 for moving the optical pickup in a radial direction of the optical disc; wherein a step part 37 extending in a predetermined direction Ls is formed on an inner surface of the chassis in an area where the optical disc drive is to be fixed, and wherein the optical disc drive is fixed in the area on the inner surface of the chassis at three portions 46A, 46B, 46C positioned straddling the step part.
US08413173B2 Method, apparatus and system for automatic loading of a network stack
The disclosure provides a method and system for loading a first and second Internet Protocol network communication stacks in an information handling system (IHS). The method and system include loading the first Internet Protocol network communication stack and creating and registering a module management kernel thread to automatically load the second Internet Protocol network stack only when called upon. The kernel thread registers with the IHS′ kernel socket layer and Ethernet driver to receive notice of calls corresponding to the second Internet Protocol network communication stack. Upon receiving notice, the kernel thread loads the second Internet Protocol network communication stack and subsequently deregisters from the IHS′ kernel socket layer and Ethernet driver.
US08413172B2 Method and system for socket API call emulation
A method and system for socket API call emulation facilitates communication between an application and non-networked I/O devices. The present invention intercepts and modifies IP-aware socket API calls en route from the application to non-networked I/O devices so that such calls are received by non-networked I/O devices as IP-unaware I/O access calls. The invention allows the application to use socket API calls to communicate with all entity types and thereby relieves an application developer of the burden to write and debug/edit separate code and documentation for non-networked I/O device types with which an application is expected to communicate. Socket API call emulation is in some embodiments performed by an emulation module within a socket API operatively coupled between an application and a device driver associated with a non-networked I/O device.
US08413171B2 Interlocked plug and play with power management for operating systems
The present invention provides a unified layer for Plug and Play (PnP) components and power management components while relieving device drivers from system-level complexities associated with implementing PnP and/or power management functionality. The layer operates at a level between low-level device drivers and more complex operating system tasks. The subject invention simplifies designing device drivers having proper power management support by creating an infrastructure that allows a device driver to operate within a driver framework or model and without having to process Plug-and-Play or Power Management I/O Request Packets (IRPs) directly.
US08413170B2 Event processing finite state engine and language
In various embodiments, a method for processing event streams includes receiving a state machine defined in response to a set of processing components, a set of states, and a set of entry points. Event data associated with an event stream is also received. The event data is processed according to the state machine to generate an event.
US08413167B2 Notifying a user of access to information by an application
Functionality is described for detecting an application's access to a user's information (or the application's request to access the user's information). The functionality sends a notification to the user which alerts the user to the access that has already taken place (or is pending approval). The functionality detects the current point of presence of the user, and based thereon, sends the notification to the user in an appropriate manner. Upon receipt of the notification, the user may optionally retrieve additional information regarding the application's access activity, modify the access rights of the application, and so on.
US08413162B1 Multi-threading based on rollback
Methods of multi-threading, and systems thereof, are described. A first thread is executed. Context for the executing thread is maintained in a working register. Execution of the first thread is halted and execution of a second thread is begun by performing a rollback operation. The rollback operation causes context for the second thread to be copied from a first register into the working register.
US08413160B2 Systems, methods, and computer program products for transaction based load balancing
In a packet-based transaction processing system, workload is balanced across multiple computer systems. A plurality of packets is received from a plurality of clients over a plurality of communications sessions. Each of the plurality of packets includes a portion of a transaction involving a financial transaction instrument that requires authorization. The plurality of packets are processed to assemble a plurality of transactions. Each of the plurality of transactions is then transmitted to an application server selected from a plurality of servers that provides authorization for the transactions. The server may be selected from the plurality of servers based on a round-robin distribution of the plurality of servers, and additionally, the round-robin distribution may be modified to account for a workload on each of the plurality of servers.
US08413157B2 Mechanism for continuously and unobtrusively varying stress on a computer application while processing real user workloads
A mechanism for varying stress on a software application while processing real user workloads is disclosed. A method of embodiments of the invention includes configuring application resources for a recovery configuration whose service levels are satisfactory. The application resources are associated with the software application. The method further includes configuring the application resources for stress configurations to affect service levels, and transitioning the application resources from the recovery configuration to a stress configuration for a time duration, while the application resources of the stress configuration are transitioned back to the recovery configuration. The method further includes determining a next stress configuration and a time duration combination to vary stress such that user service levels are unobtrusively affected by limiting the time duration in inverse relation to an uncertainty in predicting the service level impact of the stress configuration.
US08413153B2 Methods and systems for sharing common job information
Apparatus and methods are provided for utilizing a plurality of processing units. A method comprises selecting a pending job from a plurality of unassigned jobs based on a plurality of assigned jobs for the plurality of processing units and assigning the pending job to a first processing unit. Each assigned job is associated with a respective processing unit, wherein the pending job is associated with a first segment of information that corresponds to a second segment of information for a first assigned job. The method further comprises obtaining the second segment of information that corresponds to the first segment of information from the respective processing unit associated with the first assigned job, resulting in an obtained segment of information and performing, by the first processing unit, the pending job based at least in part on the obtained segment of information.
US08413148B2 Virtualization support in platform management (PLM) information model
A method and system for protecting against failure of hardware elements (HEs) in a virtual machine system using an information model with virtualization support. Based on the information model, the method boots virtual machine monitors (VMMs), virtual machines (VMs) and operating systems (OSes). The information model includes a graph of objects representing configured relationships between the hardware elements (HEs), VMMs, VMs, and OSes through parent child relationships between the graph's objects. The graph of objects includes: a domain object, HE objects, VMM objects, VM objects, and OS objects. The VM objects of a migration-enabled type represent those of the VMs that may migrate between the VMMs. Based on the runtime associations between the VMM objects and the VM objects of the migration-enabled type, the method identifies which of the migration-enabled VMs are hosted by a same HE and are therefore vulnerable to hardware failure of the same HE.
US08413146B1 Hypervisor assisted single instance data access by multiple virtual machines
A data instance to be shared by multiple virtual machines is stored at a hypervisor level. A file system driver is provided to each virtual machine. Each virtual machine mounts a file system backed by the data instance, and thus has read access to the data through its mounted file system. A virtual machine is suspended. A copy of the data instance is saved as part of the stored image of the suspended virtual machine. The suspended virtual machine is subsequently restored from the stored image, and the copy of the data instance is present in the restored virtual machine. The copy of the data instance is detected at a hypervisor level, and the restored virtual machine is provided with read access to the data instance through its mounted filed system.
US08413145B2 Method and apparatus for efficient memory replication for high availability (HA) protection of a virtual machine (VM)
High availability (HA) protection is provided for an executing virtual machine. At a checkpoint in the HA process, the active server suspends the virtual machine; and the active server copies dirty memory pages to a buffer. During the suspension of the virtual machine on the active host server, dirty memory pages are copied to a ring buffer. A copy process copies the dirty pages to a first location in the buffer. At a predetermined benchmark or threshold, a transmission process can begin. The transmission process can read data out of the buffer at a second location to send to the standby host. Both the copy and transmission processes can operate substantially simultaneously on the ring buffer. As such, the ring buffer cannot overflow because the transmission process continues to empty the ring buffer as the copy process continues. This arrangement allows for smaller buffers and prevents buffer overflows.
US08413142B2 Storage optimization selection within a virtualization environment
Storage optimization selection for virtual disks of a virtualization environment, where the storage optimization can be selected based in part on the disk type of a virtual disk included in a virtual machine. The disk type of the virtual disk can be discovered by the virtualization environment which queries a database within the virtualization environment for metadata associated with the virtual disk. The metadata can be created when a virtual desktop infrastructure creates the virtual disk, and a virtual machine template that includes the at least one virtual disk. The virtual disk can be modified to either include or be associated with the metadata that describes a disk type of the virtual disk. Upon executing the virtual machine that includes the modified virtual disk, a storage subsystem of the virtualization environment can obtain the metadata of the virtual disk to discover the disk type of the virtual disk.
US08413141B2 Copying segments of virtual resource definition to create and deploy a virtual resource on a physical resource
The disclosure and claims herein are directed to copying segments of a virtual resource definition from an existing virtual resource to create a new virtual resource definition or modifying an existing one to simplify virtualization management. The virtualization manager divides a virtual resource definition into a number of reusable segments. A user may then select one or more segments and place them into a new or existing virtual resource definition. The user can choose to mix and match segments to quickly create or modify a virtual resource definition such as a virtual server, virtual printer or virtual data storage. Any default information in the new virtual resource or old information in the existing resource is replaced by the information in the copied segment. Any dependencies in the existing virtual resource are resolved with user input to break the dependencies or copy dependent data.
US08413139B2 Programming model for application and data access and synchronization within virtual environments
Applications executing on computer systems may execute in a virtual environment, such as a web application executing in a web browser. An application may access the actual computing environment (such as the filesystem), but this accessing may be complicated; e.g., the computing environment may be deployed across many computers and devices, and may be synchronized for offline access via a local cache. A computing environment component may service the complex computing environment (e.g., by managing the cache and retrieving remotely stored data objects) and expose it as a well-organized set of data objects. A virtual environment interface (e.g., a web browser plug-in) may allow applications hosted in the virtual environment to access the computing environment through the computing environment component. Programmatic interfaces may also be implemented to permit such accessing via familiar programming languages and techniques, such as JavaScript libraries exposed to web applications in the web browser.
US08413136B2 Application virtualization
A virtual application packaged for a specific executing environment may be executed on a processing device having an executing environment different from the specific executing environment. A reference, included in extracted installer metadata, to one or more key paths of a hierarchically-structured data store may be modified according to a set of rules related to the executing environment detected in the processing device. The modified extracted installer metadata may be provided to an installer for installing the virtual application. During execution of the virtual application, a request to read, write, or modify the hierarchically-structured data store may be intercepted and changed, such that a first key path included in the request may be mapped to a second key path, based on the detected executing environment. Similarly, a response to the request, which may include the second key path, may be intercepted and modified, to the first key path.
US08413133B2 Software update management apparatus and software update management method
A software update management apparatus includes a migration pattern table generation unit for reading a pre-migration environment table and a post-migration environment table and judging a migration content between before and after the update, for each function of a target disk node, and for reading a migration pattern determination table and determining a migration pattern to be applied to the target disk node based on the migration content and the migration pattern determination table. The software update management apparatus also has an update unit for reading the post-migration environment table, issuing an instruction to the target disk node according to the migration pattern determined by the migration pattern table generation unit, and updating software which executes each function of the target disk node.
US08413132B2 Techniques for resolving read-after-write (RAW) conflicts using backup area
Techniques directed to an update package including a set of instructions used for, in a remote client device, creating a new data image from a base data image are provided. A method for generating an update package includes determining differences between a base data image and a new data image, generating COPY instructions corresponding to respective sections of code in the base data image, organizing the COPY instructions into a directed acyclic graph, performing cycle detection on the COPY instructions in the directed acyclic graph to detect any cycles, when a cycle is detected, identifying a COPY instruction in the detected cycle with a smallest overlapping part, removing the overlapping part from the identified COPY instruction, and generating a COPYBACK instruction including the overlapping part removed from the identified COPY instruction, and after all cycles have been detected, generating the update package based on the COPY and COPYBACK instructions.
US08413128B2 Asynchronous load of source dependencies
Asynchronous loading of source dependencies is disclosed. An indication is received in the course of executing a script that a source file on which a current class or function depends is not available, wherein the current class or function is called or executed during the execution of the script. Execution of remaining portions of the script, if any, that do not depend on the source file, continues, or other processing tasks are performed if no such portions remain, while the source file is loaded asynchronously.
US08413127B2 Fine-grained software-directed data prefetching using integrated high-level and low-level code analysis optimizations
A mechanism for minimizing effective memory latency without unnecessary cost through fine-grained software-directed data prefetching using integrated high-level and low-level code analysis and optimizations is provided. The mechanism identifies and classifies streams, identifies data that is most likely to incur a cache miss, exploits effective hardware prefetching to determine the proper number of streams to be prefetched, exploits effective data prefetching on different types of streams in order to eliminate redundant prefetching and avoid cache pollution, and uses high-level transformations with integrated lower level cost analysis in the instruction scheduler to schedule prefetch instructions effectively.
US08413126B2 Scalar code reduction using shortest path routing
This document discusses, among other things, a system and method computing the shortest path expression in a loop having a plurality of expressions. Candidate expressions in the loop are identified and partitioned into sets. A cost matrix is computed as a function of the sets. Paths are found through the cost matrix and, if there are cycles in the paths, the cycles are broken. One or more shortest path expressions are generated as a function of the paths and one or more of the expressions in the loop are replaced with the shortest path expressions.
US08413125B2 Asynchronous dynamic compilation based on multi-session profiling to produce shared native code
A computer is programmed to automatically have multiple sessions update a common counter which is shared therebetween, when interpreting a given method so that system-wide statistics are collected for each method. The single counter is commonly accessed for updating by the respective interpreters in the multiple sessions which are executing the method. The computer is further programmed to asynchronously compile the method (regardless of the state of the multiple sessions), to obtain compiled software in the form of executable machine instructions. Specifically, asynchronous compilation starts dynamically, whenever a method's common multi-session counter satisfies a predetermined condition. Finally, each session is informed when compilation is completed so that the next time the method needs to be run, it is not interpreted and instead the compiled software is executed. The compiled software is kept in a shared memory which is accessible to each session.
US08413121B2 Method and system for storing trace events in a database table
According to one embodiment, a method for storing trace events in a database table includes reading a group of parameters from the table. The group of parameters includes parameters indicative of the maximum number of records, the most recently added record, and the total number of records in the table. The method further includes receiving a trace event. The method also includes storing the trace event as a record in the table based on the group of parameters. The method further includes updating the group of parameters before receiving the next trace event.
US08413119B2 Semantic subtyping for declarative data scripting language by calling a prover
An efficient, logical and expressive type system supports the combination of refinement types and type membership expressions, as well as a top type that encompasses all valid values as members. Various embodiments verify the validity of subtyping relationships by translating to first-order logic, and invoking a general-purpose theorem prover with the first-order logic as input. In contrast to treating formulas as types, types are translated into formulas of standard first-order logic. Moreover, to represent data structures of the programming language as first-order logic, universal and existential quantifiers of first-order logic, and function symbols in terms, are exploited. Data intensive applications can be generated, verified, and deployed with greater speed and scale.
US08413117B1 Systems and methods for focusing product testing based on areas of change within the product between product builds
A computer-implemented method for focusing product testing based on areas of change within the product is described. A link between resource files of a product and test cases associated with the product is created. The resource files of a first build of the product are compared with the resource files of a second build of the product. A report that comprises which resource files changed between the first build of the product and the second build of the product is generated. The resource files that have changed and the test cases linked to the changed resource files are displayed. The test cases linked to the changed resource files are executed.
US08413113B2 Dynamic naming conventions in a source code editor
A system and method for dynamically appending prefixes to source code is described. User-selectable options for a prefix naming convention are provided to a user. Prefixes are transiently appended to variables based on a user selection. The variables are displayed with their respective prefixes in a code editor. Modifications to the source code are detected. The prefixes are removed from the modified source code and the modified source code is written to a persistent storage.
US08413105B2 Device, method and computer program product for managing a software development process
A method for managing a software development process, the method includes: receiving information representative of instances of simple software development process events; detecting, by a complex event processing (CEP) engine and in response to the received information, at least one complex situation; and invoking at least one software management process reaction responsive to a detection of the at least one complex situation.
US08413103B2 Execution monitor for electronic design automation
Embodiments of a computer system, a method, a graphical user interface and a computer-program product (i.e., software) for use with the computer system are described. A chip designer may use these devices and techniques to configure and monitor the execution of tasks in a user-configurable electronic-design-automation (EDA) flow associated with a circuit or chip design. In particular, using an intuitive and interactive graphical user interface in EDA software, the chip designer can configure and initiate execution of the EDA flow. Then, during execution of EDA tasks in the EDA flow, an execution monitor in the graphical user interface may provide a graphical representation of real-time execution status information for the EDA tasks. Moreover, using the EDA software, the chip designer can debug the circuit or chip design if any errors or problems occur.
US08413102B2 Vectorless IVD analysis prior to tapeout to prevent scan test failure due to voltage drop
In one embodiment, a vectorless IVD methodology may be used to estimate IVD issues for an integrated circuit earlier in the design cycle of the integrated circuit, e.g. when corrective actions may still be taken to correct IVD failures. In the methodology, scan chains for various clusters in the integrated circuit may be identified, even though the scan chains may still be subject to change as the design evolves. A power integrity tool may analyze the scan chains based on a probability of transitions in the devices within the scan chain (e.g. flops) for a theoretical worst-case test vector. If the result of analysis identifies IVD failures in the clusters, corrective action may be taken such as modifying the design. Alternatively, the corrective action may include identifying one or more flops that experience failure as devices to be excluded from the test vector generation process for scan testing.
US08413101B2 System and method for detecting parasitic thyristors in an integrated circuit
In an embodiment, a method includes retrieving a layout of an integrated circuit design from a non-transitory computer readable medium, identifying a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) structure in the layout, identifying a current injection site in the layout, and determining if a distance between the identified current injection site and the identified SCR structure is less than a first threshold. A violation is flagged if the determined distance is less than the first threshold.
US08413100B2 Power mesh managing method
The invention discloses a power mesh managing method utilized in an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a standard cell and a standard-cell power supplying mesh corresponding to a first direction. The power mesh managing method includes: defining a power supplying network including a first plurality of power meshes growing along the first direction and a second plurality of power meshes growing along a second direction, and defining an assistant connecting network on a third metal layer, wherein the assistant connecting network includes a plurality of assistant connecting lines growing along the second direction, the first plurality of power meshes are formed on a first metal layer, the second plurality of power meshes on a second metal layer, the third metal layer is below the first metal layer, and the second metal layer is above the first metal layer.
US08413099B2 Performing scenario reduction
Some embodiments of the present invention provide techniques and systems for reducing the number of scenarios over which a circuit design is optimized. Each scenario in the set of scenarios can be associated with a process corner, an operating condition, and/or an operating mode. During operation, the system can receive a set of scenarios over which the circuit design is to be optimized. Next, the system can compute values of constrained objects in the circuit design over the set of scenarios. The system can then determine a subset of scenarios based at least on the values of the constrained objects, so that if the circuit design meets design constraints in each scenario in the subset of scenarios, the circuit design is expected to meet the design constraints in each scenario in the set of scenarios.
US08413097B2 Computing device and method for checking design of printed circuit board layout file
A computing device reads a printed circuit board (PCB) layout file from a storage device. The PCB layout file includes arrangement information of signal lines, power lines, and power through-holes arranged on a PCB. Furthermore, the computing device sets a reference distance between a selected power through-hole and a neighboring signal line, and searches for one or more line segments of one or more signal lines where the a distance between each of the one or more line segment and the selected power through-hole is less than the reference distance.
US08413094B2 Structure, design structure and process for increasing magnitude of device threshold voltage for low power applications
A method of increasing an initial threshold voltage (Vt) of selected devices. The method includes designing devices with desired antenna effects and adjusting an increase in Vt of some devices to specific values. The desired antenna effects produce a desired threshold voltage of the devices.
US08413091B2 Enhancing redundancy removal with early merging
A mechanism is provided for simplifying a netlist before computational resources are exceeded. For each of a set of suspected equivalences in a proof graph of a netlist, a determination is made as to whether equivalence holds for at least one of an equivalence or an equivalence class by identifying whether the equivalence or equivalence class is either affecting or non-affecting. Responsive to the equivalence or equivalence class being affecting, a proof dependency is recorded as an edge in a proof graph. For each node in the proof graph, a determination is made as to whether the node has a falsified dependency. Responsive to the node failing to have a falsified dependency, identification is made that all dependencies are satisfied and that the equivalences represented by the node in the proof graph are sequential equivalences. The netlist is then simplified by consuming the sequential equivalences.
US08413087B1 Method and mechanism for implementing region query using hierarchical grids
Disclosed is an improved approach for managing, tracking, and querying hierarchical data in layouts. According to some aspects, hierarchical grids are employed utilizing a scheme that organizes physical objects into a set of gradually refined grids that avoids the need to maintain duplicates while enhancing the desirable characteristics of existing schemes, including fast query times, fast data structure initialization and reduced memory footprint. Each grid-cell may be further partitioned into sub-containers to more efficiently provide space pruning during query operations. According to one approach, structures maintained to track existence of objects in a descendent hierarchy.
US08413083B2 Mask system employing substantially circular optical proximity correction target and method of manufacture thereof
A method of manufacture of a mask system includes: providing design data; generating a substantially circular optical proximity correction target from the design data; biasing a segment of the substantially circular optical proximity correction target; and generating mask data based on the shape produced by biasing the segment of the substantially circular optical proximity correction target.
US08413082B2 Method for designing masks used to form electronic components
A method for designing masks adapted to the forming of integrated circuits, including the steps of: (a) forming a first test file including a set of configurations of integrated circuit elements; (b) forming a second test file comprising the elements of the first test file, less the elements corresponding to configurations forbidden by design rule manuals; (c) trans-forming the second test file by means of a set of logical operations implemented by computing means to obtain a mask file; (d) testing the mask file and, if the test is negative, modifying the design rule manuals; and (e) repeating steps (a) to (d) until the test of step (d) is positive.
US08413081B2 Method for process window optimized optical proximity correction
One embodiment of a method for process window optimized optical proximity correction includes applying optical proximity corrections to a design layout, simulating a lithography process using the post-OPC layout and models of the lithography process at a plurality of process conditions to produce a plurality of simulated resist images. A weighted average error in the critical dimension or other contour metric for each edge segment of each feature in the design layout is determined, wherein the weighted average error is an offset between the contour metric at each process condition and the contour metric at nominal condition averaged over the plurality of process conditions. A retarget value for the contour metric for each edge segment is determined using the weighted average error and applied to the design layout prior to applying further optical proximity corrections.
US08413076B2 Information processing apparatus and method
An information processing apparatus having a touch-sensitive panel and processing a gesture input performed via the touch-sensitive panel accepts an instruction from a user for transitioning from a first processing state to a second processing state; sets a number of gesture-input-based operations in accordance with the instruction accepted; and executes corresponding processing as a gesture input in the second processing state with regard to gesture inputs of the number of operations set. The information processing apparatus executes corresponding processing as a gesture input in the first processing state with regard to a gesture input after the gesture inputs of the number of operations have been performed.
US08413075B2 Gesture movies
The display of gesture movies is disclosed to assist users in performing gestures. Gesture movies can be short, unintrusive, and available on demand. A list box can appear in a pop-up window or preference panel, containing a list of gestures that can be displayed. If a user clicks on a gesture in the list, a video, movie or animation of the gesture being performed appears in one box, and a video, movie or animation of the action being performed on a particular object is displayed in another box. Thus, a hand can be shown performing the selected gesture over a touch sensor panel, while at the same time, and synchronized with the gesture being displayed, an object being manipulated by the gesture is displayed.
US08413074B2 Mechanism for collaboratively exchanging navigation information in a distributed document review
A mechanism for enabling nodes on a network to collaboratively exchange sets of rendering information respecting a file. Each node maintains its own copy of the file, and each node may access its copy of the file. Whenever a node does access the locations of the file, that node sends out a rendering information message. The rendering information message comprises the set of rendering information for the file that has been updated. The rendering information message is forwarded to each of the other nodes. When each of the other nodes receives the rendering information message, it stores the set of rendering information contained therein to a rendering history associated with a user. In this manner, histories of access in the file by all users are exchanged among the nodes, and the user on each node is able to see rendering information generated by users on the other nodes.
US08413072B2 Apparatus, system and method for context and language specific data entry
An apparatus, system and method that allow for context and language specific data entry via a user interface. A user interface is displayed on a display device, where the user interface includes a data entry menu having one or more menu selections. A menu selection is activated. A data entry method is displayed, where the data entry method is context and language specific to the activated menu selection. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08413065B2 User interface methods for ending an application
Methods and devices provide an efficient user interface for initiating a function by detecting an ellipsoidal continuous touch path on a touch surface of a computing device. In an embodiment the initiated function may end an application. A user may initiate the function operation by tracing an ellipsoidal shape (e.g., a circle) a touchscreen or touchpad. A display image may be contorted to inform the user about the progress towards accomplishing the function. The function operation of contorting the display image may begin at a minimum measure of the traced path and complete at a maximum measure of the traced path. In an embodiment, terminating an application and returning to the home display may be achieved in response to a clockwise path trace and minimizing of an application and returning to home display may be achieved in response to a counterclockwise path trace, or vice versa.
US08413062B1 Method and system for accessing interface design elements via a wireframe mock-up
A computer implemented method and system for accessing interface design elements via a wireframe mock-up. The method comprises accessing element information describing one or more design elements, determining a location for one or more element links to be placed on a wireframe mock-up, populating the wireframe mock-up with the one or more element links, and providing the populated wireframe mock-up as an interface to access one or more design elements contained within the design element repository. The location is determined from the element information and the element link is placed in the determined location.
US08413058B1 Systems and methods for click-to-callback
Click-to-callback provides an icon or link on a webpage that a user can select or click on. When the icon or link is clicked or otherwise selected, the user is provided with a list of his phone numbers to choose from, or a blank field to enter an alternate number, for an immediate return call from a representative of the entity (e.g., the company) associated with the webpage. When this request is submitted, the representative desirably calls the user back immediately (e.g., within about 10 seconds) to provide assistance. Thus, the user remains on the website, and gets the help he desires to continue on the website, which may, for example, lead to the user making an online purchase.
US08413056B2 Method and apparatus for a home network auto-tree builder
A method and system is provided for detecting, commanding and controlling diverse home devices currently connected to a home network. An interface is provided for accessing the home devices that are currently connected to a home network. According to the method, a device link file is generated, wherein the device link file identifies home devices that are currently connected to the home network. A device link page is created, wherein the device link page contains a device button that is associated with each home device that is identified in the device link file. A hyper-text link is associated with each device button, wherein the hyper-text link provides a link to an HTML page that is contained on the home device that is associated with the device button, and the device link page is displayed on a browser based home device.
US08413055B2 Methods and systems for customizing and embedding widgets in instant messages
An enhanced instant messaging environment is provided where end user can choose from a list of customizable widgets, personalize and embed the widgets within messages in minimal steps. By allowing the embedment of widgets in messages, the environment empowers users with new means for online communication with new level of widget intelligence that takes into account multi-dimensional criteria, including but not limited to the screen-estate of its presentation and role of viewer for information presentation and operation options.
US08413049B2 Handheld electronic device and associated method enabling the generation of a proposed character interpretation of a phonetic text input in a text disambiguation environment
An improved handheld electronic device and associated method enable the phonetic inputting of text using a reduced keyboard and transformation algorithm. The handheld electronic device and method advantageously enable the inputting of languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and the like without limitation. The transformation algorithm subjects each of a number of linguistic element permutations to an algorithm such as the Maximum Matching Algorithm or other algorithm to generate a string of words. The transformation algorithm then selects one string of words as a default textual output based on at least one of its minimal number of words and its relatively high attributed frequency value.
US08413045B2 Rich browser-based word processor
A computer-implemented method for presenting a document for interaction with a user in a web browser includes accessing an electronic model of the document; determining, with a computing device, positions for items in a visual rendering of the electronic model based on relative sizes and positions of other items in the electronic model; and generating, with the computing device, a document object model (DOM) that defines an editing surface, wherein the DOM (a) places placing the items at the determined positions on the editing surface, (b) places a graphic element that represents a cursor at a determined location on the editing surface, and (c) is arranged to receive user input on the editing surface and to correlate a location of the received user input to a location in the electronic model.
US08413042B2 Referrer-based website personalization
Personalization of content of a web site for a user based on a web site that a user arrives from is disclosed. For example, the content of the web site from which the user arrives (i.e., the originating page), as well as the content of the web page the user has arrived to (i.e., the target page), may be categorized as pertaining to particular subjects or topics. Any time a user comes from an originating page, the subject categories for the originating page and the target page may be compared to determine if like categories exist between the pages. In the event that like categories are found, the target page may be personalized based on those categories.
US08413037B2 User selection of flaw present within digitally scanned document
A page of a digitally scanned document and graphical user interface elements (GUI) are displayed. Each GUI element corresponds to a potential flaw within the page and includes an example image of the potential flaw. After the GUI elements are displayed, a user is permitted to select a user-detected flaw present within the page of the digitally scanned document by selecting one of the GUI elements.
US08413036B2 Pseudorandom binary sequence checker with control circuitry for end-of-test check
Control circuitry is coupled between an error event output and a data input of a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) checker. The control circuitry is configured to switch between a first operating state in which a received PRBS signal is applied to the data input of the PRBS checker and a second operating state in which an error signal is applied to the data input of the PRBS checker, responsive to detection of a designated condition of the PRBS checker. In an illustrative embodiment, the designated condition is an end-of-test condition indicating that the PRBS checker has completed a test involving the received PRBS signal.
US08413035B2 Power control apparatus and method for realizing efficient load factor with lower contracted power limit
A power control apparatus is provided that includes a calculation unit, a detection unit, a storage unit, a selection unit and an execution unit. The detection unit detects whether a required spare capacity is short, based on the required spare capacity, the spare power, and the total spare power capacity. The storage unit stores power control operation items. The selection unit selects power control operation items if the required spare capacity is short. The execution unit executes application operation of one or more the power control operation items until the required spare capacity becomes available, and executes waiting operation of one or more power control operation items executing the application operation if the required spare capacity is available.
US08413033B2 Device and method for calculating backward state metrics of a trellis
A method for calculating backward state metrics of a trellis, the method includes: performing a radix-K calculation of backward state matrices of multiple states of at least one time instance of a trellis; and performing a radix-J calculation of backward state matrices of multiple states of at least one other time instance of the trellis; wherein K differs from J.
US08413032B1 Read channel detector for noise cancellation
A channel decoder including an amplifier configured to amplify a signal; a first summer configured to generate an output signal based on the signal amplified by the amplifier; and a Viterbi detector module configured to, based on the output signal, generate a first estimate signal and a second estimate signal, wherein the first estimate signal and the second estimate signal respectively indicate an estimate of data in the signal. The channel decoder further includes a second summer configured to generate a first error signal indicating a first gradient based on the first estimate signal; and a third summer configured to generate a second error signal indicating a second error gradient based on the second estimate signal. The first summer is configured to generate the output signal based on (i) the first error signal and (ii) the second error signal.
US08413031B2 Methods, apparatus, and systems for updating loglikelihood ratio information in an nT implementation of a Viterbi decoder
Methods and circuits comprising a reliability measurement unit (RMU) for generating log-likelihood ratio (LLR) values corresponding to 1T for use in a soft output Viterbi algorithm (“SOVA”) decoder. The RMU operates with an nT clock signal. 1T signals generated by an add, compare, select circuit (ACS) of the SOVA generates 1T decision data and a path equivalency detector generates 1T path equivalency information for 1T SOVA decoding and applies the 1T data to the RMU operating with an nT clock frequency (1/n'th that of the 1T clock signal). The nT RMU receives a plurality of 1T inputs on each nT clock signal pulse and generates 1T LLR information for use by the SOVA decoder. Other components of the SOVA may also operate using the nT clock signal pulse or may operate using a 1T clock signal.
US08413029B2 Error correction capability adjustment of LDPC codes for storage device testing
Methods and structure described herein provide for adjusting an error correction capability of an LDPC error correction code. For example, the system of one embodiment includes a decoder adapted to decode data that has been encoded with a LDPC error correction code. The system also includes a detector communicatively coupled to the decoder and adapted to estimate bit values in the data prior to decoding by the decoder. The detector is further adapted to change bit values based on bit value estimations to reduce the error correction capability of the LDPC error correction code. The reduction in error correction capability is adjustable such that sector failure rates of storage devices may be incrementally analyzed.
US08413027B2 Method of decoding a pattern-encoded coordinate
A method of decoding a coding pattern disposed on or in a substrate. The method comprises the steps of: (a) operatively positioning an optical reader relative to a surface of the substrate; (b) capturing an image of a portion of the coding pattern, the coding pattern comprising a plurality of square tags of length/identifying two-dimensional location coordinates; and (c) sampling and decoding x-coordinate data symbols within the imaged portion and y-coordinate data symbols within the imaged portion. The imaged portion has a predetermined diameter and is guaranteed to contain sufficient data symbols from each of the Reed-Solomon codes so that symbol errors are correctable in each of the codes during the decoding.
US08413025B2 Method of handling packet loss using error-correcting codes and block rearrangement
A method of handling packet loss uses error-correcting codes and block rearrangement. This method divides the original data stream into data blocks, then codes the blocks by error-correcting codes. After coding the blocks, rearranges the coding blocks for spreading original data into new blocks and then transmitting the new blocks.After receiving the transmitted blocks, reverse-rearrangs the received blocks and decode the blocks. Combine the decoded blocks into original data stream in the end.
US08413024B2 Performing a cyclic redundancy checksum operation responsive to a user-level instruction
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for receiving incoming data in a processor and performing a checksum operation on the incoming data in the processor pursuant to a user-level instruction for the checksum operation. For example, a cyclic redundancy checksum may be computed in the processor itself responsive to the user-level instruction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08413023B2 Error-locator-polynomial generation with erasure support
A system and method for correcting errors in an ECC block using erasure-identification data when generating an error-locator polynomial. In an embodiment, a ECC decoding method, uses “erasure” data indicative of bits of data that are unable to be deciphered by a decoder. Such a method may use an Berlekamp-Massey algorithm that receives two polynomials as inputs; a first polynomial indicative of erasure location in the stream of bits and a syndrome polynomial indicative of all bits as initially determined. The Berlekamp-Massey algorithm may use the erasure identification information to more easily decipher the overall codeword when faced with a error-filled codeword.
US08413021B2 Efficient soft value generation for coded bits in a turbo decoder
Techniques for generating soft values for parity bits in a convolutional decoding process are disclosed. An exemplary method comprises, for each of at least one iteration in at least one soft-input soft-output decoder, calculating intermediate probability values for each possible transition between a first plurality of candidate decoder states at a first time and a second plurality of candidate decoder states at a second time. Two or more partial sums are then computed from the intermediate probability values, wherein the partial sums correspond to possible combinations of two or more systematic bits, two or more parity bits, or at least one systematic bit and at least one parity bit. Soft values, such as log-likelihood values, are then estimated for each of at least one systematic bit and at least one parity bit of the received communications data corresponding to the interval between the first and second times, based on the partial sums.
US08413018B2 Separate memories and address busses to store data and signature
A programmable device employs an address and data corruption logic for data written to a first memory. A first signature is computed from the data stored in the first memory and stored in a second memory. When data is read from the first memory, the first signature stored in the second memory is read and compared with a second signature computed from the data read from the first memory. If the first and second signatures do not match, an error condition is indicated.
US08413017B2 Method for transmitting a data transfer block and method and system for transferring a data transfer block
A method for transmitting a data transfer block, the data transfer block comprising at least one data segment having a predetermined number of one or more data units, to be identified using validity information, and a header segment, the method including the following steps: a) writing a data unit into a first area of an output register predetermined for the data segment, from which the buffered data transfer block is transmitted via a bus system at a predetermined transmission instant with the aid of a time multiplexing method; b) writing a validity datum, implemented as a toggle bit or as an N-bit counter, into a second area of the output register predetermined for the header segment, the particular validity datum specifying the validity of the corresponding written data unit; c) enabling the data transfer block buffered in the output register for transmission, after the particular data unit and the corresponding validity datum are written into the output register; d) repeating steps (a) through (c) until the predetermined number of the data units and the corresponding validity data are written or the predetermined transmission instant is reached; and e) transmitting the enabled data transfer block buffered in the output register at the transmission instant.
US08413013B2 Memory system
A memory system including: a memory device; an ECC system installed in the memory device so as to generate a warning signal in case there are uncorrectable errors; an address generating circuit for generating internal addresses in place of bad area addresses in accordance with the waning signal, the progressing of the internal addresses being selected as to avoid address collision with the address progressing of the memory device at least at the beginning; and a CAM for storing the internal addresses as substitutive area addresses, the CAM being referred to at an access time of the memory device so as to generate the substitutive area addresses in place of the bad area addresses in accordance with the warning signal.
US08413008B2 Method for recovery of lost and/or corrupted data
A method for recovery of lost and/or corrupted data transmitted from a transmitter device to a receiver device. The data is coded by an encoder connected to the transmitter device. The data is transmitted from the transmitter device to the receiver device via a transmission system and is decoded by means of a decoder connected to the receiver device. This is performed through application of a low density parity check method, wherein lost and/or corrupted data is restored during decoding. The decoding is performed by solving the equation system of the parity check matrix H. The parity check matrix H is brought into a triangular form by column and/or row permutations. Columns of a sub-matrix B of the matrix H which impede the triangulation process are shifted into a sub-matrix P of the matrix H so that the triangulation process can be continued until the matrix H except for the sub-matrix P has been completely brought into a triangular form. The Gaussian elimination method is applied to a part of the sub-matrix P. The selection of the column or columns of the sub-matrix B which are to be shifted into the sub-matrix P is performed on the basis of the weight of the column which corresponds to the number of non-zero-entries in the column, and/or on the basis of the weight of the rows of the sub-matrix B connected to the column.
US08413007B2 Memory system and method using ECC with flag bit to identify modified data
A DRAM device includes an ECC generator/checker that generates ECC syndromes corresponding to items of data stored in the DRAM device. The DRAM device also includes an ECC controller that causes the ECC syndromes to be stored in the DRAM device. The ECC controller also causes a flag bit having a first value to be stored in the DRAM device when a corresponding ECC syndrome is stored. The ECC controller changes the flag bit to a second value whenever the corresponding data bits are modified, this indicating that the stored syndrome no longer corresponds to the stored data. In such case, the ECC controller causes a new ECC syndrome to be generated and stored, and the corresponding flag bit is reset to the first value. The flag bits may be checked in this manner during a reduced power refresh to ensure that the stored syndromes correspond to the stored data.
US08413006B1 Error detection and correction in data and control words
A method and system are provided to detect and correct errors in the Interlaken block code overhead bits. Specifically, a method is provided for determining the original transmitted information with a very high probability of correct interpretation. These approaches can also characterized by their minimal complexity. Further, such a method can operate on the received information in a manner that does not require consideration of special cases. Also, the method does not require the source to send any extra information or alter its current behavior in any way. Thus, the approaches described herein are compatible with all existing Interlaken sources and can provide immediate benefits.
US08413005B2 Method and apparatus for retransmission
Provided is a method in which a terminal conducts an operation for retransmission using a frame divided into downlink subframes and uplink subframes, the method including: receiving a data burst transmitted from a base station; determining a feedback frame offset based on the relationship between a range determined based on division information of the frame and a downlink subframe index in which the data burst has been transmitted; determining indices of a frame and uplink subframe for transmitting a feedback signal based on the frame offset; transmitting the feedback signal to the base station in the determined indices of the frame and uplink subframe; and if an NACK message is included in the feedback signal, receiving the data burst retransmitted from the base station.
US08413004B2 Lengthening life of a limited life memory
A phase-change memory (PCM) includes a matrix of storage cells, including at least a first group with at least one cell. Each cell includes a phase change material having at least a first resistance value and a second resistance value, such that the first group can have an identical message encoded therein in at least a first way and a second way. The memory also includes a controller configured to encode the identical message in the at least first group the first or second way, based on which way causes the least amount of writing cost, given current levels of the group. Another embodiment of memory includes a matrix of storage cells. Each of the storage cells has at least two levels, such that each of the storage cells can have an identical message encoded therein in at least a first way and a second way.
US08413002B2 Method of performing ARQ procedure for transmitting high rate data
A data transmission method using automatic repeat request (ARQ) in a radio interface protocol system consisting of a plurality of layers is provided. The method includes delivering, from an upper layer to a lower layer, a data block stored in an ARQ buffer, the ARQ buffer storing a plurality of data blocks to be transmitted in response the lower layer, the data block; delivering, from the upper layer to the lower layer, a new data block stored in the ARQ buffer if a delivery success message is received from the lower layer, the delivery success message indicating successful transmission of the data block; and shifting a window of the ARQ buffer. The present invention can effectively use radio resources since an ARQ procedure does not require a polling process and a process of receiving a status PDU, and is suitable for high rate data transmission.
US08412996B2 Method and device for checking the integrity of a logic signal, in particular a clock signal
A device and a method detect an acceleration of a logic signal expressed by a closeness, beyond a closeness threshold, of at least two variation edges of the logic signal. A first control bit and a second control bit are provided. At each edge of the logic signal, the value of the first control bit is inverted after a first delay and the value of the second control bit is inverted after a second delay. An acceleration is detected when the two control bits have at the same time their respective initial values or their respective inverted initial values. Application is in particular but not exclusively to the detection of error injections in a secured integrated circuit.
US08412995B2 TAP and AUX with IR control of TDI input multiplexer
The present disclosure describes novel methods and apparatuses for directly accessing JTAG Tap domains that exist in a scan path of many serially connected JTAG Tap domains. Direct scan access to a selected Tap domain by a JTAG controller is achieved using auxiliary digital or analog terminals associated with the Tap domain and connected to the JTAG controller. During direct scan access, the auxiliary digital or analog terminals serve as serial data input and serial data output paths between the selected Tap domain and the JTAG controller.
US08412989B2 Tap time division multiplexing with scan test
An integrated circuit comprising (i) a plurality of portions, each portion including test control circuitry; and (ii) at least one test input arranged to receive test signals, the circuit having a test mode in which one or more of the plurality of portions are testable, wherein the circuit has a reset mode which has priority over the test mode.
US08412988B2 Fault injection detector in an integrated circuit
A circuit for detecting a fault injection in an integrated circuit including: at least one logic block for performing a logic function of said integrated circuit; an isolation block coupled to receive a signal to be processed and an isolation enable signal indicating a functional phase and a detection phase of the logic block, the isolation block applying, during the functional phase, the signal to be processed to at least one input of the logic block, and during the detection phase, a constant value to the input of the logic block; and a detection block adapted to monitor, during the detection phase, the state of the output signal of the logic block, and to generate an alert signal in case of any change in the state of the output signal.
US08412987B2 Non-volatile memory to store memory remap information
A memory device may comprise a port to receive remap information regarding a memory device and may comprise a content-addressable memory (CAM) to store the remap information, wherein the CAM may comprise a nonvolatile, discretely-addressable memory.
US08412983B2 Memory test circuit, semiconductor integrated circuit, and memory test method
A memory test circuit includes a counter circuit that outputs a set signal that is set to the first set value or the second set value alternately in a cycle of the clock signal, an OR circuit that calculates a logical sum of the set signal and the input signal each time when the set signal is output from the counter circuit and outputs a control signal indicating the logical sum of the set signal and the input signal, and a test pattern generation circuit that generates the test pattern for causing the memory to operate in each first cycle if a set value of the control signal is the first set value, or generates the test pattern for causing the memory to operate in each second cycle if the set value of the control signal is the second set value.
US08412981B2 Core sparing on multi-core platforms
Methods and apparatus to provide core sparing on multi-core platforms are described. In an embodiment, stored core state information of a target core (e.g., a core that has detected a fault condition (e.g., within its circuitry) or a request to offload operations from the target core (e.g., to enable run-time diagnostics without interfering with system software)) may be read by a spare core which is to operationally replace the target core. Other embodiments are also described.
US08412975B2 USB based synchronization and timing system
A synchronization apparatus, comprising: a USB device having a USB microcontroller, circuitry for observing USB traffic, and circuitry for decoding from a USB data stream a periodic data structure (such as a clock carrier signal) containing information about a distributed clock frequency and phase and outputting a decoded carrier signal; and circuitry for receiving the decoded carrier signal, for generating a software interrupt upon receipt of a predefined data packet (such as a SOF packet) and for passing the software interrupt to the USB microcontroller; wherein the USB microcontroller is configured to respond to the software interrupt (such as with an interrupt service routine provided therein) by generating an output signal adapted to be used as a synchronization reference signal.
US08412970B2 Optimizing power usage by factoring processor architectural events to PMU
A method and apparatus to monitor architecture events is disclosed. The architecture events are linked together via a push bus mechanism with each architectural event having a designated time slot. There is at least one branch of the push bus in each core. Each branch of the push bus may monitor one core with all the architectural events. All the data collected from the events by the push bus is then sent to a power control unit.
US08412968B2 Circuit, system and method for selectively turning off internal clock drivers
The present invention includes a circuit, system and method for selectively turning off internal clock drivers to reduce operating current. The present invention may be used to reduce power consumption by reducing operating current in a memory device. Operating current may be reduced by turning off internal clock drivers that deliver a clock signal during selected periods of time. According to an embodiment of clock control circuitry of the present invention, an internal clock is disabled if a no operation command is detected during periods of time when no read or write burst operation is taking place. Methods, memory devices and computer systems including the clock control circuitry and its functionality are also disclosed.
US08412967B2 Method of enhancing power saving in an integrated electronic system with distinctly powered islands of functional circuitries and related device architecture
A method for power saving in an integrated circuit device may include defining an off-switchable analog circuit island including an internal clock generating circuit, and at power-on of the integrated circuit device, supplying to clocked digital circuits of the integrated circuit device an auxiliary clock from the external controller. The auxiliary clock has a frequency determined by the external controller and being lower than the root clock signal. The method includes supplying external reset commands to the integrated circuit device until an active functioning condition of the integrated circuit device is asserted, and interrupting the supply of the auxiliary clock and enabling supply of the root clock signal to the clocked digital circuits when the active functioning condition of the integrated circuit device is asserted.
US08412965B2 PWM timer for power supply
A forward converter circuit includes a transformer having a primary winding and a secondary winding. A first transistor is coupled in series with the primary winding and a second transistor is coupled in series with the secondary winding. A control circuit generating control signals for controlling operation of the first and second transistors. The control signals are generated responsive to the values in certain triggered counting circuits satisfying programmable thresholds.
US08412964B2 Automatic power-off of bluetooth device from linked device
Methods and systems for powering-off a Bluetooth device from a linked device are provided. A device can transmit a Bluetooth signal to a linked device to instruct the linked device to power-off. In this manner, the user need only turn off one device manually which results in all linked devices being powered off. This process can be initiated by a user through a device directly linked with the device to be powered-off or through a device that is indirectly connected, through one or more Bluetooth networks, with the device to be powered-off. This process can also be automatically initiated by a device when a set of predetermined conditions exist. Once instructed to do so, a device can initiate a predetermined power-off process which can involve terminating any ongoing functions and turning off various subsystems. In accordance with the present invention, a user can initiate a power-off of all the devices on a Bluetooth network through a single device.
US08412956B2 Electronic unit provided in a microcircuit card and including cryptographic means for high-speed data processing
An electronic unit includes a processor (P), an input-output device (18) and a cryptographic device (14). The unit is directly connected by two-way data transmission (20) set up between the input-output device and the cryptographic device, the electronic unit being integrated in a microcircuit card.
US08412953B2 System and method for annotation driven integrity verification
Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for annotation driven integrity program verification. The method includes distributing verification calls configured to verify a function across call paths leading to the function in source code, generating a binary from the source code having placeholders associated with the verification calls, and filling each placeholder in the binary with verification data or reference checksums. Alternatively, the method includes receiving source code having a verification call, replacing the verification call with one or more equivalent verification calls distributed over a call path, replacing each verification call with a checksum function generating placeholders while compiling, generating a binary based on the placeholders, and filling each placeholder in the binary with reference checksums. The system includes a processor and a module controlling the processor to perform the methods. The computer-readable storage medium includes instructions for controlling a computer to perform the methods.
US08412949B2 Personal digital key initialization and registration for secure transactions
A system and method provide efficient, secure, and highly reliable authentication for transaction processing and/or access control applications. A personal digital key (PDK) is programmed using a trusted programming device to initialize and/or register the PDK for use. In one embodiment, the initialization and registration processes are administered by a specialized trusted Notary to ensure the processes follow defined security procedures. In a biometric initialization, the programming device acquires a biometric input from a user and writes the biometric data to a tamperproof memory in the PDK. In registration, the Programmer communicates to one or more remote registries to create or update entries associated with the user PDK. Once initialized and registered, the PDK can be used for various levels of secure authentication processes.
US08412948B2 Method and apparatus for digital signature generation and validation
An apparatus and method are provided for reducing time taken for generating a digital signature and generating the digital signature using a minimum number of operations using at least two secret keys. One secret key among at least two secret keys may be set from a value resulting from hashing a message to be transmitted. A number of times for hashing the secret key is determined, and a value resulting from hashing the determined secret key by the determined hashing number of times is set as the digital signature.
US08412947B2 System and method of secure encryption for electronic data transfer
A system for secure transfer of encrypted data involves a sender client (36), a recipient client (38), a main server (40), and a key server (42). The sender client (36) receives instructions from a first user identifying transfer data and a recipient identifier, creates an encoding key, encodes the transfer data using the key, and communicates the key and the recipient identifier to a main server (40). The main server (40) communicates the key and the recipient identifier to the key server (42), which associates the recipient identifier with a secure package identifier and communicates the secure package identifier to the main server (40), which communicates the secure package identifier to the sender client (36). The recipient client (38) receives and identifies the secure package identifier and the encoded transfer data, receives from a second user a user identifier, and communicates the user identifier and the secure package identifier to the main server (40), which communicates them to the key server (42). The key server (42) communicates the key to the main server (40) only if the secure package identifier received from the recipient client (38) matches the secure package identifier created by the main server (40) and if the user identifier matches the recipient identifier. The main server (40) communicates the key to the recipient client (38).
US08412943B2 Two-way access authentication method
A two-way access authentication method comprises: According to the system parameters pre-established by the third entity, the first entity sends the access authentication request packet to the second entity, then the second entity validates whether the signature of first entity is correct, and if yes, the share master key of second entity is calculated; the second entity generates the access authentication response packet and sends it to the first entity, then the first entity validates whether the signature of access authentication response packet and the message integrity check code are correct; if yes, the share master key of first entity is calculated; the first entity sends the access authentication acknowledge packet to the second entity, then the second entity validates the integrity of the access authentication acknowledge packet, if passing the validation, the share master key of first entity is consistent with that of the second entity, and the access authentication is achieved. For improving the security, after received the access authentication request packet sent by the first entity, the second entity may perform the identity validity validation and generates the access authentication response packet after passing the validation.
US08412938B2 Zero-knowledge based authentication method, system, and apparatus
In the fields of data security and system reliability and qualification, this disclosure is of a method, system and apparatus for verifying or authenticating a device to a host using a zero-knowledge based authentication technique which includes a keyed message authentication code such as an HMAC or keyed cipher function and which operates on secret information shared between the host and the device. This is useful both for security purposes and also to make sure that a device such as a computer peripheral or accessory or component is qualified to be interoperable with the host.
US08412937B2 Method and system for authentication of a low-resource prover
A method is presented for enabling authentication of a prover in a Radio Frequency Identification system comprising the prover and a verifier, the method comprising the steps of: the prover sending a prover identifier and a parent identifier to the verifier, the verifier sending a verifier identifier to the prover, the prover calculating a first common secret by means of a prover polynomial, where an unknown in the prover polynomial is substituted by a result calculated using a function of at least the verifier identifier, and the verifier calculating the first common secret by means of a first verifier polynomial, wherein a first unknown in the first verifier polynomial is substituted by the prover identifier and a second unknown in the first verifier polynomial is substituted by the parent identifier, the prover creating a first message by modulating a first core secret with regard to at least the first common secret, aid prover sending the first message to the verifier, and the verifier creating a first candidate for the first core secret by demodulating the first message with the first common secret, whereby the candidate for the first core secret is for use in the authentication. This allows the verifier and prover to independently create a common secret, used for modulating the core secret. Furthermore, no pre-registration of the prover with the verifier is required and calculation using polynomials requires little processing power. A corresponding system, prover and verifier are also presented.
US08412935B2 Administration of storage systems containing three groups of data-operational, backup, and standby
A storage system that administrates data to be mounted on a client terminal, the data being categorized into a plurality of generations, and that controls data in response to a request to mount data received from the client terminal. The storage system including a storage unit that stores a first generation that is currently under operation as operational data, a second generation that had functioned as the operational data as backup data, and a third generation that is to be in operation as standby data, and a switching unit that switches the first and the third generations such that the third generation is stored as the operational data, and the first generation is stored as the backup data, and that switches the first and the second generations such that the second generation is stored as the operational data, and the first generation is stored as the backup data.
US08412933B1 Enabling users to select between secure service providers using a key escrow service
Systems and methods are described herein for enabling users to select from available secure service providers (each having a Trusted Service Manager (“TSM”)) for provisioning applications and services on a secure element installed on a device of the user. The device includes a service provider selector (“SPS”) module that provides a user interface for selecting the secure service provider. In one embodiment, the SPS communicates with a key escrow service that maintains cryptographic keys for the secure element and distributes the keys to the user selected secure service provider. The key escrow service also revokes the keys from deselected secure service providers. In another embodiment, the SPS communicates with a central TSM that provisions applications and service on behalf of the user selected secure service provider. The central TSM serves as a proxy between the secure service providers and the secure element.
US08412931B2 Techniques for credential strength analysis via failed intruder access attempts
Techniques for credential strength analysis via failed intruder access attempts are presented. Intruders attempting to access a secure network with failed credentials are monitored. The failed credentials are retained and evaluated in view of previously recorded failed credentials. Credential policy is updated in response to the evaluation and intruder trends and sophistication levels are also predicted in response to the evaluation.
US08412926B1 Using file metadata for data obfuscation
A system and method may assist in securing data for transmission to a receiving entity. Received data may include metadata associated therewith. The data may be encrypted using an encryption key encoded within selected portions of the metadata, where the selection of the selected portions is based on a scheme shared with the receiving entity. The encrypted data including the metadata may be transferred to the receiving entity. The receiving entity may decrypt the encrypted data using the selected portions of the metadata.
US08412923B2 Multi-mode pin usage in a power supply control integrated circuit
An integrated circuit resides on a circuit board. During operation, the digital controller integrated circuit produces control signals to control a power supply for delivery of power to a load. The integrated circuit can include multiple connectivity ports, on-board memory, and mode control logic. The multiple connectivity ports such as pins, pads, etc., of the integrated circuit can be configured to provide connections between internal circuitry residing in the integrated circuit and external circuitry residing on a circuit board to which the integrated circuit is attached. The mode control logic monitors a status of one or more connectivity ports of the integrated circuit to detect when a board handler places the digital controller in a power island mode in which the integrated circuit is powered so that the board handler can access (e.g., read/write) the memory in the digital controller integrated circuit while other portions of the board are unpowered.
US08412920B2 Method for booting portable objects with multiple communication interfaces
A boot sequence method comprises a determination step 110 and 200, a first starting step 120, 210 or 240 for starting a first interface, a first negotiation step 140 or 220 wherein a power negotiation is performed, a second negotiation step 140 or 230 for determining the interfaces to activate simultaneously, and a second starting step 150 or 230 wherein the interfaces that can be activated simultaneously are started one after each other.
US08412918B1 Booting mechanism for FPGA-based embedded system
According to various embodiments, a programmable device assembly includes an FPGA coupled to a nonvolatile serial configuration memory (e.g., serial flash memory) and a volatile fast bulk memory (e.g., SRAM or SDRAM). The nonvolatile serial configuration memory contains both the FPGA configuration data and CPU instructions. When a predetermined condition occurs, a serial memory access component that is hard coded on the FPGA automatically reads the configuration data from the nonvolatile serial configuration memory. The configuration data is used to configure the FPGA with various components, including a CPU, a boot ROM with code for a boot copier, and a bus structure. When the CPU boots, code for the boot copier is executed so that the CPU instructions are copied from the nonvolatile serial configuration memory to the volatile fast bulk memory. The CPU then executes the CPU instructions stored in the volatile fast bulk memory.
US08412917B2 Data exchange and communication between execution units in a parallel processor
Disclosed are methods and systems for dynamically determining data-transfer paths. The data-transfer paths are dynamically determined in response to an instruction that facilitates data transfer among execution lanes in an integrated-circuit processing device operable to execute operations in parallel. In addition, embodiments include an integrated-circuit processing device operable to execute operations in parallel, including the capability of providing confirmation information to potential source lanes, the confirmation information indicating whether the potential source lanes may send data to requested destination lanes during a data-transfer interval.
US08412916B2 Computing system having CPU and bridge operating using CPU frequency
An integrated circuit also referred to as an integrated computing system has a single substrate that has either deposited thereon or etched thereon, a central processing unit, a north bridge, a south bridge, and a graphics controller. An internal bus is coupled between the north bridge and the central processing unit. The central processing unit and north bridge do not require interfaces to perform bus protocol conversions.
US08412912B2 Write data mask method and system
In various embodiments, dedicated mask pins are eliminated by sending a data mask on address lines of the interface. A memory controller receives a request for a memory write operation from a memory client and determines the granularity of the write data from a write data mask sent by the client. Granularity, as used herein, indicates a quantity of write data to which each bit of the received write data mask applies. In an embodiment, the memory controller generates a particular write command and a particular write data mask based on the granularity of the write data. The write command generated is typically the most efficient of several write commands available, but embodiments are not so limited. The write command is transmitted on command lines of the interface, and the write data mask is transmitted on address lines of the interface.
US08412911B2 System and method to invalidate obsolete address translations
A system and method for invalidating obsolete virtual/real address to physical address translations may employ translation lookaside buffers to cache translations. TLB entries may be invalidated in response to changes in the virtual memory space, and thus may need to be demapped. A non-cacheable unit (NCU) residing on a processor may be configured to receive and manage a global TLB demap request from a thread executing on a core residing on the processor. The NCU may send the request to local cores and/or to NCUs of external processors in a multiprocessor system using a hardware instruction to broadcast to all cores and/or processors or to multicast to designated cores and/or processors. The NCU may track completion of the demap operation across the cores and/or processors using one or more counters, and may send an acknowledgement to the initiator of the demap request when the global demap request has been satisfied.
US08412908B2 Storage area dynamic assignment method
A storage system allocates a data storage area in response to an access request from a first computer if the capacity of a first physical storage device configuring a first logical storage area, provided to the first computer, is equal to or lower than a predetermined threshold. The storage system associates the first logical storage area with another physical storage device, which is different from the first physical storage device associated with a second logical storage area provided to the first computer and a second computer, and allocates a data storage area from the another physical storage device if the capacity of the first physical storage device associated with the first logical storage area exceeds the predetermined threshold.
US08412904B2 Apparatus, system, and method for managing concurrent storage requests
Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed for managing concurrent storage requests. A multiple storage request receiver module is configured to recognize at least two storage requests from clients for data in storage devices of a storage device set. The at least two concurrent storage requests address a common portion of data. A sequencer module is configured to determine a first storage request and a second storage request from the concurrent storage requests by way of selection criteria. The sequencer module is configured to ensure completion of the first storage request prior to executing the second storage request by receiving an acknowledgment from each of the storage devices of the storage device set that received portions of the first storage request. The portions may be sent to the storage devices to execute the first storage request.
US08412903B2 Method and system for managing secure code loading in PC-slave devices
A secure processor in a PC-slave device manages secure loading of execution code and/or data, which is stored, in encrypted form, in a PC hard-drive. The secure processor causes decryption of the execution code and/or data by the PC-slave device, and storage of the decrypted execution code and/or data in a restricted portion of a memory that is dedicated for use by the PC-slave device, with the restricted portion of the dedicated memory being only accessible by the PC-slave device. The secure processor validates decrypted execution code and/or data. The secure processor blocks operations of a main processor in the PC-slave device during secure loading of execution code and/or data, and discontinues that blocking after validating the decrypted execution code and/or data. The secure processor stores encryption keys that are utilized during decryption of the encrypted execution code and/or data.
US08412902B2 Signal processor and signal processing system
In a signal processor including storage sections, a start address for starting output of data from an external memory, is input from an external controller to the start address input section. The signal output section outputs a start signal based on a download start instruction from the external controller, and outputs an end signal when download is completed. The output instruction section outputs, based on the start signal, to the external memory a data output instruction of download data for a designated storage section, starting from the start address, and stops output of the data output instruction based on the end signal. The write instruction section outputs a write instruction to the storage sections that allows data writing only to the designated storage section, and the download data is written to the designated storage section when the start signal is input to the output instruction section.
US08412901B2 Making automated use of data volume copy service targets
A computer implemented method for automatically managing copies of source data volumes is provided. A copy management agent receives a message that target volume copies of source volumes are available. The copy management agent accesses the target volume copies of the source volumes. The copy management agent analyzes metadata for the target volume copies. The copy management agent determines whether any of the target volume copies is a boot volume copy based on the analyzed metadata. In response to a determination that one of the target volume copies is a boot volume copy, the copy management agent directs a provisioning agent to provision a new host for the target volume copies. The copy management agent directs the storage subsystem to present the target volume copies to a storage area network port associated with the new host. Then, the new host is booted using the boot volume copy.
US08412898B2 Method for automatically backing up digital data preserved in memory in a computer installation and data medium readable by a computer having the associated instructions stored in the memory thereof
The invention relates in particular to a method for automatically backing up digital data preserved in memory in a computer installation to a remote backup system accessible through the computer installation via a data transmission network. This method comprises the steps consisting in: extracting and analysing (202) information regarding the operation of the computer installation and determining (204) parameters of a data backup application for saving data to the backup system, as a function of the result of this analysis, analysing (206) the digital data preserved in memory and classing (208) the digital data analysed into a plurality of classes of different priorities, executing (210) the backup application on at least part of the digital data, as a function of the parameters and classes of priorities determined.
US08412897B2 Backup of media libraries
The disclosed embodiments support the backup of the contents of a media library, or a portion thereof, on one or more storage mediums. More particularly, the contents of the media library may include one or more media items and/or playlists. Once backed up, the contents stored on the storage mediums may be restored to the media library.
US08412895B1 Hard disk controller which coordinates transmission of buffered data with a host
The transmission of buffered data is coordinated between a storage medium and a host in response to a request from the host. One or more blocks of data are transferred from the storage medium to a buffer memory. One or more frames of data are transmitted from the buffer memory to the host, wherein the number of blocks ending in the frame is recorded in a blocks/frame register, and possibly also in a block count accumulator register. Buffer release pulses for releasing buffer space in memory are sent to the buffer memory, based on the number of blocks in the blocks/frame register, or the number of blocks accumulated in the block count accumulator register when a signal is received from the host. A pointer which points to the last block of data successfully transferred is updated in accordance with the buffer release pulses.
US08412894B2 Value recycling facility for multithreaded computations
Solutions to a value recycling problem facilitate implementations of computer programs that may execute as multithreaded computations in multiprocessor computers, as well as implementations of related shared data structures. Some exploitations allow non-blocking, shared data structures to be implemented using standard dynamic allocation mechanisms (such as malloc and free). Some exploitations allow non-blocking, indeed even lock-free or wait-free, implementations of dynamic storage allocation for shared data structures. In some exploitations, our techniques provide a way to manage dynamically allocated memory in a non-blocking manner without depending on garbage collection. While exploitations of solutions to the value recycling problem that we propose include management of dynamic storage allocation wherein values managed and recycled tend to include values that encode pointers, they are not limited thereto. Indeed, the techniques are more generally applicable to management of values in a multithreaded computation. For example, value recycling techniques may be exploited, in some cases, apart from dynamic storage allocation, to allow a multithreaded computation to avoid the classic ABA hazard.
US08412892B2 Storage system and ownership control method for storage system
Access to various types of resources is controlled efficiently, thereby enhancing the throughput. A storage system includes: a disk device for providing a volume for storing data to a host system; a channel adapter for writing data from the host system to the disk device via a cache memory; a disk adapter for transferring data to and from the disk device; and at least one processor package including a plurality of processors for controlling the channel adapter and the disk adapter; wherein any one of the processor packages includes a processor for incorporatively transferring related types of ownership based on specific control information for managing the plurality of types of ownership for each of the plurality of types of resources.
US08412891B2 Arbitrated access to memory shared by a processor and a data flow
Memory access arbitration allowing a shared memory to be used both as a memory for a processor and as a buffer for data flows, including an arbiter unit that makes assignment for access requests to the memory sequentially and transfers blocks of data in one round-robin cycle according to bandwidths required for the data transfers, sets priorities for the transfer blocks so that the bandwidths required for the data transfers are met by alternate transfer of the transfer blocks, and executes an access from the processor with an upper limit set for the number of access times from the processor to the memory in one round-robin cycle so that the access from the processor with the highest priority and with a predetermined transfer length exerts less effect on bandwidths for data flow transfers in predetermined intervals between the transfer blocks.
US08412890B2 Scalable performance-based volume allocation in large storage controller collections
A scalable, performance-based, volume allocation technique that can be applied in large storage controller collections is disclosed. A global resource tree of multiple nodes representing interconnected components of a storage system in a plurality of component layers is analyzed to yield gap values for each node (e.g., a bottom-up estimation). The gap value for each node is an estimate of the amount in GB of the new workload that can be allocated in the subtree of that node without exceeding the performance and space bounds at any of the nodes in that subtree. The gap values of the global resource tree are further analyzed to generate an ordered allocation list of the volumes of the storage system (e.g., a top-down selection). The volumes may be applied to a storage workload in the order of the allocation list and the gap values and list are updated.
US08412889B2 Low-level conditional synchronization support
A low-overhead conditional synchronization instruction operates on a synchronization variable which includes a lock bit, a state specification, and bits for user-defined data. The instruction specifies the memory address of the synchronization variable and a condition. During the synchronization instruction the condition is compared to the state specification within an atomic region. The match succeeds if the condition matches the state specification and the lock bit is clear. The synchronization instruction may operate with a cache under a cache coherency protocol, or without a cache, and may include a timeout operand.
US08412880B2 Memory system controller to manage wear leveling across a plurality of storage nodes
The present disclosure includes methods and devices for a memory system controller. In one or more embodiments, a memory system controller includes a host interface communicatively coupled to a system controller. The system controller has a number of memory interfaces, and is configured for controlling a plurality of intelligent storage nodes communicatively coupled to the number of memory interfaces. The system controller includes logic configured to map between physical and logical memory addresses, and logic configured to manage wear level across the plurality of intelligent storage nodes.
US08412878B2 Combined mobile device and solid state disk with a shared memory architecture
A mobile device including a system-on-chip, which includes a mobile device control module to execute application programs for the mobile device, a solid-state disk (SSD) control module to control SSD operations, a random access memory (RAM) control module to store both SSD-related data and mobile device-related data in a single RAM, and a nonvolatile (NV) memory control module to control reading from and writing to the NV memory array. Data in the single RAM is stored into the NV memory array during an idle mode. The single RAM is powered down during the idle mode after the data in the single RAM has been stored into the NV memory array. The stored data in the NV memory array is loaded into the single RAM during a re-start mode.
US08412877B2 System and method for increased system availability in virtualized environments
A method is provided for managing errors in a virtualized information handling system that includes an error detection system and a hypervisor allowing multiple virtual machines to run on the information handling system. The hypervisor may assign at least one memory region to each of multiple virtual machines. The error detection system may detect an error, determine a physical memory address associated with the error, and report that address to the hypervisor. Additionally, the hypervisor may determine whether the memory region assigned to each virtual machine includes the physical memory address associated with the error. The hypervisor may shut down each virtual machine for which a memory region assigned to that virtual machine includes the physical memory address associated with the error, and not shut down each virtual machine for which the memory regions assigned to that virtual machine do not include the physical memory address associated with the error.
US08412870B2 Optimized arbiter using multi-level arbitration
An apparatus comprising a first sub-arbiter circuit and a second sub-arbiter circuit. The first sub-arbiter circuit may be configured to determine a winning channel from a plurality of channel requests based on a first criteria. The second sub-arbiter circuit may be configured to determine a winning channel received from the plurality of channel requests based on a second criteria. The second sub-arbiter may also be configured to optimize the order of the winning channels from the first sub-arbiter by overriding the first sub-arbiter if the second criteria creates a more efficient data transfer.
US08412869B2 Redundant storage virtualization computer system
A redundant storage virtualization computer system is provided. The redundant storage virtualization computer system comprises a host entity for issuing an IO request, a redundant storage virtualization controller set coupled to the host entity for performing an IO operation in response to the IO request issued by the host entity, and a plurality of physical storage devices for providing storage space to the computer system. Each of the physical storage devices is coupled to the redundant storage virtualization controller set. The redundant storage virtualization controller set comprises a first and a second storage virtualization controller both coupled to the host entity, the storage virtualization controllers communicate therebetween via a PCI-Express interconnect. In the redundant storage virtualization controller set, a storage virtualization controller will take over the functionality originally performed by the alternate storage virtualization controller when the alternate storage virtualization controller is not on line.
US08412868B2 Systems and methods for compressing files for storage and operation on compressed files
Methods and systems for creating, reading, and writing compressed files in a computer system comprising a file system coupled with storage medium and at least one application program interface (API) configured to communicate with the file system by means of file access-related requests are provided. The file access-related requests are intercepted in order to provide at least one of the following: a) to derive and compress data corresponding to the intercepted file access request and to facilitate storing the compressed data at the storage medium as a compressed file; b) to facilitate restoring at least part of compressed data corresponding to the intercepted file request and communicating the resulting data through the API. The compressed files comprise plurality of compressed units. One or more corresponding compressed units may be read and/or updated with no need of restoring the entire file whilst maintaining de-fragmented structure of the compressed file.
US08412866B2 System and method of dynamically switching queue threshold
A system and method of dynamically switching the threshold of a data queue, such as FIFO, is disclosed. The data queue has a first threshold and a second threshold, wherein the first threshold is greater than the second threshold. The data queue is dynamically switched between the first threshold and the second threshold according to different power state of a central processing unit (CPU). A system memory is requested to fill the data queue with data whenever amount of the data queue is less than the switched first/second threshold.
US08412865B2 Method, apparatus and system for authentication of external storage devices
A method for authentication of an external storage device (16) operatively connected to a port of a host computer (10) where the host computer (10) conducts a handshake with the external storage device (16) seeking an authentication key from the external storage device. The host computer (10) electrically disconnects the external storage device (16) from the host computer (10) if the authentication key is incorrect or not provided within a predetermined period. The host computer (10) allows access to the host computer (10) by the external storage device (16) if the authentication key is correct and provided within the predetermined period. Corresponding apparatus and systems are also disclosed.
US08412860B2 Input/output (I/O) virtualization system
An Input/Output (IO) Virtualization (IOV) system couples or connects multiple host computers and IO devices to a managed transport fabric to provide IO virtualization. The host computers may run any operating system to provide a virtualized environment for guest operating systems. The host interface to the IOV system is PCI-Express (PCIe). The IO devices are PCIe based to provide maximum compatibility with industry standard devices, but are not so limited. The IOV system comprises a management central processor unit (MCPU) coupled to transport fabric. The IOV system comprises device interfaces coupled to the transport fabric and to independent input/output (IO) devices. Each device interface couples to the IO device of the independent IO devices. The IOV system comprises host interfaces coupled to the transport fabric. Each host interface couples to a host computer of the independent host computers and exposes functions of the independent IO devices to the host computer.
US08412857B2 Authenticating, tracking, and using a peripheral
This document describes techniques (300, 600) and apparatuses (102, 106, 700, 800, 900) for peripheral authentication. These techniques (300, 600) and apparatuses (102, 106, 700, 800, 900) may configure data lines for authentication between host device (102) and peripheral (106), use these configured data lines to authenticate the peripheral (106), and then reconfigure the data lines for use. These techniques (300, 600) may also or instead transmit time stamps to a remote entity (402) for tracking peripheral use and/or present home screens (122) responsive to connection to a peripheral (106).
US08412852B2 Guaranteeing a single copy of a shared assembly per process
A computer implemented method, computer program product, and a data processing system access a version of shared assembly in a componentized environment, wherein multiple versions of the shared assembly exist concurrently in a single process, and wherein each version of the shared assembly comprises an assembly stub and an assembly implementation. A call to an assembly stub of the shared assembly is received. The call is then forwarded from the assembly stub to an identified assembly implementation using a proxy pointer. A function table structure is then retuned from the identified assembly implementation, wherein the function table structure contains implementation symbols from the identified assembly implementation.
US08412851B2 Satellite communications system for providing global, high quality movement of very large data files
A system for providing communication services between geographically disbursed source and destination terminals includes at least one airborne or spaceborne wireless communication device, such as a satellite. The wireless communication device is configured to store and forward large data files of at least an aggregated 10 gigabytes. The wireless communication device includes a wireless transceiver for communicating with the source and destination terminals over at least one high bandwidth channel. A mass data storage device stores the large data files for a predetermined period of time that is greater than approximately two minutes. At least one processor is coupled among the mass data storage and wireless transceiver. The processor is configured to control receipt of a large data file from the source terminal and to transmit it to the destination terminal as the wireless communication device nears the destination terminal.
US08412847B2 Mapping network addresses to organizations
Network addresses (e.g., IP addresses) are considered candidates for association with organizational entities (organizations or various subgroups thereof), based on some evidence of a relationship between them. The candidate addresses are scored based on one or more factors that indicate a probability that the candidate address actually belongs to the organizational entity. The candidate addresses with sufficient scores are stored as actual associations between the candidate address and the organizational entity.
US08412845B2 Communication application for conducting conversations including multiple media types in either a real-time mode or a time-shifted mode
A communication application configured to support a conversation among participants over a communication network. The communication application is configured to (i) support one or more media types within the context of the conversation, (ii) interleave the one or more media types in a time-indexed order within the context of the conversation, (iii) enable the participants to render the conversation including the interleaved one or more media types in either a real-time rendering mode or time-shifted rendering mode, and (iv) seamlessly transition the conversation between the two modes so that the conversation may take place substantially live when in the real-time rendering mode or asynchronously when in the time-shifted rendering mode.
US08412844B2 Validating download success
Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for validating download success are disclosed. A method can include receiving a request to transmit a digital item to a computing device, transmitting a modified digital item to the computing device, and receiving confirmation that the computing device has received the modified digital item in its entirety. The method can also include for each of N invalid data portions included in the modified digital item, transmitting to the computing device a location of the invalid data portion in the modified digital item, and the existing data portion previously replaced by the invalid data portion; and receiving confirmation that the computing device has received the existing data portion. In response to receiving confirmations, an indication that the computing device has received all N existing data portions replaced by the N invalid data portions can be transmitted.
US08412841B1 Media content streaming using stream message fragments
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for media content streaming can include transacting access information associated with a media stream and transacting one or more fragments associated with the media stream to facilitate a delivery of media content associated with the media stream. Access information can include fragment sequencing information to facilitate individual retrieval of fragments associated with the media stream using a uniform resource identifier via a processing device configured to cache content. A fragment can include one or more stream messages. A stream message can include a message header and a corresponding media data sample. The message header can include a message stream identifier, a message type identifier, a timestamp, and a message length value.
US08412837B1 Data privacy
In some embodiments, techniques for data security may include encoding and decoding unreadably encoded data, such as data encrypted with a public key or tokenized. In some embodiments, techniques for data security may include distributing an encrypted private key. In some embodiments, unreadable data may be encrypted and/or decrypted using time-varying keys.In some embodiments, techniques for data security may include combining information and a policy, and encoding the combined information and policy, wherein encrypting the combined information and policy is performed using a public key, or via tokenization.In some embodiments, techniques for data security may include receiving data, wherein the data has been encoded, decoding the data, determining a first datum and a second datum, wherein the first datum and the second datum are associated with the decoded data, and determining a policy, wherein the policy is associated with the first datum.
US08412836B2 User authentication across multiple network stacks
A computing device provides an application that uses multiple protocol stacks to communicate with a server. The server requires messages from each of the protocol stacks to include a credential for a user of the computing device. The credential is a set of information that includes identification and proof of identities that is used to gain access to a resource. However, the user is not prompted for the credential more than once. In some embodiments, this is accomplished by storing the credential at the computing device for retrieval by the protocol stacks when the application uses the protocol stacks to communicate with the server.
US08412835B2 Method for supporting session mobility
A session mobility support is disclosed. An application server (AS) can accurately recognize a session update by checking a Replace header, a user ID and a media element included in a session invitation message (or an SIP-based INVITE message) received from a UE (User Equipment), to thus guarantee successful mobility of a session. In addition, in order to allow the AS to accurately recognize the session update, the UE first transmits the session invitation message including the Replace header via a PS (Packet Switching domain, and then, after a response to the session invitation message is received, the UE transmits a call setup message (e.g., SETUP message) via a CS (Circuit Switching) domain.
US08412834B2 Packet-switched network-to-network interconnection interface
An exemplary method includes network elements associated with distinct network domains exchanging signaling and media border processing information by way of a secure packet-switched connection between the network elements, exchanging service policy information by way of the secure packet-switched connection, peering a session associated with a first service type between the distinct network domains by way of a packet-switched network-to-network interconnection interface (“NNII”) in accordance with the exchanged signaling and media border processing information, peering another session associated with a second service type between the distinct network domains by way of the packet-switched NNII in accordance with the exchanged signaling and media border processing information, enforcing a first performance threshold specified by the service policy information for peering the session associated with the first service type, and enforcing a second performance threshold specified by the service policy information for peering the other session associated with the second service type.
US08412832B2 Systems and methods for GSLB MEP connection management across multiple core appliances
The present disclosure presents systems and methods for obtaining metric information by a multi-core GSLB intermediary device and providing global server load balancing services using the obtained information. A first core of a multi-core GSLB appliance establishes a transport layer connection to a remote load balancer at a site of a plurality of sites. The first core transmits a message to each of the other cores of the multi-core GSLB appliance that that the first core is a master core for receiving metric information from the load balancer. The first core receives metric information of the remote site from the load balancer. The first core propagates the metric information to each of the other cores of the GSLB appliance. A GSLB virtual server on a slave core receives a DNS request. The GSLB virtual server determines a DNS resolution for the DNS request based on the metric information.
US08412831B2 Per priority TCP quality of service
An IP gateway device establishes distinct TCP sessions within a single FCIP tunnel, each TCP session being designated for a different priority of service (e.g., high, medium, low), plus a control stream. Each TCP session has its own TCP stack and its own settings for VLAN Tagging (IEEE 802.1Q), quality of service (IEEE 802.1P) and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP). By distributing data streams assigned to different priorities of service into different TCP sessions within the FCIP tunnel, an IP gateway device can preserve the distinctions between the data stream priorities while the data traffic is within the IP network.
US08412829B2 System and method for controlling and managing sessions between endpoints in a communications system
In a communications system having at least one service entity and a plurality of endpoints each including a logical entity and a terminal, a method facilitates a session between at least two of the endpoints in the system. The method includes: receiving a first message having information that includes a request for a session between a first endpoint that includes a non-dispatch terminal and at least one other endpoint; detecting that the first endpoint includes a non-dispatch terminal as a function of the first endpoint being unable to perform at least one function; and causing the at least one function to be performed on behalf of the first endpoint by the at least one service entity to facilitate the session between the first endpoint and the at least one other endpoint.
US08412827B2 Apparatus and method for providing computing resources
A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller to receive a request from a client server for computing resources associated with a processor, determine an estimated completion time associated with previous requests associated with the processor, calculate a priority value for the request based on the estimated completion time, establish a processing schedule for the request and other requests associated with the processor based on the priority value, and provide the request to the processor according to the processing schedule. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US08412825B2 Group access to IP multimedia subsystem service
A method of facilitating access to services of an IP Multimedia Subsystem network by services located behind an access point to said network. The access point is associated with a subscription to the IP Multimedia Subsystem network. The method comprises including within an Implicit Registration Set defined for said subscription, a wildcarded Public Service Identity or Public Service Identity sub-domain representative of a range of Public Service Identities. At IP Multimedia Subsystem registration of said access point with the IP Multimedia Subsystem network, the Public Service Identities contained in the Implicit Registration Set are distributed to a Serving Call Session Control Function allocated to said access point and to a Proxy Call Session Control Function to which said access point is attached.
US08412821B2 Dynamically updating media content for display to a user of a social networking environment based on user interaction
A system and method provides dynamically selected media content to someone using an electronic device in a social network environment. Items of media content are selected for the user based on his or her relationships with one or more other users. The user's relationships with other users are reflected in the selected media content and its format. An order is assigned to the items of media content, for example, based on their anticipated importance to the user, and the items of media content are displayed to the user in the assigned order. The user may change the order of the items of media content. The user's interactions with media content available in the social network environment are monitored, and those interactions are used to select additional items of media content for the user.
US08412819B2 Dynamically enabling features of an application based on user status
In one embodiment, a first application detects a user's activity. Based on the user's activity detected by the first application, a type of user status is determined from among a plurality of different types of possible user status. One or more features are determined of a feature set of a second application that correspond to the type of user status detected by the first application. The corresponding one or more features of the feature set of the second application are limited to prevent the one or more features from interrupting the user's activity. One or more other features of the feature set of the second application that do not correspond to the type of user status detected by the first application are permitted.
US08412816B2 Native bi-directional communication for hardware management
A communication system includes a storage operable to host an operating system and a management controller configured to directly communicate with the operating system. The management controller directly communicates with the operating system through a communication channel free of an intermediate agent. The management controller is operable to asynchronously send management information to the operating system over the communication channel. The management controller is also operable to asynchronously receive management information from the operating system over the communication channel.
US08412811B1 Address sharing network
Network IP sharing techniques are described. An ip address can be assigned that is only valid for a specified time, so that the same IP address can be used for multiple different units, but each IP address is valid only for certain time periods. Another technique describes using the network to continually provide a time indication.
US08412809B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product implementing multi-tenancy for network monitoring tools using virtualization technology
Method, apparatus and computer program product manage a plurality of networks with a single tenant network management tool using virtualization and implement control plane virtualization of the single tenant management tool; data storage virtualization of a data storage apparatus and network address virtualization of an available address range. A virtual machine may be implemented for each network of the plurality of networks to contain an instance of the single tenant management tool. In one implementation, a proxy is used to implement data storage virtualization. In another implementation, separate data storage is maintained for each network and data storage virtualization is achieved by managing the network protocol stack virtualization. The network address virtualization may be implemented using machine-level virtualization or operating-system-level virtualization.
US08412804B2 Acquiring information in a communication network relative to a location
A technique for providing information relative to an entity's location to an entity in a communication network. A request for information is generated by a first entity wherein the request contains a location of the first entity. The request is then forwarded to a second entity which illustratively is a trusted source in the communication network. The second entity receives the request and identifies the requested information using the location information contained in the request. A notification containing the identified information is then generated by the second entity and forwarded to the first entity. The first entity receives the notification and processes it accordingly.
US08412802B2 System and method to optimize data communication in a computational network
A system and method for data communication in a computational network is disclosed. The computational network includes a server computational device and a client computational device. The server computational device stores one or more container data objects, and a container data object includes a reference to multiple external data objects. The client computational device retrieves a container data object from the server computational device. If the container data object includes a reference to multiple external data objects, the client computational device sends a request to the server computational device. The server computational device provides a response including the multiple external data objects.
US08412801B2 Network AV system
Each of servers in a global list server system includes a local list of music piece data stored by the each server and a global list of the music piece data stored by the servers. A client requests an arbitrary server to provide the global list and the server transmits the global list to the client upon receiving the request. The client refers to the global list and requests a server storing desired music piece data to transfer the music piece data. The server transmits music piece data to the client upon receiving the transfer request for the music piece data.
US08412800B2 USB devices in application server environments
One or more universal serial bus (USB) devices are connected at a client computer. The USB devices are recognized by the client computer and a determination is made as to whether an application server computer provides functionality for one or more of the USB devices. A specific communication path is provided from the USB device to the server computer if functionality is provided by the application server computer.
US08412797B2 Platform for development and deployment of system administration solutions
General-purpose components are selectively included in a toolkit hosted by hosting provider computing devices. The general-purpose components are software components. The general-purpose components in the toolkit are available over a computer network to end user computing devices. The end user computing devices utilizes general-purpose components in the toolkit to provide system administration solutions. The system administration solutions are web applications hosted by the hosting provider computing devices. The system administration solutions provide an ability to perform administration tasks on on-premises computer systems of the end users. A hosting provider computing device is configured such that the end user computing devices are able to utilize the general-purpose components in the toolkit on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis.
US08412794B2 Mobile integration of user-specific institutional content
A system for integrating user-specific institutional content for mobile delivery is disclosed. The system includes a communications module configured to receive, from a mobile device, a request for target institutional content based on source institutional content and an identification of a user. The system also includes a processor configured to obtain, from a memory, the target institutional content based on the source institutional content and the identification of the user, and further configured to provide, to the mobile device in response to the request, the generalized institutional content in a format configured for display on the mobile device. Methods and machine-readable mediums are also disclosed.
US08412791B2 Apparatus and method for offloading application components to edge servers
An apparatus and method for off-loading application components to edge servers are provided. An application is made edge-aware by defining which components of the application may be run from an edge server, and which components cannot be run from an edge server. When a request is received that is to be processed by an application on an origin server, a determination is made as to whether the application contains edgable components. If so, an edgified version of the application is created. When a request is received that is handled by a component that may be run on the edge server, the request is handled by that component on the edge server. When a request is received that is handled by a component that is not edgable, the request is passed to a proxy agent which then provides the request to a broker agent on the origin server.
US08412790B2 Method, system and computer readable recording medium for determining major group under split-brain syndrome
The present invention relates to a method, system and computer readable recording medium for determining a major group in a network split-brain situation that occurs in a network-based distributed computing environment. According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of determining a major group among at least two groups created by splitting an initial group consisting of a plurality of nodes in a network-based distributed environment, the method comprising the steps of comparing the number of nodes included in a first group with the number of nodes included in a second group; acquiring history information of the nodes included in the first and second groups; and determining whether the first group or the second group is the major group using at least one of a result of comparing the number of nodes and the history information.
US08412787B2 Method and system for organizing electronic messages using eye-gaze technology
Organizing messages received and transmitted between at least two computer systems over a network is described. In one aspect, the method includes tracking where a user is gazing as the user is composing an outgoing message on a first computer system. During a composition time period in which the user is composing the message, a relevance rating for each of a plurality of gaze areas is determined. The relevance rating of a gaze area is based on a number of times the user's gaze dwells on the displayed message associated with the gaze area after the user's gaze is directed away from the displayed message. The method further includes identifying at least one displayed message that is related to the outgoing message based on the relevance ratings of each gaze area, and associating an identifier for at least one of the at least one related message with the outgoing message.
US08412783B2 Personal video recording with machine learning for messaging
Machine learning for control of a personal video recorder (“PVR”), including providing records of transmissions of messages; identifying a message point in operation of a PVR; selecting, in dependence upon the message point, a message to be transmitted; and determining in dependence upon the records of transmissions of messages whether to transmit the selected message. Embodiments include determining whether to transmit the selected message in dependence upon a frequency with which the message is transmitted to a user. Embodiments include transmitting to users messages prompting for responses identifying commands; storing records of transmissions of messages, including storing records of responses; and selecting a message to be transmitted in dependence upon the records of responses to messages. Embodiments include structuring the selected message in dependence upon the records of responses to messages, including inserting in the selected message choices for a set of sequenced commands.
US08412782B2 Method and system to improve efficiency of email discussion within email clients
A method and email system for improving efficiency of email discussion within an email client comprising: an email tag filter for filtering a special tag in email contents, extracting original email contents, and identifying tag related information which includes at least an author name corresponding to the email contents; and a content style setting component for receiving and keeping the tag related information fed by the email tag filter, then identifying which part of the email contents is written by which author according to the tag information, and assigning correct style to corresponding contents using a user customization style for each author. The invention differentiates different users mainly by automatically labeling the contents input by the users, and the input contents can be distributed in different positions within a single email, which matches the natural convention of the current users to use the email system.
US08412773B1 Methods, systems and program products for initiating a process on data network
One example embodiment of the invention is directed to a computer program product for initiating a process for use during a data sharing event on a packet based network, the program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium, the data sharing event including a plurality of users sharing streaming data with one another. The example program product instructions when executed by one or more computers causing the one or more computers to perform steps comprising receive a request to initiate the process communicated from one of the plurality of users participating in the data sharing event, respond to the request by initiating the process on the data network whereby at least one of the users participating in the data sharing event may access said process, and terminate the process after one or more termination conditions has been satisfied.
US08412768B2 Integration gateway
A message oriented middleware server application executable by at least one processor implements a message oriented middleware message provider that mediates messaging operations with a plurality of heterogeneous applications including a number of casino gaming applications, where instances of the heterogeneous applications which execute on the plurality of networked processor-based client devices including the networked processor-based casino gaming devices.
US08412765B2 Communication device control program, communication device and communication device control method
A communication device and method is disclosed for indicating a connection to a network and transmitting a living notification having a term of validity to the network when the device is connected with the network. The disclosed device includes an obtaining unit obtaining a first information representing a device status of the communication device, a determining unit determining a term of validity based on the first information obtained, and a first transmission unit transmitting a living notification having the term of validity determined to the network.
US08412760B2 Dynamic range adjusting floating point execution unit
A floating point execution unit is capable of selectively repurposing a subset of the significand bits in a floating point value for use as additional exponent bits to dynamically provide an extended range for floating point calculations. A significand field of a floating point operand may be considered to include first and second portions, with the first portion capable of being concatenated with the second portion to represent the significand for a floating point value, or, to provide an extended range, being concatenated with the exponent field of the floating point operand to represent the exponent for a floating point value.
US08412759B2 System and method for active diplexers
Methods and systems for signal filtering in electronic devices are provided. More particularly, methods and systems for filtering of radio frequency (RF) signals are provided. A filter circuit may comprise a down-converter, a filter, coupled to the down-converter and configured to filter the down-converted signal, and an up-converter, coupled to the filter. A filter circuit may also comprise a combining circuit, coupled to the up-converter and configured to combine the filtered, up-converted signal and the input signal.
US08412758B2 System and method for implementing a random number generator
The invention refers to a pseudo random number generator, PRN, and a method for producing a random number signal, and a system for a fast frequency hopping radio comprising a PRN, and a method for such a system.
US08412752B2 File system having transaction record coalescing
An electronic data system comprises memory storage having stored data, file system software, and a transaction file. The transaction file is maintained by the file system software, and includes a plurality of transaction records corresponding to transactions that have been or are to be executed on one or more files and/or the or more directories of the file system. The file system software operates to organize and maintain the stored data in the files and directories and also to coalesce multiple transaction records meeting one or more criteria into fewer coalesced transaction records. The physical memory space required by the transaction file is reduced by the transaction record coalescing. The coalesced transaction records may be constructed so that they represent a logical result of applying each transaction record of a transaction record set in chronological order. Once the coalesced transaction records have been committed in the file system, the physical memory used by the original transaction records in the set may be reclaimed for further use (e.g., to store further transaction records) or may be otherwise removed from further use (e.g., when the physical memory is located in a block of memory in a flash-like memory device that has reached its maximum number of write and/or erase cycles).
US08412747B1 Method and apparatus for learning a probabilistic generative model for text
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that learns a generative model for textual documents. During operation, the system receives a current model, which contains terminal nodes representing random variables for words and cluster nodes representing clusters of conceptually related words. Within the current model, nodes are coupled together by weighted links, so that if a cluster node in the probabilistic model fires, a weighted link from the cluster node to another node causes the other node to fire with a probability proportionate to the link weight. The system also receives a set of training documents, wherein each training document contains a set of words. Next, the system applies the set of training documents to the current model to produce a new model.
US08412743B2 Nested categorization using factorization
A system for information item categorization in which each non-leaf node in a hierarchical organization of nodes represents a category, and each leaf node represents an information item. A number P is associated with each node. For non-leaf nodes, the associated number P is selected from a subset of relatively prime elements chosen from an appropriate Unique Factorization Domain (UFD), such as a set of relatively prime numbers which are a subset of the familiar set of integers. For leaf nodes, P is set to 1. A number M is also associated with each node. For each root node, M is set to the value of P for that node. For each non-root node, M is set to the product of the M's of all parent nodes of the node and the P of that node.
US08412740B2 System and method for the transformation and canonicalization of semantically structured data
A method of transforming and canonicalizing semantically structured data includes obtaining data from a network of computers, applying text patterns to the obtained data and placing the data in a first data file, providing a second data file containing the obtained data in a uniform format, and generating interface specific sentences from the data in the second data file.
US08412737B2 Semi-structured data retrieval method, and structured date retrieval device
A retrieval device, from semi-structured data formed by item elements and value elements, creates aggregated structure information from the semi-structured data by aggregating the plurality of child item elements having the same name and directly connected to parent item elements having the same name, into one child item element. The device receives a retrieval request with an output condition and a constraint condition specified on the aggregate structure information. The device determines whether or not a plurality of query are created according to the retrieval request by checking a branch point at the common item elements between the output condition and the constraint condition in the aggregated structured information. And the device outputs a re-aggregate structure information corresponded to the query showing the branch point which is not expressed in the aggregate structure information to the display device.
US08412736B1 System and method of using academic analytics of institutional data to improve student success
Systems and methods that extend the use of data mining to identify students academically at risk of performing poorly or withdrawing from school altogether. In doing so, academically at-risk students are identified early and guided to resources to improve their academic performance.
US08412734B2 Unifying hetrogenous data
Techniques for unifying data are provided. The techniques include transforming a query into one or more sub-queries that can be answered by one or more types of data services, and wherein the query touches one or more joins across data residing in one or more enterprise systems, querying one or more target data services for each of the one or more sub-queries, aggregating one or more sets of results based on the one or more target data services, and unifying the one or more sets of aggregated results.
US08412728B1 User interface (UI) for presentation of match quality in auto-complete suggestions
Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for optimizing search engine user input selection are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method may include receiving a partial query from a user, identifying two or more query suggestions based on the partial query, and determining a probability that each respective complete query suggestion is a query that the user intended to input. The method may also include ranking the two or more query suggestions based on the probability of each respective query suggestion, and determining that a top ranking query suggestion is associated with a probability above a threshold. The method may further include providing for display the two or more query suggestions relative to the partial query, and providing for display, an indication of the top ranking query suggestion among the two or more query suggestions.
US08412722B2 Upload manager for use in a pattern matching accelerator
A pattern matching accelerator (PMA) for assisting software threads to find the presence and location of strings in an input data stream that match a given pattern. The patterns are defined using regular expressions that are compiled into a data structure comprised of rules subsequently processed by the PMA. The patterns to be searched in the input stream are defined by the user as a set of regular expressions. The patterns to be searched are grouped in pattern context sets. The sets of regular expressions which define the pattern context sets are compiled to generate a rules structure used by the PMA hardware. The rules are compiled before search run time and stored in main memory, in rule cache memory within the PMA or a combination thereof. For each input character, the PMA executes the search and returns the search results.
US08412720B2 Methods and apparatus for querying a relational data store using schema-less queries
The invention provides, in one aspect, a method of searching an RDF triples data store of the type in which the triples are maintained in accord with a first storage schema. The method includes inputting a first query specifying RDF triples that are to be identified in the data store. That first query assumes either (i) that the triples are stored in a schema-less manner (i.e., with no storage schema) or (ii) that the triples are maintained in accord with a second storage schema that differs from the first. The method further includes generating, from the first query, a second query that specifies those same RDF triples, yet, that reflects the first storage schema. That second query can be applied to the RDF triples data store in order to identify and/or retrieve the desired data.
US08412718B1 System and method for determining originality of data content
The present invention provides systems and methods for determining the originality of data content. In one embodiment, the determined originality of a particular item (e.g., a book) as compared to one or more other items can be used as a factor in recommending the item to a user. For example, in one embodiment, upon a user's selection of an item (e.g., a book), one or more items that have content most diverse from the selected item are determined and provided to the user. In another embodiment, various versions of an item are compared to each other to determine how content in each version differs from that in another version. In another embodiment, content in a collection of items are compared against content from publicly (freely) available sources (e.g., web pages) to determine the originality of the content in the collection of items.
US08412715B2 Information processing apparatus and method and program for controlling the same
An information processing apparatus for performing dialogue processing. The apparatus acquires text data described in a natural language and stores a plurality of examples each including an example statement and frame information described using a frame format and corresponding to the example statement. A similarity between the text data and the example statement is calculated. An example is selected corresponding to an example statement whose similarity to the text data is the highest from among the plurality of examples in accordance with the calculated similarity. Text data is converted into the frame format in accordance with the frame information corresponding to the example selected by the example selection. Dialogue processing is performed in accordance with the text data converted into the frame format.
US08412712B2 Grouping methods for best-value determination from values for an attribute type of specific entity
A method is provided of grouping similar values of an attribute type and determining the best value of an attribute type for an entity in an entity resolution system. By applying attribute grouping rules to organize similar values into groups, an accurate number of “distinct” values for an entity is ascertained by counting the number of resulting groups. A preferred group is selected from the resulting groups and a “best value” is selected from the preferred group by applying best value rules.
US08412710B2 Searching for handwritten annotations appearing a given distance from document content
A method of searching a database containing documents with handwritten annotations stored in association with document content is disclosed. The method receives as inputs a handwritten annotation as a handwritten search input and a content element as a content search input. A search is then performed of the database for handwritten annotations in a document matching the handwritten search input and less than a given physical distance from document content equal to the content search input in the document.
US08412709B1 Distributed information collection using pre-generated identifier
The subject matter of this specification can be implemented in, among other things, a computer-implemented method including selecting a person as a representative to collect information from businesses. The method further includes generating identifiers to be associated with the information. The method further includes providing the identifiers to the representative. The method further includes receiving business information that has been directly collected from a business among the businesses by the representative and an indication of a particular one of the identifiers to be associated with the directly collected business information. The method further includes storing the received business information with the associated particular identifier in a database. The method further includes, after storing the received business information with the particular identifier in the database, receiving authentication information including the particular identifier. The method further includes allowing modification of the stored business information by the interface of the business.
US08412704B1 Providing blog posts relevant to search results
A device identifies a search result document based on a search query, and searches a blog post repository to identify a blog post relevant to the search result document. The device also rejects the blog post if the blog post has insufficient length, contains outgoing links located a predetermined distance from the beginning of the blog post, has a large out-degree, was created before or after a predetermined time, or has incoming links with a low link-based score. The device further provides the blog post in connection with the search result document if the blog post was not rejected.
US08412700B2 Database query optimization using index carryover to subset an index
A method, apparatus and program product use a first index associated with a field in a database table to identify a range of records in the database table that includes instances of a first key value in the field and use the identified range of records to subset a second index associated with another field in a database table. The database query identifies the first key value for the field in the database table and the second key value for the other field in the database table. By doing so, information from an index may be carried over and applied to another index to subset the other index, often reducing the quantity of entries that are searched in the other index and improving performance.
US08412698B1 Customizable filters for personalized search
A computerized search filtering method includes receiving on a client system a query from a querier; receiving a selection for a filter record from the querier, the filter record including a set of filter elements; retrieving the filter record from a filter-record database; transferring the query and the filter record to a search filter; adding at least one of the filter elements to the query to generate an amended-query; performing a document-corpus search to identify a set of documents relevant to the amended-query; identifying a subset of the documents that include at least one of the filter elements; and displaying on a display of the client system a set of search results for the subset of the documents.
US08412695B2 Method and system for providing context aware communication
A method for processing a message received by a client device over a mobile communication network is provided. The method enables, firstly, applying one or more predetermined rules on the message. The one or more predetermined rules facilitate modifying the message by removing unwanted words therefrom. Secondly, the method enables matching keywords in the modified message with keywords stored in a keyword database to extract context from the message. Finally, the method enables rendering the extracted context on a user interface screen of the client device. The extracted context is customizable by a user.
US08412694B2 Colorblind accessible image search
Colorblind accessible image search technique embodiments are presented that re-rank the results of a relevance-ranked image search to account for the accessibility of the images to a colorblind person. This is accomplished by first computing a colorblind accessibility quantity for each image of interest in the search results. A colorblind accessibility quantity quantizes the degree to which color information is preserved when an image is perceived by a colorblind person viewing the image. It is computed by generating a colorblind version of an image that simulates how the image would appear to the colorblind person. An amount quantifying the loss of color information between the image and the colorblind version of the image is then estimated. This estimate is used to compute the colorblind accessibility quantity for the image. Once the colorblind accessibility quantities have been computed, the image search results are re-ranked based on these quantities.
US08412685B2 Method and system for managing data
A system and method for managing data is provided. The system includes a network for interconnecting a plurality of computers. A data storage means is connected to the network to receive, store and transmit a plurality of files to and from the network. A plurality of computers is also connected to the network. Each computer is configured for originating and for receiving files. Each of the files has a unique identifier associated therewith. Each computer may retrieve a file from the data storage means using the unique identifier.
US08412683B2 Systems and methods for identification and reporting of ad delivery hierarchy
Systems and methods for determining delivery hierarchical information for an Ad unit. In an example method performed at a server, location information is received from a user computer system via a network. The location information is associated with an Ad unit presented on a webpage accessed by the user computer system. The server determines if any previously stored signature information matches with at least a portion of the received location information, then extracts domain information for any portions of the received location information that matches with any previously stored signature information. Then, at least partial delivery hierarchical information is generated based on the extracted domain information. The process repeats for other location information associated with the Ad unit that is received at the server. The generated delivery hierarchical information is aggregated. Then a report is generated based on the aggregated delivery hierarchical information.
US08412682B2 System and method for retrieving and using block fingerprints for data deduplication
A system and method for calculating and storing block fingerprints for data deduplication. A fingerprint extraction layer generates a fingerprint of a predefined size, e.g., 64 bits, for each data block stored by a storage system. Each fingerprint is stored in a fingerprint record, and the fingerprint records are, in turn, stored in a fingerprint database for access by the data deduplication module. The data deduplication module may periodically compare the fingerprints to identify duplicate fingerprints, which, in turn, indicate duplicate data blocks.
US08412676B2 Forgetting items with knowledge based synchronization
Systems and methods that enable removal of data from an endpoint, while not propagating such removal to other endpoints when synchronizing data sources associated therewith. A designation component can indicate items as forgotten items, wherein such items are being known to an endpoint and deleted therefrom—yet, reintroduced therein and reappearing (e.g., as a create) upon re-synchronizing with the replica over again. Moreover, the forgotten items can employ additional metadata such as in from of an additional bit that indicates whether an item is a forgotten item.
US08412671B2 System and method for developing a star schema
Disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for automatic generation of a star schema. The system and method may comprise categorizing a data field into one of a plurality of data field types, one of the data field types being an enumeration type data field. The system and method may further comprise developing dimensions for a table that represents an initial star schema design using the categorization of the data, detecting functional dependencies between the data field and other data fields, and refining the initial star schema design by modifying the table based on detected functional dependencies.
US08412664B2 Non-natural pattern identification for cognitive assessment
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including medium-encoded computer program products, for detection of cheating on a cognitive test. In one aspect, a method includes receiving first information concerning a person, the first information specifying the person's responses, and lack thereof, for items of a cognitive test administered to the person, wherein the cognitive test includes multiple item-recall trials used to assess cognitive impairment; analyzing the first information using a classification algorithm trained on second information concerning a group of people to whom the cognitive test has been administered, the classification algorithm generated in accordance with a first part and a second part, the first part distinguishing between cheaters and non-cheaters, and the second part distinguishing between impaired cheaters and non-impaired cheaters; and identifying, based on the analyzing, the person as a cheater requiring a verification test to confirm an initial result of the cognitive test.
US08412660B2 Multi-pairs shortest path finding method and system with sources selection
A method and system for solving shortest paths from multiple sources to multiple destinations faster. A method of solving the multiple-pairs shortest path problem is provided using processing by a computer having storage means. The method includes the steps of: (A) reading graph data S on multiple vertices as search starting points from a storage area of the computer; (B) reading graph data T on multiple vertices as search targets from the storage area of the computer; (C) selecting k vertices s1, s2, . . . , sk from the graph data S; (D) deleting the k vertices from the graph data S; (E) finding and storing, in the storage area, shortest path lengths from each of the selected k vertices to the graph data T; and (F) repeating the steps from (C) to (E) until the graph data S becomes empty.
US08412657B2 Classification of digital content by using aggregate scoring
Aggregate scoring is used to help classify digital content such as content uploaded to multi-user websites (e.g., social networking websites). In one embodiment, specific categories are used that relate to a social implication of content. For example, text, images, audio or other data formats can provide communication perceived to fall into categories such as violent, abusive, rights management, pornographic or other types of communication. The categories are used to provide a raw score to items in various groupings of a site's content. Where items are related to other items such as by organizational, social, legal, data-driven, design methods, or by other principles or definitions, the related items' raw scores are aggregated to achieve a score for a particular grouping of items that reflects, at least in part, scores from two or more of the related items.
US08412653B2 Knowledge extraction and transformation
The present disclosure includes a system and method for learning (or discovering and extracting) business knowledge from a collection of source code. The collection of source code is abstracted to generate an abstracted data stream, which is then transformed to an Extensible Markup Language (XML) format. The transformed data in XML format can be further converted to target formats or processed to satisfy different needs such as software system documentation, migration, impact analysis and security analysis. The disclosure also includes an implementation and operation for a pattern abstraction engine configured to receive an input data stream and format it for abstraction into a standard format using a pattern matching mechanism. The disclosure also includes an implementation and operation for a contextual pattern decoder engine configured to extract knowledge attributes and contextual taxonomy from classified blocks of an input data stream.
US08412644B2 Method and apparatus for establishing usage rights for digital content to be created in the future
Usage rights for a digital work are established prior to creation of the corresponding content. The rights can be associated with the content after the content is created. A content creation, such as a video recorder or a still camera, device can store labels of the rights and can associate usage rights with content in real time as the content is created.
US08412643B2 Apparatus, system, and method for quantifying, bundling, and applying credits and incentives to financial transactions
An apparatus, system, and method for quantifying, aggregating and bundling green incentives based on green construction enables applying at least a portion of the credits/incentives to financial transactions. Quantification includes estimating and/or monitoring usage of utilities, comparing the usage to a predetermined baseline value, and valuating an effectual energy savings that includes actual savings plus incentive values. Quantification relies on a database, which may include credits, deductions, and other green incentives data that contribute to the effectual savings. The effectual savings may be applied to early repayment of a mortgage loan, improved terms for the loan, investment in securities, and/or other trading. The method standardizes values of green incentives in energy units and/or monetary units. The method aids in qualifying the building projects based on a concrete estimation of the effectual energy savings. The method forms a bridge between green or sustainable/renewable technologies and the financial institutions and markets.
US08412640B2 Signature based negative list for off line payment device validation
At each of a plurality of transit readers of a transit system, for each of a plurality of riders, where each rider seeks to conduct an access transaction with the transit system for access into the transit facility by using a payment device issued by an issuer in a payment system, data is read from the payment device. The data includes an encryption code that uniquely corresponds to the payment device and was created by the issuer using one or more encryption keys and a predetermined algorithm. A check will be performed, remotely and/or locally, of one or more lists of other encryption codes to determine if the encryption code is on the list. On the basis of whether the encryption code is on the list, the rider is permitted access to the facility of the transit system. The payment device need not be changed for the rider's fare. Decryption of the encryption code read from the payment device is not required to complete the access transaction.
US08412639B2 System and method for facilitating a secured financial transaction using an alternate shipping address
The disclosed system enables merchants to ship products to a predefined address that may or may not be an account holder's billing address. The account holder may define one or more alias identifiers that correspond to a predefined shipping address. The predefined shipping address is stored with a corresponding alias identifier. A merchant order form includes a field to accept an alias identifier, such that when the order form is submitted to the merchant and the merchant prepares a purchase authorization request, the alias identifier is included in the request. The credit account issuer receives the payment authorization request and extracts the alias identifier, which is used to locate a matching stored alias identifier. A shipping address corresponding to the stored alias identifier is retrieved and returned to the merchant with an authorization message.
US08412638B2 Method and system for validating a device that uses a dynamic identifier
A method that comprises obtaining a currently received signature from a device; obtaining a candidate identifier associated with the device; consulting a database to obtain a set of previously received signatures associated with the candidate identifier; and validating the currently received signature based on a comparison of the currently received signature to the set of previously received signatures associated with the candidate identifier. Also, a method that comprises obtaining a currently received signature from a device; decrypting the currently received signature to obtain a candidate identifier; and a candidate scrambling code; consulting a database to obtain a set of previously received scrambling codes associated with the candidate identifier; and validating the currently received signature based on a comparison of the candidate scrambling code to the set of previously received scrambling codes associated with the candidate identifier.
US08412634B2 Authenticating method
The present invention proposes a safe and quick individual certification method using a portable terminal. When a portable terminal 30 sends a request for certification to a certification server 10, the certification server 10 transmits query code for certification to the portable terminal 30. The portable terminal 30 transmits said query code to the certification server 10 via a reader 21 or the like and also via a sales management server 23 to be certified. The certification server 10 verifies the query code to that generated in the past, and returns a result of verification and personal data required by the sales management server 23 to the sales management server 23.
US08412633B2 Money transfer evaluation systems and methods
Systems and methods for evaluating electronic value transfers. Various of the methods include receiving money transfer requests, electronically storing records of the money transfer requests, and performing an analysis of the records. The analysis of the records can indicate that two or more of the records are related. The related records are associated with a reference designator that is used to search money transfer records and identify suspect activity. The systems can include a fraud processing system associated with a money transfer system.
US08412622B2 Systems and methods for determining a financial health indicator
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for a financial health indicator. The financial health indicator provides a dynamic indication of a user's financial health in terms of their current credit worthiness and their current ability to save in relation to a budget. In this regard, the financial health indicator is based on a user's credit report score, such as one or more FICO type credit scores and the user's savings as indicated by a budget tracking system. In embodiments of the invention in which the financial health indicator is implemented in conjunction with a budget tracking system, the financial health indicator provides necessary feedback to the user that serves to inform the user as to how they are performing in terms of staying on track to their individual budget allocations. Additionally, in certain embodiments, the provider of the budget tracking system may provide for awards based on achieving a predefined financial health indicator level and/or score.
US08412621B2 System and method for estimating and optimizing transaction costs
A method and system for forecasting the transaction cost of a portfolio trade execution that may be applied to any given trade strategy or an optimal trade strategy that minimizes transaction costs. In preferred embodiments, a server comprises one or more computers that act as an automated forecaster whereby it accepts user-defined input variables from customers and generates a transaction cost estimation report based on those variables. The server is programmed with specific transaction cost estimation and optimization algorithms that model the transaction costs of a specific trade execution based on the user's trading profile and market variables.
US08412615B2 Materials supply contract system and method
The invention relates to a materials supply contract system and method for use in conducting business on-line over a network of computers such as the Internet. A method is provided for a buyer to award a supply contract, issued as a BOM, to a supplier selected from a panel of predetermined suppliers which each have a base supply contract with the buyer, the method being conducted over a computer network which comprises at least one buyer computer, an administrator computer and at least two supplier computers, the method comprising the steps of sending a buyer message from the buyer computer to the administrator computer identifying the BOM which includes at least one predetermined parameter (e.g. material requirement, business and market rules and/or special instructions), receiving the buyer message and displaying the BOM on a site on the administrator computer which is accessible by at least two supplier computers, sending a BOM message from the administrator computer to the at least two suppliers, receiving and storing an offer message in the administrator computer from one or more of the at least two supplier computers which includes an offer to supply goods or services in accordance with the BOM, sending an acceptance message from the administrator computer to the supplier computer which sent the successful offer, and sending a notification message from the administrator computer to the buyer computer notifying the buyer computer of one or more of the offers.
US08412614B2 System and method for electrical power derivatives
A method, system and program product for facilitating trading derivatives of energy constraints, the method comprising in one embodiment: obtaining electronically historical constraint price data on transmission elements or groups of transmission elements over a number of respective time increments; performing electronically an algorithm calculation on the constraint prices for one of the transmission elements or one of the groups of transmission elements over a number of time increments within a given period of time, to obtain constraint price data for the one transmission element or group of transmission elements for the given period of time; performing this algorithm calculation step for a plurality of the periods of time to obtain constraint price data for each of the plurality of transmission elements or groups of transmission elements for the plurality of periods of time; and making accessible the constraint price data. The invention further includes market making embodiments, binding hours derivative embodiments, and load derivative embodiments. In a further embodiment, a method, system and program product for operating an electronic trading exchange for power derivatives is disclosed.
US08412603B2 Managing consistent interfaces for currency conversion and date and time business objects across heterogeneous systems
A business object model, which reflects data that is used during a given business transaction, is utilized to generate interfaces. This business object model facilitates commercial transactions by providing consistent interfaces that are suitable for use across industries, across businesses, and across different departments within a business during a business transaction. In some operations, software creates, updates, or otherwise processes information related to Currency Conversion and Date and Time business objects.
US08412602B2 Methods for sponsored printing of images with promotional material and systems thereof
A method, computer readable medium and system for sponsored printing of images with promotional material includes identifying at least one of one or more promotional materials for at least one of a one or more images based on at least one criteria. The identified promotional material and the image are provided in a combined format for printing on a media.
US08412601B2 Method and system to evaluate anti-money laundering risk
A method to evaluate anti-money laundering risk may include identifying a person or other legal entity to be evaluated. A country may be selected associated with the person or other legal entity. At least one financial product or financial instrument associated with the person or other legal entity may be selected. The method may also include selecting a customer type associated with the person or other legal entity. A risk rating may be determined based on responses to predetermined criteria related to the selected country, the at least one selected financial product and the selected customer type.
US08412599B2 Approval workflow engine for services procurement timesheets, progress logs, and expenses
This disclosure describes, generally, methods and systems for implementing an approval workflow engine and approval framework for timesheets, progress logs, and expenses. The method includes receiving, at an approval engine of an application server, information representing a timesheet, progress log, or expense. The approval engine may apply one or more rules to determine whether the rules are satisfied by corresponding attribute values of attributes for the timesheet, progress log, or expense. Notification may be generated and transmitted to one or more approvers and/or reviewers based on applications of the rules. An indication of approval and/or disapproval may be received from each of the approvers and/or reviewers. Rules may be defined for automatic assignment of multi level approvers, based on specific attributes. An approver may have the option to approve, deny, or push back a transaction. Approvers and submitters can have visibility of the full approval path and current approval status throughout an approval process. In addition, post approval adjustments can be routed for approval based on adjustment approval rules.
US08412596B2 Biological reagent catalog
Embodiments relate to providing one or more recommended biological reagents in response to receiving a biological reagent order. An exemplary embodiment includes identifying biological reagents based on a biological reagent order that has been received. Characteristic data of the identified biological reagents may then be evaluated to identify a characteristic conflict among the identified biological reagents. Similarly, inventory data of the identified biological reagents may then be evaluated to identify an inventory conflict among the identified biological reagents. If a conflict, either characteristic or inventory, is identified, a recommendation for an alternative biological reagent may be provided that is free from conflict. Additionally, historical use data may be maintained and referenced to aid in identifying a biological reagent as either a potential biological reagent based on a suspected biological condition or as a substitute biological reagent.
US08412592B2 System and method for locating products in association with productivity and cost information
A system and method for locating a product and associated information within a region utilizing a mobile application. Information such as location, cost, and productivity information with respect to the rendering device(s) can be stored in a database associated with a customer accessible unit. A mobile interface configured with a web browser can communicate with the database in order to locate an optimal product based on preferred criteria. A mobile application may include a progressive disclosure menu that provides quick access to productive print solutions and appropriate resources and contacts. The mobile interface can utilize the Global Positioning System to compare the current location to the closest location of optimal rendering device that meet the applied criterion.
US08412591B2 Systems and methods for online matching of consumers and retailers
Systems and methods match buyers and sellers of goods and/or services online. More specifically, a website facilitates a search by consumers of retailers for goods and/or services. In addition, the website facilitates the advertising of goods and/or services by retailers. Specifically, a user of the system may search for particular products and services, and/or businesses. Interactive maps provide a user with location information of businesses and/or service providers that fit one or more criteria searched by the user. Icons may be generated on the map, whereupon users may obtain information relating to products or services searched for by selecting the icons. Further information may also be obtained relating to the businesses, service providers, products and/or services of the businesses and/or service providers. Users may select to buy particular products and/or services directly from the businesses and/or service providers, or may tag products and/or services for viewing at a later time. Moreover, users may correspond with others for recommending and/or reviewing particular products, services, businesses and/or service providers.
US08412588B1 Systems and methods for fabricating products on demand
Systems and methods are provided for fabricating products on demand. In some embodiments, a manufacturable model, which may include information about a three-dimensional representation of a product to be fabricated, is received by a user of an electronic system and may be validated by the electronic system. A prototype of the product can be generated based at least in part on the manufacturable model, and the manufacturable model and/or the product can be made available for selection by other users of the system. The product may be fabricated based at least in part on the manufacturable model using, for example, a three-dimensional printer, and may be delivered to users of the electronic system.
US08412584B2 Virtual features of physical items
Physical objects are placed on an interactive surface. Features of the physical objects are detected, as is position information of the physical objects. Callouts are then presented next to one or more features of the physical objects. Some of the callouts present information related to the features and/or physical objects. Some of the callouts are interactive.
US08412582B1 System for managing sales leads for sales partners of a company
A system and method are directed to providing a sales channel registration system that allows sales deals to be managed. Aspects of the invention include a sales portal that receives information relating to sales deals, mechanisms for qualifying sales leads, and mechanisms for notifying sales partners, distributors, or a company of new information or changes in status relating to sales deals. One aspect of the invention determines when there may be potential conflicts, and performs actions to prevent such conflicts.
US08412580B2 Technology migration program
A program by which retailers offer customers an exchange of older technology for newer technology. The older technology and newer technology have a common characteristic that facilitates the retailer to give the customer the newer technology for a reduced cost.
US08412577B2 Narrowcasting from public displays, and related methods
A user with a cell phone interacts, in a personalized session, with an electronic sign system. In some embodiments, the user's location relative to the sign is discerned from camera imagery—either imagery captured by the cell phone (i.e., of the sign), or captured by the sign system (i.e., of the user). Demographic information about the user can be estimated from imagery captured acquired by the sign system, or can be accessed from stored profile data associated with the user. The sign system can transmit payoffs (e.g., digital coupons or other response data) to viewers—customized per user demographics. In some arrangements, the payoff data is represented by digital watermark data encoded in the signage content. The encoding can take into account the user's location relative to the sign—allowing geometrical targeting of different payoffs to differently-located viewers. Other embodiments allow a user to engage an electronic sign system for interactive game play, using the cell phone as a controller.
US08412576B2 Method, system, and software for geographically focused network advertising
A software based system and method of displaying location based information from an information site on a network by determining location data of a user of the location based information on the network. The location based information is generated based on the determined location data of the user; and generated location based information is provided to the user over the network.
US08412574B2 Identifying and/or blocking ads such as document-specific competitive ads
A content owner partner (e.g., a Website/Web page publisher) can easily block entire broad or narrow categories of ads, and can specify objectionable ad content or targeting. Concepts may be associated with a property and ads related to those concepts may be blocked for the given property. Further, terms may be associated with a property and ads including any of the terms may be blocked for the given property.
US08412572B2 Network-based systems and methods for defining and managing multi-dimensional, advertising impression inventory
A method for representing and managing an inventory of overlapping multi-dimensional items such as advertising or ad impressions. The method uses an inventory management module to generate unique segment identifiers for sets of inventory items by processing descriptions of the sets of impressions including defining criteria. The method includes processing the unique segment identifiers to create a representation of the inventory as a plurality of inventory regions, which may include non-overlapping regions that correspond to inventory items in a single set of the inventory and also include overlapping regions that correspond to inventory items in two or more of the sets (e.g., items that match two or more sets of defining criteria or attributes). Availability and selection of inventory is determined using the information on inventory regions to control effects of cannibalization, such as by implementing logically necessary allocation to only cannibalize a region on a limited or forced basis.
US08412571B2 Systems and methods for selling and displaying advertisements over a network
Systems and methods are provided for selling one or more advertisements and displaying the one or more advertisements a fixed placement for a set duration of time on a web page within an Internet website in combination with displaying advertisements from the same advertiser in contextually relevant locations within the website.
US08412569B1 Determining advertising statistics for advertisers and/or advertising networks
A system determines a number of times that clients access a group of documents associated with a web site or a group of web sites. At least one document in the group of documents includes at least one advertisement. The system further determines a percentage of client views for an advertiser or an advertising network across the web site or group of web sites based on the determined number of times.
US08412567B2 System and method for computerized sales optimization
Disclosed is a method for increasing the conversion rate, or the ratio of the number of actual buyers to the number of site visitors, of an computer-implemented system such as an Internet e-commerce website. Shopping cart abandonment may be reduced though the disclosed method wherein filler items are suggested to the consumer in order to qualify the consumer for a promotional bonus, such as free shipping. By simplifying the consumer's task of selecting filler items, the consumer may be more likely to consummate the sale instead of abandoning the shopping cart to find a better deal elsewhere. In the event no suitable filler items can be identified, alternative promotions may be presented to the consumer, for example, reduced rate shipping.
US08412566B2 High-precision customer-based targeting by individual usage statistics
A system for distributing limited numbers of promotional offers to individual customers, the promotional offers being targeted to customers based on the customers' individual probabilities of accepting the offers in such a way that each customer can receive a limited number of offers that are estimated to be most likely to be acceptable by the customer. Customer-Based targeting analyzes each customer's past purchasing behavior relative to a master list of promotional offers made available to all customers. From that master list Customer-Based targeting selects a preset limit of promotional offers for each individual customer according to the likelihood that, given the opportunity to select any offers of the master list, each customer would prefer those few offers selected specifically for the customer. Various techniques are disclosed for providing an offer acceptance probability profile tailored for individual customers for use in the Customer-Based targeting technique. Product groupings and market segments are taken into account. Empirical Bayes techniques are applied to the estimation of the offer acceptance profile, and techniques suitable for handling sparse data are applied. Various marketing strategies are incorporated into the system. A graphical technique is provided for adjusting the offer acceptance profile that enables a user to override a system computation and manually set the relative offer acceptance probabilities for an individual user or class of users.
US08412563B2 Method and system for analyzing and optimizing distribution of work from a plurality of queues
A method and system for analyzing and optimizing the distribution of work from a plurality of queues includes storing historical data in a database. The historical data may include sets of different types of data items, each of the data items having an associated monetary value. The method further includes assigning a relative score to each of the data items within the sets and calculating a cumulative monetary value for each relative score, the cumulative monetary value being the summation of the monetary values for all items having relative scores up to and including the relative score. The method further includes determining the maximum cumulative monetary value calculated and its corresponding relative score. In one embodiment, the corresponding relative score is then used to determine which items to work in a set of queues that has not yet been worked.
US08412561B2 Business case evaluation system and methods thereof
A system and method to offer a one or more experiences using various layers to at least one customer is disclosed. The method includes user experience layer having a first plurality of components owned by at least one service provider to evaluate a plurality of experimental changes of the at least one customer. The method further includes user service layer having a second plurality of components owned by the at least one service provider to offer a first plurality of services for the at least one customer. The method further includes an adaptation layer, a network service layer, a protocol layer and a platform layer having one or more components to provide one or more functionalities. Additionally, the method further includes a monitoring and control layer with one or more components to build management information across the one or more layers.
US08412560B1 Price optimization using current offers
Disclosed are various embodiments for optimizing prices of items using current offers. Numerous current offers to sell an item are determined from a subset of sellers in an electronic marketplace. Each one of the subset of sellers is associated with a respective reputational score that meets a minimum threshold. A competitive price is generated for the item based at least in part on an average marketplace price determined from the current offers.
US08412558B2 Method and system for analyzing a plurality of parts
The present invention includes a method and system configured to analyze a plurality of parts, each of the parts having at least one part characteristic. The method includes the steps of establishing at least one repository of the part characteristics, establishing a relationship between at least a portion of the parts and a cost characteristic; and, analyzing the portion of the parts in response to the relationship.
US08412556B2 Systems and methods for facilitating an analysis of a business project
Systems and methods for analyzing projects in a business entity including multiple groups and multiple levels of decision making authority are provided. Project identification data that identifies a particular project is received. A project categorization of the project is performed to categorize the project based on one or more of the size, general risks, and complexity of the project. An anti-corruption risk assessment of the project is performed to categorize an anti-corruption risk associated with the project. A group-specific risk assessment of the project is performed to categorize a risk associated with the project relevant to one of the multiple groups of the business entity. A limit of authority escalation level is automatically determined based at least on the results of (a) the project categorization, (b) the anti-corruption risk assessment, and (c) the group-specific risk assessment, wherein the limit of authority escalation level indicates a particular level of decision making authority of the business entity required to approve the project.
US08412555B2 Methods and systems for planning configurable manufacturing capacity
The present invention comprises methods and systems that provide manufacturing capacity configuration, allocation, and procurement plans based on manufacturing demand, operational constraints, and other user inputs. This is generally accomplished by modeling the capabilities of the equipment comprising the capacity at its lowest allowed level of configurability. By defining capacity requirements at those same or lower levels, configuration, allocation, and procurement plans can be generated from an aggregated capacity demand forecast. In addition, the present invention allows for constraints (e.g. special equipment limitations, demand priorities, temporal requirements, financial targets, etc.) from various business areas to be considered when generating the plans. Furthermore, for each plan, the present invention also identifies any needed and excess capacity—again described at the lowest allowed level of configurability—and generates expected manufacturing, financial, and other performance metrics.
US08412553B2 Information processing system, information processing method, and computer readable medium storing program
An information processing system includes a setting unit, an obtaining unit, a calculating unit, a display information generating unit, and an updating unit. The setting unit sets activity schedule information indicating an activity schedule of a user in an evaluation target period on the basis of an activity which is selected from among plural activities. The obtaining unit obtains activity information specifying the activity that has been performed by at least one point of time within the evaluation target period. The calculating unit calculates a total environmental load value of the activity in the evaluation target period. The display information generating unit generates display information including the total environmental load value and a target value of an environmental load. The updating unit updates the activity scheduled in the activity schedule information.
US08412550B2 One view integrated project management system
Projects of any type require sophisticated management software programs. In reality, these management software programs are provided by various vendors and for different professional fields. For example, scheduling programs for construction professionals, blue print programs for drafting professionals, accounting programs for cost-control professionals. In addition, there are numerous other unofficial and official documents generated by managers of different levels for reporting or track-record-keeping purposes using popular word processing programs and spread-sheet programs. Documents generated by different software programs can only be viewed under the programs they are generated under or compatible programs. This poses a problem in that there is a lack of organized control resulting in difficulty in locating and viewing documents in a timely manner. The present invention provides an one view software program that would be able to provide an organized control and viewing of all documents regardless which software programs they are generated under.
US08412545B2 System and process for providing multiple income start dates for annuities
The present invention provides a method for providing an annuity structure and a system for processing an annuity structure. The annuity structure may include a base portion segment, where the base portion segment is a functional annuity having a first annuity schedule; and a secondary portion segment, where the secondary portion segment is a functional annuity having a second annuity schedule. In the invention, the base portion segment and the secondary portion segment each operate as its own annuity. Also, the base portion segment and the secondary portion segment are each included in a single contract, i.e., under the umbrella of one contract.
US08412543B2 Template based filtering and summations flowsheet
A system and method are provided for providing a moveable summary column for a patient based medical flow sheet. The summary column can provide various summations of the patient's data records for any time period depending on where the moveable summation column is placed. The summation of the various patient data depends on the summation parameters defined in the medical flow sheet. The summary column can be moved by the user to any spot in the patient data portion of the medical flow sheet to sum up different intervals of data. The moveable summation column will present summary data for each of the patient parameters as designated by the medical flow sheet developers depending on the placement of the summation column.
US08412535B2 Negotiation support systems and methods
Systems for negotiation support. First and second negotiation agent modules respectively receive multiple first proposals, calculate preference scores (PSs) for each first proposal using utility models and select a portion of the first proposals as second proposals in descending order according to the calculated PSs therewith. The negotiation management module receives the second proposals from the first and second negotiation modules, and generates third proposals according to the received proposals. The first and second negotiation agent modules respectively receive the third proposals, calculate PSs for received proposals using utility models, and arrange the third proposals in descending order according to PSs therewith to generate voting results. The negotiation management module receives the voting results, and generates a final agreement according to the received voting results.
US08412533B2 Context-based arithmetic encoding apparatus and method and context-based arithmetic decoding apparatus and method
Disclosed are a context-based arithmetic encoding apparatus and method and a context-based arithmetic decoding apparatus and method. The context-based arithmetic decoding apparatus may determine a context of a current N-tuple to be decoded, determine a Most Significant Bit (MSB) context corresponding to an MSB symbol of the current N-tuple, and determine a probability model using the context of the N-tuple and the MSB context. Subsequently, the context-based arithmetic decoding apparatus may perform a decoding on an MSB based on the determined probability model, and perform a decoding on a Least Significant Bit (LSB) based on a bit depth of the LSB derived from a process of decoding on an escape code.
US08412531B2 Touch anywhere to speak
The present invention provides a user interface for providing press-to-talk-interaction via utilization of a touch-anywhere-to-speak module on a mobile computing device. Upon receiving an indication of a touch anywhere on the screen of a touch screen interface, the touch-anywhere-to-speak module activates the listening mechanism of a speech recognition module to accept audible user input and displays dynamic visual feedback of a measured sound level of the received audible input. The touch-anywhere-to-speak module may also provide a user a convenient and more accurate speech recognition experience by utilizing and applying the data relative to a context of the touch (e.g., relative location on the visual interface) in correlation with the spoken audible input.
US08412530B2 Method and apparatus for detection of sentiment in automated transcriptions
A method for automatically detecting sentiments in an audio signal of an interaction held in a call center, including, receiving the audio signal from a logging and capturing unit. Performing audio analysis on the audio signal to obtain text spoken within the interaction. Segmenting the text into context units according to acoustic information acquired from the audio signal to identify units of speech bound by non-speech segments, wherein each context unit includes one or more words. Extracting a sentiment candidate context unit from the context units using a phonetic based search. Extracting linguistic features from the text of the sentiment candidate context unit and acoustic features from a segment of the audio signal associated with the sentiment candidate context unit. Determining in accordance with the linguistic features and acoustic features whether the sentiment candidate context unit is valid or erroneous, and determining sentiment polarity and intensity.
US08412529B2 Method and system for enhancing verbal communication sessions
An approach is provided for enhancing verbal communication sessions. A verbal component of a communication session is converted into textual information. The converted textual information is scanned for a text string to trigger an application. The application is invoked to provide supplemental information about the textual information or to perform an action in response to the textual information for or on behalf of a party of the communication session. The supplemental information or a confirmation of the action is transmitted to the party.
US08412522B2 Apparatus and method for queuing jobs in a distributed dictation /transcription system
A distributed dictation/transcription system is provided. The system provides a client station, dictation manager, and dictation server connected such that the dictation manager can select a dictation server to transcribe audio from the client station. A job queue at the dictation manager holds the queues the audio to be provided to the dictation servers. The dictation manager reviews all jobs in the job queue and send audio with a user profile matching a user profile already uploaded to the dictation server regardless of whether the matching audio is next in the job queue. If alternative audio has been pending over a predetermined amount of time or has a higher priority, the alternative audio is sent to the dictation server.
US08412516B2 Document analysis, commenting, and reporting system
A document analysis, commenting, and reporting system provides tools that automate quality assurance analysis tailored to specific document types. As one example, the specific document type may be a requirements specification and the system may tag different parts of requirements, including actors, entities, modes, and a remainder. However, the flexibility of the system permits analysis of any other document type, such as instruction manuals and best practices guides. The system helps avoid confusion over the document when it is delivered because of non-standard terms, ambiguous language, conflicts between document sections, incomplete or inaccurate descriptions, size and complexity of the document, and other issues.
US08412514B1 Method and apparatus for compiling and querying a QA database
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for responding to an inquiry from a client via a network. The method and apparatus receive the inquiry from a client via a network. Based on the inquiry, question-answer pairs retrieved from the network are analyzed to determine a response to the inquiry. The QA pairs are not predefined. As a result, the QA pairs have to be analyzed in order to determine whether they are responsive to a particular inquiry. Questions of the QA pairs may be repetitive and similar to one another even for very different subjects, and without additional contextual and meta-level information, are not useful in determining whether their corresponding answer responds to an inquiry.
US08412508B2 Creation and use of virtual device drivers on a serial bus
A node on a serial bus, preferably a device such as a personal computer (PC), can emulate other devices using virtual device drivers. A PC connected to a 1394 bus exposes its CROM on the bus which presents an image to other nodes on the 1394 bus and describes the functional units supported by the node. The CROM can be changed dynamically by adding unit directories to the CROM detailing peripherals connected to the PC. The PC can then be enumerated as the connected device by other PCs on the bus. The PC can emulate or morph itself into any desired device or even multiple devices at the same time. The invention also allows a PC to create devices that don't yet exist on the bus. The invention allows a user to create virtual device objects with device properties to have just in case a user plugs the particular device in to the PC.
US08412505B2 Decentralized simulation system, method for identifying simulators and simulation models
A plurality of simulators operable to decentrally execute arithmetic operations based on a plurality of simulation models which are respectively assigned to the simulators under the control of a management device. A notifying section is operable to provide a notification so as to relate information regarding one of the simulation models displayed on a display of the management device to one of the simulators which executes an arithmetic operation based on the one of the simulation models. The management device and the simulators are connected with each other via a network.
US08412503B2 Simulation system of cardiac function, simulation method of cardiac function, simulation program of cardiac function, and composite material sheet
To provide a simulation system of cardiac function utilizing a cardiac structure model which is generated based on an appropriate composite material view representing the myocardial tissue. A simulation system of cardiac function to predict a change in cardiac geometry using a cardiac structure model contains a material specification input part 11 to determine both connective tissue data and myocyte data, a geometry data input part 13 to input geometry data of three-dimensional geometry of a heart, and a cardiac-structure-model construction part 14 wherein a cardiac structure model assumes assembly of finite elements based on continuum data of three-dimensional geometry defined by geometry data and made of composite material containing matrix and reinforcement fiber, and possesses mechanical properties of reinforcement fiber reflecting mechanical properties of connective tissue data and mechanical properties of matrix reflecting mechanical properties of myocyte data. The simulation system also contains a simulation part 15 which predicts a change of geometry of the cardiac structure model produced by pressure load utilizing finite element method with computation.
US08412491B2 System and method for electric patterns discovery
A system and method for analyzing a customer load and/or generation profile in order to disaggregate the customer load and/or generation profile is provided. The analysis of the customer load and/or customer generation profile may thereby determine the one or more devices that are operating and that contribute to the customer load and/or generation profile. In this way, the system and method may automatically analyze the customer load and/or generation profile in order to determine the one or more devices that contribute to the load and/or generation profile.
US08412489B2 System and method for generating a transporting instruction using an environmental sensor
A system including an environmental sensor that can travel with a product within a carrier's logistics network. The environmental sensor being configured to sense an environmental condition capable of affecting the product to generate product environment data. The system includes a scanner configured to read product environment data from the environmental sensor. The system also includes a hub control unit configured to communicate with the scanner and receive the product environment data from the scanner and determines whether the product environment data transcends a limit of exposure of the product to an environmental condition. The hub control unit is also configured to generate a transporting instruction to redirect transport of the product to an alternate destination different from its original destination if the hub control unit determines that the product environment data indicates the environmental condition of the product has transcended the limit of exposure.
US08412487B2 Self heating monitor for SiGe and SOI CMOS devices
A structure, apparatus and method for deterring the temperature of an active region in semiconductor, particularly a FET is provided. A pair FETs are arranged on a silicon island a prescribed distance from one another where the silicon island is surrounded by a thermal insulator. One FET is heated by a current driven therethrough. The other FET functions as a temperature sensor by having a change in an electrical characteristic versus temperature monitored. By arranging multiple pairs of FETs separated by different known distances, the temperature of the active region of one of the FETs may be determined during operation at various driving currents.
US08412483B2 Method for automated position verification
An improved method for verifying a position of a sensor with respect to an object under test includes detecting a signal from the sensor that is positioned at a given location on an object under test and comparing the signal from the sensor with a historical signal that is associated with a Uniquely Identified Location (UIL) on the object under test. If the two signals are consistent, and if the position of the sensor at the given location on the object under test is the same as the UIL, it is concluded that the position of the sensor is correct.
US08412481B2 Method and apparatus for determining operational condition of pollution monitoring equipment
A method for determining an operational condition of a particle detection system including at least one sample inlet for receiving a sample flow from a monitored region. The method includes the step of conducting an upstream measurement of a flow rate through the at least one sample inlet.
US08412478B2 Device for determining an error induced by a high-pass filter and associated error correction method
Device for determining an error induced by a high-pass filter in a signal, including a unit (3) for calculating the error according to the formula: E(t)=Ve(t)−Vs(t)=2·Π·Fc·∫α=t0t(Vs(α)− Vs(α))·dα+E(t0) with: E(t) the value of the error induced by the high-pass filter, as a function of the time variable t, Πthe trigonometric constant, Fc the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter, t0 the initial instant, αintegration variable, Ve the signal input to the high-pass filter, Vs the signal output by the high-pass filter, Vs the mean value of the signal Vs. A method of correcting the error induced is also presented and applicable to the error correction of a piezoelectric pressure sensor.
US08412474B2 Method for determining a radiation measurement for thermal radiation, arc furnace, a signal processing device programme code and storage medium for carrying out said method
In a method, a variable characterising an operational state of an electrode of an arc furnace can be determined. An electrode flow guided to the electrode is detected in the method and the structure-borne noise oscillations are detected. From the detected electrode flow, a flow evaluation signal associated with the frequency range of the detected electrode flow is determined. From the detected structure-borne noise oscillations, an oscillation evaluation signal that is associated with a frequency range of the detected structure-borne noise oscillations is detected and a quotient from the oscillation evaluation signal and the flow evaluation signal is formed as a radiation measurement for at least one frequency common to the detected electrode flow and the detected structure-borne noise oscillation.
US08412472B2 Method for detection of a fluid leak related to a piston machine
A method for detection of a fluid leak related to at least one piston machine (1), where the method includes: —attaching a pressure sensor (18, 24) to at least a pressure side of the at least one piston machine (1); —measuring the pressure on the pressure side of the at least one piston machine (1); —attaching a transmitter (28) to the at least one piston machine (1), said transmitter (28) rendering a signal for calculating the rotational speed of the at least one piston machine (1); —calculating the speed of the at least one piston machine (1); —calculating the sum of nominal flow rates from all piston machines (1); —calculating a flow rate compensation factor; —calculating a normalized pressure (42) to be equal to the discharge pressure multiplied by the said compensation factor for the flow rate; and —monitoring the normalized pressure (42) to detect a leakage.
US08412467B2 Nucleic acid sequencing system and method
A technique for sequencing nucleic acids in an automated or semi-automated manner is disclosed. Sample arrays of a multitude of nucleic acid sites are processed in multiple cycles to add nucleotides to the material to be sequenced, detect the nucleotides added to sites, and to de-block the added nucleotides of blocking agents and tags used to identify the last added nucleotide. Multiple parameters of the system are monitored to enable diagnosis and correction of problems as they occur during sequencing of the samples. Quality control routines are run during sequencing to determine quality of samples, and quality of the data collected.
US08412464B1 Methods for detection and identification of cell type
A process is provided for identifying a cell type in a sample that includes identification of one or more peptide sequences in the sample. Each peptide sequence is assigned to a protein of known sequence. A matrix of assignments is generated for the presence or absence of each peptide in one or more cells. The matrix of assignments is rearranged according to cell classification. A cell type based on the most probable cell classification is identified.
US08412461B2 Systems and methods for antibody engineering
Methods, computer systems, and computer program products for antibody engineering. A variant set for an antibody of interest is constructed by identifying, using a plurality of rules, a plurality of positions in the antibody of interest and, for each respective position in the plurality of positions, substitutions for the respective position. The plurality of positions and the substitutions for each respective position in the plurality of position collectively define an antibody sequence space. A variant set comprising a plurality of variants of the antibody is selected. A property of all or a portion of the variants in the variant set is measured. A sequence-activity relationship is modeled between (i) one or more substitutions at one or more positions of the antibody of interest represented by the variant set and (ii) the property measured for all or the portion of the variants in the variant set. The variant set is redefined to comprise variants that include substitutions in the plurality of positions that are selected based on a function of the sequence-activity relationship.
US08412459B2 Method for determining the allergic potential of a compound
The present invention is related to a method for determining the sensitizing potential of a chemical (test) compound, comprising the steps of: (a) Providing a suitable cell culture of a specific cell type and providing a test sample and a control sample thereof, said test sample and said control sample being identical, (b) Exposing said test sample to a chemical compound in a solvent and exposing said control sample to said solvent for a predetermined period of time, (c) Determining for the test sample and the control sample gene expressions xi for a subset of i=1 to n genes selected from the group of genes corresponding to SEQ ID NOs 1 to 153, (d) For this subset of n genes looking up in a database the gene expressions xi for a set of control and test samples, the test samples being exposed for said predetermined period of time to a set of chemical sensitizing model compounds comprising both sensitizers and non-sensitizers, (e) Using the gene expressions of the said test sample and the said control sample of step (c) as input to a statistical classification model that is based on said database and that is trained and optimized to classify chemical compounds as either sensitizers or non-sensitizers using gene expressions xi for said subset of n genes, and (f) Predicting through said model whether the chemical compound tested belongs to the class of sensitizers or to the class of non-sensitizers.
US08412458B2 Determining fluid rate and phase information for a hydrocarbon well using predictive models
Physical models of wells are used to determine rate and phase composition for fluid produced from or injected into the wells on a near real time and continuous basis. The method can be used to alert operators or others of conditions in a well or field to permit more immediate response. The method can be more tolerant of sensor faults, sensor drift, anomalous data or other occurrences which could otherwise lead to incorrect output. More than one model can be used to permit a hierarchy of calculation such that the rate and phase determination is more tolerant of anomalous data. The calculated rate and phase values from one or more wells can be reconciled against facility data.
US08412455B2 Voice-controlled navigation device and method
In a voice-controlled navigation device and method, a voice command is received, and divided into voice segments Vi (i=1˜n) by comparing with one or more keywords. A voice segment Vi (i=1˜n) is obtained in sequence to be compared with tree nodes in a search tree of place names. A weight value of each tree node is computed according to a comparison, to select one or more tree nodes whose weight values are greater than a predetermined value. Routes formed by all the selected tree nodes are obtained to select a route whose total weight value is the greatest. A navigation to a destination is given by indicating the selected route on an electronic map according to place names represented by the tree nodes of the selected route.
US08412448B2 Collision avoidance system and method
A collision avoidance system and method creates 3D models of objects by collecting character data of the objects, and controls a camera of a vehicle to capture an image in front of the vehicle. The system determines whether an object is detected in front of the vehicle by comparing the image with each of the 3D models, analyzes a distance between the camera and the object according to the image, and determines whether the distance is less than a safety distance. The system controls the warning device to alarm when the distance is less than the safety distance, and automatically controls the brake system to reduce a speed of the vehicle if the vehicle is not decelerating.
US08412443B2 Engine shutdown control
Methods and systems are provided for controlling engine shutdown in a vehicle. One example method includes, after discontinuation of combustion and during engine spin down, reducing cylinder air charge while maintaining intake manifold pressure above a threshold value.
US08412441B1 Mixed cycle compression ignition engines and methods
Mixed cycle compression ignition engines and methods of operating a camless compression ignition engine by establishing a number of operating cycles for operating the engine, each for a particular engine load range and storing a respective algorithm and engine operating parameters for each operating cycle in a lookup table, receiving engine operating information, including piston position when compression ignition occurs, receiving a power setting for the engine, selecting from the lookup table, an algorithm and operating parameters for an operating cycle for the engine applicable to that power setting, operating the engine using the selected algorithm and operating parameters, and adjusting the engine operating parameters based on received engine operating information. Various operating cycles are disclosed.
US08412440B2 Pressure sensor failure diagnosis method and common rail type fuel injection control apparatus
It is possible to perform a failure diagnosis of a pressure sensor with a simple structure without installing a dedicated circuit for the failure diagnosis. In a common rail type fuel injection control apparatus, a pressure control valve 12 is provided in a fuel return path from a common rail 1, and a rail pressure detected by a pressure sensor 11 can be controlled to match a target rail pressure through drive control of the pressure control valve 12 by an electronic control unit 4. The target rail pressure is calculated based on operational information of an engine 3. In the common rail type fuel injection control apparatus, learning processing is performed, in which a correction coefficient Cv is stored and updated as a learning value to correct energization characteristics of a median product of the pressure control valves 12 that are stored in the electronic control unit 4. At the same time, it is determined whether the learning value of the correction coefficient Cv is within a predetermined range. When it is determined that it is not within the predetermined range, the pressure sensor 11 is diagnosed as having a failure.
US08412439B2 Dual fuel engine control unit
A multi-mode engine system comprising a first mode in which the engine is fuelled substantially entirely by a first fuel, and a second mode in which the engine is fuelled substantially entirely by a second fuel, or by a mixture of the first and second fuels, the engine comprising: a first engine control unit (ECU) for controlling the flow of the first fuel into the engine when the engine is operating in the first mode; and a second ECU operatively connected to the first ECU; wherein the first ECU comprises: a signal receiver for receiving the first input signals, and an output for emitting a first output signal; and the second ECU being adapted to modify the first output signal when the engine is running in the second mode to produce a first modified signal and a second calculated signal.
US08412437B2 Method and device for operating an internal combustion engine
Actual values of a load variable are detected by a sensor during active model trimming under different valve pressure conditions, and a model of estimated values is created. Trimming values of a model parameter are determined depending on detected and modeled values such that when the model parameter is trimmed, the modeled values approximate the detected values. A function is determined depending on the different pressure conditions and approximated to the trimming values. At different pressure conditions first lambda control values are detected. A first controller value fitted function is determined depending on the pressure conditions and approximated. When the model trimming mode is not active, second lambda control values are detected at different pressure conditions. A second controller value fitted function is determined depending on the pressure conditions and is approximated. An error of the intake system is detected depending on the fitted functions.
US08412435B2 System and method for detection of spun vehicle
A system, method and computer program product is provided for detecting if a vehicle has spun. A normal force and a lateral force of each of a front and rear axle of a vehicle is estimated. A coefficient of friction representative of a surface is estimated. Lateral momenta of the front and rear axles based on the coefficient of friction and the normal and lateral forces is calculated. Whether a surplus momentum is present, is determined. If the surplus momentum is present, a yaw rate of the vehicle is integrated respect to time to obtain a vehicle rotation estimation.
US08412434B2 Method and device of calculating aircraft braking friction and other relating landing performance parameters based on the data received from aircraft's on board flight data management system
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for the calculation of aircraft braking friction and other relating landing parameters, including but not limited to aircraft braking action, aircraft takeoff distance, aircraft landing distance, runway surface conditions and runway surface friction based on the data collected by and available in the aircraft Flight Data Recorder (FDR) or other flight data management system, for example, the Quick Access Recorder (QAR), to provide all involved personnel in the ground operations of an airport and airline operations, including but not limited to aircraft pilots, airline operation officers and airline managers as well as airport operators, managers and maintenance crews, with the most accurate and most recent information on the true aircraft landing performance parameters to help better and more accurate safety and economical decision making.
US08412433B2 Motion control device for vehicle
A motion control device for a vehicle includes a vehicle speed obtaining device, a curvature obtaining device for obtaining a bending grade of a curve existing ahead of the vehicle, a position obtaining device for obtaining a relative position between the vehicle and the curve, a determination device for determining an appropriate vehicle speed for the vehicle passing through the curve based on the bending grade, a speed reduction control device for executing a speed reduction control for reducing the vehicle speed based on the vehicle speed and the relative position so that the vehicle passes through the curve at the appropriate vehicle speed, and a gradient obtaining device for obtain a gradient of the road on the curve existing in a traveling direction of the vehicle, wherein the determination device determines the appropriate vehicle speed based on the gradient of the road in addition to the bending grade.
US08412431B2 Materials handling vehicle having a control apparatus for determining an acceleration value
A materials handling vehicle is provided comprising: a frame; wheels supported on the frame; a traction motor coupled to one of the wheels to effect rotation of the one wheel; a speed control element operable by an operator to define a speed control signal corresponding to a desired speed of the traction motor; a system associated with a steerable wheel to effect angular movement of the steerable wheel; and control apparatus coupled to the speed control element to receive the speed control signal, and coupled to the traction motor to generate a drive signal to the traction motor in response to the speed control signal to control the operation of the traction motor. The control apparatus may determine an acceleration value for the traction motor based on at least one of an angular position of the steerable wheel, a speed of the traction motor and a current position of the speed control element as defined by the speed control signal.
US08412430B2 Multiple clutch transmission control apparatus and multiple clutch transmission control method
A multiple clutch transmission control apparatus performs gear changing smoothly by improving clutch torque control precision, without reducing the speed of gear changing, in a vehicle or the like including a multiple clutch transmission. With this control apparatus, a control unit switches the transmission gear from the previous gear to the next gear by changing the torque transfer path by controlling the first clutch and the second clutch in a clutch changeover period. In the clutch changeover period, the control unit changes the torque transfer path by raising the clutch torque capacity of whichever of the first clutch and the second clutch is the next-gear-side clutch to reach a target value, and then lowering the clutch torque capacity of the previous-gear-side clutch.
US08412429B2 Driving power distribution apparatus and method for controlling torque coupling
A vehicle 1 has a torque coupling 8, which is located in a driving power transmission system for transmitting the torque of an engine 2 to front and rear wheels 13f, 13r. The torque coupling 8 changes the torque distribution by adjusting the frictional engaging force of an electromagnetic clutch 16. The vehicle 1 also has a 4WD ECU 21 (CPU), which controls the operation of the torque coupling 8 based on the driving state. The 4WD ECU 21 (CPU) estimates a transfer case oil temperature Tptu. When the transfer case oil temperature Tptu is higher than or equal to a first predetermined transfer case oil temperature KTptu1, the 4WD ECU 21 executes overheat prevention control. When the deviation ΔA between an estimated vehicle acceleration Ae, which is computed based on a predetermined vehicle weight M and a driveline torque τd of the engine 2, and the actual vehicle acceleration Av is greater than or equal to a first predetermined deviation KΔA1, the 4WD ECU 21 (CPU) estimates the transfer case oil temperature Tptu to be higher. This allows the control mode of the torque coupling 8 to be smoothly switched to the overheat prevention control.
US08412427B2 Vehicle driving apparatus, and control methods thereof
When the change speed is instructed, without changing value of a suppressing vibration flag set to value 1 as initial value, a fast fill as the preparation of a brake to be engaged when the change speed is executed and low pressure standby of hydraulic pressure to set the brake in a half-engaged state. Then the suppressing vibration flag is set to value 0 when a predetermined time passed since the change speed is instructed, a sum of a drive torque required for driving and a suppressing vibration torque, which is in the same direction as suppressing rotational fluctuation of a drive shaft, is output from a motor when the suppressing vibration flag is set to value 1.
US08412421B2 Systems and methods for improving haul route management
A method for managing haul routes in work environments comprises receiving performance criteria associated with a haul route and establishing a target total effective grade for at least one machine associated with the haul route based on the performance criteria. The method also includes collecting performance data associated with the at least one machine. A drive axle torque of the at least one machine is determined and an actual total effective grade associated with the at least one machine is estimated. The at least one machine is identified as an underperforming machine if the actual total effective grade for the at least one machine exceeds the target total effective grade. An average total effective grade for the at least one machine is determined as a function of the actual total effective grade. A haul route deficiency is identified if the average total effective grade exceeds a threshold level.
US08412420B2 Wheel lean control
A work vehicle comprises a leanable traction wheel. A control unit of the work vehicle is configured to cause the wheel to move to a wheel-lean angle setpoint.
US08412418B2 Industrial machine
An industrial machine comprises an industrial machine main unit, a construction working implement installed on the industrial machine main unit, two cameras each mounted at a known position with respect to a machine center of the industrial machine main unit, at least three targets being installed on the working implement so that the targets are within visual field of each of the two cameras, and an arithmetic processing device. The arithmetic processing device is used for extracting the images of at least three targets in common to the images from stereo-images taken by the two cameras, for obtaining a three-dimensional position of each target image, and for calculating a position and a posture of the working implement with respect to the industrial machine main unit based on the three-dimensional position obtained.
US08412416B2 Collision warning device having guardrail detection
A collision warning device for motor vehicles includes: a locating system for locating objects in the area in front of the vehicle; a control device for evaluating the data of the locating system and for outputting a warning signal in the event of an imminent risk of a collision; and a detection module for detecting the course of guardrails with the aid of the data of the locating system. In the control device an additional warning function is implemented, which calculates, with the aid of the dynamic state of the vehicle and with the aid of the detected guardrail course, a parameter for the transverse dynamics of the vehicle, which is required to avert a collision with the guardrail, and which outputs a warning signal when this parameter is larger than a predefined value.
US08412414B2 Coaxial two-wheeled vehicle and its control method
To provide a coaxial two-wheeled vehicle capable of performing a turning movement with stability and its control method. A coaxial two-wheeled vehicle in accordance with the present invention includes drive means to drive two coaxially-arranged wheels, turning reference-input input means to input a turning reference input, and control means to control the drive means according to a turning gain based on a turning reference-input input by the turning reference-input input means to thereby perform a turning movement. The control means preferably brings the turning gain to substantially zero when the coaxial two-wheeled vehicle is in a backward traveling state with a backward speed greater than or equal to a first speed, and sets the turning gain to a value greater than zero when a vehicle speed is substantially zero.
US08412413B1 Vehicle windshield display with obstruction detection
A vehicle windshield display system for detecting obstruction of a vehicle operator's field of view by a windshield display. The system provides closed-loop feedback to perform a visual check of what is actually being displayed on a windshield display in order to avoid obstructing an operator's field of view. The system includes a windshield display configured to be installed into a vehicle and configured to display a graphic in a field of view of an operator of the vehicle, a camera configured to determine an image of the graphic displayed by the windshield display, and a controller configured to determine if the image indicates that field of view is obstructed. The camera is used to monitor the windshield display and provide feedback to the controller so that appropriate adjustments to the graphic being displayed can be made.
US08412411B2 Electronic control module heat limiting systems and methods
An electronic control module for a vehicle. The electronic control module includes a housing, a temperature sensor positioned in the housing, and a controller positioned in the housing and coupled to the temperature sensor. The controller includes a processor, a memory, and a plurality of switches. The controller performs a first function related to a comfort level of an occupant of the vehicle at a first level of functionality. The controller also detects a temperature in the housing, and modifies the first function when the detected temperature exceeds a temperature threshold. The modification of the first function reduces a quantity of heat generated by the controller.
US08412401B2 Method and system for retrieving diagnostic information from a vehicle
Exemplary embodiments of off-board tools (OBTS) may be used in vehicle inspection maintenance programs are provided. The OBT may include a processor, vehicle communication circuitry for linking to a vehicle diagnostic system, host interface circuitry for communicating with a host computer, and voltage determination circuitry for measuring a voltage through the vehicle diagnostic system. The OBT may include logic for storing a communications protocol used to link with a vehicle diagnostic system that is preferably used for re-establishing dropped communications links. In addition, the OBT may contain logic for testing at least one component of a starting and/or charging system of a vehicle. Still other embodiments may include logic for sending unsolicited messages to a host computer. Additional embodiments may include logic for determining the minimum number of messages that must be received by an OBT.
US08412399B2 Electricity generation control device for vehicle
An electricity generation control device calculates a virtual electricity generation efficiency where a transmission gear ratio of a continuously variable transmission is changed with a minute amount when an electricity generation condition by an engine drive is realized, changes the transmission gear ratio with a minute amount in a case where the virtual electricity generation efficiency is superior to a present electricity generation efficiency, calculates a virtual electricity generation efficiency where an engine drive torque and an electricity generation drive torque are changed with a minute amount, and changes the engine drive torque and the electricity generation drive torque in a case where the virtual electricity generation efficiency is superior to a present electricity generation efficiency, in which the minute amount change of the transmission gear ratio and the minute amount change of the engine drive torque and the electricity generation drive torque are alternatively performed.
US08412398B2 Unstable signal detection for electro-mechanical vehicle component
An example vehicle includes a motor and a gearbox. A controller is configured to identify oscillation peaks of a performance signal representing the rotational speed of the motor, the input speed of the gearbox, or the amount of torque generated by the motor or provided to the gearbox. The controller is configured to simultaneously detect unstable regular and irregular oscillations of the performance signal given the oscillation peaks identified and substantially dampen the unstable oscillations detected. An example method may include determining a mean of the performance signal and defining peak values, including peak moving average values or filtered peak values, representing a magnitude of at least two oscillation peaks. The method further includes simultaneously detecting the unstable regular and irregular oscillations of the performance signal using the defined values and substantially dampening the unstable oscillations.
US08412396B2 Electric launch of a hybrid vehicle having a belt alternator starter and a dual clutch transmission
A controller-executable method provides an electric-only (EV) launch mode in a vehicle having an accelerator pedal, an engine, a motor generator unit (MGU), a dual-clutch transmission (DCT), and a belt alternator starter system adapted for selectively rotating the crankshaft using motor torque from the MGU. Execution of the method uses motor torque from the MGU, while the engine is off, to accelerate the crankshaft to above a calibrated launch speed when a threshold minimum force is applied to the pedal. A designated one of the odd- and even-gear clutches of the DCT are controlled until input torque to the DCT equals a calibrated level. The other DCT clutch may be modulated to dampen drivetrain oscillations. The vehicle launches in the EV launch mode via the designated DCT clutch when the crankshaft speed exceeds an input speed of the DCT. The vehicle and controller are also provided.
US08412395B2 Controller for electric vehicles
A controller for detecting abnormality of a motor control ECU of an electric vehicle 50 has a travel control unit 1 for calculating a target driving torque for an electric motor 3, and a motor control unit 2 for calculating a final indication torque obtained by correcting the target driving torque from the travel control unit 1, and supplying electric power according to the final indication torque to the motor 3. The travel control unit 1 includes a target driving torque calculating unit 21 for calculating the target driving torque, a final indication torque confirmation value calculating unit 23 for calculating a final indication torque confirmation value based on the calculated target driving torque, and an abnormality determining unit 24 for determining the abnormality of the motor control unit 2 based on a result of comparison between the final indication torque and the final indication torque confirmation value.
US08412392B2 Methods and systems for displaying predicted downpath parameters in a vertical profile display
Methods and systems are provided for presenting operating information for an aircraft in a vertical profile displayed on a display device associated with the aircraft. The vertical profile graphically depicts at least a portion of a flight plan for the aircraft, wherein the portion of the flight plan comprises a plurality of reference points. The method comprises calculating, for each reference point of the plurality of reference points, a predicted value of a first operating parameter for the aircraft at the respective reference point based at least in part on current status information for the aircraft, resulting in predicted values for the first operating parameter, and displaying the predicted values for the first operating parameter in the vertical profile.
US08412391B2 Proximity spacecraft maneuvering
Provided is a method and system for maneuvering a first spacecraft relative to a nearby second spacecraft that occupies a finite volume of space including obstacles in the vicinity of the second from a measured present relative position to a desired ending relative position. A trajectory is computed for the first spacecraft from the present relative position to the ending relative position using the A* algorithm. One or more thrusters of the first spacecraft are then fired. The first spacecraft's relative position and velocity are then measured and compared to the computed trajectory.
US08412388B2 Assisted piloting method and device for an aircraft for use in the event of a first limit indicator breaking down
An assisted piloting method for an aircraft having at least two engines (2, 3) includes monitoring a set of parameters (Ng, T4, Tq) of the engines. A first limit indicator (10) displays information relating to a value of a limiting parameter of the engines. The limiting parameter is the parameter (Ng, T4, Tq) of the engines that is the closest to its limit. An assisted piloting mode is activated during which each parameter (Ng, T4, Tq) is maintained below a predetermined threshold whenever the first limit indicator is not in a position to display the information.
US08412387B2 Apparatus for controlling a power using a smart device and method thereof
A smart device is discussed, which is connected to a smart grid to perform a power saving function. According to an embodiment, the smart device includes a power information receiving unit configured to receive power information through the smart grid network; a power saving control unit configured to perform the power saving function for at least one apparatus based on the power information in a power saving mode; at least one mode switching unit configured to switch from the power saving mode to a manual mode according to a user command; and a manual mode operational time determining unit configured to determine a manual mode operational time for operating the at least one apparatus in the manual mode, the at least one mode switching unit further configured to switch from the manual mode back to the power saving mode, automatically, when the manual mode operational time expires.
US08412386B2 Adaptive relaying controlled by autonomous event detection
An adaptive relaying control system and method is disclosed for adapting coordination of protective measures provided to an electric-energy distribution system as a function of at least an ambient weather condition. A weather sensor senses the ambient weather condition within a region adjacent to at least a portion of the electric-energy distribution system. A control unit is operatively coupled to the weather sensor to receive a weather signal indicative of the ambient weather condition and determine whether a storm condition exists based at least in part on the weather signal. The control unit establishes a suitable control philosophy for adapting coordination of the protective measures provided to the electric-energy distribution system based at least in part on whether the storm condition exists.
US08412383B2 Method and apparatus for dehumidifying granular material
Granular material is dehumidified by: a) providing a number of dry air generators inside hoppers containing granular material; b) for each dry air generator, evaluating the dry air flow generable and/or higher energy efficiency functioning time; c) calculating the dry air flow rate for each single hopper depending on the characteristics of the granular material; and d) activating a number of generators sufficient to deliver a total dry air flow rate equal to the sum of the flow rates required by the hoppers. The number of the generators and the generators to be activated are chosen depending on the flow rate deliverable by each and/or by their respective ranges of functioning at higher energy efficiency according to an energy saving logic. The remaining generators are deactivated.
US08412378B2 In-vivo tension calibration in tendon-driven manipulators
A method for calibrating tension sensors on tendons in a tendon-driven manipulator without disassembling the manipulator and without external force references. The method calibrates the tensions against each other to produce results that are kinematically consistent. The results might not be absolutely accurate, however, they are optimized with respect to an initial or nominal calibration. The method includes causing the tendons to be slack and recording the sensor values from sensors that measure the tension on the tendons. The method further includes tensioning the tendons with the manipulator positioned so that it is not in contact with any obstacle or joint limit and again recording the sensor values. The method then performs a regression process to determine the sensor parameters that both satisfy a zero-torque constraint on the manipulator and minimize the error with respect to nominal calibration values.
US08412377B2 Obstacle following sensor scheme for a mobile robot
A robot obstacle detection system including a robot housing which navigates with respect to a surface and a sensor subsystem aimed at the surface for detecting the surface. The sensor subsystem includes an emitter which emits a signal having a field of emission and a photon detector having a field of view which intersects the field of emission at a region. The subsystem detects the presence of an object proximate the mobile robot and determines a value of a signal corresponding to the object. It compares the value to a predetermined value, moves the mobile robot in response to the comparison, and updates the predetermined value upon the occurrence of an event.
US08412373B2 Conveying system
A conveying system, includes control devices for controlling the operation of the conveying system. The conveying system also includes a central control. The central control is arranged to select from a plurality of the different operating modes of the conveying system the operating mode to be used at any given time. The central control is connected to the control devices with a communications channel for indicating the operating mode selected to the control devices.
US08412371B2 Laser welding system, laser welding method, and emitting device
A laser welding system includes a robot control unit that acquires movement amount measurement values from encoders provided on axes of the robot and calculates the current position of a laser processing head based on the measurement values. Based on the calculated current position of the laser processing head, the robot control unit calculates a laser beam emission direction specifying the direction in which the laser beam should be aimed in order to strike a predetermined laser irradiation position. The robot control unit sends a command indicative of the laser beam emission direction to a processing head control unit which changes the direction of a reflecting mirror provided inside the laser processing head such that the laser beam is emitted in the specified direction.
US08412370B2 Polishing apparatus with dressing position setting means
While data that indicate a relationship between a dressing position P defined by a distance between a rotating shaft 11 of a polishing pad 13 and a rotating shaft 31 of a dresser 30 and shape change of the polishing pad 13 based on input of a target shape of the polishing pad 13 and alternating repetition of dressing the polishing pad 13 by the dresser 30 and measurement of shape of the polishing pad 13 by a pad shape measurement instrument 20 is acquired at a stage prior to commencement of a series of polishing steps for continuously polishing a plurality of polishing target objects (semiconductor wafer W) by a polishing tool 10, the polishing pad 13 is machined to the target shape 13 while the dressing position P is controlled, whereby the dressing position P is set during the polishing steps on the basis of a processing result of this data.
US08412369B2 Multiple product, multiple step optimization methods
Multiple product, multiple step optimization methods useful for manufacturing products. The optimization methods comprise defining a first group and a second group. The first and second groups each comprise at least two subgroups. One or more of the subgroups for each group comprises one or more variables and one or more constraints. The variables are optimized to obtain final values for the variables based on a defined objective subject to the constraints.
US08412366B2 Method and system for portioning workpieces to directly-controlled and indirectly-controlled specifications
A method and system are provided for automatically portioning workpieces, such as food products, into both shape and other user-defined specification(s). Workpieces are portioned both to shape and weight, such as to a weight-specific uniform shape, by adjusting (e.g., scaling up and down or slightly modifying) a desired template shape until the desired weight is achieved depending on the varying thickness of each workpiece. For example, from a thicker workpiece, a smaller-sized piece having a predefined shape and weight is portioned, while from a thinner workpiece, a larger-sized piece having the same predefined shape and weight is portioned. The system permits a user to scan in and edit a desired (reference) shape to be used as a template in the portioning process.
US08412365B2 Spectral translation/folding in the subband domain
The present invention relates to a new method and apparatus for improvement of High Frequency Reconstruction (HFR) techniques using frequency translation or folding or a combination thereof. The proposed invention is applicable to audio source coding systems, and offers significantly reduced computational complexity. This is accomplished by means of frequency translation or folding in the subband domain, preferably integrated with spectral envelope adjustment in the same domain. The concept of dissonance guard-band filtering is further presented. The proposed invention offers a low-complexity, intermediate quality HFR method useful in speech and natural audio coding applications.
US08412360B2 Method and system for robust attenuation of mechanical resonances using a multi-rate low pass filter
A system for a providing a multi-rate digital low pass filter that attenuates high frequency resonances in a control signal. The filter described by a transfer function having a phase-advanced factor (or an approximation of phase-advanced factor) and a low pass filtering function; either cancels or avoids an unstable pole in the phase advanced factor at z=−1.
US08412359B2 Light control system and method for automatically rendering a lighting scene
The invention relates to the automatic rendering of a lighting scene with a lighting system, particularly the control of the rendering. A basic idea of the invention is to improve rendering of a lighting scene by automatically compensating interference, such as an alien light source or a dynamic perturbing event of a rendered lighting scene. An embodiment of the invention provides a light control system (10) for automatically rendering a lighting scene with a lighting system, wherein the light control (10) system is adapted for monitoring the rendered lighting scene for the occurrence of interference (14, 20, 22, 24) and automatically reconfiguring the lighting system such that a monitored occurrence of an interference is compensated (16, 18, 12). As result, the invention allows to prevent dynamic disturbances or unforeseen events, for example caused by faulty or alien light sources, from distorting the rendering of an intended lighting scene.
US08412356B2 Methods and apparatus for automated predictive design space estimation
Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for automated predictive design space estimation. A design space of input factors and output responses is estimated for a physical process. Data is received for one or more input factors for a physical process, one or more output responses for the process, and criteria. For each of the one or more input factors, a calculated range of input values within the corresponding experimented range of input values is calculated. A modified range of input values is calculated for each of the one or more input factors. A design space estimate is predicted based at least on the modified ranges of input values, wherein the modified ranges of input values each comprise a largest region of variability for one or more of the input factors where the criteria are fulfilled.
US08412351B2 System and method for shunting induced currents in an electrical lead
An implantable medical device (IMD) can include a cardiac pacemaker or an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD). Various portions of the IMD, such as a case or device body, the lead body, or the lead tip, can be provided to reduce or dissipate a heat production due to a current induced by various external environmental factors. According to various embodiments, features or portions can be incorporated into the lead body, the lead tip, or the IMD body to reduce the creation of an induced current, or dissipate or increase the area of dissipation of thermal energy created due to an induced current in the lead.
US08412344B2 Deep brain stimulation device having wireless power feeding by magnetic induction
Provided is a deep brain stimulation (DBS) device having power wirelessly fed by magnetic induction. A rotating magnetic field is formed using a rotating magnetic field disk installed inside a hat of a patient. The rotating magnetic field generates induced power using an induction coil plate fixed underneath a scalp of the patient to drive electrodes implanted into a brain of the patient so as to correct abnormal motor and sensory functions of the patient using power wirelessly fed from an external device into the electrodes. The DBS device includes: a hat module installed inside a hat of the patient to generate a rotating magnetic field; and an implantation module implanted through a skull under a scalp to contact a nervous system of the patient and combined with the rotating magnetic field of the hat module to stimulate the cerebral nerve using induced power generated by the magnetic induction.
US08412341B2 Method and apparatus for optimizing the operation of a cochlear implant prosthesis
Disclosed is a method and apparatus for controlling the operation of a Cochlear implant prosthesis to optimize the effect of stimulation for a given patient. The optimal operation mode is determined in accordance with predetermined parameters measured from the neural response of the patient's auditory system in response to a neural stimulation.
US08412340B2 Tonality-based optimization of sound sensation for a cochlear implant patient
Methods and systems of optimizing sound sensation of a cochlear implant patient include dividing an audio signal into a plurality of analysis channels, generating one or more tonality indices each representing a tonality of one of the analysis channels, generating one or more stimulation pulses configured to represent the audio signal in accordance with one or more stimulation parameters, and adjusting at least one of the stimulation parameters based on at least one of the tonality indices.
US08412339B2 Package for an implantable neural stimulation device
The present invention is an improved hermetic package for implantation in the human body. The implantable device comprises an electrically non-conductive substrate; a plurality of electrically conductive vias through said electrically non-conductive substrate; a flip-chip circuit attached to said electrically non-conductive substrate using conductive bumps and electrically connected to a first subset of said plurality of electrically conductive vias, wherein said flip-chip circuit contains one or more stacks or a folded stack; a wire bonded circuit attached to said electrically non-conductive substrate and electrically connected to a second subset of said electrically conductive vias; and a cover bonded to said electrically non-conductive substrate, said cover, said electrically non-conductive substrate and said electrically conductive vias forming a hermetic package.
US08412332B2 Miniature wireless system for deep brain stimulation
An implantable system and method for deep brain stimulation (DBS) treatments. The implantable system is sufficiently small and self-contained to enable implantation of the entire system within the brain, or optionally within the brain and the surrounding tissue. The system comprises an implantable inductor on which a voltage is induced when subjected to an electromagnetic field, and an implantable device comprising a housing, stimulating elements at an exterior surface of the housing, and electronics within the housing and electrically connected to the implantable inductor. The electronics produces a brain-stimulating current from the voltage induced on the implantable inductor and then delivers the brain-stimulating current to the stimulating elements. Deep brain stimulation is performed by subjecting the inductor to an electromagnetic field to induce a voltage on the inductor that powers the electronics to produce and deliver the brain-stimulating current to the stimulating elements.
US08412331B2 Breathing therapy device and method
A device and method is provided for electrically stimulating the diaphragm to control breathing while inhibiting respiratory drive. A stimulation phase is identified. The stimulation phase is a period of time within the breathing cycle in which stimulation will inhibit respiratory drive. The respiratory drive inhibition may be used in a number of applications including but not limited to: improving or remodeling the heart in heart failure patients, treating apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), and hypertension.
US08412330B2 Connector assemblies for implantable medical electrical systems
A device connector assembly includes a plurality of electrical contacts and a sealing member including a corresponding plurality of apertures; each electrical contact extends within a corresponding aperture of the plurality of apertures such that each contact is accessible for coupling with a corresponding connector element of a lead connector. The lead connector elements protrude from a first side of an insulative substrate of the lead connector, and may be coupled to the contacts of the device connector assembly by aligning each connector element with the corresponding aperture of the sealing member, and applying a force to a second side of the insulative substrate, opposite the first side, in order to press each connector element into engagement with the corresponding contact.
US08412327B2 Cardiac resynchronization therapy optimization using vector measurements obtained from realtime electrode position tracking
An exemplary method includes selecting a first pair of electrodes to define a first vector and selecting a second pair of electrodes to define a second vector; acquiring position information during one or more cardiac cycles for the first and second pairs of electrodes wherein the acquiring comprises using each of the electrodes for measuring one or more electrical potentials in an electrical localization field established in the patient; and determining a dyssynchrony index by applying a cross-covariance technique to the position information for the first and the second vectors. Another method includes determining a phase shift based on the acquired position information for the first and the second vectors; and determining an interventricular delay based at least in part on the phase shift.
US08412325B2 High-energy anti-tachycardia therapy
Embodiments of the invention are related to medical devices and methods for delivery high-energy anti-tachycardia therapy to a subject, amongst other things. In an embodiment, the invention includes a medical device including a controller module configured to administer a plurality of electrical pulses to a patient in response to a detected tachycardia, the electrical pulses comprising an amplitude of greater than 3 Volts and less than 40 Volts, the controller configured to modulate the amplitude of the electrical pulses. In an embodiment, the invention includes a method of treating a tachyarrhythmia including administering a first series of electrical pulses to a patient with an implantable medical device, the electrical pulses including an amplitude of greater than 8 Volts and less than 40 Volts, the first series of electrical pulses having an interval of less than about 600 ms in between individual pulses. Other embodiments are also included herein.
US08412324B2 Method and device for treating myocardial ischemia
A method and device for treating myocardial ischemia are described in which the stress experienced by a myocardial region identified as vulnerable to becoming ischemic is varied with pre-excitation pacing. In an unloading mode, pacing is applied in proximity to the vulnerable region to reduce stress and the metabolic demand of the region. In a loading mode, pacing is applied to a region remote from the vulnerable region in order to produce a conditioning effect.
US08412323B2 Rest phase heart pacing
A computer method, employable during an at-rest period of a pacemaker patient, for controlling the operation of the pacemaker so as maximally to support the patient's hemodynamic behavior in a context involving inhibiting fluid overload. The method involves (a) collecting simultaneously occurring ECG and heart-sound information, (b) processing the collected information to obtain at least S3 data, and in certain instances also EMAT and/or % LVST data, (c) utilizing such obtained data, and during the at-rest period, applying (a) pacing rate, (b) pacing intensity, (c) atrio-ventricular delay, and (d) inter-ventricular delay control to the pacemaker. Processing involves (a) calculating from the obtained data an actual, real-time, acoustic cardiographic therapy (AC) value which is to be employed in relation to controlling pacemaker activity, and (b) comparing the actual AC value to a pre-established, related, rest-period-associated, reference AC value to detect differences therebetween, with the utilizing and applying steps being implemented so as to minimize such differences.
US08412317B2 Method and apparatus to measure bioelectric impedance of patient tissue
A device to measure tissue impedance comprises drive circuitry coupled to calibration circuitry, such that a calibration signal from the calibration circuitry corresponds to the current delivered through the tissue. Measurement circuitry can be coupled to measurement electrodes and the calibration circuitry, such that the tissue impedance can be determined in response to the measured calibration signal from the calibration circuitry and the measured tissue impedance signal from the measurement electrodes. Processor circuitry comprising a tangible medium can be configured to determine a complex tissue impedance in response to the calibration signal and the tissue impedance signal. The processor can be configured to select a frequency for the drive current, and the amount of drive current at increased frequencies may exceed a safety threshold for the drive current at lower frequencies.
US08412315B2 Analysis of heart rate variability data in animals for health conditions assessment
Assessing health condition of an animal under study includes receiving heart rate information of the animal under study and performing heart rate variability (HRV) analysis on the received heart rate information for determining autonomic dynamics of the animal under study with respect to a species of which the animal under study is a member, wherein the HRV analysis relates to time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data of the received heart rate information that are evaluated with respect to physiological states and corresponding health condition for the time domain HRV data and frequency domain HRV data for the species of the animal under study.
US08412313B2 ECG data acquisition device
An apparatus for generating ECG recordings and a method for using the same are disclosed. The apparatus includes a handheld device and a controller. The handheld device has first, second, third, and fourth electrodes on an outer surface of the handheld device. The controller records signals from the first, second, third, and fourth electrodes and generates an ECG recording from the signals. The controller also provides placement information regarding locations on a user's body that are to be brought into contact with the first, second, third, and fourth electrodes while the controller records the signals. The handheld device can include a cellular telephone or a PDA. The controller stores an exemplary normal ECG recording, and compares a newly generated ECG recording with the stored ECG recording and generates an indication that indicates whether the newly generated ECG recording is consistent with the stored ECG recording.
US08412312B2 Apparatus, systems, and methods of in-vivo blood clearing in a lumen
In one aspect, the invention relates to a computer-implemented method of triggering optical coherence tomography data collection. The method includes collecting optical coherence tomography data with respect to a vessel using an optical coherence tomography probe disposed in the vessel; determining a clearing radius and a quality value for each frame of optical coherence tomography data collected for the vessel using a computer; determining if a blood clearing state has occurred using at least one clearing radius and at least one quality value; and generating a trigger signal in response to the blood clearing state.
US08412310B2 Locking syringe with integrated bias member
A locking syringe with an integrated bias member, for delivering medical fluids at high pressure, can include a housing, a shaft, a piston, a cap assembly, a bias member, and a locking member. A distal end of the housing can interface with a patient delivery apparatus. A piston can be connected to the distal end of the shaft and can include a peripheral sealing surface that can slidably engage the inside surface of the housing to form a movable seal. The cap assembly at the proximal end of the housing can engage the shaft. A base cap can secure the piston within the housing. The bias member can have a distal end coupled to the piston and a proximal end restrained, such as to help pressurize the internal cavity. The user-actuatable locking member can user-selectively engage and inhibit unwanted movement of the shaft.
US08412306B2 Voltage standing wave suppression for MR-guided therapeutic interventions
A system and method of tracking a medical device and generating an image of a target area. The medical device includes a tracking device to create an imaging field-of-view that extends beyond the tip of the medical device while allowing the tip of the medical device to be visualized. The medical device further includes an imaging/visualization device to create an imaging field from the point of view of the medical device. A voltage standing wave suppression device is formed on the exterior surface of the medical device to prevent the formation of voltage standing waves and localized tissue heating. The voltage standing wave suppression device includes two cable traps spaced apart from one another with each cable trap being formed of a closely packed coiled region of a conductor extending the length of the medical device.
US08412304B2 Sealing of an implantable medical device
A method of adhering a protective layer applied to a substrate region of an implantable medical device (IMD) to form a covered substrate region. The method includes obtaining the IMD, depositing an intermediate layer on a portion of the substrate region of the IMD such that the intermediate layer binds to the portion of the substrate region to create a modified substrate region, and depositing the protective layer after depositing the intermediate layer onto the intermediate layer and adhering the protective layer to the intermediate layer. In an embodiment of the present invention, this method enhances the sealing characteristics of the protective layer by, for example, reducing the likelihood of delamination of the protective layer from the IMD relative to IMDs prepared by certain other methods.
US08412302B2 Intracranial neural interface system
In some preferred embodiments, without limitation, the present invention comprises an implantable, intracranial neural interface node which is an integrated and minimally invasive platform system and supports cross-modal neural interfaces to the cerebrum and other associated structures in the central nervous system. The neural interfaces comprise electrical and chemical interfaces for neural recording, electrical stimulation, chemical delivery, chemical sensing, chemical sampling, cell delivery, genetic material delivery and/or other functions of interest.
US08412294B2 Methods and apparatus for urodynamic analysis
A method for monitoring bladder function in an animal having a bladder, the method including positioning of a light emitter and a light detector on the animal's skin adjacent to the animal's bladder, emitting light at the bladder with the emitter while detecting light with the detector, and collecting data representative of detected light during bladder activity, to provide an indication of bladder function. Also provided are light shield apparatus and filter apparatus for near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) bladder monitoring.
US08412293B2 Systems and methods for determining physiological parameters using measured analyte values
Systems and methods for determining a physiological parameter in a patient are provided. In certain embodiments, a system can include an analyte detection system configured to measure first analyte data in a fluid sample received from a patient, a medical sensor configured to measure second analyte data in the patient, and a processor configured to receive the first analyte data and the second analyte data and to determine a physiological parameter based at least in part on the first analyte data and the second analyte data. In certain such embodiments, the medical sensor may be a pulse oximeter, and the physiological parameter may include a cardiovascular parameter including, for example, cardiac output.
US08412288B2 Optimization of power conservation with respect to application requirements
An apparatus comprising a power supply, a first interface coupled to the power supply and associated with a first operational mode and a second operational mode, and a second interface coupled to the power supply and associated with a third operational mode, wherein the wireless device is associated with an application having a response time requirement, wherein the first operational mode does not meets the response time requirement via the first interface, wherein the second operational mode meets the response time requirement via the first interface, wherein the third operational mode meets the response time requirement via the second interface, and wherein the apparatus is configured to consume less power using the first operational mode and the third operational mode than when using the second operational mode.
US08412275B2 Method and system for communicating feedback information in a multiple user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) communication system
A method and system for communicating feedback information in a multiple user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) communication system are presented. In one aspect of the method and system, a beamformer station may communicate a feedback information request to a plurality of beamformee stations. The feedback information request may request feedback data for a plurality of RF channel bands. The RF channel bands may form a multichannel. The beamformer may subsequently transmit a plurality of signals utilizing the RF channel bands within the multichannel. Each of the beamformees may receive the plurality of subsequently transmitted signals. A beamformee may generate the requested feedback data for each RF channel band within the multichannel. The beamformee may generate a beamforming report, which comprises the feedback data, which is generated across the plurality of RF channel bands in the multichannel. The beamformee may transmit the beamforming report to the beamformer.
US08412274B2 Wireless base station device
A wireless base station device includes a wireless unit for performing wireless communications with a mobile station; a reception memory unit for storing therein reception spectrum spread data as reception data; a baseband reception unit for processing and decoding the reception data stored in the reception memory unit; a common downlink channel reception unit for receiving a downlink signal of other base station devices; a frame protocol processing unit for converting a transmission channel format; a baseband transmission unit for outputting encoded data; a spread processing unit for outputting spread-modulated data to the wireless unit; and a call controller for controlling an allocation of processing resources. Parameters including a spreading code and a transmission power required for installing the wireless base station device are automatically set by operating the common downlink channel reception unit to detect notification information and signal levels of neighboring base station devices.
US08412272B2 Rectifier circuit management system, such as for use in cell site power systems
Systems, apparatus, methods, and manufactures for conserving power in a communications system such as a communications service cell site or cell site. The methods include adjusting the RF coverage of the cell site antenna, selective control of the RF output transmit power, selective control of the communications bit rate, transfer of communications to other cell sites, adjustment of indicators such that mobile devices transfer communications to other cell sites, and reallocation of logical slots between radios in the cell site. In some examples, the cell site employs a power controller. The power controller may utilize a switching circuit to produce two different voltages from a single battery string during a commercial power failure with improved conversion efficiencies. In another example, a power controller may manage multiple rectifiers so that the rectifiers operate more efficiently, such as with approximately equal runtime and with regular testing.
US08412269B1 Systems and methods for providing additional functionality to a device for increased usability
A system for providing additional functionality to a mobile device is described. The system includes a mobile enhancing device that is capable of being in electronic communication with the mobile device, the enhancing device comprising a keyboard functionality, display screen functionality, and pointing device functionality. The system may be designed such that the mobile device is a smartphone, mobile phone or a USB flash drive that includes an operating system.
US08412268B2 Detection, identification and operation of pheripherals connected via an audio/video-plug to an electronic device
An electronic device including a jack arranged to receive a peripheral device A/V plug, the A/V plug providing an end-terminal for a peripheral device to be connected to the jack, wherein the device is arranged to detect insertion of the A/V plug, and upon detection of insertion, discriminate the functionality provided by the peripheral device.
US08412267B2 Communication controlling method, computer readable medium, and communication device
A method to control a communication device to communicate with a first external device in a first communication method and with a second external device in a second communication method being different from the first communication method is provided. The method includes steps of determining prior to communicating in the first communication method whether the communication device is set to communicate in the second communication method, switching the communication methods in the communication device from the second communication method to the first communication method when it is determined that the communication device is set to communicate in the second communication method, and communicating with the first external device in the first communication method after switching the communication methods.
US08412264B2 Mobile communication device and method for transceiving data and voice thereof
A mobile communication device and a method for transceiving data and voice thereof are proposed. The mobile communication device includes a receiver, a first antenna module, and a second antenna module. The receiver is used to output voice. The first antenna module is disposed in the mobile communication device at a first side close to the receiver, and is used to transceive data of a first wireless communication system or a second wireless communication system. The second antenna module is disposed at a second side opposite to the first side, and is used to transceive voice of the first wireless communication system. A first distance between the first antenna module and the receiver is less than a second distance between the second antenna module and the receiver.
US08412262B2 System including bluetooth module and wireless LAN module and control method thereof
An embodiment of the disclosure provides a control method between a Bluetooth module and a wireless LAN module, for an electronic device with a Bluetooth module and a WiMAX module. The method comprises: determining whether the priority of the Bluetooth module is higher than that of the WiMAX module; determining whether data transmitted or received by the WiMAX module has to be protected; and when the priority of the Bluetooth module is not higher than that the WiMAX module and the data transmitted or received by the WiMAX module has to be protected, setting the Bluetooth module to be in an inactive mode.
US08412259B2 Outer loop transmit power control in wireless communication systems
Outer-loop power control methods and apparatus are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a short-term block error rate is measured for a received signal, and a coarse adjustment to a target signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) is calculated as a function of the short-term block error rate, a target block error rate, and a first loop tuning parameter. In some embodiments, a fine adjustment to the target SIR is also calculated, as a function of a smoothed block error rate, the target block error rate, and a second loop tuning parameter. The coarse adjustment provides quick responsiveness to received block errors, while the fine adjustment moderates the coarse adjustments by accounting for a longer-term view of the received block error rate. The target SIR adjustments disclosed herein may be computed in each of several iterations of an outer-loop power control loop.
US08412256B2 Inter-cell interference coordination method and apparatus for wireless communication system
An inter-cell interference coordination method and apparatus is provided for mitigating inter-cell interference in a wireless communication system by using interference coordination information exchanged among neighbor base stations. The method includes receiving, at a serving base station, power control messages transmitted by neighbor base stations, receiving incoming interference coordination messages transmitted by neighbor base stations, each message including interference indicators of resource blocks, allocating the resource blocks with transmission power per resource block to user equipments served by the base station based on the power control and interference coordination messages, generating outgoing interference coordination messages for the respective neighbor base stations based on the resource block allocation result, and transmitting the interference coordination messages to the neighbor base stations, respectively.
US08412255B2 Reverse link traffic power control
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate reverse link power control on a traffic channel. Indications of other sector interference or other such interference levels can be broadcasted in a wireless communication. Further, power control related information can be included in assignments to mobile devices. Mobile device can utilize the information in the assignment to set a range for delta-based power control. Further, devices employ broadcasted interference indications to maintain and adjust delta values that enable power settings to be established on traffic channels. Moreover, mobile devices may provide feedback to facilitate future assignments.
US08412254B2 Intelligent wireless dispatch systems
Intelligent wireless dispatch systems are provided. In one embodiment, the system includes a dispatch computer and mobile data terminals positioned on a vehicle and in wireless communication with the dispatch computer. The system displays a plurality of drivers arranged in a driver stack, receives exception information from each mobile data terminal, displays a formatted driver icon corresponding to each driver in the driver stack, and sorts the drivers in the driver stack by prioritized exception information. The system is configured to display a driver assignment list for each driver including one or more assignments and to wirelessly transmit an assignment message to the mobile data terminals according to an update to a driver assignment list. The mobile data terminals are configured to display the assignment message for acceptance or rejection. Additional embodiments may also include voice-over-IP capability for two-way communication between the dispatcher and driver.
US08412248B2 Communication method, wireless communication system, transmitter, and receiver
A wireless system for allocating a predetermined number of subcarriers as a plurality of resource blocks to terminals includes a base station that communicates with the terminals, wherein the base station sets M resource blocks adjacent to one another in a frequency domain as a resource block group, M being a positive integer, and uses a first communication method and a second communication method, the first communication method repeatedly and sequentially classifying the resource block group into M kinds of subsets from a first subset to an M-th subset, and the second communication method allocating two resource blocks, which are separated by a predetermined distance in the frequency domain, to a same terminal, wherein the predetermined distance being an integer multiple of M times M.
US08412246B2 Systems and methods for coordinating the scheduling of beamformed data to reduce interference
A system and method are disclosed for coordinating the scheduling of beamformed data to reduce interference in a wireless system. A first optimum phase adjustment is determined to increase the gain of an intended signal at a mobile device. A second optimum phase adjustment is determined to decrease the gain of interfering signals received at the mobile device. Using a phase adjustment map, a transmission is scheduled at a base station within wireless resources using the first optimum phase adjustment, at the same time an interfering base station is transmitting at the second optimum phase adjustment angle. Thus, signal strength is greatly improved while interference is greatly reduced, improving the efficiency of the wireless system.
US08412238B1 Providing information to a mobile device based on an event at a geographical location
A system, method, and computer readable medium for providing information to a mobile device based on an event comprising detecting an occurrence of the event, determining if the event is a specific event and if the event occurred at or near a geographical location and sending an alert of the event to at least one mobile device if the event is the specific event, if the event occurs at or near the geographical location, and if the at least one mobile device is located at or near the geographical location.
US08412236B2 System for providing location-based services in a wireless network, such as locating sets of desired locations
A system and associated method receives a command from a user's mobile device to locate points of interest near the mobile device's location. The points of interest are associated with different, user-identified, point of interest categories. Based at least in part on the mobile device's location, the system substantially simultaneously provides a list of points of interest for at least some of the point of interest categories.
US08412228B2 Mobile terminal and photographing method for the same
A mobile terminal and photographing method for the same are disclosed. The mobile terminal includes an optical section receiving optical signals, an image sensor comprising color sensor elements detecting sensing-image information from a transmitted optical signal, and infrared sensor elements detecting infrared-image information from the transmitted optical signal and an image processing unit producing infrared-image information of the color sensor elements, using the detected infrared-image information.
US08412226B2 Mobile phone locator
A method for locating a misplaced mobile phone, including receiving, by a mobile phone, a transmitted message, identifying, by the mobile phone, the transmitted message as being an alert request, and in response to the identifying, generating, by the mobile phone, an alert. A mobile phone is also described and claimed.
US08412225B1 Multi-carrier load balancing scheme for voice and data
A method for preventing the occurrence of overload conditions in a multi-carrier communication system such as, but not limited to, enhancements to 1xEV-DV by controlling the amount of voice and data users having access to the communication system in order to provide enhanced QoS and load balancing. The method includes converting one of carriers in the multi-carrier voice/data system to a voice-only carrier when loading exceeds a given threshold related to QoS and outage criteria.
US08412208B2 Autonomous fractional time reuse
Autonomous fractional time reuse is provided. In some embodiments, autonomous fractional time reuse includes determining a number of neighboring base stations of a base station in a heterogeneous network; and pseudo randomly selecting one or more Fractional Time Reuse (FTR) slots for transmission by the base station. In some embodiments, the one or more FTR slots are autonomously selected by the base station without coordinating the selection of the one or more FTR slots with one or more of the neighboring base stations.
US08412198B2 Method and system for configuring IP address in a wireless communication system
An apparatus and method for providing a seamless communication service in a wireless communication system. The method includes transmitting a first message to a base station when an IP subnet has been changed due to movement of the portable terminal, the first message including a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the portable terminal, receiving IP address information from the base station, which can be used in a new IP subnet, and configuring a new IP address based on the received IP address information.
US08412189B2 Method for wireless system selection optimization
A method for improved system selection by wireless mobile devices in 3GPP networks is provided. Location data is retrieved by the wireless device to estimate an initial system on which the wireless mobile device will attempt initialization. Using the location data, an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN) associated with the location data is determined from an ARFCN table stored in memory in the wireless mobile device. The wireless mobile device can then perform system selection using the determined ARFCN. A server generates and maintains the ARFCN table which is initially provided to the wireless mobile device at manufacturer, during provisioning or as an over-the-air update.
US08412176B2 Method for configuring mobile units
The present invention provides a method involving a base station and at least one mobile unit. The mobile unit is configured for communication with the base station using a first wireless communication medium. The method includes providing, over the first wireless communication medium, information indicating a modification to at least one configuration profile of the mobile unit. The configuration profile is associated with the first communication medium and the modification can be implemented by the mobile unit without user intervention.
US08412175B2 Cross domain notification
A method for a mobile communication device to indicate activity associated with an operating domain includes establishing a plurality of operating domains for the mobile communication device each operating as an independent virtual machine. The method also includes providing a trusted indicator at the mobile communication device for indicating activity associated with a high-side domain. The method also includes providing an input on the mobile communication device for switching from a low-side domain to the high-side domain. The method also includes providing a trusted element for the mobile communication device that is independent of either the high-side domain or the low-side domain. The trusted element may be configured to receive a signal from the input for switching from the low-side domain to the high-side domain and to perform user authentication for switching from the low-side domain to the high-side domain.
US08412174B2 Call note management on communication device
Displaying call note information on a communication device having stored thereon telephone call log information identifying telephone calls made to or from the communications device, the telephone call log information including the time and date of the telephone calls, wherein associated call note data is stored on the communications device for at least some of the telephone calls, including: detecting an input at the communication device requesting display of a call note history; and displaying on a display of the communication device, after detecting the input, a call note history list that lists telephone calls from the telephone call log information that have associated call note data stored on the communications device, wherein the telephone calls in the call note history list are listed according to the time and date of the telephone calls.
US08412173B2 Method and system for providing a contact attempt service
A method for providing a contact attempt service includes detecting an attempt of a first user to contact a second user through a first communication method and detecting contact between the first user and the second user through a second communication method. The method also includes removing a contact attempt indicator associated with the attempt of the first user to contact the second user through the first communication method.
US08412171B2 Voice group sessions over telecommunication networks
Telecommunication networks and methods are disclosed for providing a group session service for a plurality of participants. An application server in the telecommunication network receives a plurality of real-time media streams from the participants of the group session, and identifies voice media in the individual media streams. The voice media represents the spoken voice of the participants, and includes talking intervals separated by idle intervals (i.e., pauses in the spoken voice). The application server inputs the talking intervals as audio media elements into an audio media queue in the order received, and also outputs the audio media elements from the audio media queue in the order in which the audio media elements were inputted (i.e., in a first-in-first-out (FIFO) fashion) to generate a collective media stream for the group session. The collected audio stream is then provided to the participants of the group session.
US08412162B2 Systems and methods for providing enhanced voicemail services
A method for managing accessibility to a visual voicemail (VVM) service from a mobile device includes detecting that a first SIM has been inserted into a slot interface of the mobile device and establishing a data session with a VVM system to create a first VVM account. The first VVM account is configured to receive and store voicemail messages directed to a subscriber identified by the first SIM. The method further includes the mobile device receiving a voicemail message from the VVM system and storing the voicemail message in a memory. The method further includes the mobile device detecting the first SIM being removed and a second SIM being inserted into the slot interface. Upon insertion of the second SIM, the mobile device prevents access to the voicemail message associated with the first VVM account and communicative access to the first VVM account.
US08412160B2 Method for discarding all segments corresponding to the same packet in a buffer
The technology described relates to management of data packets and buffers comprising segments of data packets in a mobile communication system. Information associated with data packet segments is analyzed by a Base Station System (BSS) housing a data buffer. Based on this information analysis, the BSS can identify those segments in the buffer that constitute a complete data packet. Once identified, the segments can be discarded from the buffer. The information can include size information, whereby the analysis comprises pairwise comparing the size of a current segment with the size of a next consecutive segment. This size comparison enables identification of a first segment and a last segment of the complete data packet. The information could also, or alternatively, include a notification provided in the header of the segment. This notification identifies the associated segment as the first or last segment of the data packet or an intermediate segment.
US08412159B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product for security configuration coordination during a cell update procedure
A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for maintaining synchronization with respect to the security configurations of the network and a mobile terminal, even during a cell update procedure. A method may include causing a cell update message to be provided during performance of a cell update procedure and including, with the cell update message, a security configuration information element indicating that a mobile terminal has applied an updated security configuration in an instance in which the mobile terminal has applied the updated security configuration. The method may also include, with the cell update message, the information element indicating that the mobile terminal has reverted to a prior security configuration in an instance in which the mobile terminal has reverted to a prior security configuration. Corresponding apparatuses and computer program products are also provided.
US08412157B2 Method and apparatus for security protection of an original user identity in an initial signaling message
A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) includes a control plane (C-plane) packet data convergence protocol (C-PDCP) layer which performs ciphering of a signaling message. The C-PDCP layer is activated upon power up of the WTRU and initial security parameters are loaded to the C-PDCP layer. An initial connection signaling message and a user identity are ciphered using the initial security parameters even before the WTRU is authenticated. The initial security parameters including a ciphering key (CK) may be generated from system information broadcast from the network. The CK may be a public key for asymmetric encryption, and may be selected from a public key set broadcast by or derived from the network system information. An index of the selected public key may be separately encoded. Alternatively, the index may be communicated by using a Diffie-Hellman key exchange method.
US08412153B2 Data volume reporting for multimedia broadcast/multimedia service groups
Multicast/broadcast messaging service (MBMS) arrangement, in which a broadcast/multicast service center delivers multimedia messages to a plurality of users via a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN) and via a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and a radio access network (RAN), in association with a given temporary mobile group identity (TMGI) and using a single radio access bearer (RAB). Responsive to a given event, the SGSN sends to the RAN a data volume report query identifying said RAB by the TMGI or another unique parameter. The RAN responds with a data volume report that indicates the amount of unsent MBMS data. If so agreed, the SGSN will pass said amount to a charging gateway for compensation in charging for the MBMS service.
US08412151B2 Payback calling plan
A method for paying back customers for unused service units remaining after a billing cycle. A payback amount is determined by the product of the number of unused service units remaining and the payback rate amount. The payback amount credited to the customer is the calculated payback rate or a maximum payback amount, wherever is smaller. A total payback amount can be determined based on a combination of payback amounts for various services, including voice services, texting services, email services, and/or data storage services.
US08412148B2 Location-based alarm system with forewarning capability
A wireless communications device includes a location-dependent alarm which a user can set to be triggered at a target location. A GPS receiver embedded in the wireless device provides position data representative of the current location. When the current location matches the target location, the alarm is triggered. This enables the user to set the alarm to wake him upon arrival at a particular location, e.g. a specific station on a commuter train. In another example, the wireless device can wake the user at one time of morning if the user is sleeping in one location and at a second time if the user is sleeping in a second location.
US08412147B2 System and method for emergency notification content delivery
A method for disseminating emergency notification content from an emergency originating source. The method comprising: delivering the emergency notification content from the emergency originating source to at least one transmitting party; selecting a subset of users from among a set of users for dissemination of the emergency notification content based on the subject matter of the emergency notification content; and delivering the emergency notification content from the at least one transmitting party to a device corresponding to each user from the selected subset of users.
US08412144B2 Architecture and method for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems
Architecture for supporting ZIF or LIF/IF systems includes 4N pins, 2N ADCs, a determination unit and a processing unit, N being a positive integer. The 2N ADCs include a y-th ADC for converting a differential analog signal received by a (2y−1)-th pin and a 2y-th pin into a y-th digital signal, y being positive integers ranging from 1 to 2N. The determination unit determines whether the digital signals are ZIF signals, LIF signals or IF signals. The processing unit performs an ZIF system processing on the ZIF signals, performs a LIF system processing on the LIF signals, and performs an IF system processing on the IF signals.
US08412142B2 Multiple frequency band information signal universal front end with adjustable ADC(s)
A wireless device includes processing circuitry, a receiver section, a transmitter section, and an antenna. The processing circuitry determines a set of information signals of a RF Multiple Frequency Bands Multiple Standards (MFBMS) signal. The receiver section down-converts a portion of the RF MFBMS signal by one or more respective shift frequencies to produce a corresponding baseband/low Intermediate Frequency (BB/IF) information signal from which the processing circuitry extracts data. The transmitter section converts a respective BB/IF information signal received from the processing circuitry by a respective shift frequency to produce a corresponding RF information signal and a combiner that combines the RF information signals to form a RF MFBMS signal. The receiver section and the transmitter section include ADCs and/or DACs, respectively, that are adjustable based upon characteristics of the RF MFBMS signal, the BB/IF MFBMS signal, and/or based upon signals carried therein, e.g., modulation type, SNR requirements, etc.
US08412138B2 Digital signal processing system and multi-signal connector thereof
A multi-signal connector includes a first tuner, a first demodulator, a first radio frequency signal pin, a first ground signal pin and digital signal pins, and the first radio frequency signal pin transmits a first radio frequency signal. The first tuner receives the first radio frequency signal and outputs a first digital signal. The first demodulator receives the first digital signal and outputs an MPEG signal via the digital signal pins. The ground signal pin is disposed between the first radio frequency signal pin and the digital signal pins for reducing the interference and noise between the first radio frequency signal and the MPEG signal. A digital signal processing system is also disclosed.
US08412136B2 Measuring load impedance of an amplifier driving a variable load
According to an aspect of the present invention, the magnitude and phase angle of looking-in impedance driven by an amplifier are computed in digital domain during normal operation within a module containing the amplifier. In an embodiment, the computed magnitude and phase angle are used for impedance matching at a node driven by the amplifier. As a result, impedance matching may be obtained even in situations when the impedance changes during operation.
US08412134B2 Filter circuit, wireless transmitter, and wireless receiver
According to one embodiment, a radio transmitter comprises a passive mixer that mixes the radio-frequency signal and a local oscillation signal, and outputs a mixed signal to the frequency response device, thereby shifting the frequency characteristic of the frequency response device to high frequency by a local oscillation frequency of the local oscillation signal and applying the frequency characteristic shifted to high frequency on the radio-frequency signal.
US08412133B2 Pre-distortion for a radio frequency power amplifier
Coefficients of a pre-distorter are determined for correction of distortion of a signal amplified by a radio frequency amplifier by sampling the signal at the pre-distorter input to generate a plurality of input samples and sampling the signal at the amplifier output to generate a plurality of output samples, each of the output samples corresponding to one of the input samples, calculating a figure of merit for one or more of the input samples on the basis of the one or more of the input samples, selectively updating a previously selected set of input samples with said one or more input samples on the basis of the calculated figure of merit, whereby to generate an updated selected set and determining the coefficients of the pre-distorter on the basis of the input samples in the updated selected set and the corresponding output samples.
US08412129B2 Techniques to enhance diversity for a wireless system
A system, apparatus, method and article to manage diversity for a wireless multicarrier communication system are described. An apparatus may include a diversity agent to couple to a transmitter, the diversity agent to convert a determined number of input bits into symbols, interleave the symbols across multiple spatial streams, and map the symbols to tones for each spatial stream. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08412128B2 Method and system for a double search user group selection scheme with range reduction in TDD multiuser MIMO downlink transmission
Certain aspects of a method and system for processing signals in a communication system may include maximizing system capacity for a time division duplex (TDD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, based on reducing a search range within which to find a group of signals having maximum channel gain. At least one of: a first signal for a first user and a second signal for a second user may be selected, which are both within the reduced search range, and which provides a maximum system capacity. The first signal for the first user may be selected from the reduced search range corresponding to a channel gain that is greater than a channel gain corresponding to a remaining portion of the reduced search range. The reduced search range may be generated by sorting a plurality of signals based on a channel gain corresponding to each of the plurality of signals.
US08412127B2 Hybrid phase sweeping for mobile transmit diversity
An improved method and apparatus for Mobile Transmit Diversity (MTD), or Uplink Transmit Diversity (ULTD) is disclosed. The mobile device either selects the best antenna at any given time, or transmits from both antennas using the best beam forming phase without feedback from the base station on which antenna to transmit from or which phase to use if using two antennas. Essentially operating in Open Loop MTD, a Hybrid Phase Sweeping algorithm requires testing of a fraction of phase hypotheses resulting in improved base station performance and higher data rates for the user.
US08412126B2 Communications systems including adaptive antenna systems and methods for inter-system and intra-system interference reduction
Methods of forming a downlink beam in an adaptive antenna system of a communications system that may reduce inter-system and/or intra-system interference include receiving vectors of signals including signals transmitted by user terminals of the communications system and signals transmitted by transceivers of an independent communications system, obtaining spatial information for the user terminals of the communications system and the transceivers of the independent communications system, generating complex transmitting weights that form spatial nulls directed at the transceivers of the independent communications system, and transmitting a downlink communications signal using the complex transmitting weights. Related systems are also disclosed.
US08412125B2 Wireless communication system with transmit diversity designs
An apparatus for enabling a base station to transmit radio frequency signals with a transmit diversity technique comprises a first antenna implemented in the base station; and a second antenna implemented in the base station, and placed apart from the first antenna by a predetermined distance. The first antenna utilizes a first frequency band of a predetermined frequency spectrum for transmitting signals, and the second antenna utilizes a second frequency band of the predetermined frequency spectrum for transmitting signals. The first and second frequency bands do not overlap.
US08412124B2 Multi-band peak power reduction
Peak power reduction in transmit chains of multi-band radiocommunication devices is performed. By using knowledge of the phase transformations which occur at the upconverter to determine how baseband signal samples will combine at the higher (upconverted) frequency, peak prediction and corresponding baseband signal modification can be performed in a way that reduces peak power of the combined signal.
US08412123B2 Radio opaque container for communication devices upon a vehicle
A radio opaque container for communication devices upon a vehicle has a bottom joined to four walls, a pivoting lid sealing upon the walls, a connector from the container to a vehicle, a locking mechanism keeping the lid closed, and circuitry between the locking mechanism and the vehicle that engages the locking mechanism only when the vehicle's electrical system is on. In an emergency, the contents within the container remain available to a vehicle operator but the container opens only when vehicle's electrical power has been turned off. The container forms at least one faraday cage around the contents and prevents equipment placed therein from activating and distracting a vehicle operator. In an alternate embodiment, the container includes a shelf therein.
US08412122B2 Apparatus and method for antenna matching in portable terminal
An apparatus and method for antenna matching according to a position and an angle of a portable terminal is provided. Operations of the portable terminal include, when at least one of a position and an angle of the portable terminal is changed, determining an optimal Tunable Matching Network (TMN) set value corresponding to the position and the angle, and performing antenna matching according to the optimal TMN set value.
US08412121B2 Circuit integrating a tunable antenna with a standing wave rate correction
An integrated electronic radio-frequency transceiver circuit, including: at least one terminal intended to receive a signal to be transmitted or to transmit a received signal; at least one planar antenna, with a settable resonance frequency; at least one bidirectional coupler having a primary line interposed between the terminal and the antenna and having the respective terminals of a secondary line providing data representative of the transmitted power and of the power reflected on the primary line side; at least one detector of the transmitted power and of the reflected power; and a circuit for selecting the resonance frequency of the antenna according to the ratio between the transmitted power and the reflected power.
US08412119B2 Evaluation device and method for providing a transceiver system with performance information thereof
An evaluation device is adapted for providing a transceiver system with performance information thereof. The transceiver system models a channel between a transmitter and a receiver thereof using Nakagami distribution with a fading parameter. The evaluation device includes a threshold value computing module, a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) setting module, a probability computing module, and an output module. The threshold value computing module is operable to compute a threshold value based upon a given capacity. The SNR setting module is operable to set an average SNR for the channel between the transmitter and the receiver of the transceiver system. The probability computing module is operable, based upon the fading parameter, the average SNR and the threshold value, to compute an outage probability of the transceiver system corresponding to the given capacity. The output module is operable to provide the transceiver system with the average SNR and the outage probability.
US08412118B2 Analog received signal strength indication in an RF transceiver
An integrated circuit radio transceiver and method therefor comprises a receiver front end that further includes a plurality of in-phase and quadrature phase receive processing block operable at first and second frequency bands wherein each of the receive processing blocks defines an ingoing signal path and further includes a plurality of filtering and amplification blocks disposed within the corresponding ingoing signal path, a plurality of RSSI blocks coupled to receive an ingoing analog signal from a corresponding plurality of nodes disposed throughout the ingoing signal path, each of the plurality of received signal strength indicator blocks producing a signal strength indication, and wherein a baseband processor is operable to receive a selected signal strength indication and to produce at least one gain setting to at least one amplification block within the in-phase or quadrature phase receive processing blocks. In operation, the baseband processor receive a signal strength indication from each RSSI block to determine a total amount of gain and appropriate gain distribution within the receive signal path.
US08412117B2 Method and arrangement for improved feeder sharing in a telecommunication system
A filter arrangement (EFM) comprises a first terminal (T1) arranged for handling duplex radio antenna feeder signals for at least two transceiver modules (10, 20), a second terminal (T2) arranged for handling at least duplex signals for a first transceiver module (10), a third terminal (T3) arranged for outputting a first multi carrier power amplifier system input signal, said input signal representing a transmit signal from said first transceiver module (10), a fourth terminal (T4) arranged for receiving a multi carrier power amplifier system output signal, said output signal comprising an amplified representation of the transmit signals from said at least two transceiver modules, and wherein said first and said second terminal (T1, T2) are connected via first single filter means (RX), said second and said third terminal (T2, T3) are connected via second single filter means (TX1), said fourth and said first terminal (T4, T1) are connected via third single filter means (TX2).
US08412111B2 Testing voice-based office equipment for immunity to interference from wireless devices
According to some embodiments, a method includes placing a device under test (DUT) in a test chamber and applying a pulse-modulated RF wireless test signal to the DUT in the test chamber. The method further includes detecting an acoustic output of the DUT. In addition or as an alternative to applying the pulse-modulated test signal, the test signal strength may be at a level of 30 V/m or 90 V/m. If the DUT is a telephone, it may be coupled via a voice signal path to another telephone, and an output of the other telephone may also be detected.
US08412110B2 Apparatus and method for determining multi-antenna radiated performance of wireless devices
An apparatus and method for determining radiated performance of multiple antennas in a wireless system on the basis of capacity degradation comprising calculating a plurality of normalized IID channel matrices based on a plurality of complex gain patterns; calculating a plurality of colored channel matrices based on the plurality of normalized IID channel matrices; calculating a first channel capacity corresponding to the plurality of normalized IID channel matrices; calculating a second channel capacity corresponding to the plurality of colored channel matrices; and calculating a capacity degradation based on the first channel capacity and the second channel capacity.
US08412108B2 Apparatus, methods and computer programs
A method including: processing at a first processing frequency, such that each instance of processing is separated by a first processing time period, at least a first signal; increasing the processing frequency to a second processing frequency and switching from processing the first signal to processing a second signal; determining a parameter indicative of the quality of the second signal; and determining, within the first processing time period measured from the last instance of processing the first signal at the first frequency, which one or more signals to process at the next instance of processing by comparing respective parameters of at least the first and second signals.
US08412099B2 Method and device for managing application data in an NFC system in response to contactless data sending or receiving
A method for managing application data in an NFC system embedded or to be embedded in a portable object including a contactless data sending/receiving interface, one or more host processors and a data routing or transferring processor is described. The method includes generating complementary application data in response to the routing or transferring of external application data, and supplying the complementary application data to a host processor of the NFC system.
US08412097B2 Methods, electronic devices, and computer program products for coordinating bluetooth and wireless local area network communication
An electronic device may be operated by providing Bluetooth communication duty cycle information to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) module. A determination is made, based on the Bluetooth communication duty cycle information, if there is sufficient time during a current Bluetooth inactive communication interval to complete a WLAN communication. If it is determined that there is not sufficient time to complete the WLAN communication during the current Bluetooth inactive communication interval, then the WLAN transmission is postponed to a subsequent Bluetooth inactive communication interval.
US08412094B2 Position signal receiver
Apparatuses are described and disclosed which operate in a first mode to receive non-position signals, for example FM radio signals, and in a second mode of operation to receive land-based position signals, for example LORAN signals.
US08412093B2 Receiver applying channel selection filter for receiving satellite signal and receiving method thereof
A satellite receiver for receiving at least a target satellite signal includes a channel selection filter and a controller. The channel selection filter is provided with a plurality of channel selection settings conforming to characteristics of a plurality of satellite signals corresponding to different satellite systems, wherein each of the channel selection settings is to receive at least one of the satellite signals. The controller controls the channel selection filter to enable a target channel selection setting selected from the channel selection settings to thereby receive at least the target satellite signal.
US08412092B2 Broadcast communication system and method for providing users with information associated with a geographical area
A method is presented for providing information associated with a geographical area to users of broadcast communication receivers. The information, as well as an indication of the geographical area associated with the information, are transmitted to, and received by, each of the broadcast communication receivers. In each of the receivers, the indication of the geographical area is compared with a geographic code associated with, and stored within, the receiver. Each of the receivers also provides at least one alert to a user of the respective broadcast communication receiver if the geographic area is located on a travel vector of the respective broadcast communication receiver indicated by the geographical code.
US08412090B2 Image forming apparatus
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a housing having a discharge port, a plurality of photosensitive bodies mounted in the housing, a transfer unit to transfer visible images formed on the plurality of photosensitive bodies onto a printing medium, a fusing unit to fuse transferred visible images to the printing medium, and a reverse unit to reverse a moving direction of the printing medium, after the printing medium has passed through the fusing unit. As the moving direction of the printed printing medium is reversed by the reverse unit, the printing medium may be discharged while a printed surface of the printing medium is directed downward, allowing a user to easily draw out the printing medium.
US08412087B2 Methods, apparatus, and systems for controlling a gloss of an image fixed by warm-pressure fixing
A fixed image gloss control system outputs a warm pressure-fixed image having a low gloss level. The image is alterable to change the low gloss level to a high gloss level or an intermediate gloss level. The fixing system includes a pressure roll and a fixing roll that together form a fixing nip. The pressure roll has a polyurethane contact surface. A polishing mechanism may polish the fused image to achieve a desired gloss level.
US08412086B2 Image forming apparatus, clear layer forming apparatus, and image forming system
An image forming apparatus has an image forming section which transfers a toner image according to image data onto a recording sheet, a first fixing section which fixes the toner image with heat of the first fixing roller, a clear layer forming section which forms a clear layer on the toner image which the first fixing section has fixed, a second fixing section which fixes the clear layer with heat of the second fixing roller and a control section which controls the clear layer forming section to increase the thickness of the clear layer in a recording sheet area corresponding to a fixed area during the second revolution of the first fixing roller on the recording sheet, compared with a recording sheet area corresponding to a fixed area during the first revolution thereof.
US08412084B2 Fixing device provided with temperature sensor
There is provided a fixing device for thermally fixing a developing agent image to a sheet. The fixing device includes: a tubular flexible member having an inner peripheral surface defining an internal space; a nip member disposed in the internal space and having one surface, the inner peripheral surface being in sliding contact with the one surface; a heater disposed in the internal space: a reflection plate configured to reflect a radiant heat from the heater toward the nip member; a backup member providing a nip region in cooperation with the nip member for nipping the flexible member between the backup member and the nip member; and a temperature sensor disposed in the internal space to detect a temperature of the reflection plate.
US08412083B2 Fixing device
A fixing device for thermally fixing a developer image transferred onto a recording sheet, includes: a flexible fusing member which is flexibly deformable; a heating element; a nip member disposed in such a manner as to contact with a surface of the flexible fusing member and to allow the flexible fusing member to slide along the nip member; a reflecting plate configured to reflect radiant heat from the heating element in a direction toward the nip member; a backup member configured to nip the flexible fusing member with the nip member to thereby form a nip portion for the recording sheet between the flexible fusing member and the backup member; and a stay configured to support both end portions of the nip member. The reflecting plate has at least one flange portion, and the flange portion is held and supported between the nip member and the stay.
US08412082B2 Conveying device, fixing device and image forming apparatus having restricting member
A conveying device including: a rotating body that rotates; a conveying belt that rotates while nipping a conveyed member between the conveying belt and the rotating body, thereby conveying the conveyed member; a pressing member that is disposed at an inner periphery of the conveying belt along a conveying belt rotation axis direction and presses the conveying belt towards the rotating body; a pair of support members that are respectively disposed at each of two rotation axis direction edge sides of the conveying belt and that support the pressing member; and a contact member that is disposed at the inner periphery of the conveying belt along the conveying belt rotation axis direction, makes sliding contact with the rotating conveying belt, and is supported so as to be independently displaceable relative to the pressing member.
US08412078B2 Development agent supply device including an electric-field transfer board and a development agent retrieving unit and image forming apparatus having the same
A development agent supply device includes a casing having an opening, a first development agent storage section, and a second development agent storage section, a development agent holding member housed in the casing such that a development agent holding surface thereof faces a developer-supplied device via the opening, a first electric-field transfer board that transfers development agent with a traveling-wave electric field along a down-facing development agent transfer surface in a predetermined direction from the first development agent storage section to the opening and faces the development agent holding surface at a downstream end in the predetermined direction, and a development agent retrieving unit that agitates development agent stored in the second development agent storage section and inadequately-charged development agent falling from the development agent transfer surface and conveys the development agent to the first development agent storage section.
US08412077B2 Developing device and image forming apparatus using the same
The developing device includes: a developing container for storing a developer; first and second conveying passages that are formed in the developing container and sectioned by a partition; first and second conveying members disposed inside the first and second conveying passages, respectively, to agitate and circulatively convey the developer through the first and second conveying passages in opposite directions; a developing roller that supplies the developer in the second developer conveying passage to a photoreceptor drum; first and second communication paths that connect between the first and second conveying passages at both ends of the partition; and, a developer flow regulator that regulates the flow of developer moving from the first conveying passage to the second conveying passage, in accordance with the height of the developer surface of the developer.
US08412074B2 Charging roller for image forming apparatus and manufacturing method thereof
Disclosed is a charging roller for an image forming apparatus capable of preventing the formations of surface scratches. The charging roller includes a roller shaft, a roller body formed on the roller shaft and a scratch prevention layer formed on the roller body. The scratch prevention layer contains inorganic crystal of polysilicate.
US08412070B2 Electrophotographic image forming apparatus including a cartridge mounting feature
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material, includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum; a cartridge including a developing roller for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrophotographic photosensitive drum, the cartridge containing a developer for effecting development and including a force receiving portion, wherein the cartridge is mounted to a main assembly of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus; and an urging member for urging the cartridge; wherein by mounting the cartridge, the force receiving portion receives a force from the urging member to urge the developing roller to the electrophotographic photosensitive drum.
US08412069B2 Charging unit, manufacturing method for charging unit, process cartridge and image forming device
A charging unit is provided, the charging unit including: a charging member; and a charging member clean-up member having an elastic layer, the elastic layer containing a silicon oil, wherein a silicone concentration in analyzing the charging member by an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy satisfies following condition: about 1 atm %≦(difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the silicone concentration in Si2p detected by the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy above the charging member)≦about 3 atm %.
US08412068B2 Cooling device including a water-absorbing member and image forming device
A cooling device is disclosed. The cooling device includes a cooling section which is moveably provided with respect to an image forming device body between a first location and a second location, the second location being different from the first location, and which cools surroundings with a cooling medium to be supplied; a cooling medium supply section which is provided at the image forming device body and which cools the cooling medium to supply the cooled cooling medium to the cooling section; and a connecting member which connects the cooling section and the cooling medium supply section to circulate the cooling medium between the cooling section and the cooling medium supply section, wherein the connecting member includes a flexible member and is supported by a guiding member which guides an operation of tracking the connecting member in conjunction with movement of the cooling section.
US08412064B2 Image forming apparatus to control photosensitive member irradiation
An image forming apparatus includes a rotatable photosensitive member, a charging member, an applying device, an irradiation device, and a controller. The charging member contacts the photosensitive member to charge the photosensitive member. The applying device applies a direct-current voltage to the charging member. The irradiation device irradiates with light an upstream charging gap located upstream of a contact portion between the photosensitive member and the charging member in a rotation direction of the photosensitive member. The controller controls the irradiation device to irradiate with a first light amount when the photosensitive member rotates at a first speed, and to irradiate with a second light amount that is larger than the first light amount when the photosensitive member rotates at a second speed that is lower than the first speed.
US08412063B2 Image forming apparatus that performs image stabilization control
An image forming apparatus has an image bearing member that moves at a specified speed; a toner pattern forming section for forming toner patterns of a specified type on the image bearing member under specified image forming conditions; a toner pattern detection member for detecting the toner patterns formed on the image bearing member; a toner amount varying section for varying a target amount of toner to adhere to the toner patterns; and a control section that calculates a toner adherence amount and a toner adherence position from detection results outputted from the toner pattern detection member and that performs image stabilization control to adjust the image forming conditions based on the calculation results. In the image stabilization control, the control section uses detection results of the same toner patterns both to calculate the toner adherence amount and to calculate the toner adherence position.
US08412062B2 Paper profile and reading systems
Methods, systems, computer readable media and other means for generating a profile for a particular type of media are provided. The profile represents a set of preferred printing parameters to be used to achieve a target print quality for a reference printing device. The profile may be used by other non-reference printing devices in order to optimize printing for that type of media. For each non-reference printing device, an offset may be established that represents the differences between the non-reference and the reference printing devices. A processor of the non-reference printing device may identify the type of media and the profile for that media and then adjust the printing parameters for the non-reference printing device based on the profile and the offset in order to optimize the print quality. The profile may also include a parameter that is based on a temperature coefficient associated with the type of printer.
US08412058B2 Method for detecting low toner in an electro-photographic toner cartridge
A method for detecting low toner in an electro-photographic toner cartridge having an optical sensor using a light beam to detect the presence or absence of toner in the cartridge includes transmitting to a processor a signal related to the strength of the light beam sensed as a paddle disposed within the cartridge rotates. The processor calculates an average value for the signal for each of a plurality of sets of paddle revolutions. The processor then calculates a variation value for the signal for each of the plurality of sets of paddle revolutions. The processor filters each variation value to determine a plurality of short term variation values. The processor monitors whether at least one short term variation value exceeds a first threshold. When the at least one short term variation value exceeds the first threshold, the processor signals that the toner level is low.
US08412057B2 Image forming cartridge, image forming apparatus and toner cartridge
An image forming cartridge comprises a developing unit configured to hold toner including a developing section configured to use the toner for developing and a supplying section configured to provide the toner to the developing section and a toner cartridge attachable to the developing unit, wherein the toner cartridge contains toner and supplies toner to the developing unit and the toner cartridge includes a stand-by charging unit configured to perform stand-by charge to the toner in the toner cartridge.
US08412056B2 Image forming apparatus performing image formation by conveying paper
An image forming apparatus includes a transfer belt that conveys a transfer material, and a photosensitive body that catches the transfer material between the photosensitive body and the transfer belt and that transfers a toner image to the transfer material. The transfer belt is driven in conjunction with the opening action of the front cover, and the photosensitive body is separated from the transfer belt in conjunction with the opening action of the front cover.
US08412049B2 Wireless optical data probe
A portable data probe includes a portable housing, an optical transceiver circuit and a wireless communication circuit. The optical transceiver circuit is disposed substantially within the portable housing, but is also configured to be in optical communication with an exterior of the portable housing. The optical transceiver circuit is operable to convert between electrical signals and corresponding optical signals. The wireless communication circuit is also disposed substantially within the housing, and is operably coupled to the optical transceiver circuit. The wireless communication circuit is operable to communicate wireless signals to a remote wireless circuit.
US08412048B2 Surface and sub-surface wave front management
A method and apparatus are present for managing a transmission of photons. The number of parameters for transmitting the photons as a beam in a liquid are identified using a number of characteristics of the liquid to form a number of selected parameters. The photons are transmitted in the liquid as the beam to a target using the number of selected parameters to form the transmission of the photons.
US08412044B2 Optical fiber network with improved fiber utilization
A passive optical network system and method in which at least part of the data is optically transmitted through a single optical fiber using a wavelength division multiplexing technique, with a plurality of signals being carried through the fiber in each direction, a different wavelength being used for each of the multiplexed upstream and downstream signals. The system may be retrofitted into existing telecommunications system to provide a multi-fold increase in the available bandwidth of long-distance optical fiber transmission.
US08412037B2 Image photographing apparatus and method of controlling the same
A method of controlling an image photographing apparatus includes checking a photographing mode of the image photographing apparatus, displaying a characteristic curve indicating a relationship between photographing conditions and a recommended region if the checked photographing mode is a manual mode to manually adjust the photographing conditions, and changing the photographing conditions if a user specifies any point of the characteristic curve or the periphery of the characteristic curve. Accordingly, it may be possible to implement the user interface which is conveniently and easily controlled.
US08412035B2 Imaging apparatus having autofocus function, and control method for the imaging apparatus
An apparatus includes an imaging unit, a focus detection unit configured to detect a focusing state of a focus lens, a designation unit configured to receive a designation of an in-screen position of an object displayed on a display screen, and a control unit configured to control a movable range of the focus lens when the focusing state is detected by the focus detection unit such that if the designation unit does not designate the in-screen position of the object, the movable range is set to be a first range and, if the designation unit designates the in-screen position of the object, the movable range is set to a second range that is wider than the first range.
US08412031B2 Camera with a function of automatically setting shooting conditions and shooting method
A camera with a function of automatically setting shooting conditions, is provided with a memory storing plural pieces of feature information of an object corresponding to different positions, respectively, the feature information of an object representing features of the object, a judging unit for, when a shooting operation is performed with the camera at a position to obtain an image, obtaining from the memory feature information corresponding to the camera position and judging whether or not an object corresponding to the obtained feature information is found in the image obtained in the shooting operation, and a shooting-operation controller for changing shooting conditions depending on the judgment made by the judging unit.
US08412030B2 Method and apparatus for dispensing a fragrance
A method of dispensing a volatile active into the surrounding environment includes the steps of providing a fragrance dispenser having a housing, a fan disposed within the housing and having a airflow director, first and second chambers disposed within the housing, and first and second fragrances disposed in the first and second chambers. The first and second chambers include first and second shutters covering first and second outlets, and first and second heaters, respectively. The method further includes the steps of activating the first heater to volatilize the first fragrance for a first time period, simultaneously activating the fan and the opening the first shutter to dispense the volatilized first fragrance from the first chamber into the surrounding atmosphere, activating the second heater to volatilize the second fragrance for a second period of time, and simultaneously activating the fan and opening the second shutter to dispense the volatilized second fragrance from the second chamber into the surrounding atmosphere.
US08412029B2 Fragrance producing lighting device
A light and fragrance producing device includes an electrically powered light source and a separate electrically powered heating element. The device also includes a fragrance disk that can emit fragrances when heated by the heating element. The fragrance disk also can be configured to remain solid while heated by the heating element rather than melting or evaporating. The device can also include a decorative outer housing that can be interchangeable.
US08412027B2 Display controlling apparatus for playing back moving image and control method for the same
Information regarding frames of a moving image, which are included in a predetermined segment that includes the current playback position and a segment that has not been played back yet, is displayed in a time-series indicator region along with the moving image that is being played back. Furthermore, a segment indicator that indicates the start position and end position of a fixed segment that includes the current playback position is displayed in the time-series indicator. For example, in the case where moving image data at a position corresponding to the segment indicator is generated as a separated moving image file in accordance with a moving image copy instruction that has been given, the user can become aware ahead of time what kind of moving image file would be generated if such an instruction were given.
US08412026B2 Information recording method, information recording medium, and information reproducing method, wherein information is stored on a data recording portion and a management information recording portion
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08412024B2 Information recording method, information recording medium, and information reproducing method, wherein information is stored on a data recording portion and a management information recording portion
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08412023B2 Information recording method, information recording medium, and information reproducing method, wherein information is stored on a data recording portion and a management information recording portion
With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US08412021B2 Video player user interface
A video playback user interface includes display of tags or other information outside of a video play area. Tags can be visually associated with items in the video by using connectors such as lines, arrows, etc. that bridge between a tag and an item. Tag and other information can be included with a video file or associated with a video file and stored as a separate file or other data structure. Users can add text or other annotations for viewing at a later time or by other users. A snapshot of a video frame during playback can be obtained and sent to an email address, web site, storage device, or other destination. The snapshot includes a video frame or portion of a frame along with added information such as tags, annotations, etc.
US08412019B2 Apparatus for and a method of storing a real time stream of digital information signals
An apparatus for recording a real time stream of digital information signals on a disc like record carrier has been proposed. The stream of information signals represent information arranged in a sequence of video frames, each video frame arranged in separate, consecutive data blocks comprised in separate, consecutive data packets. The apparatus comprises input means (1) for receiving the stream of digital signals, processing means (100) for processing the stream of digital information signals to obtain digital information signals and writing means (102) for writing the digital information signals into the units of recording on the disc like record carrier. The processing means (102) are adopted to detect the data blocks in the data packets and to allocate consecutive data blocks comprised in multiple data packets into consecutive logical units, a size of each logical unit corresponding to the predetermined size of the unit of recording. This apparatus is specifically suitable for recording digital video (DV).
US08412013B2 Optical fiber cable and laying method thereof
An optical fiber cable includes an elongated optical element portion having an optical fiber, a pair of tensile strength members and an outer jacket. The optical fiber is composed of one or more plastic coated optical fibers, tight-buffered optical fibers or optical ribbon fibers. The pair of tensile strength members is arranged in parallel at both sides of the optical fiber in a width direction of the optical fiber. The outer jacket covers outer circumferences of the optical fiber and the pair of tensile strength members. A frictional coefficient of the outer jacket is equal to or less than 0.20. Shore D hardness of the outer jacket is equal to or more than 60.
US08412012B2 Compact, low-cost outside plant or indoor/outdoor cables
An optical fiber cable includes an unbuffered optical fiber, a tensile reinforcement member surrounding the unbuffered optical fiber, and a jacket surrounding the tensile reinforcement member. The jacket is suitable for outside plant environment. A water blocking material is placed between the unbuffered fiber and the jacket. The unbuffered optical fiber comprises an ultra bend-insensitive fiber that meets the requirements of ITU-T G.657.B3 and exhibits an additional loss of less than approximately 0.2 dB/turn when the fiber is wrapped around a 5 mm bend radius mandrel. The optical fiber cable also exhibits an additional loss of less than approximately 0.4 dB/km at 1550 nm when the cable is subjected to −20° C. outside plant environment.
US08412011B2 Optical fiber cable
It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical fiber cable which can reliably prevent increased transmission loss due to damage of the optical fiber as a result of the egg-laying behavior of cicadas. The cable includes at least an optical fiber 1, tension members 6 and a sheath 3. The sheath 3 has a shore D hardness of 55 or more and a minimum distance L from a surface of the optical fiber 1 to an outer surface of the sheath 3 of greater than 0.3 mm. Further, in the cable, the surface of sheath 3 has a coefficient of friction of 0.45 or less and the sheath 3 has a shore D hardness of 57 or more. In addition, the cable is made by using a specific flame retardant composition (P) as the sheath material.
US08412007B2 3-D waveguide coupling device capable of two-step coupling and manufacture method thereof
The present invention relates to a 3-D waveguide coupling device capable of two-step coupling and a manufacture method thereof, the 3-D waveguide coupling device comprises: a first substrate, at least one waveguide layer, at least one assisting grating, at least one coupling material layer, and at least one 3-D tapered structure layer, wherein 3-D waveguide coupling device is able to couple the light into the waveguide layer by way of two-step coupling through the 3-D tapered structure layer, the coupling material layer and the assisting grating. Moreover, the light can also be coupled out from the waveguide layer through the assisting grating, the coupling layer, and the 3-D tapered structure. The manufacture method is adapted to fabricate the 3-D waveguide coupling device capable of two-step coupling via the present semiconductor process technology without increasing any other new equipment.
US08412005B2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer type optical modulator
A Mach-Zehnder interferometer type optical modulator includes first and third optical waveguides; input and output optical couplers; and a phase shifting section disposed between the input and output optical couplers. The phase shifting section includes first and second optical waveguide structures each including an n-type semiconductor section, a core layer and a cladding layer. The cladding layer of the first optical waveguide structure includes a first section disposed on the core layer, and second and third sections disposed on the first section. The second and third sections are juxtaposed to each other in a direction that intersects a waveguiding direction. The first and second sections are composed of a p-type semiconductor, and the third section is composed of an undoped semiconductor.
US08412002B2 Method for generating all-in-focus image
A method for generating an all-in-focus image is provided. In the method, a plurality of frames including one source frame and several reference frames captured at different focus lengths are obtained. After performing a motion compensation procedure on the frames, for each pixel position belonging to an edge, a characteristic similarity between the source frame and each reference frame is calculated respectively to accordingly select a plurality of qualified reference frames among the reference frames. The method further includes determining a first type color space component of the pixel position within an all-in-focus image by an edge sharpness corresponding to the pixel position within each of the source frame and the qualified reference frames, and determining a second type color space component of the pixel position within the all-in-focus image by an color brightness corresponding to the pixel position within each of the source frame and the qualified reference frames.
US08411997B2 Image capture device and program storage medium
An image capture device includes a capture unit configured to capture an image of an object, an object detection unit configured to detect the object in the image captured by the capture unit, an angle detection unit configured to detect an angle of the object detected by the object detection unit, and a control unit configured to perform a predetermined control operation for the image capture device based on the angle of the object detected by the angle detection unit.
US08411992B2 Image processing device and associated methodology of processing gradation noise
An image processing device includes: an estimated plane calculation portion calculating, for inputted image data, estimated planes defined by luminance values in blocks each containing a predetermined number of pixels including a reference pixel; an optimal estimated plane selection portion selecting an optimal estimated plane having a least summation of errors between luminance values of respective pixels in a block and an estimated plane among the estimated planes; a weighting factor calculation portion calculating a weighting factor for the reference pixel base on luminance values of the reference pixel and in the optimal estimated plane; and a weighted smoothing portion computing a sum of products of relative luminance differences between the luminance values of the respective pixels in the block and in the optimal estimated plane and the weighting factor for the reference pixel and adding a luminance value in the optimal estimated plane at a reference pixel position to a result of computation.
US08411989B2 Spectral characteristic calculating device and method
A spectral characteristic calculation device stores a plurality of conversion matrices used to calculate the spectral characteristic values based on brightness values of a digital color image, and a plurality of pieces of brightness value information respectively corresponding to a plurality of sample groups. The plurality of conversion matrices are generated based on the sample color image information contained in the plurality of sample groups, respectively. An evaluating unit is configured to evaluate similarity of brightness value information of the target data with respect to each of the plurality of pieces of brightness value information of the plurality of sample groups. A conversion matrix corresponding to the sample group that is evaluated to have the highest similarity is selected as the conversion matrix. Then, a calculating unit calculates the spectral characteristic values of the target data using the conversion matrix selected by the selecting unit.
US08411985B2 Image processing device, image processing method and non-transitory computer readable medium recording image processing program
A first exemplary aspect of the present invention is an image processing device that executes image processing including first image processing and second image processing by using a pipeline mechanism, the image processing device including: a first processing unit that executes the first image processing on an input image data, generates history information recording specifics of processing executed in the first image processing, and outputs the history information to the first processing unit; and a second processing unit that executes the second image processing on the image data obtained in the first image processing according to the output history information.
US08411982B2 Universal blurriness measurement approach for digital imagery
Systems and methods of performing quantitative measurements of image blur in digital images and digital image sequences that are computationally efficient, and that employ no reference information in the measurement process. Each of the image blur measurements is performed using a Markov Chain, where a gradient image array is calculated for a pixel array derived from a given digital image, and a transition probability matrix is constructed for the transition probabilities between adjacent elements in the gradient image array. The transition probability data contained in the transition probability matrix can be pooled or otherwise accumulated to obtain a quantitative measurement of image blur in the given digital image.
US08411979B2 Digital image processing and enhancing system and method with function of removing noise
The present invention provides a digital image processing enhancing system and method with denoising function. The collected digital image is input; the obtained digital image is decomposed into an illumination image and a reflection image, and then the decomposed illumination image and the reflection image is processed, at last, the processed illumination image and the reflection image are composed into an output image, which is output to an output device. The present invention can improve the image quality, remove the noises of the image, remain details features of an object and obtain the natural visual effect.
US08411978B1 Group encoding of wavelet precision
A method and system of transmitting a set of wavelet coefficients, the wavelet coefficients representing an image, comprising: arranging a set of wavelet coefficients into a spatially-oriented tree data structure of groups of wavelet coefficients, determining group significance levels for groups in the tree; computing encoded data associated with a refinement range, the refinement range describing a selection from the group consisting of one of an initial quality level and an incremented quality level, to which an image is encoded, the encoded data describing group significance levels in terms of partial scalar components, the partial scalar components related to the refinement range, the encoded data further describing portions of the set of wavelet coefficients that are within the refinement range; and transmitting the encoded data.
US08411972B2 Information processing device, method, and program
An information processing device includes a storage storing information indicating a first region subjected to moving-image compression and transmission; an identification unit identifying a second region where the update amount of an image is greater than or equal to a threshold value; a determination unit determining whether the image of the second region being associated with the moving image of the first region is to be transmitted, based on an overlapping relationship between the first region and the second region; and a transmission unit transmitting an image of a region including a portion of the second region, following the transmission of the image of the first region, with the image of the region being subjected to moving-image compression, and transmitting information indicating a display position of the image subjected to moving-image compression, when the second region is to be transmitted with being associated with the first region is determined.
US08411968B2 Album creating apparatus, method and program that classify, store, and arrange images
An album creating apparatus for crating an album by automatically selecting an appropriate image to be laid out in an image layout frame arranged in a template and laying out the selected image in the image layout frame is provided. The album creating apparatus according to the present invention includes: a classification method storage section for classifying images into groups in association with the kind of album; an image input section; a kind of album determining section for determining the kind of album to be created; an in image classification section for classifying the images into the groups based on the classification method stored in the classification method storage section in association with the kind of album; a template storage section for storing a template in which the image layout frame with which the classified group is associated is arranged; and an album creating section for laying out in an image layout frame the image classified into the group associated with the image layout frame to create the album.
US08411963B2 Methods and apparatus to count persons in a monitored environment
Methods and apparatus to count persons in a monitored environment are disclosed. An example apparatus to count the number of people in a monitored environment is described, which includes an image sensor having a plurality of pixels, a pseudorandom number generator to generate pseudorandom coordinates, a reader to read first pixel data generated by a first pixel of the image sensor at a first time, the first pixel corresponding to the pseudorandom coordinates, a comparator to compare the first pixel data with second pixel data generated by the first pixel at a second time different from the first time to generate a change value, and a counter configured to generate a count of persons based at least on the change value.
US08411961B1 Method and apparatus for image feature matching in automatic image stitching
Method and apparatus for image feature matching in automatic image stitching processes. Embodiments may provide a computer-implemented method for performing a portion of an automatic image stitching process where feature correspondences are established between pairs of images. In embodiments, a computer-implemented image feature matching component may use a combination of one or more of heuristic techniques, information obtained from the user, file information related to the component images, and/or information obtained from previous feature matching iterations to narrow the number of images that are in a subset of component images to be compared for any given component image, and thus to narrow the number of pairs of component images on which image feature comparisons are performed.
US08411959B2 Extraction method of an interest region for multimedia mobile users
Disclosed is a method for extracting a region-of-interest of a user in a multimedia mobile terminal. The method includes: setting a search region in an input picture input to the multimedia mobile terminal on a screen picture-to-screen picture basis, and extracting a group of boundary of a region-of-interest based on a brightness difference between the set search region and an environment around the set search region; determining boundary coordinates of the region-of-interest through learning during a predetermined frame among the extracted group of boundary coordinate candidates; and enlarging the region-of-interest having the determined boundary coordinates, and displaying the enlarged region-of-interest. As a result, a region the user is most interested in or pays more attention to than other regions on a screen is automatically extracted. Accordingly, it is possible for users to view pictures in such an efficient manner as to provide the users with an even better experience and understanding during viewing.
US08411955B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method and computer-readable medium
An image processing apparatus includes an extracting unit, a representative-image generating unit and a vector converting unit. The extracting unit extracts pixel blocks from image data. The representative-image generating unit generates representative images from the pixel blocks extracted by the extracting unit, based on a similarity between the pixel blocks. The vector converting unit converts the representative images generated by the representative-image generating unit into vector information.
US08411954B2 Image processing system, image processing program, and image processing method
It is determined whether a repeating pattern is present in an image (100). When no repeating pattern is present, the image is divided into patch images, the resultant patch images are used to create a random repeating pattern, and the random repeating pattern is output (108). In addition, when the number of repetitions of the repeating pattern in the image is 2×2 or more (102), the repetition period is determined by transforming pixel values into frequency coefficients, and the repeating pattern is extracted based on the result of determining the repetition period, and is output (104). When the number of repetitions of the repeating pattern in the image is less than 2×2, the repetition period is determined by performing division using local maximum values of autocorrelation coefficients, and the repetition pattern is extracted based on the result of determining the repetition period (106).
US08411953B2 Tagging images by determining a set of similar pre-tagged images and extracting prominent tags from that set
An image can be compared with a set of images, each including pre-existing tags. A similar image set can be determined from results of the comparing. Pre-existing tags can be extracted from the similar image set. Prominent tags can be determined from the extracted pre-existing tags. At least one of the determined prominent tags can be added to a tag set associated with the image.
US08411939B2 Image noise correction
An image noise correction method is provided. For at least one target pixel having a determined pixel value, for each pixel in a window of pixels surrounding the target pixel, a weighting factor for the pixel is estimated based on the value of the target pixel and at least one pixel value in the window. An average of pixel values for the pixels in the window is calculated, with each pixel value being weighted by the weighting factor corresponding to the pixel. A new value is assigned to the target pixel based on the average of pixel values that is calculated. Also provided is an image noise correction device.
US08411938B2 Multi-scale multi-camera adaptive fusion with contrast normalization
A computer implemented method for fusing images taken by a plurality of cameras is disclosed, comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of images of the same scene taken by the plurality of cameras; generating Laplacian pyramid images for each source image of the plurality of images; applying contrast normalization to the Laplacian pyramids images; performing pixel-level fusion on the Laplacian pyramid images based on a local salience measure that reduces aliasing artifacts to produce one salience-selected Laplacian pyramid image for each pyramid level; and combining the salience-selected Laplacian pyramid images into a fused image. Applying contrast normalization further comprises, for each Laplacian image at a given level: obtaining an energy image from the Laplacian image; determining a gain factor that is based on at least the energy image and a target contrast; and multiplying the Laplacian image by a gain factor to produce a normalized Laplacian image.
US08411937B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method and computer-readable medium
An image processing apparatus includes an analyzing unit, a determining unit and a color conversion unit. The analyzing unit analyzes colors being used in an image. The determining unit determines, based on an analysis result provided by the analyzing unit, as to whether or not the colors being used in the image are converted into one or more limited colors. When the determining unit determines that the colors being used in the image are converted into the one or more limited colors, the color conversion unit converts the colors being used in the image into the one or more limited colors.
US08411934B2 System and method for depth map extraction using region-based filtering
A system and method for extracting depth information from at least two images employing region-based filtering for reducing artifacts are provided. The present disclosure provides a post-processing algorithm or function for reducing the artifacts generated by scanline Dynamic Programming (DP) or other similar methods. The system and method provides for acquiring a first image and a second image from a scene, estimating the disparity of at least one point in the first image with at least one corresponding point in the second image to generate a disparity map, segmenting at least one of the first or second images into at least one region, and filtering the disparity map based on the segmented regions. Furthermore, anisotropic filters are employed, which have a great smoothing effect along the vertical direction than that of the horizontal direction, and therefore, reduce stripe artifacts without significantly blurring the depth boundaries.
US08411932B2 Example-based two-dimensional to three-dimensional image conversion method, computer readable medium therefor, and system
An example-based 2D to 3D image conversion method, a computer readable medium therefore, and a system are provided. The embodiments are based on an image database with depth information or with which depth information can be generated. With respect to a 2D image to be converted into 3D content, a matched background image is found from the database. In addition, graph-based segmentation and comparison techniques are employed to detect the foreground of the 2D image so that the relative depth map can be generated from the foreground and background information. Therefore, the 3D content can be provided with the 2D image plus the depth information. Thus, users can rapidly obtain the 3D content from the 2D image automatically and the rendering of the 3D content can be achieved.
US08411930B2 System and a method for detecting a damaged or missing machine part
A system and a method for detecting a damaged or missing machine part. The system includes an image capturing device for capturing images of the machine and a processor for processing the captured images. The system may further include a sensible output for providing an indication of a damaged or missing machine part. The method includes capturing images of the machine against a background which moves relative to the machine over time, selecting a pair of time-separated images from the captured images, generating a displacement image from the pair of images, comparing the machine from the displacement image with a machine model, and identifying a damaged or missing machine part from the comparison of the displacement image with the machine model. The method may further include providing a sensible output which indicates a damaged or missing machine part.
US08411927B2 Marker detection in X-ray images
A method for detecting markers within X-ray images includes applying directional filters to a sequence of X-ray image frames. Marker candidate pixels are determined based on the output of the directional filters. Candidate pixels are grouped into clusters and distances between each possible pair of clusters is determined and the most frequently occurring distance is considered an estimated distance between markers. A first marker is detected at the cluster that most closely resembles a marker based on certain criteria and a second marker is then detected at a cluster that is the estimated distance from the first marker. The pair of first and second marker detections is scored to determine detection quality. If the detected marker pair has an acceptable score then the detected marker pair is used.
US08411924B2 Filtering of image sequences
Method of image processing, the method comprises providing a sequence (2) of images (F) which have contrast modulation (100) along said sequence (2); providing a reference frequency (fm, 10) related to said contrast modulations (100) along said sequence (2); and filtering said sequence of images depending on said reference frequency (fm, 10). According to an embodiment, a windowed harmonic filtering is applied to the sequence of input images to extract fundamental in-phase (122) and quadrature (124) components at a heart beat frequency (fm). The resultant time-signal phase is displayed (34) as image sequence.
US08411922B2 Reducing noise in images acquired with a scanning beam device
Methods and apparatus for reducing noise in images acquired with a scanning beam device are disclosed. A representative method may include scanning a beam of light over a surface in a scan with a variable velocity. Light backscattered from the surface may be detected at different points in time during the scan at a substantially constant rate. Reduced-noise representations of groups of the detected light that each correspond to a different position in an image of the surface may be generated. The reduced-noise representations may be generated for groups having multiple different sizes. The image of the surface may be generated by representing the different positions in the image with the reduced-noise representations of the corresponding groups. Other methods and apparatus are disclosed.
US08411921B2 Device and method for synchronizing an image capture device with a pre-operative image data set
The present invention relates to a device and a method for synchronizing an image capture device with a first image data set. The image capture device is used for recording a second image data set of a periodically moving area or object. Each first image data set contains information as to the point in time, relative to the periodically moving area or object, when recording took place. The device additionally acquires periodically recurring, current information of the area as well as information concerning the recording instant of the first image data set. From the periodically recurring information and the recording instant of the first image data set, a triggering instant is derived which controls at least one recording of the second image data set by the image capture device in such a way that the second image data set contains image data synchronized to the first image data set.
US08411918B2 Image processing apparatus and image processing method
A system control unit causes a diagnosis monitor to display a plurality of sample images generated by changing one or more image processing parameters used in image processing of an X-ray image. When an operator designates a mixing ratio, at which the sample images are mixed, after the plurality of sample images are displayed on the diagnosis monitor, the system control unit sets one or more image processing parameters to be used when image processing of an X-ray image is performed based on the designated mixing ratio. An image processing unit performs image processing of an X-ray image input from an image input unit based on the set image processing parameter.
US08411917B2 Device for determining the 3D coordinates of an object, in particular of a tooth
A scanner is used for scanning an object (3, 4, 5), in particular a tooth or a plurality of teeth or a dental cast. The scanner (1) comprises a projector (2) for projecting a pattern (7) onto the object (3, 4, 5) and a camera which comprises a recording optics and an image sensor (18). To improve such scanner, the recording optics comprises a first imaging optics (9) and a second imaging optics (10).
US08411911B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium for storing program
An image processing apparatus comprises an image capture unit configured to capture an image, a characteristic part detector configured to detect a characteristic part of a face from the image captured by the image capture unit, an outline generator configured to generate a pseudo outline of the face based on positions of the characteristic part detected by the characteristic part detector and a correction unit configured to correct the image based on the pseudo outline generated by the outline generator.
US08411909B1 Facial recognition
An example method includes initiating an emission, by a computing device, of at least one light beam, receiving, from an image capture device of the computing device, an image of a face of a user, and identifying at least one representation of an eye of the user in the image. The method further includes determining, by the computing device, whether at least one reflection of light from the light beam is associated with a cornea of the representation of the eye of the user in the image. The method further includes determining, based at least in part on the first determination, whether to deny authentication of the user with respect to accessing one or more functionalities controlled by the computing device, wherein the authentication is denied independent of performing facial recognition based at least in part on the image.
US08411908B2 Imaging apparatus, control method, and recording medium thereof
An imaging apparatus is provided including an imaging unit configured to obtain image data, a display unit, and a communication unit configured to communicate with a plurality of external apparatuses. The imaging apparatus further includes a storing unit configured to store person identification information including at least face image data while associating the person recognition information with information relating to the external apparatuses, a collation unit configured to collate a target in the image data with the person identification information, a detection unit configured to detect an external apparatus that is communicating with the imaging apparatus, and a display control unit configured to display a plurality of pieces of face image data on the display unit each as a candidate of a transmission destination of the image data in an order based on a result of collation by the collation unit and a result of detection by the detection unit.
US08411904B2 Generating agricultural information products using remote sensing
A method for generating a supplementary index raster file based on a plurality of primary index raster files that are associated with an area of interest (AOI) uses a computer coupled to a remote sensing device via a network, wherein the computer includes an input device, a display, and a memory. The method includes generating the plurality of primary index raster files including at least two independent vegetation index (VI) raster files and a soil brightness index (SBI) raster file, wherein each primary index raster file includes a plurality of pixel values. The method also includes classifying each pixel value of the at least two VI raster files as one of a leafy material and a non-leafy material, generating a leaf pigmentation index (LPI) raster file based on the classified pixel values, storing the LPI raster file into the memory, and selectively displaying the LPI raster file.
US08411902B2 Providing a visual indication of the content of a video by analyzing a likely user intent
A method for providing a visual indication of a content of a video that reflects a likely intent of a user that acquired the video. The present method enables repurposing of a video into a variety of output forms that are adapted to the likely intent of the user and enables more efficient browsing of a stored video.
US08411901B2 Method and system for calculating image recognition rate and embedded image processing system
The present invention provides a method and system for calculating image recognition rate, which automatically calculates the recognition rate according to recognizing result obtained from an embedded image processing system whose images are provided by an image controlling apparatus. The image controlling apparatus provides an image frame each time according to a control signal issued by the embedded image processing system. The embedded image processing system receives the image frame and recognizes the same. After a plurality of image frames are recognized, it is capable of calculating the recognition rate according to the recognizing result of the embedded image processing system and the recognition rate is capable of being utilized to be a basis for optimizing the parameters used in recognizing logic of the embedded image processing system.
US08411900B2 Device for detecting/judging road boundary
There is provided a road boundary detection/judgment device resistant to environmental change and capable of detecting even a road boundary demarcated by a three-dimensional object in the distance. The device is provided with: an image acquisition section having two or more cameras for image-capturing the road area; a distance data acquisition section acquiring three-dimensional distance information about an image-capture area on the basis of an image obtained by the image acquisition section; a road boundary detection section detecting the height of a three-dimensional object existing in the road area on the basis of the three-dimensional distance information obtained by the distance data acquisition section to detect a road boundary; and a same boundary judgment section transforming the image, for a first road area where the height of a three-dimensional object corresponding to a road boundary could be detected and a second road area where the height of a three-dimensional object corresponding to a road boundary could not be detected, and judging whether the three-dimensional object corresponding to the first road area and the three-dimensional object corresponding to the second road area are the same. If it is judged that the three-dimensional objects corresponding to the first and second road area boundaries are the same, the second road area is reset as the first road area.
US08411898B2 Digital authentication with analog documents
Security of photographic identification documents is enhanced by embedding within the photographic image encoded information that may be correlated to other information pertaining to the individual represented by the image, such other information being, for example, printed on the document adjacent to the photograph.
US08411893B2 Headphone
There is provided a headphone including: a housing that accommodates a driver unit; a sound guiding tube that protrudes from the housing in a predetermined direction and guides a sound generated from the driver unit to an external auditory canal; and a hanger that rotatably supports the housing via a supporting shaft provided in approximately the same direction as a depth direction of the external auditory canal and in a direction inclined to a protruding direction of the sound guiding tube. According to this structure, by rotating the housing with respect to the hanger via the supporting shaft, the protruding direction of the sound guiding tube with respect to the hanger can be adjusted. Thus, by adjusting the protruding direction of the sound guiding tube according to the inclined angle of the external auditory canal of a user, wearability of a headphone can be improved.
US08411892B2 Aesthetic linear speaker assembly
A linear speaker assembly including a plurality of speakers in side by side relation within a piece of furniture in such a manner that a horn element, a phase plug and other ancillary speaker structure forms a sound path that communicates from the speakers to the environment and the speaker assembly is partially concealed or camouflaged from the casual viewing of an observer. The phase plug and horn element are elongated and are provided along the entire length of the plurality of speakers which comprise a portion of the linear speaker assembly. The phase plug and horn element visually complement the outer portion of the piece of furniture that the plurality of speakers are disposed within. This permits the piece of furniture or other structure to provide amplified sound from a plurality of speakers in side by side relation in such a manner whereby the speaker assembly is substantially camouflaged or not visible.
US08411888B2 Hearing aid and a method of managing a logging device
A hearing aid (1) and a method of managing data stored in a logging device in a hearing aid is devised. The method involves obtaining sets of data representing parameters such as the sound environment at a predetermined data acquisition rate and storing the data according to one of a plurality of a set of possible parameter sets in a histogram (15) is having room for a limited number of instances of each particular set of parameters. If the limit for a particular histogram bin is reached when an instance is stored in the histogram, the data acquisition rate is adjusted according to a specified scheme and the number of instances of every parameter set is reduced by a fixed factor. Acquired data in the histogram thus reflects the most recent sound environments experienced by the hearing aid user.
US08411883B2 Loudspeaker apparatus and speaker system
A loudspeaker apparatus includes a speaker array that has a plurality of speaker units which are arranged on a sound emitting surface of the speaker array, and emits sound beams on a plurality of channels, an angle sensing section that senses an angle change displaced from a previously set reference angle of the sound emitting surface, and an adjusting section that adjusts output angles of the sound beams in response to the angle change.
US08411875B2 Speaker control via audio connection
Members of a plurality of loud speakers receive control commands or signals via audio communication lines. The control commands, or, signals are responded to by those speakers which have been previously addressed.
US08411872B2 Adaptive control unit with feedback compensation
An adaptive control unit is described for receiving an analog input signal containing at least an indication of a parameter to be controlled to generate an analog output signal for control of the parameter. The analog input signal contains a fed back component resulting from the analog output signal. The adaptive control unit comprises an analog filter having an adjustable gain, a gain adjuster for adjusting the gain of the analog filter using a feedforward adjustment method, and a filter for compensating for the fed back component in the analog input signal.
US08411868B2 Intruder traceability for shared security associations
Various embodiments are directed to systems and techniques for shared security associations. In one or more embodiments, a key distribution server provides shared security associations for clients and servers by assigning a group key to a particular client according to a time-based group key assignment schedule. The key distribution server may comprise a recursive codebook including multiple entries corresponding to group key assignments to be selected by the key distribution server with respect to time intervals. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08411867B2 Scalable and secure key management for cryptographic data processing
A method and system for secure and scalable key management for cryptographic processing of data is described herein. In the method, a General Purpose Cryptographic Engine (GPE) receives key material via a secure channel from a key server and stores the received Key encryption keys (KEKs) and/or plain text keys in a secure key cache. When a request is received from a host to cryptographically process a block of data, the requesting entity is authenticated using an authentication tag included in the request. The GPE retrieves a plaintext key or generate a plaintext using a KEK if the authentication is successful, cryptographically processes the data using the plaintext key and transmits the processed data. The system includes a key server that securely provides encrypted keys and/or key handles to a host and key encryption keys and/or plaintext keys to the GPE.
US08411864B2 Method of modifying secrets included in a cryptographic module, notably in an unprotected environment
A method of modifying a set of secrets in a cryptographic module, to ensure that the modifying is either successful or invalid. The module includes readable version numbers for each secret and for the set of secrets. If the version number of the set of secrets is equal to a version number requiring the loading of a set of new secrets, the version number of the set of secrets of the cryptographic module is set to a distinctive number indicating that the cryptographic module is being reloaded. Next, for each secret, if the version number of the secret is different from the version number of the corresponding new secret to be loaded, the new secret and its version number are loaded. Next the version number of the set of secrets of the cryptographic module is set to the version number of the set of new secrets.
US08411863B2 Full volume encryption in a clustered environment
Full volume encryption can be applied to volumes in a clustering environment. To simplify the maintenance of keys relevant to such encrypted volumes, a cluster key table construct can be utilized, where each entry of the cluster key table corresponds to an encrypted volume and comprises an identification of the encrypted volume and a key needed to access that volume. Keys can be protected by encrypting them with a key specific to each computing device storing the cluster key table. Updates can be propagated among the computing devices in the cluster by first decrypting the keys and then reencrypting them with a key specific to each computing device as they are stored on those computing devices. Access control requirements can also be added to the entries in the cluster key table. Alternative access control requirements can be accommodated by assigning multiple independent entries to a single encrypted volume.
US08411860B2 Wireless communication system, base station, terminal and wireless communication method
A base station of a wireless communication system includes: a base station side data generation portion generating a number of sets of scramble data which are different from each other while the number of sets of the scramble data is the same as or more than the number obtained by multiplying the number of the sub-channels used in said overall wireless communication system by the number of the subcarriers; a base station side storage portion which stores the scramble data; a base station side upper layer control portion which outputs both transmission data for a terminal at other end of a communication and information of sub-channels; a base station side lower layer control portion which, based on the information of the sub-channels, controls the base station side storage portion to output scramble data corresponding to the sub-channels; a base station side scramble portion which conducts a multiplication operation between the transmission data output from the base station side upper layer control portion and the scramble data output from the base station side storage portion based on a control by the base station side lower layer control portion.
US08411857B2 Partial multiple encryption
A partial multiple encryption device consistent with certain embodiments has an input adapted to receive a unencrypted video signal. An encryption arrangement produces a partially multiple encrypted video signal from the unencrypted video signal. An output is adapted to provide the partially multiple encrypted video signal. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
US08411855B1 Size optimization for large elliptic curve cryptography scalar multiplication acceleration tables
A computer program product and method are provided for optimizing the size of an Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) scalar multiplication table. Steps include (a) receiving, from a user interface, a set of integer multipliers, (b) choosing a subset of a given set of target integers, the chosen subset defining an index set, such that elements of the index set generate all elements of the given set of target integers using a target generation function, and (c) modifying the index set by removing an element from the index set which is not necessary to generate an element of the given set of target integers using the target generation function. Additional steps are also included depending on the embodiment.
US08411853B2 Alternate galois field advanced encryption standard round
An apparatus having a first circuit and a second circuit is disclosed. The first circuit may be configured to (i) generate second Galois Field elements by performing a first Galois Field inversion on first Galois Field elements, the first Galois Field inversion being different from a second Galois Field inversion defined by an Advanced Encryption Standard and (ii) generate third Galois Field elements by multiplying the second Galois Field elements by an inverse of a predetermined matrix. The second circuit may be configured to (i) generate fourth Galois Field elements by processing the third Galois Field elements in a current encryption round while in a non-skip mode, (ii) generate fifth Galois Field elements by multiplying the fourth Galois Field elements by the predetermined matrix and (iii) present the fifth Galois Field elements as updated versions of the first Galois Field elements in advance of a next encryption round.
US08411852B2 Diffusion oriented method and apparatus for stream cryptography
The present invention applies with a diffused mechanism, as such, a variable series of diffusion functions embedded within a diffusion-medium, to generate a maximum diffusion-cycle and nonlinear complexity; additionally, it performs in a serial process for simple design, further, in a parallel process for saving time, or even in a hardware architecture, to gain greater acceleration. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention in flow chart diagram form, comprising steps of: selecting a diffusion-area A, a diffusion-medium S, and a diffusion mechanism Ft1 100; initializing A by an input password 200; performing Ft1 to obtain a new value of A 300; inputting a plaintext in encryption or a ciphertext for decryption, bit by bit 400; XORing a plaintext bit in encryption or a ciphertext bit in decryption with a certain bit of A for stream output 500; continuing until completing the plaintext in encryption, or the ciphertext in decryption 600.
US08411849B1 Personal electronic device storage apparatus and associated method
A personal electronic device storage apparatus includes a portable storage case including a body having a divider wall statically seated therein. A first cavity is disposed above the divider wall for containing the personal electronic device therein. A second cavity is disposed below the divider wall. A lead plate seated within the first cavity for preventing electromagnetic waves from passing through the body. First and second retractable cords are rotatably disposed within the second cavity, and first and second holders attached to distal ends of the first and second retractable cords respectively. At least one of the first and second holders may be capable of may be tethered to the personal electronic device. Such a structural configuration provides the unexpected and unpredictable advantage of shielding the personal electronic device from electromagnetic waves while keeping it tethered to the storage case.
关于PatentHub
关于我们 加入我们 联系我们 帮助中心
PatentHub产品
专利百科 商标查询 专利交易 大学排行榜 行业专题库
API接口 排行榜 专利资讯 最新中国发明专利 最新美国发明专利
PatentHub联系方式
QQ：3307693423 QQ：3236401158