Document Document Title
US08646023B2 Authentication and synchronous interaction between a secondary device and a multi-perspective audiovisual data stream broadcast on a primary device geospatially proximate to the secondary device
A method of authentication and synchronous interaction between a secondary device and a multi-perspective audiovisual data stream broadcast on a primary device geospatially proximate to the secondary device is disclosed. In one aspect a method of secondary device includes authenticating the secondary device to a primary device based on a geospatial proximity of the secondary device and the primary device such that the secondary device is synchronizable with the primary device. The secondary device is synchronized to the primary device such that an audiovisual data stream of the primary device is adjustable through the secondary device. An audiovisual data stream of the primary device may be processed such that the audiovisual data stream is accessible through the secondary device. The audiovisual data stream may be an audiovisual data stream of a live performance of an event.
US08646014B2 Multistream video communication with staggered access points
A system and method that provide reduced latency in a video signal processing system. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise transmitting a first video information stream representative of a unit of video information. For example, the transmitted first video information stream may correspond to a video channel. A second video information stream representative of the unit of video information may be transmitted simultaneously with the first video information stream. The second video information stream may also, for example, correspond to the video channel. Various aspects of the present invention may comprise receiving a plurality of simultaneously transmitted video information streams. A video information stream of the plurality of received video information streams may be identified that, when processed, is expected to result in the lowest latency in presenting the unit of video information to the user. The identified video information stream may then be so processed.
US08646008B2 Method for processing additional information related to an announced service or content in an NRT service and a broadcast receiver
A method of processing additional information related to an announced service or content in a Non-Real Time (NRT) service and the broadcast receiver are disclosed herein. A method of providing a Non-Real Time (NRT) service in a broadcasting receiver includes receiving a service map table (SMT) and a first descriptor through a service signaling channel, identifying an image identifier and an image type of an image for an NRT service based upon the first descriptor, receiving the image via a flute session and displaying the image when corresponding service is played, wherein the image is logo or icon data for the NRT service. The method may further include connecting a service signaling channel, parsing the received SMT and the first descriptor, determining whether a service is the NRT service based upon the parsed SMT and storing the received image.
US08645992B2 Advertisement rotation
A system and method for delivering content over a network is provided. Content may be primary content (e.g., music or a movie) or ancillary content (e.g., an advertisement). The ancillary content may further be classified as universal ancillary content that all users of the present system will receive; targeted ancillary content that particular users of the present system will receive; and context-specific ancillary content that users of the present system and viewing particular primary content will receive. The type of primary and/or ancillary content delivered to the user will depend, in part, on indicia of the user of a device receiving the content. The present invention seeks to ensure that a user has relevant and up-to-date ancillary content notwithstanding the nature or date of the primary content. Feedback data concerning the viewing of the ancillary content may also be generated such that a provider of the advertisement and/or product may provide targeted advertisements and improved products and services.
US08645988B2 Content personalization for digital content
A method of providing personalized content to a user is disclosed. In particular, the method relates to receiving incoming content that includes primary content being content originally intended for use in a program and personalized replacement content being content for replacing the primary content in the program. If the personalized replacement content is determined to be more appropriate than the primary content, based upon personalization parameters, then the primary content is substituted with the personalized replacement content.
US08645982B2 Disc clamping unit and spindle motor having the same
A spindle motor is disclosed, the spindle motor including a case including a lateral wall unit formed with a hollow hole, and a support unit extended to an inner side of a distal end of the lateral wall unit, a clamper arranged inside the lateral wall unit and supported by the support unit for clamping an upper surface of the optical disc, a cover plate covering the clamper, and an elastic member interposed between the clamper and the cover plate to apply a pressure to the clamper to a direction facing the upper surface of the optical disc.
US08645981B2 Disk chucking apparatus
Disclosed herein is a disk chucking apparatus. The apparatus includes a central boss which is coupled to a rotating shaft of a motor, a guide which extends from the central boss outwards and is inserted into a center hole of a disk, and a chucking unit which extends from the central boss outwards. The chucking unit is elastically deformable inwards when pushed by the disk that is fitted over the guide. The chucking unit includes a lower horizontal part, a vertical part and an upper horizontal part. The lower horizontal part extends from the lower portion of the central boss outwards in the horizontal direction. The vertical part is bent from the outer end of the lower horizontal part upwards. The vertical part extends in a direction inclined outwards. The upper horizontal part extends from the upper end of the vertical part inwards in a horizontal direction.
US08645974B2 Multiple partition adjunct instances interfacing multiple logical partitions to a self-virtualizing input/output device
Multiple logical partitions are provided access to a self-virtualizing input/output device of a data processing system via multiple dedicated partition adjunct instances. Access is established by: interfacing each logical partition to one or more associated partition adjunct instances, each partition adjunct instance coupling its associated logical partition to one of a virtual function or a queue pair of the self-virtualizing input/output device, and each partition adjunct instance being a separate dispatchable state and being created employing virtual address space donated from the respective logical partition or a hypervisor of the data processing system, and each partition adjunct instance including a device driver for the virtual function or queue pair of the self-virtualizing input/output device; and providing each logical partition with at least one virtual input/output which is interfaced through the logical partition's respective partition adjunct instance(s) to a virtual function or queue pair of the self-virtualizing input/output device.
US08645971B2 Real-time balance updates
A method and a system that retrieves dynamic data when a notification with dynamic data is triggered. The dynamic data is associated with an account that is associated with a portable consumer device associated with a consumer. The method and system automatically send the notification with the dynamic data to a notification device, wherein the notification with the dynamic data is provided to the consumer.
US08645969B2 Method for dynamic discovery of processors and processor capabilities
The various aspects include methods and apparatus that enable processors within a multi-processor computing device to automatically discover each other and to configure themselves to interoperate utilizing at least two agents in a scalable inter-processor communication protocol. A dynamic method of advertising capabilities of processors uses a scalable communication format that can be discover and linked to each processor to enable sharing of processing resources. To enable processor-discovery, each processor may be configured with a foreign agent, a local agent and a service daemon software program that facilitates processor auto-discovery and auto-configuration. Advertising and capabilities messages between processors in the same device may use the QMI protocol format. The advertised capabilities may include information regarding processor identification, transport type, port, technology, services and resources. The method may enable processors to automatically configuring themselves to work with or utilize the capabilities of the other discovered peer processors.
US08645967B2 Efficient secure data marshaling through at least one untrusted intermediate process
Secure marshaling of data via one or more intermediate processes is provided. A source process may create a named shared memory section resulting in a first handle to the shared memory section. The source process may populate the shared memory section with information. An access control list may secure the shared memory section by preventing the one or more intermediate processes from accessing content of the shared memory section, while allowing a target process to access the content. The first handle and a name of the shared memory section may be marshaled to a first intermediate process resulting in a respective new handle to the shared memory section. A last intermediate process may marshal the name to a target process, which may use the name to obtain access to the content of the shared memory section.
US08645959B2 Method and apparatus for communication between two or more processing elements
A technique for performing barrier synchronization among a plurality of program threads. More particularly, at least one embodiment of the invention keeps track of completed tasks associated with a number of program threads using bits within a barrier register that can be updated and reassigned without incurring the amount of bus traffic as in the prior art.
US08645958B2 Software virtual machine for content delivery
In general, this disclosure is directed to a software virtual machine that provides high-performance transactional data acceleration optimized for multi-core computing platforms. The virtual machine utilizes an underlying parallelization engine that seeks to maximize the efficiencies of multi-core computing platforms to provide a highly scalable, high performance (lowest latency), virtual machine. In some embodiments, the virtual machine may be viewed as an in-memory virtual machine with an ability in its operational state to self organize and self seek, in real time, available memory work boundaries to automatically optimize maximum available throughput for data processing acceleration and content delivery of massive amounts of data.
US08645953B2 Method of checking a possibility of executing a virtual machine
To determine, when a virtual machine is executed by an arbitrary machine, whether the virtual machine can access computer resources required for the virtual machine, provided is a method of checking a possibility of executing a virtual machine including a first physical computer for executing a first virtual machine and a second physical computer capable of executing a virtual machine. The method includes the steps of: acquiring information on first logical resources; acquiring setting information set to a adaptor of the first physical computer so that the first virtual machine accesses the first logical resources; listing second logical resources accessible when the first virtual machine is executed by the second physical computer by setting the setting information to a adaptor of the second physical computer; and determining whether the first virtual machine can be executed by the second physical computer by comparing the first and second logical resources.
US08645949B2 System, method, and computer program product for scanning data utilizing one of a plurality of virtual machines of a device
A system, method, and computer program product are provided for scanning data utilizing one of a plurality of virtual machines of a device. In use, data to be scanned is identified utilizing a first virtual machine of a device, where the device further includes at least one second virtual machine and a cache shared by the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine. Additionally, it is determined whether the data was previously scanned by the at least one second virtual machine, utilizing the cache. Furthermore, the data is conditionally scanned utilizing the first virtual machine based on the determination.
US08645948B2 Apparatus and methods for client-driven server-side installation
A server for automatically installing a required application responsive to a client device is described. The server comprises an interface agent arranged to receive a first signal from a client wireless device where the first signal comprises an identifier. A retrieval application is arranged to obtain an executable application corresponding to the identifier and an installer application is arranged to install the executable application responsive to the retrieval application obtaining the executable application. The interface agent is arranged to cause execution of the installed executable application.
US08645942B2 Software update syndication
Methods, systems, and machine-readable media are disclosed for distributing software packages to one or more clients. Providing software to one or more clients can comprise generating a software package and publishing the package to a media accessible by the one or more clients. A description of the software package can also be generated and published. The description can identify the software package, contents of the software package, and uses of the software package. A client can obtain software packages from one or more servers by reading the description of software packages available on the one or more servers. A determination can be made as to whether the description indicates at least one of the software packages is available for the client. In response to determining at least one of the software packages is available for the client, the software package can be downloaded and installed on the client.
US08645940B2 Installing and executing shared applications in shared folders
Provided are a method, system, and program for installing and executing shared applications in shared folders. A program is installed by a base computer, having a local storage, to a shared folder accessible to multiple client computers over a network. Installing the program adds files for the program to the shared folder and modifies the local device used by the base computer and enables the base computer to run the program by accessing the program files in the shared folder. An image is created of the local device of the base computer including the installed program. The image is provided to the client computers to apply to local devices of the client computers. Applying the image to the local devices of the client computers enables the client computers to access the program files in the shared folder to run the program.
US08645937B2 Photovoltaic plant having a plurality of inverters, inverter, USB mass storage device and method for carrying out software updates on inverters
The invention relates to a photovoltaic plant having a plurality of inverters (1) connected to each other by way of a network (12), wherein the inverters (1) comprise a control apparatus (7) having at least one microprocessor (8) and at least one storage, an interface for communicating with the remaining inverters (1), a DC/AC module (3) for converting a direct current supplied from an external energy source into an alternating current, and an input/output unit (9), and to such an inverter (1) and a USB mass storage device (11), as well as to a method for carrying out software updates. According to the invention, a USB interface (10) is arranged on at least one inverter (1) for connecting a USB mass storage device (11), in particular a USB stick, so as to carry out automatic updates in a software running in the microprocessor (8) and/or configuration block updates and/or so as to record logging data of the inverters.
US08645936B2 Apparatuses, methods and systems for an a API call abstractor
An API call abstraction processor-implemented method is disclosed. It includes obtaining programming code for an application and parsing the obtained programming code to identify instructions in the programming code. The SNAM identifies an application programming interface call in the programming code based on parsing the obtained programming code and the application programming interface call including an input string. The SNAM determines if the identified application programming interface call requires a pre-registered bundle to replace the input string. It provides a request to register a new bundle including the input string and obtains an indication that the new bundle has been registered. The SNAM can obtain a bundle identification corresponding to the new bundle, upon obtaining the indication that the bundle has been registered and replace the input string in the application programming interface call with the bundle identification.
US08645931B2 Moving static elements between a document and an external resource file in a document editor
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to externally stored static elements for a document in a document editor and provide a method, system and computer program product for moving static elements for a document between an external file and the document in a document editor. A data processing system for moving static elements for a document between an external file and the document in a document editor can include an automated de-externalization and re-externalization processor coupled to a document editor. The automated de-externalization and re-externalization processor can include program code enabled both to replace static elements in a subject document with static element references while storing replaced static elements in entries in an external file, and also to replace static element references in the subject document with corresponding static elements stored in the entries in the external file.
US08645929B2 Producer graph oriented programming and execution
A method and apparatus for producer graph oriented programming and execution. According to one aspect of the invention, a runtime is provided that interprets producer dependency declarations for methods. The producer dependency declarations identify at run time a set of zero or more producers, where a producer is a runtime instantiatable construct that includes at least an instance and a method associated with that instance. The runtime automatically generates and executes, responsive to receiving a designation of a producer of interest whose method has a producer dependency declaration, a producer graph. The producer graph initially includes the producer of interest and is generated, from the producer of interest to source producers, through instantiation of producers based on the producer dependency declarations of the methods of the producers already in the producer graph. The runtime sequences the execution of the producers in the producer graph as indicated by the producer graph.
US08645925B2 Source code inspection
A source code inspection method and system. The method includes receiving by a computing system, source code files associated with a specified project. The computing system retrieves metrics data comprising software metrics associated with the source code files. The computing system generates first evaluation scores associated with the source code files. The computing system generates and presents to a user, a graph displaying the first evaluation scores. The computing system calculates parameter values associated with an evaluation function used to calculate second evaluation scores associated with the source code files. The computing system calculates the second evaluation scores by enabling the evaluation function using the parameter values. The computing system generates and presents to the user, a second graph displaying the second evaluation scores.
US08645924B2 Lossless path reduction for efficient symbolic execution and automatic test generation
In one embodiment, symbolically executing a software module having a number of execution paths; and losslessly reducing the number of execution paths during the symbolic execution of the software module.
US08645922B2 System and method of implementing a concurrency profiler
In one embodiment the present invention includes a computer-implemented method of measuring bottlenecks in a computer program implemented in a hardware client-server environment. The method includes defining an execution parameter to measure of the hardware client-server environment. The method further includes modifying code blocks to include instrumentation code. The instrumentation code relates to the execution parameter. The method further includes executing, in the hardware client-server environment, the code blocks having been modified. The method further includes generating instrumentation data, related to the execution parameter, that result from executing the code blocks. The method further includes outputting the instrumentation data having been generated. In this manner, the bottlenecks may be measured; the measured bottlenecks may be sorted; noteworthy bottlenecks may be identified; and the aspects of the hardware client-server environment may be adjusted to address the bottlenecks. Sorting is helpful because thousands of synchronization points may be detected and measured, but many of them do not represent a problem that requires correction.
US08645920B2 Data parallelism aware debugging
The debugging of a kernel in a data parallel environment. A debugger engine interfaces with a data parallel environment that is running one or more data parallel kernels through a first interface. For each of at least one of the one or more kernels, a program object is formulated that abstractly represents the data parallel kernel including data parallel functionality of the kernel. The program object has a second interface that allows information regarding the kernel to be discovered by the debugger user interface module.
US08645917B2 Providing support for debugging heap related errors with heap assertions
A programming language support for debugging heap related errors includes one or more queries for determining one or more global properties associated with use of the area by the program. The one or more queries may be executed in parallel or concurrently and dynamically utilize available number of cores.
US08645916B2 Crunching dynamically generated script files
Various embodiments enable dynamic crunching of script that can be referenced in a webpage. In at least some embodiments, a browser at a client can be employed to navigate to a webpage available from a server. The webpage can be a static webpage or a dynamically generated webpage. In response to a request from the client to the server, the server can be configured to dynamically generate script referenced in a webpage. Dynamic generation of the script at the server can include configuring the script and crunching of the script to reduce its size. The server can communicate a response having the dynamically crunched script to the client to enable execution of the script by the browser.
US08645915B2 Dynamic data restructuring
A data restructuring method and system. The method includes receiving by a computing system from a first user content data arranged in a first specified order and a command for tagging portions of the content data according to various parameters. The computing system assigns identification tags to the portions of the content data. The computing system presents the identification tags to the first user. The computing system receives from the first user, a selection of at least one of the identification tags. The computing system restructures the content data into a second specified order in response to the selection. The computing system receives a request for viewing the content data from a second user. The computing system presents to the second user, the content data in the second specified order.
US08645910B2 Compiler capable of partitioning program and program partitioning method
A program stored in a memory is read, and in a path representing the order of processing instruction sequences forming the program, a subgraph including a sequence of instructions that includes only one instruction at the entry and only one instruction at the exit is identified. At least a part of a source instruction sequence included in the subgraph is extracted as a new program block and stored in a memory. An instruction for calling the instruction sequence in the new program block is inserted in a program block including the source instruction sequence. The program block including the source instruction sequence is then stored in the memory.
US08645903B2 Apparatus and method for generating user interface based on task service
An apparatus for generating a task-based User Interface (UI) includes a task ontology unit for maintaining task information with respect to the task, a device ontology unit for maintaining device information with respect to a device, a UI description generation unit for reading the task information and/or the device information using the task ontology unit and/or the device ontology unit, respectively, and generating UI description information from the read task information and/or the read device information, the UI description information being made by a task-based language, and a UI description parsing unit for parsing the UI description information to output the task-based UI.
US08645900B2 Tool for the type and form of a circuit production
The invention relates to a method for influencing the selection of a type and form of a circuit implementation in at least one layer in a given integration task for at least one integrated circuit in a wafer composite, a module on a 2-dimensional carrier substrate, or a compact module. In one embodiment, a plurality of electric or electronic components are spatially arranged and to be electrically connected. Completed solutions x are stored in a database, and each of the completed solutions includes properties for the given integration task. The completed solutions define a destination space from which a solution is selectable by operating elements and determines a type and form of circuit implementation as a result of the given integration task, and aggregates the plurality of electric and electronic components in one of a plurality of integration technologies.
US08645898B2 Structure and design structure for high-Q value inductor and method of manufacturing the same
Structures with high-Q value inductors, design structure for high-Q value inductors and methods of fabricating such structures is disclosed herein. A method in a computer-aided design system for generating a functional design model of an inductor is also provided. The method includes: generating a functional representation of a plurality of vertical openings simultaneously formed in a substrate, wherein a first of the plurality of vertical openings is used as through silicon vias and is etched deeper than a second of the plurality of vertical openings used for high-Q inductors; generating a functional representation of a dielectric layer formed in the plurality of vertical openings; and generating a functional representation of a metal layer deposited on the dielectric layer in the plurality of vertical.
US08645893B1 Method of generating a layout of an integrated circuit comprising both standard cells and at least one memory instance
A method of generating a layout of an integrated circuit is disclosed, the layout incorporating both standard cells and at least one memory instance generated by a memory compiler to define a memory device of the integrated circuit. Input data is received specifying one or more properties of a desired memory instance. The memory compiler generates the desired memory instance based on the input data and using the specified memory architecture. A standard cell library is provided. The memory compiler references at least one property of the standard cell library in order to generate the desired memory instance. The layout is then generated by populating standard cell rows with standard cells selected from the standard cell library in order to provide the functional components required by the integrated circuit, and integrating into the layout the desired memory instance provided by the memory compiler.
US08645889B2 Noise coupling reduction and impedance discontinuity control in high-speed ceramic modules
A method reduces coupling noise and controls impedance discontinuity in ceramic packages by: providing at least one reference mesh layer; providing a plurality of signal trace layers, with each signal layer having one or more signal lines and the reference mesh layer being adjacent to one or more of the signal layers; disposing a plurality of vias through the at least one reference mesh layer, with each via providing a voltage (Vdd) power connection or a ground (Gnd) connection; selectively placing via-connected coplanar-type shield (VCS) lines relative to the signal lines, with a first VCS line extended along a first side of a first signal line and a second VCS line extended along a second, opposing side of said first signal line. Each of the VCS lines interconnect with and extend past one or more vias located within a directional path along which the VCS lines extends.
US08645885B1 Specification of multithreading in programmable device configuration
A method of configuring a programmable integrated circuit device with a user logic design includes accepting a first user input defining the user logic design, accepting a second user input defining multithreading characteristics of at least a portion the user logic design, determining a configuration of the programmable integrated circuit device having the user logic design, multithreading the at least a portion of the configuration based on the second user input, and retiming the multithreaded configuration.
US08645882B2 Using entropy in an colony optimization circuit design from high level synthesis
A method for designing an integrated circuit is described. The method comprises converting behavioral descriptions of the integrated circuit to register transfer level (RTL) descriptions. The method comprises at least one of the behavioral descriptions including frame synthesis with an input frame and a corresponding output frame. In one embodiment, the method further comprises providing at least two solutions for performing partial and complete operations for simulations as hardware component combinations, associating each solution with a cost, and selecting the solution with the lowest cost as the hardware component combination for a final design of the integrated circuit.
US08645877B2 Multi-patterning method
A method includes receiving data representing a layout of a DPT-layer of an integrated circuit generated by a place and route tool. The layout includes a plurality of polygons to be formed in the DPT-layer by a multi-patterning process. First and second ones of the plurality of polygons to be formed using first and second photomasks, respectively are identified. Any intervening polygons along a first path connecting the first polygon to the second polygon, and separator regions between adjacent polygons along the first path are identified. The separator regions have sizes less than a minimum threshold distance between polygons formed on the first photomask. The separator regions are counted. A multi-patterning conflict is identified, if the count of separator regions is even, prior to assigning all remaining ones of the plurality of polygons to the first or second masks.
US08645876B2 Methodology for performing post layer generation check
There is provided a method comprising receiving data corresponding to a layout design for a plurality of input mask layers and generating a layout design for at least one generated mask layer. The relationship between a first geometric element in a first layout pattern comprising one or more of the generated mask layers and a second geometric element in a second layout pattern is then determined and verified to check if they comply with predetermined rules. If the relationship does not conform with the predetermined rules the design of at least one of the generated mask layers associated with the first or second layout pattern is modified.
US08645875B2 Method for quantifying the manufacturing complexity of electrical designs
A method and system for quantifying manufacturing complexity of electrical designs randomly places simulated defects on image data representing electrical wiring design. The number of distinct features in the image data without the simulated defects and the number of distinct features in the image data with the simulated defects are determined and the differences between the two obtained. The difference number is used as an indication of shorting potential or probability that shorts in the wiring may occur in the electrical wiring design. The simulating of the defects in the image data may be repeated and the difference value from each simulation or run may be used to obtain a statistical average or representative shorting potential or probability for the design.
US08645871B2 Tiltable user interface
A programmable effects system for graphical user interfaces is disclosed. One embodiment comprises adjusting a graphical user interface in response to a tilt of a device. In this way, a graphical user interface may have viewable content not shown in a first view, where the viewable content may be displayed in a tilted view in response to the device tilt.
US08645870B2 Preview cursor for image editing
Methods and systems, including computer program products, implementing a preview cursor for image editing. One method includes displaying an image, receiving user input moving a cursor representing an editing tool to a position on the image, and in response, displaying a cursor icon representing the cursor at the position. The editing tool is operable to have an effect when applied. The cursor icon shows the effect of applying the editing tool at the position while and only while the cursor is at the position.
US08645868B2 Control device, control system, method and computer readable medium for setting
There is provided a control device for making settings, comprising: a setting item selection unit configured to select setting items to which same setting should be set, from among a plurality of setting items regarding the control device, based on externally inputted instructions; a setting value accepting unit configured to accept setting to be set equally to the selected setting items selected by the setting item selection unit; and a setting unit configured to set the setting accepted through the setting value accepting unit to all of the selected setting items.
US08645864B1 Multidimensional data input interface
Embodiments of the invention provide an interface for simultaneously inputting multiple data parameters for a software application. Generally, a single user input made using the input interface results in multiple data parameters being received by the application. In one embodiment, the input interface may be defined with a plurality of dimensional nodes, where each dimensional node corresponds to a dimension of input that may be specified for the software application using the input interface.
US08645861B2 Graphical display of actions for handling medical items
An information processing system can be provided in accordance with an aspect of the invention which includes a processor and instructions executable by the processor to perform a method. Such method can be performed, for example, by receiving user input in response to prompts on a display, wherein the user input identifies a processable medical item (e.g., a medical sample or medical product). The user input can select each of a plurality of discrete actions for handling the medical item. The actions can have an at least implied order to be performed. Based on the received user input, identification information can be stored which identifies the medical item. Action information can also be stored which represents the selected actions. Then, a flow diagram can be displayed with at least some of the action information and at least some of the identification information. The flow diagram can depict at least some of the selected actions, the actions being automatically arranged on the displayed screen in the at least implied order.
US08645858B2 Navigating in graphical user interface on handheld devices
The invention relates to presenting and browsing in metadata on handheld display devices such as music/mp3 players, mobile phones, PDA's, digital cameras. A graphical user interface (GUI) accesses metadata arranged in different categories and determines a hierarchical order of this. A metadata category is shown in a menu of category entries in a separate pane on the GUI. Rotation of the device is detected by a rotation sensor, and upon rotation the pane with the menu being browsed before rotation is maintained in the GUI, and at least one pane a menu representing a hierarchical super- or sub-category of the category being browsed before rotation is added or removed. This allows the user to expand or collapse metadata categories shown in the GUI by rotating the device.
US08645853B2 Displaying visualizations linked to one or more data source queries
A computer readable storage medium includes executable instructions to provide a Graphical User Interface with a plurality of visualization types and a semi-structured workspace. A drag-and-drop of a visualization type into a drop zone in the semi-structured workspace is received. The drop zone corresponds to a location in the semi-structured workspace where an associated visualization is displayed. A link is created between the associated visualization and a query to a data source.
US08645849B2 Method and apparatus for providing portioned web pages in a graphical user interface
Methods and devices enable displaying selected portions of one or more webpages in user defined view windows presented on a computing device display desktop. A selected webpage may be rendered into a full-sized render buffer in order for a rendering engine to render all the elements properly. One or more view windows are created on the display desktop that show user selected portions of the render buffer. In this manner users can select portions of one or more websites for presentation on their computing device desktop, position the selected portions at their preferred locations.
US08645848B2 Systems and methods for dynamic menus
Systems and method for dynamically loaded menus and objects are provided that can provide cross-platform capability and accessibility features. Objects in a page that are dynamic or are not human-readable (e.g., executable or images) can be identified and enhanced for compatibility with screen readers. HTML corresponding to the object can be generated and loaded in storage for use within the web page. The loaded HTML can be copied into the HTML of the web page. A blank placeholder may be displayed in the area in which the corresponding HTML is to be displayed and the corresponding HTML is displayed over the placeholder to provide a replacement object such as to display a list of URL menu items.
US08645841B2 Unified greetings for social media
A unified greeting system scans social media for content. The content can be any type of post to a social media site. If content is directed to a user of the unified greeting system and if the user is currently unavailable, the unified greeting system determines if the content requires a reply. If a reply is warranted, the unified greeting system determines the characteristics of the content to determine the type of reply. Then, the unified greeting system provides the reply, which can be an “out-of-office message.” The out-of-office message is the posted to the social media site to alert the poster that the person is currently unavailable.
US08645840B2 Multiple user GUI
Mechanisms are provided herein which accommodate the sharing of a user device among multiple users. In particular, when multiple users are detected as sharing a user device, the user interface of the user device can be automatically altered to facilitate the sharing of the user device. Data associated with each sharing user may also be presented according to each user's presentation preferences and to accommodate presentation needs of each user.
US08645836B2 Audience platform
An audience platform is disclosed. In a first example case, a first question is received. A preference event associated with the first question is received. A score is determined for the first question based at least in part on the preference. In a second example case, indications of a first and second potential interviewee are received. Preference events associated with the first and second potential interviewees are received. Scores are determined for the first and second potential interviewees based at least in part on the received preference events. A designated interviewee is selected based on the first and second scores. In a third example case, indications of a first and second potential awardee are received. Preference events associated with the first and second potential awardee are received. Scores are determined for the first and second potential awardees based at least in part on the received preference events.
US08645835B2 Session initiation using successive inputs
Session initiation using successive inputs is described. In an implementation, a determination is made as to when a sufficient number of successive inputs have been collected to uniquely identify two or more clients from a plurality of clients. Each of the successive inputs is input via a respective user interface output by a respective client. Responsive to the determination, an interactive session is initiated involving the two or more clients that were uniquely identified.
US08645833B2 Asynchronously generated menus
Techniques described herein may provide web pages to customers describing various accounts of the customers. In one implementation, a system receives a request for a web page from a client relating to an account of the client, and generates a document in response to the request. The document includes a reference to a script configured to display a context menu for the account in the web page. The script receives, asynchronously with the display of the context menu in the web page, a menu object representing actions for the context menu that are valid for the account. The system transmits the document and the script to the client.
US08645832B2 Methods and apparatus for interactive map-based analysis of digital video content
The present invention provides electronic methods and apparatus for interactively authoring, sharing and analyzing digital video content. Methods for authoring include displaying visual data, defining each traversal as a time-based sequence of frames and annotating and storing a record of the traversal and its associated audio records. Defining the traversal includes interactively panning the visual data by positioning an overlay window relative to the visual data and zooming in or out by resizing the overlay window. In alternative embodiments, the visual data may be displayed in a rectangular layout or a cylindrical layout. The methods are practiced using an integrated graphical interface, including an overview region displaying the visual data, a detail region displaying current data within the overlay window, and a worksheet region displaying a list of previously stored annotated traversal records. In a further aspect, the worksheet region list of annotated traversal records is published in a web document accessible via network using a standard HTML browser, and further annotations may be added by a community of network users. Analytical methods are also provided in which data markers corresponding to traversal records are plotted against an interactive abstract map enabling users to shift between levels of abstraction in exploring the video record.
US08645830B2 Method of creating a summary of a document based on user-defined criteria, and related audio-visual device
The invention describes a creation method of a summary of an audiovisual document respecting both the criteria defined by the user and criteria helping in the understanding of said summary. The document is first split into sequences, each sequence associated with attribute values and a dependence parameter. The user first selects the first sequences either manually, or according to attribute values. Then second sequences are added according to the value of the dependence parameters. These added sequences enable a better understanding of the summary thus created. According to an improvement, the user introduces a maximum duration for the summary, first and/or second sequences are withdrawn from the summary if the duration of the summary thus created exceeds the introduced duration. The invention also relates to an audiovisual device for the creation and viewing of the summary.
US08645828B2 Management system for a contact center
An application management system, including a learning robot/learning agent adapted to generate control data (eg automation script) by monitoring interactions (404,406) between a customer service application (CSA) and a user of the application and an execution robot for sending application data to the application on the basis of the control data, is described. A contact center management system whose components are configurable by a contact center administrator is also described. A relationship management system that manages a relationship between a business requiring a contact center and a customer service representative broker is also described.
US08645826B2 Graphical multidimensional file management system and method
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly storing computer-readable code thereon that provides, when executed by a computer, a method for displaying a plurality of information elements on a display is hereby provided, the method comprising displaying a plurality of juxtaposed information elements defining a first axis thereof, selecting one information element from the plurality of displayed information elements, and displaying a plurality of user-selectable elements related to the selected information element, some of the plurality of user-selectable elements being substantially vertically disposed in respect of one another substantially defining a second axis thereof, the second axis being disposed at an angle in respect with the first axis. A method providing same is also hereby provided.
US08645820B2 Method and apparatus for providing comb text field inputs on a mobile device
A computer implemented method and apparatus for providing comb field text inputs on a mobile device comprising displaying a document on a mobile device, detecting entry of a comb field of the document on the mobile device, the comb field comprising at least one comb cell, determining a size of a canvas that fits onto the comb field on the mobile device, and generating a mobile platform canvas based on the comb field parameters, the mobile platform canvas capable of receiving at least one text character input.
US08645819B2 Detection and extraction of elements constituting images in unstructured document files
A method and a system for detecting and extracting images in an electronic document are disclosed. The method includes receiving an electronic document and identifying elements of a page. The identified elements include a set of graphical elements and a set of text elements. The method may include identifying and excluding elements which serve as graphical page constructs and/or text formatting elements. The page can then be segmented, based on (remaining) graphical elements and identified white spaces, to generate a set of image blocks. Text elements that are associated with a respective image block are identified as captions. Overlapping candidate images are then grouped to form a new image. The new image can thus include candidate images which would, without the identification of their caption(s), each be treated as a respective image.
US08645817B1 Apparatuses, methods and systems for enhanced posted listing generation and distribution management
The Enhanced Posted Listing Management (EPLM) system facilitates generating, distributing, managing and tracking posted listing that are based on a sponsor's underlying data entry. The underlying data entry may be configured as an advertisement or offer for any number of goods, services or opportunities. As an example, the data entry may be a posting on specialized search facilitation site, such as MONSTER® of www.Monster.com. The posted listings may be distributed to a posted listing aggregation web site, such as an online classified web site. Advantageously, the post EPLM system incorporates additional support resources into posted distributed listings. The additional support resources facilitate web user tracking and posted listing maintenance. Accordingly, the EPLM enable a posted listing sponsor to effectively and efficiently access posted listing performance and manage one or more posted listings.
US08645816B1 Customizing user documentation
User documentation is customized. First and second pieces of user documentation content are generated based on predetermined requirements. The first piece is maintained independently from the second piece. The first and second pieces are processed in accordance with stylesheets. Localized content is derived from the first and second pieces. A deliverable document is derived from the first and second pieces. The document is provided in response to a user interface prompt.
US08645813B2 Technique for modifying presentation of information displayed to end users of a computer system
A first portion of content relating to a first markup document may be displayed to a user of the client system. Information relating to the first portion of content is stored at a server system. An action to display a current version of the first markup document on the client system is received. A current version of content for the first markup document is retrieved from the host server. The stored information relating to the first portion of content may be used to identify a third portion of content associated with the first markup document which has not previously been displayed to the user. The display of markup document content associated with the first markup document may then be modified in a manner which facilitates the user in identifying the third portion of content.
US08645809B2 Method and apparatus for channel coding and decoding in a communication system using a low-density parity-check code
A channel coding method in a communication system using a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. The channel coding method includes determining a degree distribution for a plurality of column groups of an information part and a plurality of column groups of a parity part; determining degrees for the plurality of column groups of the information part based on the degree distribution; determining a shortening order based on the degrees for the plurality of column groups of the information part; generating a parity check matrix based on the shortening order; and performing coding using the generated parity check matrix.
US08645808B1 Calculation of soft decoding metrics
A method for communication includes receiving at a receiver a signal from a transmitter embodying data encoded with an error correction code. The signal is processed in order to extract a sequence of samples in a complex signal space. Scalar values are extracted from the samples and the scalar values are processed so as to define one or more clusters of scalar data points. Gain and noise of the signal are estimated responsively to the defined clusters. Bit value metrics for the signal are computed based on the samples and the estimated gain and noise of the signal. The error correction code is decoded using the bit value metrics.
US08645806B2 Optical receiving apparatus and optical receiving method
An optical receiving apparatus includes: an A/D converting circuit; a received-signal demodulating circuit that demodulates a received digital signal from the A/D converting circuit into an m-bit received signal; a soft-decision-data generating circuit that generates n-bit (n≦m) soft-decision data based on the m-bit received signal; and an error correcting circuit that performs error correction based on the n-bit soft-decision data and outputs an error-corrected received signal. The soft-decision-data generating circuit generates soft-decision data of n bits (n=p+1) that corresponds to a determination result according to 2n−1 soft-decision thresholds, by using an MSB of the m-bit received signal as hard-decision data, and by using, as reliability information, a result of comparison between a plurality of bits (k bits, where k≦m) on an MSB side of the m-bit received signal and a fixed threshold, or p bits (p≦m−k) selected from (m−k) bits on an LSB side of the m-bit received signal.
US08645804B2 Interconnection techniques
Techniques are described that can be used to extend the data transmission rate specified by 10GBASE-KR of IEEE 802.3ap (2007) to more than 10 Gb/s using a multiple lane backplane. A signal for transmission over 10 Gb/s can be divided into multiple streams for transmission over multiple lanes. Multiple transceiver pairs can be used for transmission and receipt of the multiple streams. Each transceiver pair may comply with 10GBASE-KR of IEEE 802.3ap (2007).
US08645801B2 Delivery method for internet protocol television (IPTV)
A delivery method for IPTV which combines forward error correction (FEC) with retransmission techniques for handling packet loss and/or corruption. Packet loss or corruption of popular channels is handled through the use of FEC while packet loss of less popular channels is handled by retransmission.
US08645800B2 Integrated data and header protection for tape drives
A method for integrating data and header protection in tape drives includes receiving an array of data organized into rows and columns. The array is extended to include one or more headers for each row of data in the array. The method provides two dimensions of error correction code (ECC) protection for the data in the array and a single dimension of ECC protection for the headers in the array. A corresponding apparatus is also disclosed herein.
US08645797B2 Injecting a data error into a writeback path to memory
In one embodiment, a processor includes error injection circuitry separate and independent of debug circuitry of the processor. This circuitry can be used by a software developer to seed errors into a write-back path to system memory to emulate errors for purposes of validation of error recovery code of the software. The circuitry can include a register to store an address within the system memory at which an error is to be injected, a detection logic to detect when an instruction associated with the address is issued, and injection logic to cause the error to be injected into the address within the system memory responsive to the detection of the instruction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08645795B2 Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
The present invention provides a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device that can optimize a timing of performing an error detection and correction process to shorten a processing time. Upon receiving a write request to a memory cell array including a variable resistive element where information is stored based on a resistance state of a variable resistor, an input/output buffer outputs write data to a write control unit and an ECC control unit. The write control unit performs a data write process of writing divided data, obtained by dividing the write data into a predetermined number of data, to the databanks. The ECC control unit generates a first error correction code by performing an error correction code generation process to the write data or the divided data, in parallel with the data write process. The write control unit performs a code write process of writing first test data into an ECC bank.
US08645792B2 Memory with guard value dependent error correction
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, systems, and apparatuses related to calculating an error correction code for a program page dependent on guard values that correspond to words of the program page. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US08645788B2 Forward error correction (FEC) convergence by controlling reliability levels of decoded words in a soft FEC decoder
A system receives a first word on which to perform error correction; identifies combinations in which encoded bits, within the first word, can be inverted; generates candidate words based on the first word and the combinations; decodes the candidate words; determines distances between the decoded words and the first word; selects, as a second word, one of the decoded words associated with a shortest distance; compares the second word to the first word to identify errors within the first word; generates a value to cause a reliability level of the first word to increase when a quantity of the errors is less than a threshold; generates another value to cause a reliability level of the first word to decrease when the quantity of the errors is not less than the threshold; and outputs a third word based on the first word, and the value or the other value.
US08645787B2 Method for controlling a basic parity node of a non-binary LDPC code decoder, and corresponding basic parity node processor
A method for controlling an elementary parity node of a decoder for decoding non-binary LDPC codes or a code decoder using at least one non-binary parity constraint, and to the corresponding elementary parity node. The elementary parity node receives first and second input lists (U1, U2) having nm elements sorted in ascending or descending order, nm being greater than 1, and gives an output list (Uout) of nm′ elements sorted in said ascending or descending order, nm′ being greater than 1, each element of the output list (Uout) being the result of a computing operation φ between an element of the first input list (U1) and an element of the second input list (U2). A limited number of candidates is selected for each element of the output list to be generated so as to reduce the number of operations to be carried out in the elementary parity node.
US08645781B2 TMDS receiver system and BIST method thereof
A transition minimized differential signaling (TMDS) receiver system including a clock channel, a plurality of data channels, a TMDS decoding unit, and a self-test unit is provided. The clock channel receives, processes and outputs a clock signal. Each data channel receives, processes and outputs a corresponding data signal according to the clock signal. The TMDS decoding unit receives and decodes the processed data signals. The self-test unit receives the clock signal and an external parallel signal, and accordingly, generates a test signal for performing the BIST on the data channels and the TMDS decoding unit. A BIST method adapted for the TMDS receiver system is also provided.
US08645775B2 Method and apparatus for the determination of a repetitive bit value pattern
A repetitive bit value pattern associated to a predetermined bit position of a sequence of data words, the data words having two or more bits in a bit order, a bit position describing a position within the bit order being indicative of a value represented by the bit at the bit position, can be determined from program loop information, the program loop information having a program expression for determining an updated data word of the sequence of data words. Using the predetermined bit position, a sequence length value associated to the predetermined bit position is determined. The program expression is evaluated for a number of loop iterations indicated by the sequence length value, to obtain updated bit values associated to the predetermined bit position. The repetitive bit value pattern is determined using the updated bit values of the number of loop iterations.
US08645773B2 Estimating temporal degradation of non-volatile solid-state memory
Representative locations of a non-volatile, solid-state memory of an apparatus store characterization data. An event during which elapsed time is not measured by the apparatus is determined. In response to the event, temporal degradation of the non-volatile, solid-state memory during the event is estimated based on electrical characteristics of the representative locations.
US08645772B2 System and method for managing uncertain events for communication devices
In one or more embodiments, an intelligent communications device is disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus for managing a network connection of the intelligent communications device is disclosed. The apparatus includes a communication module for monitoring the network connection through a first port that is independent of a network port. The first port is associated with a computer-executable application that is operative to detect failure of the network connection. The apparatus further includes a detection module for detecting a failure of the network connection at the network port and, in response to the failure, causing the intelligent communications device to reconnect to the network. The apparatus also includes a power supply module for iteratively power-cycling operation of the intelligent communications device in response to a failed network connection.
US08645768B2 Display screen control device, display screen control method, and computer readable medium
A display screen control device comprises: a browser for acquiring a display screen from the web server and displaying on a predetermined display part; an error detection part for detecting whether or not a display error of an image contained in the display screen acquired by the browser is occurred with the display screen being displayed on the display part when instructions on execution of a job given by the user is detected; a confirmation screen creation part for creating a setting confirmation screen including a set value of each of at least one set item corresponding to the image in which the display error is detected when the display error is detected; and a screen change part for changing the display screen displayed on the display part to the setting confirmation screen created by the confirmation screen creation part prior to start of execution of the job.
US08645763B2 Memory dump with expanded data and user privacy protection
A system and method for generating a triage dump of useful memory data from a computer that encounters an error while executing one or more software programs. The computer system may identify data values within the triage dump that are characteristic of personal data. To protect the privacy of the software user the personal data may be poisoned by overwriting the data values with overwrite values. The overwrite values used to poison the data values may be predetermined, based on the data values themselves, or chosen at random. The triage dump may be sent to an external server to associated with the developer of the one or more software programs for analysis. When overwrite values are dynamically selected, the specific overwrite values used may be sent to the server in connection with a triage dump.
US08645759B2 Debugging mechanism having an OR circuit for triggering storage of arithmetic operation data whenever a valid control signal is received or a clock-based counter overflows
A debugging mechanism receives arithmetic operation data inputs for causing an arithmetic unit to perform an arithmetic operation, and a control signal used for the arithmetic operation. The debugging mechanism includes a debug control unit which includes (1) a counter that performs a counting operation cyclically according to the processor clock operation, and (2) an OR circuit that receives the control signal and a counter signal that is output when the counter value becomes a specific value, and outputs an output signal generated by performing a logical OR operation of the control signal and the counter signal. The debugging mechanism also includes a debug storage unit which stores the arithmetic operation data, the counter value, and the control signal when the output of the OR circuit is valid.
US08645757B2 Administering incident pools for event and alert analysis
Administering incident pools including receiving, by an incident analyzer from an incident queue, a plurality of incidents from one or more components of the distributed processing system; assigning, by the incident analyzer, each received incident to a pool of incidents; assigning, by the incident analyzer, to each incident a particular combined minimum time for inclusion in one or more pools, each particular combined minimum time corresponding to a particular incident; in response to the pool closing, determining, by the incident analyzer, for each incident in the pool whether the incident has met its combined minimum time for inclusion in one or more pools; and if the incident has been in the pool for its combined minimum time, including, by the incident analyzer, the incident in the closed pool; and if the incident has not been in the pool for its combined minimum time, including the incident in a next pool.
US08645748B1 System and method for bare metal restore of a computer over a network
A system, method and computer program product for providing “bare metal” computer hardware with full operating system capabilities, including: (a) executing software contained in computer hardware read-only memory; (b) transferring software control to a location of a start-up program; (c) performing initialization of devices of the computer hardware; (d) selecting an origin storage device for restoration of an operating system to a destination storage device of the computer hardware; (e) establishing a connection with an origin for restoration of an operating system to the computer hardware; (f) initiating a transfer of the operating system data from selected origin to the computer hardware; (g) performing optional substitution of the computer hardware drivers; (h) performing optional structural modifications to the restored operating system; and (i) restoring the operating system to the computer hardware from a data storage device located either locally or remotely, from full or incremental operating system backup.
US08645739B2 Systems and methods for power supply warm spare and programmable load sharing
A power supply system for an information handling system is disclosed. The power supply system includes power supply units electrically coupled via an output line. The power supply units are configured to supply an output voltage to the output line. Each power supply unit receives a feedback signal indicative of a voltage of the output line and a programmed voltage signal indicative of a supply voltage required for the output line. A standby power supply unit is configured to transition between a standby mode and an active mode based, at least in part, on the feedback signal and the programmed voltage signal. Power supply units are configured to transition to a load sharing mode where the power supply units cooperatively supply an output voltage to the output line. The transitioning is based, at least in part, on the feedback signal and the programmed voltage signal.
US08645734B2 Power aware memory allocation
A computer system may place memory objects in specific memory physical regions based on energy consumption and performance or other policies. The system may have multiple memory regions at least some of which may be powered down or placed in a low power state during system operation. The memory object may be characterized in terms of access frequency, movability, and desired performance and placed in an appropriate memory region. In some cases, the memory object may be placed in a temporary memory region and later moved to a final memory region for long term placement. The policies may allow some processes to operate while consuming less energy, while other processes may be configured to maximize performance.
US08645733B2 Virtualized application power budgeting
Virtualized application power budgeting can manage power budgeting for multiple applications in data centers. This power budgeting may be done in intelligent and/or dynamic ways and may be useful for updating power budgets, resolving conflicts in requests for power, and may improve the efficiency of the distribution of power to multiple applications.Virtualized application power budgeting can distinguish between priority applications and non-priority applications at a granular, virtual machine level and reduce the power consumption to only non-priority applications when there are power consumption conflicts. Virtualized application power budgeting may be able to determine the most efficient manner of providing power to each application in a data center. Further, virtualized application power budgeting may be able to distribute power according to application priority and other predetermined requirements and improve the efficiency of the power consumption by the devices in the data center.
US08645730B2 Systems and methods to improve power efficiency in hybrid storage clusters
Systems and methods for reducing power consumption and power leakage in hybrid storage clusters is provided. More specifically, the systems and methods for reducing power consumption select a particular cache (memory) technology in hybrid storage clusters based on performance requirements and/or other parameters associated with an application (file or process). The method can be implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions. The program instructions are operable to monitor access patterns of one or more applications in one or more memory technologies in a computing system. The program instructions are also operable to select a memory technology to store the one or more applications based on the access patterns of one or more applications.
US08645729B2 External device power control during low power sleep mode without central processing unit intervention
An integrated circuit device controls power up of an external device used for sensing a process variable independently of whether the integrated circuit device is in a low power sleep mode. Once the external device becomes operational the integrated device, even when still in the low power sleep mode, samples the process variable status of the external device. Low power timing circuits operational during the low power sleep mode control the power up of the external device and sampling of the process variable status thereof. After the sample of the process variable status is taken, the integrated circuit device may be brought out of the low power sleep mode to an operational mode when appropriate as determined from the sampled process variable status.
US08645728B2 Methods and apparatuses for controlling thread contention
An apparatus comprises a plurality of cores and a controller coupled to the cores. The controller is to lower an operating point of a first core if a first number based on processor clock cycles per instruction (CPI) associated with a second core is higher than a first threshold. The controller is operable to increase the operating point of the first core if the first number is lower than a second threshold.
US08645722B1 Computer and data center load determination
A method for use in deploying computers into a data center includes calculating in a computer an expected peak power draw for a plurality of computers. The expected peak power draw for the plurality of computers is less than a sum of individual expected peak power draws for each computer from the plurality of computers.
US08645720B2 Power adaptor detection system
A power adaptor detection system includes a power adaptor device configured to receive electrical power at a first voltage and to convert the electrical power to a second voltage. The second voltage has a lower value than the first voltage. An identification generating circuit is coupled to the power adaptor device. The identification generating circuit is configured to convert a portion of the electrical power to a substantially constant value electrical current. An identification detection circuit is configured to detect the second voltage. Detecting the second voltage causes the identification circuit to determine the value of a pulse of the electrical current, wherein the value of the electrical current is an identification attribute of the power adaptor device.
US08645719B2 Image processing apparatus and control method thereof
Disclosed is an image processing apparatus including: an image processor which processes and displays an image signal; a communication unit which transmits a power consumption of the image processing apparatus to a power control server, and receives a message notifying necessary power saving function from the power control server; and a controller which controls the image processor to display a power load warning message and performs a power saving function in response to the power load warning message if the message notifying the necessary power saving function is received. With this, while operation rate of the power plant having high costs is lowered, low carbon emission of the plant may be achieved and a user of the image processing apparatus may reduce power consumption by performing a power saving function.
US08645718B2 Apparatus and method for sampling power consumption
In the computer apparatus which has a processing unit, a power consumption measuring unit, and a power counter, the power consumption of running programs on the processing unit is measured at arbitrary constant period, wherein the measuring value is integrated to the power counter. When the power counter overflows, the processing unit is interrupted for sampling information required for analysis. Then the processing unit which received the interruption executes a sampling of the power consumption base. So, power consumption based sampling and profiling becomes to be enabled.
US08645716B1 Method and apparatus for overwriting an encryption key of a media drive
The present disclosure describes apparatuses and techniques for fail-safe key zeroization. In some aspects a periodic counter is activated that is configured to indicate an amount of time that content of a one-time-programmable (OTP) memory is accessible and overwriting of the content of the OTP is caused when the periodic counter reaches a predetermined value effective to zeroize the content. In other aspects a periodic counter is started in response to a power event and one or more encryption keys stored in OTP memory are zeroized if an indication of media drive security is not received within a predetermined amount of time.
US08645710B2 Information processing apparatus, information storage medium, content management system, data processing method, and computer program
A configuration for achieving efficient content verification processing based on hash values is provided. Hash values of hash units set as segmented data of a content stored on an information storage medium are recorded in a content hash table and are stored on the information storage medium together with the content. An information processing apparatus for executing content playback executes hash-value comparison processing based on one or more randomly selected hash values. Regardless of the data amount of content, the configuration can perform hash-value determination and comparison processing based on hash units having a small amount of data, so that user equipment for executing content playback can perform efficient content verification.
US08645708B2 Method and apparatus for the secure identification of the owner of a portable device
An authentication system is provided that includes a portable device and a decryption node. An individual uses the portable device, such as a portable device like a cell phone to compute a challenge and a response. The challenge and response is sent to a decryption node. In response, the decryption node computes a presumed response and compares the presumed response to the response of the portable device, in order to authenticate the individual associated with the portable device.
US08645706B2 Preventing error in an access protocol
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a flexible way of accommodating typical user errors when attempting to gain access. One method prevents an error in an access protocol by determining if an access request contains an error that may be forgiveable, such as repeated entry of the same incorrect password or the use of all capital letters. If the access request contains an error, the access request will be classified as invalid. As such, the invalid access request will not count against the number of allowed access requests. Errors may include repeated passwords, obvious typographical error, etc. A message may also be provided or sent to the user that informs the user of their error.
US08645704B2 Protecting caller function from undesired access by callee function
Disclosed is a method for restricting access of a first code of a plurality of codes of a first function from a second function. The method comprises calling the second function by the first function, addresses of the plurality of codes are stored in a stack page and colored in a first color (102). The method comprises performing access control check in a transition page for verifying whether the first function has permission to call the second function (104). Further the method comprises protecting the first code from the second function by coloring the addresses in a second color (106). Furthermore, the method comprises executing the second function by pushing addresses of the second function on the stack page, the addresses of the second function colored in a third color (108) and unprotecting the first code by coloring the addresses of the first code in the first color (110).
US08645702B2 Method and apparatus to use identity information for digital signing and encrypting content integrity and authenticity in content oriented networks
A content router comprising storage configured to cache, in a content oriented network (CON), a content object with a signature signed by a publisher based on a known identity to a subscriber; and a transmitter coupled to the storage and configured to forward the content object with the signature upon request to the subscriber, wherein the subscriber uses the signature to verify one of the content object's integrity and the content object's authenticity based on the known identity without verifying a trust of a publisher key for the publisher, and wherein the known identity is trusted by the publisher and does not require verifying trust from the publisher.
US08645698B2 Method and node for generating distributed Rivest Shamir Adleman signature in ad-hoc network
A distributed Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA) signature generation method in an ad-hoc network and a node of an ad-hoc network. The distributed RSA signature generation method in an ad-hoc network includes distributing key share information, which is generated using a maximum distance separable (MDS) code and a random symmetric matrix, to a plurality of nodes; generating, in a fewer number of nodes than the plurality of nodes, a partial signature using the distributed key share information; transmitting the partial signature to a signature generation node; and generating an RSA signature using the partial signature, in the signature generation node.
US08645697B1 Message authorization
In some embodiments, a technique for authorizing a subsequent message comprises receiving a request to authorize a subsequent message, determining whether the request is valid, and authorizing the subsequent message, if it is determined that the request is valid.
US08645695B2 System and method for managing security key architecture in multiple security contexts of a network environment
A user equipment (UE) device that is able to engage in multiple security contexts contains a key generator to generate one or more authentication keys for authentication of the UE device in a particular security context and a component configured to facilitate storing of the authentication keys in a subscriber identity module (SIM) if an elementary file (EF) structure for the particular security context is available in the SIM and to facilitate storing of the authentication keys in a nonvolatile memory (NVM) of the UE device if the EF structure is not found in the SIM.
US08645691B2 System and method for securing data while minimizing bandwidth
Systems and methods for securing data are disclosed. A method for securing data can comprise processing a data block to generate a signature, processing the signature to generate a reduced signature, transmitting the data block to a recipient, and transmitting the reduced signature to the recipient.
US08645688B2 System and method for execution of a secured environment initialization instruction
A method and apparatus for initiating secure operations in a microprocessor system is described. In one embodiment, one initiating logical processor initiates the process by halting the execution of the other logical processors, and then loading initialization and secure virtual machine monitor software into memory. The initiating processor then loads the initialization software into secure memory for authentication and execution. The initialization software then authenticates and registers the secure virtual machine monitor software prior to secure system operations.
US08645686B2 Detection of encrypted packet streams using a timer
Methods, systems, and devices are disclosed for detecting encrypted Internet Protocol packet streams. The type of data within an encrypted stream of packets is inferred using an observable parameter. The observable parameter is observable despite encryption obscuring the contents of the encrypted stream of packets. A timer is established that maintains settings despite changes in the type of inferred data.
US08645684B2 Synchronizing certificates between a device and server
Systems and methods for processing messages within a wireless communications system are disclosed. A server within the wireless communications system maintains a list of certificates contained in devices that use the server. The server synchronizes or updates the list of certificates based on information contained in message to and from the device. By providing a server with certificates associated with devices that use the server, and providing a system and method for synchronizing the certificates between the device and server, the server can implement powerful features that will improve the efficiency, speed and user satisfaction of the devices. The exemplary embodiments also enable advantageous bandwidth savings by preventing transmission of certificates unnecessarily.
US08645683B1 Verified navigation
In some embodiments, techniques for computer security comprise detecting an attempt of a traversal associated with a link and a link destination, receiving an intended destination, comparing the intended destination and the link destination, and interfering with the traversal, if it is determined that the intended destination is substantially dissimilar to the link destination. In some embodiments, techniques for computer security comprise detecting a link associated with a document, determining a second link associated with a predetermined address and with the link, and rewriting the link including the second link.
US08645682B2 Methods and apparatus for sharing real-time user context information
Improved systems and techniques for secure delivery of data. One or more data providers deliver encrypted data to a storage entity. For each of one or more authorized recipients of data delivered by a data provider, the data provider generates a re-encryption key and delivers it to the storage entity. The storage entity uses a recipient's re-encryption key to re-encrypt data to be delivered to the recipient. The recipient is able to use its own key to decrypt data that has been encrypted with the data provider's key and re-encrypted with the re-encryption key of the recipient. Delivery of data may be managed to insure that it reflects a consistent condition. Data may be homomorphically encrypted by each of a plurality of data providers and processed in aggregate at the storage entity, with a recipient being able to decrypt the aggregated data but not individual elements of the aggregated data.
US08645679B2 System and method for merging security constraints when using security annotations
A method is described for merging security constraints associated with an application when using security annotations. The application comprises one or more servlets, such as a Java servlet. During application deployment, a list of role names is generated by merging static security constraints, for example, identified in a deployment descriptor, and in a static security annotation that defines a list containing the names of authorized roles for a servlet. Later, during application runtime in an application server, security constraints are retrieved from a plurality of sources, including both dynamic and static security annotations. Using the list of role names and the security constraints retrieved, a set of merged security constraints having a defined and proper order of precedence is generated. In particular, preferably one or more dynamic security annotations are first merged with one or more static security annotations to generate a set of runtime constraints. The security constraints from the deployment descriptor are then merged with the set of runtime constraints and the list of roles to generate the set of merged security constraints. These merged security constraints are then applied to process a request being handled by the application server.
US08645670B2 Specialized store queue and buffer design for silent store implementation
A processor including an architecture for limiting store operations includes: a data input and a cache input as inputs to data merge logic; a merge buffer for providing an output to an old data buffer, holding a copy of a memory location and two way communication with a new data buffer; compare logic for receiving old data from the old data buffer and new data from the new data buffer and comparing if the old data matches the new data, and if there is a match determining an existence of a silent store; and store data control logic for limiting store operations while the silent store exists. A method and a computer program product are provided.
US08645664B1 Logical sector mapping in a flash storage array
A system and method for efficiently performing user storage virtualization for data stored in a storage system including a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A data storage subsystem supports multiple mapping tables. Records within a mapping table are arranged in multiple levels. Each level stores pairs of a key value and a pointer value. The levels are sorted by time. New records are inserted in a created newest (youngest) level. No edits are performed in-place. All levels other than the youngest may be read only. The system may further include an overlay table which identifies those keys within the mapping table that are invalid.
US08645658B2 Storage system comprising plurality of storage system modules
A plurality of modules (1) and (2) comprise a plurality of virtual volumes with which the same volume identification number is associated. A module (2), which receives a write request from a computer, searches for an unallocated real area from among a plurality of real areas in the module (2) rather than from among a plurality of real areas in the other module (1) if a real area has not been allocated to a write-targeted virtual area in accordance with the write request. The module (2) allocates the real area retrieved from the module (2) to the write-targeted virtual area, and writes data according to the write request to this real area.
US08645657B2 Scheduling of I/O writes in a storage environment
A system and method for scheduling read and write operations among a plurality of solid-state storage devices. A computer system comprises client computers and data storage arrays coupled to one another via a network. A data storage array utilizes solid-state drives and Flash memory cells for data storage. A storage controller within a data storage array comprises an I/O scheduler. The data storage controller is configured to receive requests targeted to the data storage medium, said requests including a first type of operation and a second type of operation. The controller is further configured to schedule requests of the first type for immediate processing by said plurality of storage devices, and queue requests of the second type for later processing by the plurality of storage devices. Operations of the first type may correspond to operations with an expected relatively low latency, and operations of the second type may correspond to operations with an expected relatively high latency.
US08645655B2 Computing device system and information managing method for rearrangement of data based on access characteristic related to a task
The present invention provides a technique of suitably configuring a decision criterion for determining a transfer destination layer in rearrangement processing according to a task type and operation status and preventing performance degradation caused by arranging task data requiring a high response to a lower layer. At least one computing device (or management computing device or each host computing device) of a plurality of computing devices configures rearrangement reference information showing whether an access characteristic related to a task executed on a plurality of host computing devices is considered as a decision criterion for transfer destination determination in rearrangement processing of transferring data between actual storage areas of physical storage devices of different response performance. Also, a storage subsystem refers to the rearrangement reference information and, based on an access characteristic of the plurality of computing devices with respect to the actual storage areas assigned to the plurality of computing devices, executes rearrangement processing of transferring data stored in the actual storage areas to different actual storage areas in the physical storage devices of different response performance (see FIG. 19).
US08645653B2 Data migration system and data migration method
A second storage maps a migration source volume to a virtual volume of a migration destination volume according to storage virtualization technology. A host system including a host switches an access path from an access path to the migration source volume to an access path to the migration destination volume. The second storage executes copy processing of migrating, from the migration source volume to the migration destination volume, data in an assigned area of a virtual volume according to thin provisioning of the migration source volume based on the information contained in the first thin provisioning information in the first storage, and copying that data from the migration destination volume to a virtual volume according to thin provisioning of a copy destination volume in the second storage. The second storage associates the virtual volume of the copy destination volume with the migration destination volume in substitute for the original virtual volume.
US08645651B2 Low-contention update buffer queuing for small systems
A method for queuing update buffers to enhance garbage collection. The method includes running an application thread and providing, for the application thread, a data structure including current and finished update buffer slots. The method includes providing an update buffer for the application thread and storing a pointer to the update buffer in the current update buffer slot. The method includes storing null in the finished update buffer slot and, with the application thread, writing to the update buffer. The thread may write a pointer to the filled update buffer in the finished update buffer slot after the buffer is filled. The method includes using a garbage collector thread to inspect the finished update buffer slot and claim filled buffers and change the pointer to null. The thread then obtains an empty update buffer and updates the current update buffer slot to point to the new buffer.
US08645649B2 Computer system with reservation control
A computer system includes: a first storage apparatus; a second storage apparatus; a first volume of the first storage apparatus; and a second volume of the second storage apparatus; wherein the first volume and the second volume have a copy pair relationship and a host system recognizes the second volume as the same volume as the first volume; and wherein the first storage apparatus sends reservation information of the first volume to the second storage apparatus; and the second storage apparatus controls access from the host system on the basis of the received reservation information.
US08645644B2 Facilitating data coherency using in-memory tag bits and tag test instructions
A method is provided for fine-grained detection of data modification of original data by associating separate guard bits with granules of memory storing original data from which translated data has been obtained. The guard bits indicating whether the original data stored in the associated granule is protected for data coherency. The guard bits are set and cleared by special-purpose instructions. Responsive to attempting access to translated data obtained from the original data, the guard bit(s) associated with the original data is checked to determine whether the guard bit(s) fail to indicate coherency of the original data, and if so, discarding of the translated data is initiated to facilitate maintaining data coherency between the original data and the translated data.
US08645640B2 Method and apparatus for supporting memory usage throttling
An apparatus for providing system memory usage throttling within a data processing system having multiple chiplets is disclosed. The apparatus includes a system memory, a memory access collection module, a memory credit accounting module and a memory throttle counter. The memory access collection module receives a first set of signals from a first cache memory within a chiplet and a second set of signals from a second cache memory within the chiplet. The memory credit accounting module tracks the usage of the system memory on a per user virtual partition basis according to the results of cache accesses extracted from the first and second set of signals from the first and second cache memories within the chiplet. The memory throttle counter for provides a throttle control signal to prevent any access to the system memory when the system memory usage has exceeded a predetermined value.
US08645639B2 Hierarchical memory arbitration technique for disparate sources
A hierarchical memory request stream arbitration technique merges coherent memory request streams from multiple memory request sources and arbitrates the merged coherent memory request stream with requests from a non-coherent memory request stream. In at least one embodiment of the invention, a method of generating a merged memory request stream from a plurality of memory request streams includes merging coherent memory requests into a first serial memory request stream. The method includes selecting, by a memory controller circuit, a memory request for placement in the merged memory request stream from at least the first serial memory request stream and a merged non-coherent request stream. The merged non-coherent memory request stream is based on an indicator of a previous memory request selected for placement in the merged memory request stream.
US08645638B2 Shared single-access memory with management of multiple parallel requests
A memory is used by concurrent threads in a multithreaded processor. Any addressable storage location is accessible by any of the concurrent threads, but only one location at a time is accessible. The memory is coupled to parallel processing engines that generate a group of parallel memory access requests, each specifying a target address that might be the same or different for different requests. Serialization logic selects one of the target addresses and determines which of the requests specify the selected target address. All such requests are allowed to proceed in parallel, while other requests are deferred. Deferred requests may be regenerated and processed through the serialization logic so that a group of requests can be satisfied by accessing each different target address in the group exactly once.
US08645634B1 Zero-copy data sharing by cooperating asymmetric coprocessors
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for reducing the copying of data between memory allocated to a primary processor and a coprocessor is disclosed. The system memory is aliased as device memory to allow the coprocessor and the primary processor to share the same portion of memory. Either device may write and/or read the shared portion of memory to transfer data between the devices rather than copying data from a portion of memory that is only accessible by one device to a different portion of memory that is only accessible by the other device. Removal of the need for explicit primary processor memory to coprocessor memory and coprocessor memory to primary processor memory copies improves the performance of the application and reduces physical memory requirements for the application since one portion of memory is shared rather than allocating separate private portions of memory.
US08645632B2 Speculative writestream transaction
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system that performs a speculative writestream transaction. The system starts by receiving, at a home node, a writestream ordered (WSO) request to start a WSO transaction from a processing subsystem. The WSO request identifies a cache line to be written during the WSO transaction. The system then sends an acknowledge signal to the processing subsystem to enable the processing subsystem to proceed with the WSO transaction. During the WSO transaction, the system receives a second WSO request to start a WSO transaction. The second WSO request identifies the same cache line as to be written during the subsequent WSO transaction. In response to receiving the second WSO request, the system sends an abort signal to cause the processing subsystem to abort the WSO transaction.
US08645629B2 Persistent cacheable high volume manufacturing (HVM) initialization code
A persistent cacheable high volume manufacturing (HVM) initialization code is generally presented. In this regard, an apparatus is introduced comprising a processing unit, a unified cache, a unified cache controller, and a control register to selectively mask off access by the unified cache controller to portions of the unified cache. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US08645627B2 Memory bus write prioritization
A data processing system includes a multi-level cache hierarchy including a lowest level cache, a processor core coupled to the multi-level cache hierarchy, and a memory controller coupled to the lowest level cache and to a memory bus of a system memory. The memory controller includes a physical read queue that buffers data read from the system memory via the memory bus and a physical write queue that buffers data to be written to the system memory via the memory bus. The memory controller grants priority to write operations over read operations on the memory bus based upon a number of dirty cachelines in the lowest level cache memory.
US08645624B2 Portable electronic device, smartcard and control method for portable electronic device
A smartcard includes a write unit that writes data to be written to a data memory according to a write command supplied from an external device, a determining unit that determines whether important data is contained in the data to be written specified by the write command supplied from the external device, a calculating unit that calculates a head address of the important data in the data memory based on data length from a head of the data to be written to a head of the important data and an address on the data memory at which a process of writing the data to be written is started when the determining unit determines that important data is contained in the data to be written, and a position table that stores information indicating a head address of the important data in correspondence to information indicating the important data.
US08645619B2 Optimized flash based cache memory
Embodiments of the invention relate to throttling accesses to a flash memory device. The flash memory device is part of a storage system that includes the flash memory device and a second memory device. The throttling is performed by logic that is external to the flash memory device and includes calculating a throttling factor responsive to an estimated remaining lifespan of the flash memory device. It is determined whether the throttling factor exceeds a threshold. Data is written to the flash memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor does not exceed the threshold. Data is written to the second memory device in response to determining that the throttling factor exceeds the threshold.
US08645618B2 Flexible flash commands
A method of controlling a flash media system. The method includes providing a flash lane controller having a processor control mode and creating and presenting soft contexts. The soft contexts generally place the flash lane controller into the processor control mode. In the processor control mode, the flash lane controller stores the entire soft context, finishes executing any outstanding contexts, suspends normal hardware automation, and then executes the soft context.
US08645611B2 Hot-swapping active memory for virtual machines with directed I/O
Embodiments of the invention describe a DMA Remapping unit (DRU) to receive, from a virtual machine monitor (VMM), a hot-page swap (HPS) request, the HPS request to include a virtual address, in use by at least one virtual machine (VM), mapped to a first memory page location, and a second memory page location. The DRU further blocks DMA requests to addresses of memory being remapped until the HPS request is fulfilled, copies the content of the first memory page location to the second memory page location, and ramps the virtual address from the first memory page location to the second memory page location.
US08645609B2 Two-port memory implemented with single-port memory blocks
A two-port memory having a read port, a write port and a plurality of identical single-port RAM banks. The capacity of one of the single-port RAM banks is used to resolve collisions between simultaneous read and write accesses to the same single-port RAM bank. A read mapping memory stores instance information that maps logical banks and a spare bank to the single-port RAM banks for read accesses. Similarly, a write mapping memory stores write instance information that maps logical banks and a spare bank to the single-port RAM banks for write accesses. If simultaneous read and write accesses are not mapped to the same single-port RAM bank, read and write are performed simultaneously. However, if a collision exists, the write access is re-mapped to a spare bank identified by the write instance information, allowing simultaneous read and write. Both read and write mapping memories are updated to reflect any re-mapping.
US08645598B2 Downstream interface ports for connecting to USB capable devices
At least one downstream interface may be configured to be simultaneously connected to both a USB 3.0 compliant device and a USB 2.0 compliant device. The interface may be used for communicating with a USB 3.0 compliant device via a downstream port and simultaneously communicating with a USB 2.0 compliant device via the downstream port.
US08645597B2 Memory block reclaiming judging apparatus and memory block managing system
A memory block reclaiming judging apparatus and a memory block managing system are disclosed in the present invention. The memory block reclaiming judging apparatus comprises a peripheral information accessing unit, a data packet information recording unit, a data calculating unit, and a comparing and judging unit, wherein the data calculating unit is configured to calculate remaining scheduling times of a data packet-and write the remaining scheduling times of the data packet into the data packet information recording unit, and meanwhile set a flag for indicating acquirement of information of the required scheduling times as valid; the comparing and judging unit is configured to generate a memory block reclaiming instruction, reset the remaining scheduling times of the data packet in the data packet information recording unit to an initial value, and set the flag for indicating acquirement of information of the required scheduling times as invalid.
US08645596B2 Interrupt techniques
Techniques are described that can be used by a message engine to notify a core or hardware thread of activity. For example, an inter-processor interrupt can be used to notify the core or hardware thread. The message engine may generate notifications in response to one or more message received from a transmitting message engine. Message engines may communicate without sharing memory space.
US08645593B2 Signal processor, transmission apparatus, and method for processing signal
A signal processor includes a processor that counts the number of input data pieces or a size of each of the input data pieces; a first memory that stores a result of the counting by the processor; and a second memory that records whether the result of the counting exceeds a capacity of the first memory.
US08645591B2 Time-gap defect detection apparatus and method
A programmatic time-gap defect correction apparatus and method corrects errors which may go undetected by a computer system. Buffer underruns or overruns, which may incur errors in data transfers, yet remain undetected and uncorrected in a computer system, are corrected by an error avoidance module in accordance with the invention. Bytes transferred to and from buffers, used by an I/O controllers to temporarily store data while being transferred between synchronous and asynchronous devices, are counted and an error condition is forced based on the count. If the count exceeds the capacity of the buffer, an error condition is forced, thereby reducing chances that errors are incurred into the data transfer.
US08645584B2 Method and system for partial USB enumeration and edge initiation
Initiating USB-over-network connections based on partial USB enumeration, including the steps of: Discovering USB hosts by respective USB host adaptors (USBHs). Reading USB device descriptors of USB devices by respective USB device adaptors (USBDs) performing partial USB enumeration that stops prior to the configuration state of the USB devices. Forwarding the read USB device descriptors to the USBHs. And initiating, by the USBDs or the USBHs and based on the USB device descriptors, USB-over-network connections between the USB devices and the USB hosts.
US08645583B2 Zero pin serial interface
A method for controlling performance of an integrated circuit using a zero-pin serial interface is provided. The method comprises identifying a desired performance characteristic of the circuit, and transmitting a first change mode signal to the circuit on a first pin to cause the circuit to enter an instruction reception mode, with the first pin performing differently during a normal operation mode. The method also comprises transmitting a performance adjusting instruction to the circuit on a second pin when the circuit is in the instruction reception mode, with the second pin performing differently during the normal operation mode, and transmitting a second change mode signal to the circuit on the first pin to cause the circuit to enter the normal operation mode. An output performance of the circuit is compared to the desired performance characteristic, with the output performance being the performance of the circuit during the normal operation mode. The circuit is set to permanently provide the output performance when the output performance is within a desired tolerance of the desired performance characteristic.
US08645582B2 Network node with plug-in identification module
A network node well suited for use in a distributed control network includes a housing containing the node electronics, and an external port for receiving a detachable plug-in module. The plug-in module contains a programmable memory which, when the plug-in module is attached, allows electronic interconnection between the electronics of the network node and the readable memory. The readable memory stores a unique node identifier which becomes associated with the node, and can also store functional program code for the particular node. Thus, a node can be easily and rapidly replaced or reprogrammed, without the need for specialized equipment to download the node identifier or functional program code, and without the possibility of erroneous manual entry of the node identifier. The plug-in module further includes a writable memory portion which can be used to store data during operation of the node, for later retrieval.
US08645579B2 Virtual media device
A system, device, and method for virtually connecting a media device to a computing device are disclosed. One embodiment comprises a method to operate a virtual media device in a computing device, wherein the virtual media device that is controlled by a remote media device. In this manner, a computing device may stream media data to and from the remote media device.
US08645577B2 Method and apparatus for outputting event of third party device in home network supporting UPnP remote protocol
An apparatus for outputting an event of a third party device in a home network is provided, which includes a remote user interface (RUI) client taking part in a user interface (UI) session using a universal plug and play (UPnP) remote protocol; an RUI server taking part in the UI session, judging whether the RUI client exists on the home network, storing and transmitting an event message of a third party device that does not take part in the UI session; and an i-box receiving the event message from the RUI server if the RUI client does not exist on the home network, and transmitting the event message to the RUI client existing outside the home network by using an external network.
US08645576B2 Overlay transport virtualization
In one embodiment, an apparatus includes one or more internal interfaces in communication with one or more network devices in a first network site through a Layer 2 link, an overlay interface in communication through a Layer 3 link with a core network connected to one or more other network sites, and a table mapping addresses for network devices in the other network sites to addresses of edge devices in the same network site as the network device. The apparatus further includes a processor operable to encapsulate a packet received at one of the internal interfaces and destined for one of the network devices in the other network sites, with an IP header including a destination address of the edge device mapped to the destination network device, and forward the encapsulated packet to the core network.
US08645574B2 Method and system for management of synchronization of a mobile electronic device
The present technology provides a method, system and computer program product for managing the synchronization of a mobile electronic device, wherein management and adjustment of the synchronization process can be provided at least in part on a session by session basis. The synchronization process may be configurable via a user interface. Aspects of the user interface, such as prompts or degree of user configurability, may be adjusted depending on one or more factors, such as link effective speed or expected synchronization time.
US08645572B2 Service gateway for interactive television
A service gateway provides a proxy between a client protocol and a plurality of standard communication protocols. The service gateway provides asymmetrical routing, data compression and encryption to optimize client processing power and communication link bandwidth. The service gateway enables content translation between clients and service providers. The service gateway keeps track of client available memory and sequence numbers in messages to generate error codes when applicable. A store and forward message capability is provided along with abstract session identifiers. The service gateway supports user datagram protocol.
US08645570B2 System and method for the issuance of an emergency text alert in response to the redirection of a website
A system and method to issue a text alert message in response to a website deflection. DNS inquires for a website resource may be deflected to a new IP address for a website prior to or after the occurrence of a natural disaster, emergency event, attack, or other event that damages the computer infrastructure of an organization or causes interruption in website administration, thereby interrupting the organization's ability to continue to offer or update its website information. Alternatively, the system can be used to issue marketing alerts in response to a website deflection. The text alert may be issued responsive to deflection or responsive to an automated process that alters a zone file on a controlling DNS server.
US08645567B2 Method and system for packet filtering for local host-management controller pass-through communication via network controller
A network controller in a communication device may be operable to provide pass-through communication of local host-management traffic between a local host and a management controller within the communication device, wherein the local host may be operable to utilize its network processing resources during communication of the local host-management traffic. The network controller may use packet filtering to provide the pass-through communication, wherein the network controller may utilize a plurality filtering rules during filtering of packets received in the network controller. The filtering rules may specify packet processing and/or forwarding actions by said network controller based on one or more specified conditions. The specified conditions may based on one or more match criteria; wherein the match criteria comprising source address, destination address, and/or traffic type data in the received packets. Address learning mechanisms may be used in the network controller to enable configuring and/or performing packet filtering transparently.
US08645564B2 Method and apparatus for client-directed inbound traffic engineering over tunnel virtual network links
A method for managing network traffic is described which includes receiving a traffic engineering specification at a Server from a Client, receiving a communication at the Server, a destination of the communication being the Client, and sending the communication from the Server to the Client via a tunnel virtual interface configured over one or more of Internet service provider (ISP) connections associated with the Client based on the traffic engineering specification, the tunnel virtual interface being a point of connection to a tunnel virtual network link.
US08645562B2 Apparatus and method for providing streaming content
A method and apparatus for an adaptive Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming service using metadata of content are provided. The metadata may include one or more BaseURL elements. Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) of segments forming media may be generated based on the BaseURL elements. Additionally, a URL of a segment may be generated by mapping a BaseURL element among the BaseURL elements to a sourceURL attribute of the segment. Segments indicated by generated URLs may be identical to each other.
US08645561B2 System and method for real-time transfer of video content to a distribution node of a P2P network over an internet protocol network
A method for broadcasting time sensitive content over an Internet protocol (IP) network for distribution in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. The method comprises segmenting the time sensitive content into a plurality of segments; separating each segment of the plurality of segments into a plurality vectors; generating random linear combination equations respective of the plurality of vectors; interleaving equations of at least two different segments of the plurality of segments; and transmitting at least a portion of the equations over the IP network to at least one distribution node for the distribution of the time sensitive content in the P2P network, wherein the time sensitive content is recreated from the equations at least the distribution node.
US08645556B1 Method and system for reducing memory used for idle connections
A method and system for reducing memory required to maintain connection states in a traffic manager. A network device receives a message from a client in which at least a portion of the message is to be forward to a first server. If the network device is maintaining information for facilitating a first connection with a second server, the network device maintains a subset of the information for use in restoring the first connection and frees memory associated with information that is not needed for restoring the first connection. The network device then employs other previously stored information to restore the state of a second connection to the first server. The network device then sends at least a portion of the message to the first server using the second connection.
US08645550B2 Database virtualization
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate database virtualization. In aspects, clusters of database servers may be located at various locations of the Internet. When a client seeks to access a logical database, the client may send a logical server and logical database name in a data structure. These names may be used to find a physical server(s) and database(s) that correspond to the logical database. Once the location is determined, a proxy component is used to intercept and/or forward communications between the client and the physical server(s) and database(s) corresponding to the logical database. Using this system, a client may access data from a logical database without knowing the physical address of the logical user database.
US08645548B2 Request packet size reduction
A mobile computing device comprising memory components, a wireless transmitter/receiver, and one or more applications. The mobile computing device utilizes HTTP via the wireless transmitter/receiver to request and receive information from a remote device, wherein the information is to be used by the one or more applications. However, an Accept-Encoding header is not sent with a HTTP GET request when the information comprises one of, an image, audio, video, and flash data.
US08645547B1 Methods and systems for providing a messaging service
Systems and methods for providing a messaging service may comprise receiving first user credentials and second user credentials corresponding to first user and second user respectively. In addition, systems and methods for providing a messaging service may include generating first capabilities and second capabilities, the first capabilities being based on roles corresponding to the first user and the second capabilities being based on roles corresponding to the second user. Moreover, systems and methods for providing a messaging service may include allowing a messaging session between the first user and the second user based on the first capabilities and the second capabilities.
US08645545B2 Balancing the loads of servers in a server farm based on an angle between two vectors
A system and computer program product for balancing the loads of servers in a server farm. A vector, referred to herein as the “DesiredVector,” is computed to hold the load factors for each of the servers. Upon receipt of a client request, a vector, referred to herein as the “ActiveConnections,” is modified for each scenario where the new client request is considered to be serviced by a different server. The ActiveConnections vector holds the current number of client requests being serviced by each of the servers. Angles made by each of the different ActiveConnections vectors with the DesiredVector are computed. Upon identifying the ActiveConnections vector that produces the smallest angle with the DesiredVector, the client request is directed to the server which corresponds to the identified ActiveConnections vector. In this manner, the best possible distribution of requests among the servers is made for every client connection.
US08645540B2 Avoiding unnecessary provisioning/deprovisioning of resources in a utility services environment
Provided is a method for the deployment of resources in a utility services environment, in which various resources are allocated and deallocated according to a calculated need for those resources. Provides is a “weighted” period of time, or “window,” corresponding to requests for a particular resource. A configuration file stores information on each resource in the utility services environment and a weighted period of time value corresponding to each resource. A list of provisioning/deprovisioning, or “resource.” actions corresponding to each resource is maintained. Provisioning/deprovisioning actions are correlated with times of execution. When a request for a provisioning/deprovisioning action is received, the list of actions and the configuration file are examined to determine whether or not the requested action has been executed with respect to the particular action within the weighted period of time. If so, the request is discarded without any action taken. If not, the action is executed.
US08645539B2 Domain name resolution resource allocation
A content delivery network (CDN) for delivering content over the Internet is disclosed in one embodiment. The CDN includes a domain resolution service (DNS) server, caching servers and an Internet interface. The caching servers correspond to a plurality of addresses. The DNS server receives two domain resolution requests corresponding to a same domain and produces two different DNS solutions, each corresponding to a subset of caching servers. The interface receives domain resolution requests, including the two domain resolution requests, and transmits DNS solutions, including the two DNS solutions. The processing power is generally matched between the two DNS solutions.
US08645535B1 Detecting profile changes based on device behavior
Methods and systems for detecting profile changes based on device behavior. One example method includes assigning a network configuration to a device associated with a network, applying a mobile device management (MDM) profile to the device, the MDM profile including settings configuring the device according to the network configuration, monitoring network activity of the device to detect one or more actions by the device that are prohibited by the network configuration, determining that the MDM profile has been altered based at least in part on the detection of one or more actions prohibited by the network configuration, and performing a remediation action associated with the device based on the determination that the MDM profile has been altered.
US08645532B2 Methods and computer program products for monitoring the contents of network traffic in a network device
Provided are methods and computer program products monitoring the contents of network traffic in a network device. Methods may include collecting, using a kernel space driver interface, network traffic data sent by and/or received at the network device, parsing the collected network traffic data to extract transaction data corresponding to at least one logical transaction defined by a network protocol and storing an indicator of a quantity of the collected network traffic data that was parsed, and generating an event incorporating the extracted transaction data.
US08645531B2 Method and apparatus for home network access by a trusted monitoring agent
A manner of extending a home network to a remote TMA service. A TMA in the TMA service acquires and stores a UID (unique identifier) and a MS-UID (monitoring service UID), than registers with an SG (signaling gateway) and is then redirected to an MA-SG (monitoring application SG). The MA-SG may be dedicated to the TMA service or may host communications for more than one service. When an HA that subscribes to the monitoring service registers, it is also redirected to the MA-SG, and a secure tunnel is established between the TMA and the HA and maintained by heartbeat messages. The secure tunnel may be redirected to an MA-PS (monitoring application proxy server) depending on the bandwidth consumed in the monitoring process and traffic conditions.
US08645530B2 Method and apparatus of establishing computer network monitoring criteria
A method and apparatus of monitoring computer devices operating on a network is disclosed. Computer devices are all different and require monitoring settings that are tailored to their specific requirements. One example method of automatically configuring a set of monitoring requirements may include creating initial monitor counter values at a computing device and monitoring at least one computer based on the initial monitor counter values. Additional operations may include calculating override monitor counter values based on the monitoring of the at least one computer, and monitoring the at least one computer based on the override monitor counter values. The override values may be better suited for the device(s) being monitored and may replace the previously used monitoring settings.
US08645527B1 Network monitoring using bounded memory data structures
A network monitoring device includes a data structure for maintaining information about endpoints involved in network flows. Each endpoint, either a source or a destination for a network flow, has information maintained in a modified binary trie, having a branch for each bit of the source or destination address, but with interior nodes having only a single child node elided. A pruning thread is given a limited amount of time for operation, with the effect that the data structure is maintained available for use except for only that limited amount of time. In the event that the pruning thread is unable to prune the entire data structure, it maintains a marker indicating where last it left off, and returns to that location in the data structure at a later pruning operation.
US08645525B2 Using prime numbers to manage partitioning in a cluster of nodes of computers
For managing partitioning in a cluster of nodes, each node is assigned a prime number for use in determining which partition should be activated following partitioning of the cluster. The cluster is monitored for partitioning. If partitioning is detected, a partition value is calculated from the product of the prime numbers assigned to each node in each partition. A node is activated only if it is within the partition having the greatest partition value.
US08645519B2 Method for interacting messages based on simple network management protocol
A method for interacting messages based on a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is disclosed by the present invention. The method includes: when receiving an SNMP message sent from an SNMP management station, an SNMP proxy estimating a suggested timeout value of the SNMP message and feeding the suggested timeout value back to the SNMP management station; and the SNMP management station waiting for a response of the above SNMP message according to the suggested timeout value. A corresponding SNMP proxy is further disclosed by the present invention. Since the method of the present invention adopts the technical measure of dynamically determining the timeout period of the management station in an interaction manner between the SNMP management station and the SNMP proxy, the drawbacks of manually setting timeout period are overcome, occurrences of timeout event are effectively reduced, and the efficiency of implementing network management using SNMP is improved.
US08645512B2 System and method of enabling access to remote information handling systems
A system and method of enabling access to remote information handling systems is disclosed. In one form, a method of enabling an initialization of an information handling system is disclosed. The method can include receiving a request to initialize a remote information handling system, and determining an access information operable to enable an initialization sequence of the remote information handling system. The access information can be configured to enable an initialization of the remote information handling system. The method can also include communicating the access information via a network to the remote information system.
US08645509B2 System and server for assigning location-dependent hostname to client device over network and method thereof
A method of automatic hostname configuration includes receiving a request from a client device. A location detection module may be utilized for determining a location identifier representing a location at which the client device is located. A hostname is formed including at least the location identifier, and a control server assigns the hostname to the client device by sending an acknowledgement including the hostname to the client device. The request and acknowledgement may be communicated using DHCP. Simple network management protocol messages may be sent to one or more switches to query for a MAC address of the client device to determine the source switch and port from which the request originated. The switch-port-to-location table may include several ports that map to a same location identifier. The hostname may further be formed by including a device type identifier associated with the client device.
US08645505B2 Anonymous location service for wireless networks
An anonymous location wireless network service for use in a wireless network. The service provides content providers with the location of network users without revealing their identities. The service includes a wireless network having a proxy server, a network communication link to a plurality of web sites, and a wireless communication link to a plurality of handheld devices. The proxy server blocks identity by reading the location and identity information of network devices, generating dummy identifications, relating the dummy identifications to the identity information, storing the relationships in a memory storage, and forwarding the location information and dummy identifications to the global computer network. Upon receiving messages from the global computer network, the proxy server reads the dummy identifications, looks up the related identification information in the memory storage, and forwards the data to the appropriate network devices.
US08645504B2 Dynamic chunking for delivery instances
Systems and methods for dynamically chunking for delivery instances are provided that automatically implement chunking strategies based on one or more chunking considerations related to a request for a media file. These systems and methods may be part of a larger media servicing network that can be used to, among other things, process uploaded media content, provide it for streaming/downloading, and collect metric information regarding the streaming/downloading. The disclosed systems and methods provide for receiving a request having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and providing an index file to implement chunking strategies based on chunking considerations associated with the request.
US08645503B1 Accelerated data uploading
A method and system are provided for accelerated data uploading to a remote service device destination. An on-line (third party) storage device receives an upload request message from a network-connected client device. A unique first descriptor in a descriptor field of the upload request message is accessed and compared to a list of descriptors maintained by the on-line storage device. If the accessed first descriptor is on the list, a first file is read that is stored in the on-line storage device and associated with the accessed first descriptor. The first file is then sent to a network-connected remote service device.
US08645500B2 Method and system for communicating between a remote printer and a server
In order to enable downloading to a mobile printer data items from a server, a method comprising the steps of establishing communication connection end points (“sockets”), communicating with the server, where the communication includes sending a request for authentication to the server, receiving an authentication response, requesting print data portions from the server, receiving the requested print data portions, and notifying the server after each print data portion has been printed. The method also includes the step of terminating their communication connection when a printing session ends or if an error occurs. The method constitutes a printer-server protocol.
US08645495B2 Facility maintenance and management system
Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatuses and methods for that provide for a central command and control center that controls, monitors, and analyzes the systems and components of various remote facilities. Generally, the system comprises a control panel installed at each of a plurality of remote facilities. The control panel is connected through a wide area network to the command and control center. The control panel is also connected through a local area network to the facility's lighting systems, single point devices, HVAC systems, and/or other power-using systems and devices for monitoring these systems. The single point devices may include but are not limited to people counters, outside air temperature sensors, space/CO2 humidity sensors, space temperature sensors, branch power meters, and, in some cases, motion detectors and outside photocells. The command and control center can control the lighting systems, HVAC systems, and other facility systems, as well as receive information relating to the operation of the facility and its power-using systems.
US08645494B1 Two-file preloading for browser-based web acceleration
A system and a method for accelerating delivery of a webpage by using a preloader file during a delay in fetching the web file are disclosed. When an end user makes a request through a client computer for a webpage, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) server sends the client a preloader file. The preloader file contains requests for resources that are likely to be part of the web file. The client downloads the resources, and the resources are saved in a browser cache. The preloader file also directs the client to request the webpage again. While the client is downloading the resources, the CDN server requests the web file from an origin server. The origin server composes the webpage and delivers the webpage to the CDN server. When the client makes a second request for the web file, the CDN server delivers the web file to the client. When the client renders the web file to display the webpage, the client can retrieve the resources from the browser cache.
US08645493B2 Accessing deep web information using a search engine
Methods, apparatuses, and articles for receiving a search request associated with a transportation service from a client device, the search request including a plurality of search criteria, are described herein. Additionally, the methods, apparatuses, and articles further return to the client device an answer page having a plurality of answers potentially associated with the transportation service, the plurality of answers identifying a plurality of information locations having information potentially associated with at least a one of the plurality of search criteria, where at least one of the answers includes at least one input field of a query answer page for entry of at least one feature of the transportation service, the query answer page to be dynamically generated by one of the information locations in response to a query.
US08645489B1 Systems and methods for the developing content and applications in hosted and non-hosted development environments
Certain embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and systems for developing content and applications in both hosted and non-hosted environments, including developing interactive content and applications in such environments. Certain embodiments provide development application components that are used through a generic execution engine, for example, through a web browser and/or interactive media player technology that is available in both a hosted environment and a non-hosted environment. Elements of a user interface and other features of a traditional desktop application can thus be preserved from one environment to the other, which allows seamless migration of a development application. Certain embodiments use a service access component that is capable of talking to different development services, such as for example, using different remote procedure calls (“RPCs”) to access remote services or simply accessing local services, depending on the environment.
US08645484B2 Messaging service using different text messaging channels
A system and method for providing a messaging service in a community is disclosed. The system includes a communication interface and a message routing module. The communication interface receives a message from a first member of the community using a first text messaging channel. The message includes a community number identifying the community. The message routing module is communicatively coupled to the communication interface. The message routing module determines one or more second members of the community based at least in part on the community number. The message routing module determines one or more second text messaging channels for the one or more second members. The communication interface sends the message to the one or more second members of the community using the one or more second text messaging channels.
US08645483B2 Groupware-integrated business document management
A system may include generation of a markup language representation of a business document based on a business object model, and generation of a first multi-part MIME electronic mail message comprising a first part and a second part, the first part associated with a text content-type and the second part associated with an attachment content-disposition, and the second part comprising the markup language representation of the business document. The first electronic mail message may be transmitted to a business application platform associated with the business document and implementing the business object model.
US08645480B1 Trust representation by similarity
In some embodiments, techniques for determining a reputation associated with an electronic document may include receiving a reference image, receiving an electronic document, determining a trustworthiness factor associated with the electronic document, creating a modified reference image, wherein creating the modified reference image includes modifying the reference image to a degree corresponding to the trustworthiness factor, wherein a lower trustworthiness factor corresponds to a greater modification relative to a higher trustworthiness factor; and displaying the modified reference image.
US08645478B2 System and method for monitoring social engineering in a computer network environment
A method in one example implementation includes providing a memory component with one or more alternative email entries associated with a plurality of name records. The name records represent one or more authorized users of a network. The method further includes determining whether any of the one or more alternative email entries corresponds to a sender email address in an incoming email message, where the incoming email message is being sent from the sender email address to at least one official email address associated with the network. In more specific embodiments the method includes tagging the incoming email message with a first or second flag depending on whether any of the one or more alternative email entries corresponds to the sender email address and whether a username of the sender email address includes an identifiable portion of one of the plurality of name records.
US08645474B2 Self-described rendering of data
An exemplary data package for a network-based instant messaging system includes descriptive data about a user of the instant messaging system and data indicating a network location of a gadget to render the descriptive data, the location accessible by one or more other users of the instant messaging system. Various other exemplary methods, systems, device, etc., are also disclosed.
US08645469B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product for constructing topic structure in instance message meeting
An instant messaging communication method, computer program product and apparatus. The instant messaging communication apparatus includes input means for inputting an instant message and a semantic tag for the instant message; a network module for transmitting the input instant message and semantic tag and receiving an instant message with a semantic tag; construction means for constructing a visual topic structural diagram of the transmitted and received instant messages according to the semantic tag; and display means for displaying the visual topic structural diagram. An embodiment of the communication apparatus provides structured guidance to the user's discussion, directs the user to make pertinent announcement and enables the user to easily sum up the main points of the discussion from the log through a visualized topic structural diagram.
US08645468B2 Collaborative arbitration of polling results in a collaborative computing environment
Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to arbitrating polling results and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for collaborative arbitration of polling results in a collaborative environment. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for collaborative arbitration of polling results in a collaborative environment can be provided. The method can include placing a poll within a message and sending the message to a select group of collaborators in the collaborative environment. The method further can include receiving poll results from a collaborator in the select group in a reply to the message, extracting the poll results from the reply and placing the poll within a new message along with the extracted poll results. Thereafter, the new message can be sent to the select group.
US08645466B2 Systems and methods for displaying file and folder information to a user
A system for displaying the listings of files and/or folders in one of a plurality of different views (e.g., gallery view or list view). In particular embodiments, the system determines which of the views to display in the listings in based on: (1) the types of files to be displayed; (2) a specified preference of a content sharer; and/or (3) a specified preference of a content recipient. Various embodiments are particularly useful for displaying lists of files that a content sharer shares with a content recipient via a URL within the context of a synched file sharing system.
US08645465B2 High availability conferencing
A method, system, and architecture for providing a conference system that effectively achieves high availability conferencing is provided. The conference system architecture provides a conference system that comprises a set of stateless conference servers and a shared conference store to provide highly available conferencing to its users. The conference servers serve (host) conferences (meetings) that allow users to conduct distributed conferences. Each conference server generally performs conference provisioning operations and conference control operations. The shared conference store provides for the storage of conference state information, thus allowing the conference servers in the conference server pool to be stateless by maintaining conference state information on the shared conference store. A stateless conference server may also locally maintain, for example, in cache memory, some of the conference state information that is maintained on the shared conference store.
US08645464B2 Determining meeting attendee readiness
Status information associated with at least one application associated with a meeting invitee is detected. An estimated arrival time of the meeting invitee to a meeting is determined based upon, at least in part, the status information. The estimated arrival time is provided to at least another invitee of the meeting.
US08645461B2 Method for distributing computing between server and client
A method and system for use in running a display-based computer application comprising a plurality of application segments, where computing is distributed between a server and a client computer. The method comprises the steps of providing a generic client engine (20) to the client computer, the client engine comprising an application manager (24), one or more display managers (22), and one or more load managers (26), providing a collection of individual application subset definition files (18), each relating to one of said application segments, wherein, on receipt of successive application subset definition files from the server, the client recursively transforms to provide the respective application segments. The invention has broad utility in a wide variety of display-based computer applications, particularly in wireless applications.
US08645460B2 Method for managing object-based storage system
A method for managing an object-based storage system is provided. The object-based storage system includes root objects, partition objects, collection objects, user objects and function objects. The function objects include user function objects and system function objects. The user function objects respond to the client request, so that the existing data-processing tasks requested by the client are moved to the OBSD to be completed, so as to achieve the purposes for saving the network storage bandwidth and improving the security of the stored data, etc. The system function objects execute the system management function, so that the management of the bottom of disks management of the file system and database system is completed by the OBSD. That can be easily realized in automatic data backup, load balancing and other functions in the storage system. The user function objects and system function objects can be customized by the user.
US08645459B2 System and method for a service provisioning platform for activating services in a communication network
A system for provisioning services may include a device that may receive a service order that identifies a service to be provisioned. The device may obtain, using the service order, a specification for the service. The device may further identify, based on the specification, a service processing system to invoke for provisioning the service, and invoke the service processing system by sending the service order and the specification to the identified service processing system.
US08645453B2 Method and system of processing cookies across domains
Method and system of processing cross-domain cookies in order to allow a first website to access a cookie of a second website are provided. In one aspect, a method includes: providing a flash cookie of a first website in a user's local computer; reading an ordinary cookie of a second website that is stored in the user's local computer; and writing the ordinary cookie of the second website into the flash cookie of the first website. Based on this method, it is achievable to access and store cookies across domains in the user's local computer. Accordingly, the method enables e-commerce websites to have a more comprehensive collection of user information to provide more reliable references for the e-commerce websites to analyze user information.
US08645450B1 Multiplier-accumulator circuitry and methods
Multiplier-accumulator circuitry includes circuitry for forming a plurality of partial products of multiplier and multiplicand inputs, carry-save adder circuitry for adding together the partial products and another input to produce intermediate sum and carry outputs, final adder circuitry for adding together the intermediate sum and carry outputs to produce a final output, and feedback circuitry for applying the final output (typically after some delay, e.g., due to registration of the final output) to the carry-save adder circuitry as said another input. The above circuitry may be implemented in so-called “hard IP” (intellectual property) of a field-programmable gate array (“FPGA”) integrated circuit device. If desired, any overflow from the accumulation performed by the above circuitry may be accumulated in “soft” accumulator-overflow circuitry that is implemented in the general-purpose programmable logic of the FPGA.
US08645449B1 Combined floating point adder and subtractor
Circuitry (fixed or configured in a programmable device) for performing floating point addition and subtraction uses approximately the same resources as required for either operation separately. The circuitry is based on a recognition that when adding or subtracting two numbers, the two resulting mantissa values will be two out of three possibilities, and will involve either a one-bit shifting operation, or a shifting operation involving a large number of bits. Therefore, one mantissa path—a subtraction path—can be provided with full add/normalize/round circuitry, while a second mantissa path—an addition path—can be provided with a simple one-bit shifter and simplified rounding circuitry. Because the input numbers are signed, the “addition path,” which only adds the mantissas, may provide the mantissa for the subtraction result, depending on the signs of the input numbers. Similarly, the “subtraction path” may provide the mantissa for the addition result.
US08645448B2 Carryless multiplication unit
An apparatus having a carryless preformat unit, a Booth encoder, a compressor, a left shifter, and exclusive-OR logic. The carryless preformat unit receives a multiplier operand and partitions the multiplier operand into parts. The Booth encoder receives the parts and directs selection of first partial products of a multiplicand that do not reflect implicit carry operations. The compressor sums the first partial products via a configuration of carry save adders that generate sum bits and carry bits, where generation of the carry bits is disabled during execution of the carryless multiplication. The left shifter shifts bits of one or more outputs of the compressor. The exclusive-OR logic is coupled to the compressor and the left shifter, and is configured to execute an exclusive-OR function on the outputs to yield a carryless multiplication result.
US08645447B2 Method and structure for cache aware transposition via rectangular subsections
A method and structure for transposing a rectangular matrix A in a computer includes subdividing the rectangular matrix A into one or more square submatrices and executing an in-place transposition for each of the square submatrices Aij.
US08645446B2 Multi-input IIR filter with error feedback
Methods and systems for multi-input IIR filters with error feedback are disclosed. By using multiple-inputs to generate multiple outputs during each iteration, a multi-input IIR filter in accordance with the present invention has greatly increased throughput. Furthermore, the addition of a multi-variable error feedback unit in accordance with the present invention in a multiple-input IIR filter can greatly increase the accuracy of the multi-variable IIR Filter.
US08645445B2 Filter block for compensating droop in a frequency response of a signal
The invention may provide a method and filter block for compensating droop in a frequency response of a signal. The filter block may include a decimator, which decimates a high frequency input signal to a set frequency output signal. The set frequency can be, for example, the Nyquist frequency for the input signal. Further, the filter block may include a droop compensator that compensates the droop in the frequency response of the output signal from the decimator. The droop compensator may be made using recursive filters, as opposed to large tap FIR filters, which may result in less memory consumption and decreased power consumption.
US08645444B2 IIR filter for reducing the complexity of multiplying elements
An infinite impulse response (IIR) filter is provided for receiving an input signal and outputting a filtered signal. The filter comprises feedback circuitry for feeding back said filtered signal, the feedback circuitry comprising a first delay element for delaying said filtered signal; and a sub-unit, for receiving said delayed filtered signal, for outputting a summed signal which is the difference between said delayed filtered signal and a further-delayed filtered signal, and for outputting a multiplied signal which is an inverted further-delayed filtered signal multiplied by a first filter coefficient. At least said input signal, said delayed filtered signal, said multiplied signal, and said summed signal are employed to generate said filtered signal.
US08645441B2 Desensitized filters
A method and system for the design and implementation of filters is presented in which the filter's transfer function can be provided with a significant insensitivity to the filter's tap coefficient values. A desensitized digital filter includes a first halfband filter and a second filter coupled in cascade between an input of the digital filter and the output of the digital filter. In embodiments, the first filter has the transfer function F(z)=K(1+z−1)(1+z−1) wherein K≠0 is a scale factor. The digital filter may also interact with an up-sampler or a down-sampler. A desensitized Hilbert transformer includes an FIR filter having filter-tap coefficients whose absolute values equal the absolute values of the coefficients of an FIR filter F(z) for which the product (1+z−1)F(z) is a halfband filter coupled in cascade with a second filter.
US08645437B2 System and method for providing fast startup of a large file delivery
A file delivery system includes a disk file system, a solid state drive file system, and an interface module. The disk file system includes a disk drive that stores a plurality of files for download by a user device. The solid state drive file system includes a solid state drive that stores a first block of data for each of the files stored on the disk drive. The interface module is in communication with the disk file system and with the solid state drive file system, and is configured to retrieve the first block of data of one of the files from the solid state drive in response to a request from the user device for one of the files, to send a read command to the disk drive for a next block of the one of the files at substantially the same time as the first block is retrieved from the solid state drive and sent to the user device, and to store the next block in a buffer.
US08645436B2 Method, a computer system, a computer readable medium and a document management system for repairing references of files
The invention relates to a method, a computer system, a computer readable medium and a document management system for repairing references of files. The computer system comprises a first location and a second location and one or more files stored in the first location. A command is received to transfer at least one file from the first location to the second location the at least one file referring to at least one other file. The at least one file and the at least one other file being referred to are transferred into the second location, and information on original locations of the transferred files is stored into the second location. After the transfer, one or more references appearing in the at least one file are automatically repaired by utilizing the information on the original locations of the transferred files.
US08645427B2 Human relationships registering system and device for registering human relationships, program for registering human relationships, and medium storing human relationships registering program and readable by computer
To provide a human relationships registering system, a method and a server for registering human relationships, a program for registering human relationships, and a medium storing human relationships registering program and readable by a computer, all of which are used to establish wide and close relationships with members having a variety of occupations or engaged in various technical fields and to obtain expert knowledge or information. The human relationships registering system comprises first data processing units 2 and 3 including sections for receiving personal data of a new member, and a second data processing unit including a section for storing the received personal data. The second data processing unit stores the personal data of the new member in correlation to an existing member when the existing member confirms the new member.
US08645426B2 Method and apparatus for managing multimedia content
The invention includes a system, apparatus, and method for storing media content within a service provider network. The system includes multi-service servers associated with access points adapted to allow end-user devices to access the service provider network. Each multi-service server includes a common storage partition adapted for storing media content and a plurality of end-user storage partitions adapted for maintaining associations to media content. The system includes media servers that communicate with the multi-service servers for providing media content to the multi-service servers. In response to a request for media content received from one of a plurality of end-user devices, the requested media content stored in the common storage partition is associated with a selected one of the end-user storage partitions associated with the end-user. The request for media content is received in response to end-user directed advertisements received at any of the plurality of end-user devices.
US08645423B2 Method of partitioning a database
The invention is directed towards a method of partitioning data in a database. The database is configured to be accessed by an entity. The method comprises the steps of defining a first partition within the database, defining a second partition within the database and assigning selected data in the database to the first partition and the second partition, wherein data assigned to both the first partition and the second partition may only be accessed by an entity assigned to both said first partition and said second partition.
US08645420B2 Methodology framework and delivery vehicle
A hierarchical framework for a library of software process management methodologies includes at a first level of hierarchy, a collection of activities that describe the process, wherein each activity requires the use of a unique skill set domain. At a second level of hierarchy, the framework includes a collection of tasks that describe the activity. At a third level of hierarchy, the framework includes a collection of steps that describe the task. For each methodology, a portion of the activities are categorized across a set of taxonomies common to a plurality of methodologies contained in the library such that the portion of activities is reusable for the plurality of methodologies.
US08645416B2 Searching content in distributed computing networks
A distributed search system includes a central server having an index of data, wherein the index of data is also available on a plurality of computing devices in a distributed computing network, the plurality of computing devices being distinct from the central server, each the computing device having a cache in which the computing device automatically stores data generated during the course of the computing device's access to another computing network distinct from the distributed computing network.
US08645408B2 Discovery of application server in an IP network
The present invention provides for the discovery of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of an application server associated with an IP network. An IP device is granted access to an IP network. Access to the IP network assumes an IP address assignment for the IP device. The network domain name is discovery by performing a Reverse DNS query on the assigned IP address or an IP address associated with the IP network device granting access to the IP device. Using a application server domain name (derived from the network domain name) a DNS query is perform to determine all IP addresses associated with the application server domain name.
US08645407B2 System and method for providing search query refinements
A system and method for providing search query refinements are presented. A stored query and a stored document are associated as a logical pairing. A weight is assigned to the logical pairing. The search query is issued and a set of search documents is produced. At least one search document is matched to at least one stored document. The stored query and the assigned weight associated with the matching at least one stored document are retrieved. At least one cluster is formed based on the stored query and the assigned weight associated with the matching at least one stored document. The stored query associated with the matching at least one stored document are scored for the at least one cluster relative to at least one other cluster. At least one such scored search query is suggested as a set of query refinements.
US08645406B2 Exploiting conditions to optimize expensive database queries
A fallback query mechanism that serves as a way to recover from query conditions (or criteria) that break due to excessively large result sets relative to a preset threshold. The fallback query mechanism detects when a query has failed to execute because the query requested more items from the database (or list) than allowed by the threshold, rewrites the query to examine no more than the threshold number of most recently created items that match one of the indexed filter criteria specified in a view, and then applies one or more of the other filter criteria. The mechanism then reruns the query and displays the results to the user.
US08645403B2 Database-managed rendering
A method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture provide the ability to track image processing data in a collaborative environment in a database. Non-creative information is received that relates to image processing. The non-creative information is generated by a computer pursuant to a rendering operation performed by the computer. The non-creative information is stored in a database that is accessible across a network to multiple users. Once stored, the non-creative information may be evaluated (e.g., to provide a profitability or cost/benefit analysis).
US08645401B2 Technical electronic discovery action model
Embodiments of the present invention provide for an end-to-end system and method for identifying custodians, preserving, collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing, producing, presenting, and dispositioning data responsive to a legal discovery request.
US08645400B1 Flexible bit field search method
A method and apparatus uses a section filter to perform a filtering operation, such as a match, do not match, within range, or without range filtering operation, on bitstream data in accordance with a rule. The filtering operation may begin at any bit location in the bitstream data and end at any location in the bitstream data. The result of the filtering operation is compared to a value determined by the rule, or if further rules are to be employed, the result is transmitted to a further section filter which performs a further filtering operation on the bitstream data. As many section filters may be linked in this way as the number of rules to be employed. When the section filter corresponding to the last rule to be employed has performed its filtering operation, all results are compared to values determined by the rules employed to determine which data to extract from the bitstream data.
US08645398B2 Cross-platform content popularity rankings
A method includes receiving popularity measure values for a media asset. The popularity measure values provide a measure of a popularity of the media asset provided in digital content and physical content. Popularity measure value weights for the popularity measure values are identified. A digital ranking score for the media asset in digital content is determined based on the popularity measure values and corresponding popularity measure value weights for the digital content. A physical ranking score is determined for the media asset in physical content based on the popularity measure values and corresponding popularity measure value weights for the physical content. A digital ranking weight and a physical ranking weight are identified for the media asset. The method also includes determining a cross-platform ranking score of the media asset based on the physical ranking score, the physical ranking weight, the digital ranking score, and the digital ranking weight.
US08645397B1 Method and apparatus for propagating updates in databases
A method and apparatus for propagating updates in databases are disclosed. For example, the present method uses “blocking” and/or “thresholding” to delay update propagation and/or to limit the propagation of updates to an optimal stage. For example, the present method receives at least one database update and extracts at least one token from the at least one database update. The method then determines whether a threshold for propagating the at least one database update for the at least one token is reached. The method then propagates the at least one database update for updating an index structure of a database pertaining to the at least one token whose threshold has been reached.
US08645393B1 Ranking clusters and resources in a cluster
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for ranking resources within clusters of resources, and for ranking the clusters. In one aspect, a method includes accessing clusters; receiving, for a resource in the cluster, a search score for the resource, the search score being indicative of a relevance of the resource to a search query that includes the name context of the cluster; receiving, for the resource in the cluster, a resource ranking score for the resource in the cluster, the resource ranking score indicative of a ranking of the resource in the cluster relative to other resources in the cluster; generating a cluster rank score for the cluster, the cluster rank score at least partly based on the search scores for the resources and the resource ranking scores for the resources; and ranking the clusters according to their cluster rank score.
US08645390B1 Reordering search query results in accordance with search context specific predicted performance functions
A method of processing a search query includes, for each search context of a plurality of search contexts, for each scoring primitive of a plurality of scoring primitives, and for a set of previously executed search queries that are consistent with the search context, determining a correlation between the scoring primitive and actual user selections of results of the previously executed search queries by a plurality of users. For each search context, machine learning is performed on the correlations to identify a predicted performance function comprising a weighted subset of the scoring primitives that meet predefined predictive quality criteria. Executing a user submitted search query includes associating the user submitted search query with a respective search context, and ordering at least a portion of the search results in accordance with the predicted performance function for the search context for the user submitted search query.
US08645389B2 System and method for adaptive text recommendation
Network system provides a real-time adaptive recommendation set of documents with a high statistical measure of relevancy to the requestor device. The recommendation set is optimized based on analyzing the text of documents of the interest set, categorizing these documents into clusters, extracting keywords representing the themes or concepts of documents in the clusters, and filtering a population of eligible documents accessible to the system utilizing site and or Internet-wide search engines. The system is either automatically or manually invoked and it develops and presents the recommendation set in real-time; for example, upon logging onto a web site or as the client views additional documents or pages of a website. The recommendation set may be presented as a greeting, notification, alert, HTML fragment, fax, voicemail, or automatic classification or routing of customer e-mail, personal e-mail, job postings, and offers for sale or exchange.
US08645383B2 Content management system using sources of experience data and modules for quantification and visualization
A semantic note taking system and method for collecting information, enriching the information, and binding the information to services is provided. User-created notes are enriched with labels, context traits, and relevant data to minimize friction in the note-taking process. In other words, the present invention is directed to collecting unscripted data, adding more meaning and use out of the data, and binding the data to services. Mutable and late-binding to services is also provided to allow private thoughts to be published to a myriad of different applications and services in a manner compatible with how thoughts are processed in the brain. User interfaces and semantic skins are also provided to derive meaning out of notes without requiring a great deal of user input.
US08645382B2 Converter, server system, conversion method and program
A converter for converting an application program that is executed for every job request into a batch processing program for collectively processing a plurality of job requests. The converter includes: a code identifier for identifying a portion of the application program that includes a service request to another server, and a portion that does not include a service request; an integration unit for converting the service request into a collective service request that collectively issues a plurality of service requests corresponding to the plurality of job requests; a multiplexing unit for converting the processing code in the application program into a multiplexed code for executing multiple processings corresponding to the plurality of job requests; and an output unit for outputting, as the batch processing program, the application program that the integration unit and the multiplexing unit have processed.
US08645381B2 Document taxonomy generation from tag data using user groupings of tags
Embodiments of the invention provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for generating a document taxonomy based upon tag data in groupings of tags. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for generating a document taxonomy based upon tag data in groupings of tags has been claimed. The method includes retrieving into memory of a host computer different groupings of tags for correspondingly different documents providing a bottom-up view of the documents. The method further includes deriving a folksonomy from the groupings of tags for the documents and organizing the folksonomy into a hierarchy of nodes. Of note, each of the nodes can be associated with a different subject in the folksonomy. Finally, the method includes publishing the hierarchy of nodes as a taxonomy for the documents to provide a top-down view of the documents.
US08645377B2 Aggregating data from a work queue
One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed herein for aggregating web-based data stored in a distributed data store so that it can be retrieved in a first-in, first-out (FIFO) manner. A unique aggregation key is generated for respective one or more data generated from a web-based event, where the one or more data are added to the distributed data store, and the aggregation key corresponds merely to the data generated from the web-based event. The one or more data from the web based event is aggregated in a FIFO queue and stored in a same partition of the distributed data store, based on the aggregation key.
US08645371B2 Personal resources organizer with calendar interface and object detection
A personal resources organizer with calendar interface and object detection is provided. The personal resources organizer monitors personal resources for use with a scheduled event by identifying one or more personal resource objects present in a container and retrieving a list of required personal resource objects for an event scheduled in an electronic schedule. The identified one or more personal resource objects are compared with the list of required personal resource objects for the schedule event and a report of a readiness for the scheduled event is generated based on results of the comparison. The report may then be output for use by a user in determining the user's readiness or preparedness for the scheduled event such that the user may make modifications to the personal resource objects in the container and/or the list or required personal resource objects.
US08645367B1 Predicting data for document attributes based on aggregated data for repeated URL patterns
One or more hierarchies of string patterns are generated a plurality of URL strings according to a pattern extraction procedure. Repeated string patterns are selected from the generated hierarchies of string patterns. A URL class is defined for each of selected repeated string patterns. Each URL class is associated with a respective group of URL strings in the plurality of URL strings, where the respective group of URL strings contains a repeated string pattern that defines the URL class. Respective aggregated data is calculated for each URL class. The respective aggregated data is based on respective data of each respective document of each URL string in the group of URL strings associated with the URL class. Respective data for a respective document referenced by a lookup-URL is predicted based on respective aggregated data of one or more of the URL classes.
US08645365B2 System for managing electronic assets of a software service delivery organization
An asset management system (AMS) facilitates management of electronic assets of a software service delivery organization. The AMS may facilitate classification of the electronic assets according to delivery phases in which each electronic asset is usable and accordingly enables users to identify and download the suitable assets usable in a desired delivery phase. The AMS also may receive from the users, usage data for (representing an extent of use of) the downloaded electronic assets and generate a set of utilization characteristics of the electronic asset based on the usage data. In addition, the AMS may facilitate classification of the assets according to a set of technology areas in which each electronic asset is applicable. On identifying that a new user is expected to operate in a specific technology area, the AMS may determine and provide suitable assets applicable to the specific technology area.
US08645363B2 Spreading comments to other documents
A server device is configured to receive a comment associated with a first document, the comment corresponding to a first portion of the first document; identify a second document that includes a second portion that matches the first portion of the first document; and store the comment in association with the first document and the second document. The server device is further configured to receive, from a client device, information that the client device is accessing the second document, and transmit the comment for presentation in connection with the second document on a display associated with the client device.
US08645355B2 Mapping Uniform Resource Locators of different indexes
A server may identify a first address stored in a first search index; determine one or more first identifiers associated with the first address; identify a second address stored in a second search index; determine one or more second identifiers associated with the second address; map the first address to the second address based on a first identifier, of the one or more first identifiers, and a second identifier, of the one or more second identifiers; and transmit the mapping, of the first address to the second address, to a first server associated with the first search index or to a second server associated with the second search index.
US08645353B2 Anchor image identification for vertical video search
Anchor images and information associated therewith are accumulated during a Web crawling operation. One or more rules are applied to the accumulated candidate anchor images to filter out candidate anchor images that are not appropriate for use as the anchor image for a particular target video. The remaining candidate anchor image is then selected as the anchor image for the particular video.
US08645352B2 Focused search using network addresses
Embodiments of search using network addresses are presented herein. For example, a search may take into account one or more network addresses to focus a search for particular content. In another example, functionality may be provided such that when a user selects a network address, a search is performed for network addresses that are similar to the selected address.
US08645349B2 Indexing structures using synthetic document summaries
A search engine provides efficient and scalable search queries for documents using a document summaries index file structure. The document summaries index file structure comprises an index portion and a records portion. The index portion contains a plurality of document identifiers, each of which is linked to a record in the record values portion. The records portion includes a document summary that may include a number of fields, including a name-length, name, type, and value-length, and value. Each record value is searched to determine if the contents matches criteria in the search request. The document summaries index file can be modified to add new indexable criteria in a scalable and efficient manner.
US08645345B2 Search engine and method with improved relevancy, scope, and timeliness
A search engine and a method achieve timeliness of documents returned in a search result by a relevancy feedback mechanism driven by the frequency in which a URL is returned in recent searches. The relevancy feedback mechanism includes one or more random processes which determine whether or not a cached or indexed web page associated with a URL in the search result should be refreshed. In addition, the random processes also determine whether or not hyperlinks in the cached or indexed web page should be followed to access related web pages. Accesses of web pages resulting from the operations of the random processes are used to update any document index maintained by the search engine. Relevancy scoring functions implemented in look-up tables are also disclosed. A more accurate relevancy scoring function is achieved using a lexicon based on anchortexts of extracted hyperlinks of web documents.
US08645343B2 Processing data from genotyping chips
Processing genetic data is disclosed, including: receiving two or more genetic data sets for an individual from one or more genetic data sources; merging the genetic data sets from the one or more genetic data sources, including identifying a duplicate SNP between the genetic data sets and determining one or more data values to be stored for the duplicate SNP; and storing a single set of merged genetic data for the individual.
US08645341B2 Method and system for automatically updating a software QA test repository
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for automatically updating a software QA test repository in a database system. These mechanisms and methods for automatically updating a QA test repository can enable embodiments to quickly and accurately update a test repository without requiring a user to repeatedly enter test case documentation data. These mechanisms and methods for automatically updating a QA test repository can also enable embodiments to extract plain language descriptions of test cases in the test repository. The ability of embodiments to automatically update the test repository and provide descriptions for the test cases stored in the test repository allows developers to efficiently update and share the contents of the test repository.
US08645338B2 Active memory expansion and RDBMS meta data and tooling
Techniques are described for estimating and managing memory compression for query processing. Embodiments of the invention may generally include receiving a query to be executed, ascertaining indicatory data about the retrieved data, and selectively compressing a portion of the data in memory according to the indicatory data. In one embodiment, the amount of compression performed during each query execution is recorded and outputted to assist in adjusting the selective compression process.
US08645334B2 Minimize damage caused by corruption of de-duplicated data
An embodiment for minimizing damage caused by corruption of de-duplicated data is disclosed. One embodiment counts the number of references to a data segment indexed by a de-duplication index. When a reference count for the data segment reaches a first threshold a duplicate of the data segment is generated. In addition, the duplicate of the data segment is also stored to minimize damage of the de-duplicated data caused by a corruption of the data segment.
US08645327B2 Management of access to data distributed across multiple computing devices
Methods, systems and apparatus for a distributed data environment can allow data to be seamlessly accessed from remote computing devices. For a given user having multiple computing devices, a personal distributed data bank can be formed from data storage capacities resident at the multiple computing device. The given user can access data on any of the multiple computing devices without knowing on which of the multiple computing devices the data resides. In one embodiment, an index for the user's data within the personal distributed data bank can be provided to facilitate searching, browsing and accessing of user data by the given user.
US08645325B2 Method and system for hosting entity-specific photo-sharing websites for entity-specific digital cameras
A system and method for hosting entity-specific photo-sharing websites for entity-specific image capture devices provides software for the entity-specific image capture devices that causes the image capture devices to transmit entity ID information when the image capture devices transmit images over the Internet. The system and method further provide an online photosharing service capable of hosting the entity-specific photo-sharing websites for each of the entities, such that when the image capture devices connect to photo-sharing service, the photo-sharing service uses the entity ID received from the image capture devices to automatically associate the image with the photo-sharing websites of the identified entity.
US08645319B2 Information processing system, data update method and data update program
An information processing system, a data update method and a data update program are disclosed. In a data base system of master-slave configuration, the update result can be accessed also on slave side with the access request immediately after the particular update. The data base system DBS includes a master DB computer and at least a slave DB computer. The slave DB computer judges from the count on an update counter table whether the update log received from the master DB computer is to be reflected in a duplicate data base or not. Thus, the lost update problem is solved while at the same time realizing a high-speed process.
US08645317B1 Managing taxonomy relationships in a content repository
Exemplary embodiments involve a content management application executed by a processor modifying a taxonomy hierarchy of tags. A content repository includes at least one content item having a primary reference identifying a first tag of the taxonomy hierarchy. The first tag includes a first description. Modifying the taxonomy hierarchy invalidates the primary reference. The processor generates a secondary reference in the taxonomy hierarchy. The secondary reference is identified by the primary reference and identifies a second tag including the first description. The processor receives an input referencing the first tag by the primary reference. The processor directs the input to the second tag via the secondary reference.
US08645316B2 Storing records in databases in a randomized manner to effectively utilize database servers
A system and computer program product for effectively utilizing database servers. A middle tier system, interfacing between clients and a database system, receives requests to create, delete or update a record from a client. An index is used by the middle tier system to determine if a record previously exists, and if so, its current record location. In this manner, the middle tier system keeps track of the locations of the records stored in the databases. By keeping track of the data load, the middle tier system identifies the most available resource to store the records. When a record is to be created, deleted or updated, the middle tier system rebalances the load capability of the database servers by distributing the data across the databases in a randomized manner based on the server load. In this manner, changes to the server load are more effectively managed.
US08645312B2 Expertise discovery methods and systems
A computer-implemented expertise discovery method and system generates recommendations of people in accordance with inferences of levels of expertise from behavioral information. The generation of the recommendations may be in accordance with comparisons of two or more expertise vectors and associated correlations between the vectors. The inferences of expertise may be with respect to specified topical neighborhoods. Explanations as to why recommendations were made are delivered to the recommendation recipients, and may include references to the inferred levels of expertise, the behavioral bases for the inferences, and/or the confidence in the inferences.
US08645309B2 Processing data using sequential dependencies
The specification describes data processes for analyzing large data steams for target anomalies. “Sequential dependencies” (SDs) are chosen for ordered data and present a framework for discovering which subsets of the data obey a given sequential dependency. Given an interval G, an SD on attributes X and Y, written as X→G Y, denotes that the distance between the Y-values of any two consecutive records, when sorted on X, are within G. SDs may be extended to Conditional Sequential Dependencies (CSDs), consisting of an underlying SD plus a representation of the subsets of the data that satisfy the SD. The conditional approximate sequential dependencies may be expressed as pattern tableaux, i.e., compact representations of the subsets of the data that satisfy the underlying dependency.
US08645308B2 Non-transitory computer readable storage medium, sound-volume prediction apparatus, and sound-volume prediction method
A sound-volume prediction apparatus acquires model information on an electronic device and positional information on an air intake section and/or an air-exhaust section of the electronic device. Furthermore, by using the model information and the positional information, the sound-volume prediction apparatus extends a sound ray that indicates a transmission route of sound generated by a sound source inside the electronic device toward the air-intake section and/or the air-exhaust section from the position of the sound source until the sound ray reaches the outside of the electronic device. The sound-volume prediction apparatus predicts sound transmission characteristics inside the electronic device by using geometric information on the flow path of the extended sound ray.
US08645305B2 Assigning sensors to paths
According to certain embodiments, paths are identified from path data. One or more sensors are assigned to each path. The following are performed: at least one sensor is moved to a path intersection and excess sensors are removed. An excess sensor is a sensor that is not required to satisfy the desired number of sensors of one or more paths. According to certain embodiments, a combined array comprising combined entries is accessed. Each combined entry represents a location and has a value indicating a number of paths at the location. The following are performed to yield a sensor arrangement: a maximum value of the combined array is identified, a sensor is assigned to a location associated with the maximum value, and the paths are removed from the combined array. A result associated with the sensor arrangement is reported.
US08645303B2 Methods and systems for creating, accessing, and communicating content
Methods and systems for creating, accessing, and communicating content are described. The systems comprise a single platform that allows multiple coordinated communication channels with a single user device (or user system) or multiple user devices (or user systems) at the same time. The platforms contains a browser for communicating with a communications network, multiple types of servers for handling different communications between the platform and a user device external to the platform, a database for storing content, a speech engine for converting text to speech, for converting speech to text, or both, and a configuration engine for configuring the applications that users will use during interaction with the platform. The platform can accordingly communicate with a user (or a user system) using any desired number (or combination) of communication channels. Other embodiments are described.
US08645300B1 System and method for intent data processing
Website navigation may be enhanced by recording a visitor's intent and recording page rankings that indicate how well the pages of a website match the visitor's intent. Using historical intent data, an intent can be inferred for a visitor based on a URL. Page recommendations can also be made once a visitor has confirmed their intent by determining a ranked list of URLs for the indicated intent. Intent data may be collected and displayed by integrating an intent widget into webpages of a website.
US08645299B2 Method, apparatus and computer program product for context based tagging of data
A method for enabling data interpretation includes receiving a plurality of data entries that are indicative of corresponding health care related events, determining an interest level rating for at least some of the data entries based at least in part on context information associated with a respective entity to which each data entry corresponds, and providing for presentation of selected data entries based on interest level rating. A corresponding computer program product and apparatus are also provided.
US08645297B2 Method for constructing a tree of linear classifiers to predict a quantitative variable
A method for using predictive modeling of a physical process in order to determine and implement a solution to the physical process. The method includes analyzing the physical process to determine the relevant physical relationships, observations, data, and outcome probabilities associated with the physical relationships of the physical process, and storing representations of the relevant physical relationships, observations, data and outcome probabilities in a memory of a computer. The method also includes recursively analyzing the stored representations by the computer, and generating at least one tree structure that models the physical process, the tree structure including at least one root node, a plurality of decision nodes, and a plurality of end nodes. The method further includes partitioning observations at each decision node into probable outcomes using target partitioning, generating a plurality of other decision nodes based on the target partitioning, determining a solution to the physical process based on criterion variables, by the computer using the tree structure of the physical process to arrive at an end node, and implementing a physical solution to the physical process.
US08645294B1 Method for image registration utilizing particle swarm optimization
Described is a method for image registration utilizing particle swarm optimization (PSO). In order to register two images, a set of image windows is first selected from a test image and transformed. A plurality of software agents is configured to operate as a cooperative swarm to optimize an objective function, and an objective function is then evaluated at the location of each agent. The objective function represents a measure of the difference or registration quality between at least one transformed image window and a reference image. The position vectors representing the current individual best solution found and the current global best solution found by all agents are then updated according to PSO dynamics. Finally, the current global best solution is compared with a maximum pixel value which signifies a match between an image window and the reference image. A system and a computer program product are also described.
US08645290B2 Apparatus and method for improved classifier training
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes instructions to maintain an original training set of labeled documents, where the labeled documents correspond to a variety of topics. A new labeled document corresponding to a new topic is received. The original training set of labeled documents is modulated such that the new labeled document is over-represented with respect to the original training set. This results in a modulated training set. A classifier is trained with the modulated training set to form a trained classifier.
US08645289B2 Structured cross-lingual relevance feedback for enhancing search results
A “Cross-Lingual Unified Relevance Model” provides a feedback model that improves a machine-learned ranker for a language with few training resources, using feedback from a more complete ranker for a language that has more training resources. The model focuses on linguistically non-local queries, such as “world cup” (English language/U.S. market) and “copa mundial” (Spanish language/Mexican market), that have similar user intent in different languages and markets or regions, thus allowing the low-resource ranker to receive direct relevance feedback from the high-resource ranker. Among other things, the Cross-Lingual Unified Relevance Model differs from conventional relevancy-based techniques by incorporating both query- and document-level features. More specifically, the Cross-Lingual Unified Relevance Model generalizes existing cross-lingual feedback models, incorporating both query expansion and document re-ranking to further amplify the signal from the high-resource ranker to enable a learning to rank approach based on appropriately labeled training data.
US08645281B2 Process for authenticating an end user
A process for authenticating an end user. A first pattern of colored quadrilaterals is generated. A second pattern of multiple colored nodes that include a first subset of nodes is generated. The first and second patterns are sent to the end user. If a transparent credit card is overlaid by the end user on top of the second pattern, then a second subset of nodes in the credit card would match in color and location the first subset of nodes. The authenticity status of the end user is determined by determining whether each node of a third subset of nodes within the second subset of nodes (i) corresponds to a unique node of the multiple colored nodes and (ii) has a color that matches a specific color in one quadrilateral of the colored quadrilaterals. The determined authenticity status is sent to the end user via an output device.
US08645279B2 Copyright detection and protection system and method
A method for detecting against unauthorized transmission of digital works comprises the steps of maintaining a registry of information permitting identification of digital copyrighted works, monitoring a network for transmission of at least one packet-based digital signal, extracting at least one feature from the at least one digital signal, comparing the extracted at least one feature with registry information and applying business rules based on the comparison result.
US08645278B2 Process for the on-line sale of a software product
Online sale of software product use licenses through a data network by offering software products (SOFT) through vendor sites, purchasing a license on-line on one of said vendor sites, and activating said license on-line by a different licensing site. A specific component (COMP) is provided with the software product (SOFT) and identifying data (IDV) of the vendor site are transmitted during the download of the software product (SOFT). When the component (COMP) is executed in an equipment, the component (COMP) locally accesses said data (IDV) and identifying data (IDL) of the licensing site and activates the license by setting up an on-line communication with the licensing site.
US08645276B2 Modeling of applications and business process services through auto discovery analysis
A method for managing information technology (IT) through auto discovery analysis to achieve business relevance is provided. An IT infrastructure is monitored to discover managed components of the infrastructure and discover business processes which are supported by the infrastructure. An information model is formed based on the discovered components and the discovered business processes. The information model can be used to provide assorted IT services.
US08645275B2 Systems and methods for verifying identities
A method for verifying the identity of one party on behalf of another party is provided. The method includes providing a money-transfer system and a communication system that communicates with the money-transfer system; receiving at the money-transfer system from the first party certain verification criteria for confirming the identity of a second party; and storing the verification criteria in the host computer system of the money-transfer system. When an ID is received from the second party at a money-transfer location; the verification criteria is retrieved from the host computer system; and the acceptability of the ID is determined in accordance with the verification criteria. If the identification device is acceptable, identification information is obtained from the identification device; and the identification information is processed to verify the identity of the second party. In other embodiments, a method for pre-verifying the identity of a party and a system for performing the method of the invention are provided.
US08645273B2 Systems and methods for providing a vending network
Embodiments of the invention can implement systems and methods for providing a vending network. In one embodiment, a system for providing a vending network can be provided. The system can include at least one transaction-type device associated with a vending machine, wherein the at least one transaction-type device is operable to facilitate cash transactions and/or cashless transactions associated with one or more products or services offered by the vending machine. The system can also include at least one server operable to communicate with the at least one transaction-type device, wherein the at least one server is operable to receive data associated with the transactions. Furthermore, the system can include at least one vend settlement server operable to communicate with the at least one server, wherein the at least one vend settlement server can settle some or all of the transactions.
US08645271B2 Secure telematics payment method
A method for controlling secure telemetric payments using an open network. A plurality of servers are utilized: (1) first servers linking merchants with financial institutions, (2) second servers operated by the financial institutions for performing financial transactions for a group of clients with whom consumers perform commercial and financial transactions, and (3) third servers used by service operators for performing validation operations for the transactions. Separate telephone networks are used for connecting the second servers to the third servers, and for linking the third servers to the consumers.
US08645270B2 Enhanced customer interaction channel systems and methods
A computer-implemented method, a server, and a computer use an enhanced customer interaction channel based on a predetermined payment key associated with a specific company and location. The predetermined payment key uniquely identifies the specific company and location and enables the enhanced customer interaction channel based on existing payment processing systems. The specific company may use the enhanced customer interaction channel to reach customers who were previously unknown to the specific company for a variety of purposes such as rewards, coupons, offers, product information, and the like.
US08645269B2 Methods and apparatus for optimizing the distribution of trading executions
The present invention relates to electronic trading of securities. In some embodiments, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for optimizing the distribution of trading executions in an investor's accounts. Pursuant to some embodiments, as integer allocation algorithm is provided.
US08645267B2 Using currency to purchase from sellers that do not recognize the currency
Processing transactions involving participants that do not support the same currency generally involves incrementing and decrementing currencies associated with the participants. This allows the participants to participate in transactions where they would not ordinarily be able to do so. A request is received from a first participant to process a transaction using a first currency that is not recognized by a second participant in the transaction. In response to receiving the request from the first participant, an amount of the first currency associated with the first participant is decremented. Also in response to receiving the request from the first participant, an amount of second currency associated with the first participant is incremented. The second participant recognizes the second currency. The transaction is processed using the amount of second currency associated with the first participant.
US08645255B2 System and method for providing income payments to an investor
In at least one embodiment computerized methods and corresponding systems for providing guaranteed income payments to an investor are provided that include the step or steps of: receiving information from the investor representing at least a current age of the investor, a desired income start date, a desired income payment amount, and a premium payment amount; receiving a premium payment from the investor and placing the premium payment into a first investment sleeve; and automatically transferring using at least one computing device, during a waiting period and according to a predefined event, a portion of the premium payment from the first investment sleeve to a second investment sleeve, wherein the portion of the premium payment transferred calculated by the at least one computing device as a function of a time remaining in the waiting period and the desired income amount.
US08645254B2 Investment fund for maximizing a risk adjusted expected return while providing a defined minimum income at maturity
An investment fund maximizes an investor's risk-adjusted expected return on an investment while also providing the investor with a defined minimum level income upon the maturity of the investment. The investment fund comprises a risk-free portfolio and an upside portfolio. The risk-free portfolio holds risk-free assets that provide a defined minimum income stream upon a predefined maturity date, and the upside portfolio holds sophisticated assets that are only available to qualified investors that meet one or more investing criteria. As new contributions are added to the fund, they are allocated between the risk-free and upside portfolios so that the fund will provide a minimum defined income stream upon its maturity date, where this minimum income amount may increase as more value is added to the fund. Upon maturity, the investor receives the income stream from the risk-free portfolio and the assets from the upside portfolio.
US08645253B2 Method and system for generating a valuation metric based on growth data factors
The present invention relates to a system, method and apparatus for evaluating a variety of financial information, determining a valuation metric, and distributing the valuation metric to system users. The valuation metric distribution may be configured by an administrator for automatic distribution of the valuation metric to system users. Alternately, a system user may log onto a central server to access the valuation metric, based on administrator defined or user-customized system data. The valuation characteristic provides a system user with a metric that may be used to assist in allocating the user's financial resources. The metric is determined by analyzing three main types of financial indicators, specifically an earnings-yield factor, an interest factor and a growth indicator.
US08645252B1 Method and system for providing mandatorily convertible securities with associated call options
The present invention relates to a method and system for offering mandatorily convertible securities (e.g., DECS) with associated forward purchase contracts and call options. Each mandatorily convertible security combines a forward purchase contract, a mandatory portable remarketable security, and a call option to form a single investment unit. The call option provides additional capital to the issuer of the investment unit and profits to the remarketing agent handling the mandatory portable remarketable security.
US08645251B2 System and method for analyzing strategic network investments in wireless networks
A method and a system to assist wireless telecom service providers to make strategic investment decisions in their wireless networks is provided. Geographical profitability information in a wireless network is determined to decide where to invest capital funds in order to increase the revenue and profit for wireless service providers. The profitability of a geographical area or a sector is calculated based on network Operation Measurements and subscriber CDR (Call Detail Record) data. The system prioritizes the geographical areas and sectors for capital investments based on the profitability of the areas and sites. Similar information may be determined to assist wireless service providers in developing a decommissioning strategy. Embodiments of the present invention may also be used to reduce network churn by understanding where dissatisfied subscribers experience poor service and where network investments need to be made to improve the services and reduce churn.
US08645246B2 Processing health assessment
A system and method of evaluating the health of one or more work processes is provided. The system and method may include determining a plurality of categories of criteria and determining a plurality of criteria for evaluation. A score for each determined criteria may be determined for a first process and the scores of each criterion may be combined to determine an overall score for the first process. If additional processes are available for evaluation, a score for each identified criterion will be determined for an additional process or processes. An overall score for the additional process(es) may be determined and compared to the overall score of the first process.
US08645245B2 Offset optimization system
Systems, methods, and computer program products are provided for optimizing amounts collected in an offset action where a creditor attaches funds from a debtor's deposits account to satisfy overdue debt payments. In operation, embodiments of the present invention leverage a deposits account's transaction history to detect a deposit pattern for the account and, based on the detected pattern, predict the date of the next large deposit to the attachable account. An offset associate, using the present invention, can then schedule the offset action to occur on the expected date of the next large deposit.
US08645239B2 Systems and methods for advanced metering infrastructure customer portal
In accordance with one embodiment, a system is provided that uses historical and current energy usage data generated by advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters to allow users conduct an analysis of energy usage via a portal. In accordance with one embodiment, a tool is provided to allow customers to display an estimated next month bill.
US08645234B2 General ledger chart of accounts combination editing request response
A web-service for validating or invalidating accounts from a general ledger (GL) chart of accounts is described. Upon a request from an application for whether an account value corresponding to a department and a product is valid, the service indicates whether the combination of account value/department/product is valid for the chart of accounts. The system can be extensible markup language (XML)-based and can indicate validity down to the line level of a request.
US08645226B1 Coordinating multiple devices in a product purchasing system
In general, the subject matter described in this disclosure can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products. A server system receives a request to purchase a product from a first computing device. The first computing device is one of multiple computing devices assigned to a user account. The server system requests to charge an account associated with a user of the first computing device for a price. The server system receives an indication that the account has been charged. The server system sends for receipt by each of the computing devices a notification that a purchasing event has occurred. The server system receives, as sent by each of at least a subset of the multiple computing devices, a request for details. The server system sends, for receipt by each of the at least subset of the multiple computing devices, an indication that the product has been purchased.
US08645225B1 Organic supplier enablement based on a business transaction
Enabling a supplier is disclosed. An indication of a transaction associated with a business process between a buyer and a supplier is received. A supplier enablement action is initiated in response to receiving the indication. The supplier enablement action is associated with enabling the supplier to join a supplier network.
US08645221B1 Ranking of items as a function of virtual shopping cart activity
Disclosed are various embodiments for ranking items in an electronic commerce system. A subset of a plurality of items is identified in at least one computing device, where the items are sold through an electronic commerce system. The items in the subset are ranked relative to each other based, at least in part, on the virtual shopping cart activity of a plurality of users with respect to the items.
US08645218B2 Transferring a ticket
A request is received from a first consumer to sell at least one ticket, in which a provider of the ticket may have authorized the ticket to be sold. Information regarding the ticket may then be presented to at least a second consumer, who may make an indication to purchase the ticket. Thereafter, the first and second consumers each may be charged a fee in connection with a sale of the ticket to the second consumer.
US08645214B2 System for and process of facilitating financial transactions at point-of-sale employing electronic drop safes and point-of-sale terminals
An electronic system and process for facilitating a financial transaction comprising a drop safe and a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, disposed at a retailer location, in communication with one another in which the POS terminal receives, from a user, a request to commence a drop request and, in response, instructs the drop safe to commence a drop request, whereupon after acceptance of the drop request the drop safe accepts, via a currency acceptor, currency that is identified and authenticated, and upon completion of the drop, the drop safe ascertains the total amount of accepted currency and transmits the ascertained amount to the POS terminal which then completes the transaction. The drop request may occur during a transaction with a customer for the purchase of goods or services or at other times. Other features are disclosed.
US08645213B2 Transactions associated with a mobile device
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for transactions associated with a mobile device. A method includes, in a merchant device linked to a server by a first network, sending a registration to the server, sending a transaction message to the server, receiving a unique identifier from the server in response to the transaction message, broadcasting the unique identifier, in response to the broadcasted unique identifier, receiving instructions in the server from a mobile application residing in a memory of a mobile device over a second network, processing a transaction in response to the instructions, and notifying the merchant device of the processed transaction.
US08645212B2 Detection of exit behavior of an internet user
User action in the form of movement of a tracking device on a webpage, represented by cursor gestures on the webpage, is used to detect if a user intends to leave the webpage. Upon detection of an intent to leave the webpage, an advertisement may be displayed to a user. The advertisement may be targeted to the user and/or based on the content the user was viewing on the webpage.
US08645210B2 Method of providing targeted communications to a user of a printing system
According to one aspect of the disclosure, provided are methods of providing user requested printed material, including one or more targeted communications to the user. According to one exemplary embodiment, the targeted communications are associated with an auction, whereby an optimal reserve price is determined to maximize profits.
US08645207B2 Marketing method and communication system for implementing the marketing method
In one aspect, a database in which target subscribers of different subscriber classes that can be reached via a communications system are allocated, and one respective marketer is assigned to each of the subscriber classes. When the communications system establishes a first communications relation between a first subscriber and a target subscriber while using a destination address given by the first subscriber, the subscriber class of the target subscriber is determined based on the destination address. The determination of the subscriber class results in the establishment of a second communications relation between the first subscriber and a marketer assigned to the determined subscriber class.
US08645197B1 Method of facilitating contact between a consumer and a requesting entity
The invention provides a method of facilitating contact between a consumer and a requesting entity, with the method comprising the following steps. During an interaction with the consumer, the method of the invention obtains contact information and index information from the consumer. The method then evaluates whether the consumer meets a selection criterion specified by the requesting entity using the indexing information. A data store entry associated with the consumer can be updated with the contact information. The contact information is then referred to the requesting entity thereby providing the requesting entity with up-to-date contact information.
US08645195B1 Real estate environmental sustainability index
Systems and methods of determining environmental sustainability of a piece of real estate or real estate portfolio are presented. The systems and methods may include identifying a plurality of sustainability inputs, such as recycling, carpet recycling, water use reduction, LEED certified space, renewable energy generation, green cleaning and environmental compliance. Values for each of the inputs may be determined and combined to determine a sustainability index for the property or portfolio. The index may be calculated monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. to track performance of the property and/or portfolio and to identify areas needing improvement.
US08645192B1 Estimating inventory, user behavior, and/or cost and presentation attributes for an advertisement for use with an advertising system
An advertiser may be provided with fast and accurate estimates of the future performance of at least one of their advertisements. These estimates may be broken down by keyword, thereby providing, up-front, useful information to the advertiser about how different keywords will affect the performance and cost of their ad campaign. Estimates and/or suggestions for a set of keywords, given additional campaign parameters, may be generated by using historical search traffic (or some other ad serving trigger) data to predict future inventory and to find useful keyword (or some other serving constraint) variations. Current data on competing ads may be used to simulate the competitions (e.g., real-time auctions) that the given ads will participate in.
US08645189B2 Leveraging RFID generated consumer behavior through a web map service
An approach is provided to analyze consumer behavior data. In the approach, location data corresponding to the consumers is identified. Discarded tagged packages are received from the consumers. The discarded tagged packages include wireless tags that associate the discarded tagged packages product identifiers. At a refuse collection point, each of the wireless tags are read (e.g., using an RFID reader). The reading retrieves the product identifiers associated from the tags on the discarded packages. The product identifiers and the location data are stored in a data store. Consumer consumption maps are generated from the stored product identifiers and location data.
US08645188B2 Automatic demand parameter estimation
One embodiment is directed generally to a computer system, and in particular to a system for providing automatic estimating of demand parameters. According to certain embodiments, a computer readable medium has instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to determine a reliable demand parameter for a level within a sales hierarchy. The instructions include estimating a demand parameter for a first pool. The estimating is based on blending and comparing with respect to an enlarged pool comprising the first pool as a subset of the enlarged pool to obtain an estimated demand parameter.
US08645186B2 Mobile device marketing and advertising platforms, methods, and systems
A mobile marketing campaign platform and method including: a planning module including: a definition module for setting budget and objectives; and a design module for designing the campaign utilizing a plurality of templates; an execution module including: design tools for designing an executable campaign from the campaign design made from the templates; and operating tools for causing the executable campaign to execute over multiple mobile services; and a reporting module including: tracking means for tracking at least one of a campaign activity, the campaign performance objectives; and the brand performance objectives.
US08645182B2 Integrated calendar and task scheduler
A computer implemented method for integrating a calendar and task scheduler to enable automatic scheduling of meetings and assignment of tasks based on priority. With the illustrative embodiments, a task in a user's calendaring system may be split into multiple time blocks, and each time block for the task may then be scheduled around meetings in a user's calendar. Tasks that are scheduled in the user's calendar may also be automatically rescheduled when meetings within the user's calendar change. Tasks may be scheduled over lower priority meetings in the user's calendar as needed in order to meet the due dates assigned to the tasks. The illustrative embodiments also allow for automatically adjusting meeting or task priorities based on policies, and identifying classes of activities that may be performed concurrently.
US08645181B2 Computer implementation method for integrating services in a calendar application via meeting request e-mails
The invention relates to a method for integrating services in a calendar application via the meeting request functionality of calendar programs comprising: initiating one or multiple services, wherein the initiation may involve the transmission of calendar event information from the calendar application to the service, the service requests being sent as meeting request e-mails to one or more service e-mail addresses, each service e-mail address representing a service, receiving the update requests generated by the one or multiple services, the update requests being meeting request response e-mails or one or multiple second meeting request e-mails processing the received update requests, and updating the calendar application.
US08645178B2 Task management for a plurality of team members
Each of a plurality of team members may define a task by providing data concerning a task to a centralized controller, wherein each task may be assigned any other team member of the plurality of team members. The controller may receive task event information from a first team member of the plurality of team members regarding a task, which task is associated within the controller with the first team member and a second team member. The controller subsequently sends updated task information, based on the task event information, to both the first team member and the second team member. Relevant to any given task, the task event information may comprise a task delegation indication, which may further comprise a non-delegation indication such that further delegation of the task in not permitted.
US08645177B2 Single step flight schedule optimization
The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes generating a first graph including possible flight segments between airline stations for an airline and determining a set of permissible crew pairings based on a traversal of the first graph. The method also includes generating a second graph comprising the determined set of permissible crew pairings and determining a set of permissible aircraft routings based on a traversal of the second graph. The method includes generating a set of optimized aircraft routings using an integer-programming algorithm that accepts the determined set of permissible aircraft routings as input, and outputting the set of optimized aircraft routings for use in a flight schedule.
US08645173B2 Overbooking and cost minimization methods and systems
A computer based system for maximizing revenue by determining an optimal quantity of a product to be sold is disclosed. The system determines the optimal number of seats to be sold for a flight based upon the flight's capacity and forecasted costs associated with the flight. The forecasting is based upon probabilistic distribution models takes into account passenger itinerary data, passenger and market historical data, whether a passenger has flown on a previous leg of an itinerary, the ripple denied boarding effect of reaccommodating a denied passenger. The system evaluates the potential effect of double selling a unit of inventory (e.g., seats). Downstream inventory control, revenue management and reservations systems may use the optimization data to affect the operation of the airline.
US08645172B2 Passenger check-in finalization
This document describes a computer-implemented method for facilitating a check-in finalization process for a travel passenger. The method includes receiving one or more check-in parameters related to a check-in procedure for a passenger checking in for a travel segment, and determining from the received check-in parameters a check-in workflow status corresponding to which of a plurality of steps of the check-in procedure have been completed. The method also includes identifying one or more finalization actions that are available for finalizing the check-in procedure based on the check-in workflow status. The method further includes determining a primary finalization action from the one or more finalization actions, the primary finalization action being the finalization action most likely to be taken to finalize the check-in procedure. The method also includes providing for display on a user interface the available finalization actions, where the primary finalization action is pre-selected on the user interface.
US08645169B1 Coverage at a glance
A graphical representation is provided that displays a user's insurance coverage. Via the graphical representation, the user may request information about various aspects of the coverage and/or may request to chat or speak with a representative that specializes in a particular coverage area. The graphical representation may show how the user's insurance coverage compares to population groups and medians. A user may adjust the coverage on the graphical representation and be provided with a revised premium amount. The user may select this coverage to be implemented and the user's policy may be appropriately revised.
US08645164B2 Medical information visualization assistant system and method
Methods, systems, devices and/or apparatus related to displaying and visualizing medical information for facilitating effective analysis by medical professionals. Example systems for displaying medical information related to a human subject may include a computer system, server system(s), data monitoring device(s), electronic medical record/interoperability tool, medical information database(s) and a medical information visualization tool having an interface, software and management database(s). Such system may simultaneously output at least two medical parameters (relating to near real-time medical information and historical medical information) to a display device using the medical information visualization tool.
US08645163B1 Systems and methods for determining information regarding drugs
Systems, methods and media for determining information regarding drugs are provided herein. A healthcare plan identifier and a brand name drug identifier are received by a processor. Healthcare plan data and a formulary table associated with the healthcare plan data are obtained from one or more databases, based on the healthcare plan identifier. A drug tier associated with the brand name drug identifier is determined, based on the formulary table associated with the healthcare plan data, the healthcare plan data, and the brand name drug identifier. One or more costs associated with the brand name drug identifier is determined, based on the drug tier. Information regarding drugs is transmitted to display on a display.
US08645160B2 Methods for delivering a drug to a hospital patient for short-term use while minimizing long-term use of the drug
Novel methods for delivering a drug to hospital patients for short-term in-hospital use while minimizing long-term use of the drug. Embodiments are provided in which hospitals are identified which may be eligible to treat patients, for example, perform certain types of surgery, and which have measures in place to limit use of the drug to short-term use. The identified hospitals are preferably registered in a storage medium, including computer readable storage media, and may be authorized to receive the shipments of the drug. The received drug may then be dispensed to the patient.
US08645157B2 Methods and system to identify exams with significant findings
Methods and system to identify similar exams are described. An example computer-implemented method to identify similar exams includes selecting a category. Additionally, the example method includes comparing the selected category to records associated with exams to identify any of the exams that include information related to the category. Further, the example method includes displaying the exams identified as related to the category to a healthcare practitioner. Further still, the example method includes visually differentiating at least one of the displayed exams based on a significance level associated with the at least one of the displayed exams.
US08645155B2 Automatic loading of medical data in integrated information system
A method of automatic loading of medical data in an integrated information system is disclosed herein. The method comprises steps of triggering a data acquisition unit to acquire medical data from at least one medical information system, acquiring the medical data from the medical information system, and displaying the medical data in a video display unit in a selected format. Also disclosed is an integrated information system configured for automatic loading of medical data. The integrated information system comprises a medical workstation and at least one medical information system coupled to the medical workstation. The medical workstation is configured for automatic loading of the medical data concerning a medical object from the medical information system.
US08645150B2 Source aware data center power profiles
Carbon values are provided by vendors of power to data center management and are used by data center management to keep carbon values for energy produced to provide services below service level agreement thresholds. A plurality of vendor carbon values, a plurality of static data, and a plurality of dynamic data are used to calculate a future power consumption and a future operating cost for a data center in a computing service environment. The future operating cost includes a future carbon cost indicating the amount of carbon generated to satisfy the future power consumption.
US08645141B2 Method and system for text to speech conversion
A system and method for text to speech conversion. The method of performing text to speech conversion on a portable device includes: identifying a portion of text for conversion to speech format, wherein the identifying includes performing a prediction based on information associated with a user. While the portable device is connected to a power source, a text to speech conversion is performed on the portion of text to produce converted speech. The converted speech is stored into a memory device of the portable device. A reader application is executed, wherein a user request is received for narration of the portion of text. During the executing, the converted speech is accessed from the memory device and rendered to the user, responsive to the user request.
US08645130B2 Processing unit, speech recognition apparatus, speech recognition system, speech recognition method, storage medium storing speech recognition program
A processing unit is provided which executes speech recognition on speech signals captured by a microphone for capturing sounds uttered in an environment. The processing unit has: an initial reflection component extraction portion that extracts initial reflection components by removing diffuse reverberation components from a reverberation pattern of an impulse response generated in the environment; and an acoustic model learning portion that learns an acoustic model for the speech recognition by reflecting the initial reflection components to speech data for learning.
US08645125B2 NLP-based systems and methods for providing quotations
Techniques for providing quotations obtained from text documents using natural language processing techniques are described. Some embodiments provide a content recommendation system (“CRS”) configured to provide quotations by extracting quotations from a corpus text documents, and providing access to the extracted quotations in response to search requests received from users. The CRS may extract quotations by using natural language processing-based techniques to identify one or more entities, such as people, places, objects, concepts, or the like, that are referenced by the extracted quotations. The CRS may then store the extracted quotations along with identified entities, such as quotation speakers and subjects, for later access via search requests.
US08645123B2 Image-based semantic distance
Image-based semantic distance technique embodiments are presented that involve establishing a measure of an image-based semantic distance between semantic concepts. Generally, this entails respectively computing a semantic concept representation for each concept based on a collection of images associated with the concept. A degree of difference is then computed between two semantic concept representations to produce the aforementioned semantic distance measure for the pair of corresponding concepts.
US08645122B1 Method of handling frequently asked questions in a natural language dialog service
A voice-enabled help desk service is disclosed. The service comprises an automatic speech recognition module for recognizing speech from a user, a spoken language understanding module for understanding the output from the automatic speech recognition module, a dialog management module for generating a response to speech from the user, a natural voices text-to-speech synthesis module for synthesizing speech to generate the response to the user, and a frequently asked questions module. The frequently asked questions module handles frequently asked questions from the user by changing voices and providing predetermined prompts to answer frequently asked questions.
US08645121B2 Language translation of visual and audio input
The present translation system translates visual input and/or audio input from one language into another language. Some implementations incorporate a context-based translation that uses information obtained from visual input or audio input to aid in the translation of the other input. Other implementations combine the visual and audio translation. The translation system includes visual components and/or audio components. The visual components analyze visual input to identify a textual element and translate the textual element into a translated textual element. The visual image represents a captured image of a target scene. The visual components may further substitute the translated textual element for the textual element in the captured image. The audio components convert audio input into translated audio.
US08645118B2 Fault support in an emulation environment
An emulator is disclosed that allows for diagnoses of failures or defects within the emulator. A map of faulty resources is generated to identify which resources should be avoided during compilation. Thus, in a transparent and automated manner, defects found during diagnostics are stored in a database of unusable emulator resources. A compiler has access to the database and compiles the design taking into account unusable resources. In another embodiment, the defects of an emulator board are stored on the emulator board itself. This allows each board to store its own maintenance information that can be used at the manufacturing site for changing defective chips. Defects stored on the board itself allow the defects to be obtained independent of a position of a board within the emulator to simplify identification of the faulty resource.
US08645117B2 Clock simulation device and methods thereof
A pulse width of a simulated external system clock is set by determining a least common multiple of the frequency of selected internal clock signals relative to the frequency of the external system clock. The pulse width can be further adjusted based on the frequency of simulated external clocks. By setting the pulse width of the simulated external system clock based on the least common multiple value, the time required to complete the simulation can be reduced while ensuring proper operation of the simulated clock signals during the simulation.
US08645115B2 Modular nucleic acid-based circuits for counters, binary operations, memory and logic
We have created novel engineered genetic counter designs and methods of use thereof that utilize DNA recombinases to provide modular systems, termed single invertase memory modules (SIMMs), for encoding memory in cells and cellular systems. Our designs are easily extended to compute to high numbers, by utilizing the >100 known recombinases to create subsequent modules. Flexibility in our engineered genetic counter designs is provided by daisy-chaining individual modular components, i.e., SIMMs together. These modular components of the engineered genetic counters can be combined in other network topologies to create circuits that perform, amongst other things, logic and memory. Our novel engineered genetic counter designs allow for the maintenance of memory and provide the ability to count between discrete states by expressing the recombinases between their cognate recognition sites.
US08645111B2 Magnetic control plane
Modification of a model in situations, where one end of several parts should be transferred for the same distance, for instance, has posed a problem in modeling systems. The problem can be solved by defining a magnetic control plane to which model part handles locating thereon will adhere without separate definitions given by the user and they move (406) along with the plane. The only thing the user needs to do is to create a plane and to define the plane type to be a magnetic control plane. On the basis of these data given by the user the modeling system knows what to transfer when the magnetic control plane is transferred.
US08645110B1 Efficient design of shear-deformable hybrid composite structures
A method of configuring a composite laminate may include selecting at least two different material systems for the laminate. Each one of the material systems may have material properties and corresponding material invariants. The laminate may be comprised of a stack of plies having a stacking sequence. The method may include characterizing the stacking sequence using lamination parameters for each material system. The method may further include calculating a transverse shear stiffness of the laminate using the material invariants and the lamination parameters.
US08645108B2 Annotating binary decision diagrams representing sensor data
According to certain embodiments, one or more sets of model samples of model sensor data are accessed. Each set comprises one or more model samples corresponding to an annotation of one or more annotations. The following are performed for each set to yield one or more annotated model characteristic functions: represent each model sample of the each set as a model minterm to yield a set of model minterms; generate a model characteristic function from the set of model minterms, the model characteristic function indicating whether a given minterm is a member of the set of model minterms; and annotate the model characteristic function to yield an annotated model characteristic function. A general model characteristic function is generated from the one or more annotated model characteristic functions.
US08645104B2 Correction of non-uniformity of response in sensor arrays
A microbolometer comprises an array of sensor elements or ‘pixels’ each individually responsive to generate an output indicative of the intensity of infrared radiation incident thereupon. In practice there are significant non-uniformities in the response of each pixel and further processing of the outputs must take place to generate an accurate image. These non-uniformities are dealt with by means of individual correction factors to be applied to the outputs of each pixel in the image. Commonly, the correction used provides a constant offset (1pt) and a linear gain correction (2pt). As the optimal values of these corrections drifts over time it is still necessary to provide further correction. In the present invention this is achieved by calculating one or more common scalar correction parameters that when applied to all of the individual correction factors before they are used to correct the output of the sensor elements will minimize the differences between the corrected outputs of adjacent sensor elements in the array when summed over a particular selection of sensor elements in the array.
US08645096B2 Deflection measuring system and method
A deflection measurement probe includes a body portion having a cavity defined by the body portion, a first positional measurement sensor disposed in the cavity of the body portion, the first positional measurement sensor including a sensor tip extending from the body portion operative to contact a measurement surface, and a second positional measurement sensor disposed in the cavity of the body portion, the first positional measurement sensor including a sensor tip extending from the body portion operative to contact a measurement surface.
US08645095B2 Synchronous multi-temperature sensor for semiconductor integrated circuits
A temperature sensor includes a counting signal generation unit, a counting signal decoding unit, an input reference voltage selection unit, and a latch pulse generation unit. The counting signal generation unit is configured to generate one or more counting signals in response to an oscillation signal. The counting signal decoding unit is configured to decode the one or more counting signals and to generate one or more test selection signals and an end signal. The input reference voltage selection unit is configured to output a first selection reference voltage or a second selection reference voltage as an input reference voltage in response to the one or more test selection signals. The latch pulse generation unit is configured to generate one or more latch pulses in response to the one or more test selection signals.
US08645092B2 Quality control system and method for construction, commissioning, and other initiation of a process plant
Disclosed herein are a system and method useful for providing quality control services in connection with a project for initiation of a process plant having field devices disposed at respective field sites in the process plant. Quality control data is generated at the field sites with a portable computer in response to quality control task information provided via a user interface of the portable computer. The quality control data is transmitted to a host computer having a database with project history information, and stored in the database through integration of the quality control data with the project history information. The quality control data may be generated via check lists downloaded from the host computer to the portable computer, where the check lists specify tasks customized for the respective field site. Recordation of the quality control data via the check lists may include entering deficiency information. The initiation project may include commissioning of the process plant, and the project history information in the database may be made available for subsequent preventative maintenance or other work during operation of the process plant.
US08645091B2 Evaluating high frequency time domain in embedded device probing
A method and associated system for evaluating a high-frequency signal (SNE) at a point of interest on a signal path. The high-frequency signal (SNE) at the point of interest on the signal path is calculated by applying an inverse transfer function (iG) for the signal path to an argument of a remote signal (SFE) measured at a remote pickup point on the signal path, wherein the point of interest and the remote pickup point are two distant points on the signal path, wherein the high-frequency signal (SNE) and the remote signal (SFE) are represented as a respective time domain variable, and wherein said calculating is performed by a time domain evaluation process that operates in test equipment for electrical devices. The calculated high-frequency signal (SNE) is transferred to an output device of the test equipment.
US08645086B1 Stress function calibration method
A method of predicting distortion in a workpiece may include measuring residual stress induced in a coupon surface of a plate coupon by a selected manufacturing operation. The induced residual stress measurements may be fitted to a curve shape function. A moment coefficient may be calculated based upon the fitted induced residual stress measurements. The moment coefficient may be used to calibrate a stress function and corresponding stress magnitude. The calibrated stress function may be applied to a model of the workpiece such that the distortion of the workpiece may be predicted.
US08645083B2 Method to screen high affinity antibody
The current invention reports a method for producing an antibody comprising the steps of a) providing a plurality of hybridoma cells each expressing an antibody, b) determining the time dependent amount of said antibody bound to the respective antigen by surface plasmon resonance at different temperatures and different antibody concentrations, c) calculating with the time dependent amount determined in b) based on equations (II) to (XIII) at least the thermodynamic parameters (i) standard association binding entropy formula (A), (ii) standard dissociation binding entropy formula (B), (iii) standard binding entropy (ΔS°), (iv) free standard binding enthalpy (ΔG°), (v) standard dissociation free binding enthalpy formula (C), (vi) standard association free binding enthalpy formula (D), (vii) −TΔS°, (viii) dissociation rate constant kd, (ix) equilibrium binding constant KD, and (x) association rate constant ka, d) selecting a hybridoma cell producing an antibody with at least two of the following: i) a standard association binding entropy of less than 10 J/K*mol, ii) an absolute standard dissociation binding entropy of 100 J/mol*K or more, iii) an absolute standard binding entropy of 100 J/mol*K or more, e) producing an antibody by cultivating said selected cell under conditions suitable for the expression of said antibody and recovering said antibody from the cells or/and the cultivation medium.
US08645081B2 Device and method of examining absorption of infrared radiation
A light absorption examining device includes a laser light source that emits the pulse laser beam, a measuring unit that retains the measuring object and irradiates the measuring object with the pulse laser beam, a light receiving unit that receives the pulse laser beam transmitted through the measuring object and outputs a light receiving signal, a pulse generator that produces a single rectangular pulse at a time when a signal level of the light receiving signal output from the light receiving unit intersects a set threshold, a laser driver that supplies the produced rectangular pulse to the laser light source to emit the pulse laser beam, and a control/processing unit that determines an accumulated delay time and examines absorption of the pulse laser beam by the measuring object using the determined accumulated delay time, the accumulated delay time representing a delay in a production timing of the rectangular pulse.
US08645078B2 Method and apparatus for recovering gene sequence using probe map
A method of recovering a nucleic acid sequence using a probe map includes: aligning a probe onto a target sequence based on a result in which the probe is hybridized to the target sequence; determining a representative value representing each aligned position of the probe; and recovering a base sequence of the target sequence by using a probe map to which the determined representative values and base sequence information of the probe are mapped.
US08645075B2 Method for predicting organ toxicity and a system thereof
The attached disclosure provides a systems approach based on mathematical modelling of the kinetics of essential biochemical pathways involved in organ homeostasis. When this in silico model is coupled with in-vitro and/or in-vivo measurements to quantify drug-induced perturbations, a powerful platform that allows accurate and mechanistic-level prediction of drug-induced organ injury can be generated. The method described in this disclosure demonstrates that several physiological situations can also be accurately modelled in addition to the effect of perturbations induced by drugs. It can also be used along with high-throughput “omics” data to generate testable hypotheses leading to informed decision-making in drug development.
US08645074B2 Method for reconstructing evolutionary data
Techniques for reconstructing evolutionary data of a set of genomic data are provided. The techniques include obtaining a set of genomic data, determining a chronological order of one or more mutations within the set of genomic data, determining a chronological order of one or more recombinations within the set of genomic data, determining a position of each recombination within the set of genomic data, and combining the chronological order of the one or more mutations, the chronological order of the one or more recombinations and the position of each recombination to reconstruct evolutionary data of the set of genomic data.
US08645073B2 Method and apparatus for allele peak fitting and attribute extraction from DNA sample data
Analysis of DNA is critical to many applications including identifying perpetrators of crimes based on genetic evidence left at crime scenes. An initial step to analyzing DNA data is detection, identification, and quantization of allele peaks in the DNA data. The invention provides a method and apparatus for accurately and expeditiously performing this initial step by sequentially checking unfitted peaks against various models including a default model, a hybrid peak model, a dual fit model and, in special situations, a narrow fit function and a saturated fit function.
US08645071B2 Direct velocity seismic sensing
A disclosed direct velocity seismic sensor includes a housing, a proof mass suspended in the housing by a resilient component, and a motion dampener that damps oscillation of the proof mass to a degree that displacement of the proof mass relative to the housing is substantially linearly proportional to a rate of change of seismic displacements of the housing over a frequency range of interest. A described method for constructing a seismic sensor includes using a calculated resonant frequency to determine a damping factor that causes the displacement of the proof mass to be substantially proportional to the rate of change of seismic displacement of the housing. One illustrative disclosed system includes an optical velocity sensor and a detector where a light beam produced by the velocity sensor and a reference beam interfere at the detector, and the detector produces a signal indicative of a velocity experienced by the velocity sensor.
US08645069B2 Method for determining a steam dryness factor
A simple, applicable in the field, and extra-equipment free method is provided for determining steam dryness directly in a thermal recovery of high-viscosity oil. A non-condensable gas is added into a saturated steam being injected into a well. The presence of non-condensable gas changes partial steam pressure. Correspondingly the steam condensation temperature also changes. The borehole temperature or pressure measurements can be used to evaluate the steam dryness.
US08645067B2 System and method for determining road conditions
A road data apparatus is disclosed that predicts road conditions comprising a land surface data generator which derives a land surface data output from a plurality of current and forecast weather and location data, said current and forecast weather and location data comprising surface temperature, subsurface temperature, and precipitation depth, a pavement data generator which derives a road temperature and a road condition from said land surface data output and a plurality of pavement generator input data, said plurality of pavement generator input data comprising road layer data; and a roadway status indicator generator which derives a roadway status indicator from said road temperature, road condition and precipitation data. In one embodiment, the roadway status indicator is communicated to an end user through a distribution network.
US08645065B2 Navigation device and traffic line display method
A navigation device and a traffic line display method which make a user reliably recognize the relationships between traffic lines and roads when the traffic lines are displayed so as to correspond to the roads which are positioned near one another in a concentrated manner or connected to one another are provided. When the roads currently displayed include roads which belong to a certain road type and which are positioned near one another within a predetermined distance or connected to one another and when at least one of the roads has heavy traffic, the vicinity/connection roads positioned near one another within a predetermined distance or connected to one another and the corresponding traffic lines are clearly distinguished from one another by displaying the roads and the corresponding traffic lines so as to be visually separate from one another. Accordingly, the relationships between the traffic lines and roads are reliably recognized.
US08645060B2 Positioning network availability and reliability based routing
A routing system can be configured to determine a route based on availability and reliability of location reference devices to determine a most reliable route between a source and a destination. Visibility information that is indicative of availability of at least a threshold number of location reference devices along the route can be determined. For each of a plurality of routes between the source and the destination, a reliability rating associated with the route can be determined based on the visibility information associated with the route. The reliability rating is indicative of a reliability of the route and an ability of the routing system to maintain continuous connectivity to the at least the threshold number of location reference devices along the route. The reliability ratings of the plurality of routes are compared to identify and to present one of the plurality of routes with a highest reliability rating.
US08645058B2 Vehicle drive support device
In a vehicle drive support device 10a including an optical beacon communicator 11 that acquires exterior information on roads from an optical beacon communicator 100 on the roadside outside a subject vehicle, a navigation system 12 that acquires interior information on roads inside the subject vehicle and a vehicle drive support processing unit 24 that performs vehicle drive support of the subject vehicle using the exterior information acquired by the optical beacon communicator 11, the vehicle drive support processing unit 24 changes use aspects of the exterior information for the vehicle drive support in accordance with the interior information acquired by the navigation system 12. Accordingly, it becomes possible to perform the vehicle drive support by more efficiently using the information from outside of the subject vehicle.
US08645055B2 Method and apparatus for providing geospatial and temporal navigation
A method and apparatus for processing at least one information feed are disclosed. For example, the method receives at least one content via at least one automated feed. The method associates the at least one content to one or more geographical locations on a map, wherein the one or more geographical locations are determined from the at least one content. The method then presents an access to the at least one content to a user via the map.
US08645051B2 Coefficient of volatility tool
A system for monitoring a vehicle's contribution to the efficiency of flow and throughput in traffic includes: a computation unit that determines the fluctuation in velocity of the vehicle over a time or a distance; and a notification unit that provides a notification related to the determined fluctuation in velocity of the vehicle. The notification unit may be a display that displays a visual representation of the fluctuation in velocity of the vehicle over a period of time or over a distance. The notification unit may provide an audible notification related to the fluctuation in velocity of the vehicle. The system may further include a sensor that determines the velocity of the vehicle and provides the velocity to the computation unit.
US08645050B2 Transportation information systems and methods associated with degradation modes
An exemplary method includes determining whether real-time vehicle location information deviates from at least one of historical real-time vehicle location information or scheduled vehicle location information. The exemplary method further includes generating a schedule degradation mode based on a deviation of real-time vehicle location information from at least one of historical real-time vehicle location information or scheduled vehicle location information. The exemplary method also includes generating first scheduling information for a user based on the user data and public transportation data when the deviation does not exceed a threshold. The exemplary method farther includes generating second scheduling information, different from the first scheduling information, that includes an indication of the schedule degradation mode for the user based on user data, public transportation data, and the deviation when the deviation exceeds the threshold.
US08645049B2 Control device for vehicle
A motor generator is connected to a high voltage battery through an inverter. A voltage of the high voltage battery is decreased and is applied to a low voltage battery through a DC-DC converter. At time of starting an engine, a starting operation of a starter is executed by applying an output voltage of the DC-DC converter 36 to the starter. At this time, the output voltage of the DC-DC converter 36 may be adjusted based on the temperature of the engine, the voltage of the low voltage battery and/or the degree of degradation of lubricant oil of the engine.
US08645042B2 Hybrid powertrain and method for controlling a hybrid powertrain
A hybrid powertrain includes a combustion engine, an electric machine arrangement, a gearbox operable to receive motive power from at least one of the combustion engine and the electric machine arrangement for providing motive power to a load of the powertrain. The powertrain is configurable in operation so that its combustion engine is switchable between an inactive state and an active state. The combustion engine is cranked to switch it from its inactive state to its active state. Application of cranking torque to the combustion engine is controlled in operation to substantially temporally coincide with a gear change in the gearbox.
US08645036B2 Method for controlling a clutch unit
A method for controlling a clutch unit for a drive train of a motor vehicle wherein the temperature in the friction clutch is ascertained and a characteristic curve of the friction clutch is adapted as a function of the ascertained temperature.
US08645033B2 Engine driven vehicle with transmission
An engine driven vehicle includes at least one engine, and control devices that are arranged to control a transmission that is driven by the engine. The control devices are arranged to receive at least two sets of data, each set including at least one of a first signal that includes information about the gradient of the surface on which the vehicle is being driven sent from a first sensor, and at least one second signal that includes information about the vehicle's speed sent from a second sensor, and at least one third signal that includes information about the vehicle's acceleration. The control devices are also arranged to calculate at least one of two different resistance to travel constants k1 and k2, in response to the first, second and third signals, and to control the transmission in response to at least one of the constants k1 and k2.
US08645032B2 Method for electronically controlling a bicycle gearshift and electronically servo-assisted bicycle gearshift
A method for electronically controlling a bicycle gearshift by detecting a first actual command value of an actuator such as to position a motion transmission chain in engagement with a first of at least three coaxial toothed wheels, and a second actual command value of the actuator such as to position the chain in engagement with a second of said toothed wheels. For each toothed wheel, there is determined a nominal command value of the actuator theoretically such as to position the chain in engagement with said toothed wheel. Computing an actual command value of said actuator at least for each of said toothed wheels other than the first and second toothed wheel, based on said nominal command values and on said first and second actual command value. An electronically servo-assisted bicycle gearshift having modules adapted to implement the above method is also disclosed.
US08645027B2 Binary adjustment method for the angular position of the plane of a motor vehicle wheel
A method of adjusting the angular rolling position of the plane of a motor vehicle wheel, in which the wheel is mounted on a vehicle so that the plane of the wheel can present a static angular position and a safety angular position, the method providing for the plane of the wheel to be maintained in the static angular position when the wheel is rolling and, in case of detection of at least one critical rolling parameter, for the wheel plane to be shifted to a safety angular position for a predetermined time period before the plane of the wheel is returned to the static angular position. A wheel mounting of a motor vehicle in which the method can be implemented is provided.
US08645026B2 Method for the operation of a transverse guiding driver assist system of a motor vehicle, and motor vehicle
In a method for the operation of a transverse guiding driver assist system of a motor vehicle, a road banking information is ascertained as a function of a change in a deviation of a transverse course of a road surface from a horizontal. A future road course is determined from environmental data and/or operating data of a motor vehicle, using the road banking information. A lateral track deviation is determined as a result of a change of a road banking, using the road banking information. At least one transverse guiding parameter is established from the future road course and the road banking information to determine a steering intervention. The lateral track deviation is then corrected by using the transverse guiding parameter.
US08645024B2 Motorized three-wheeled vehicle active suspension
A system that stiffens the rear suspension of the three-wheeled vehicle in coordination with the operator turning the front wheel to prevent leaning in turns and thus improve handling, performance and safety. The suspension system is controlled by the suspension control computer that receives input from a variety of sensors including a sensor in the steering neck that measures the angular rotation as the handlebars are turned by the operator. Based on these inputs, using proprietary programming, the suspension control computer calculates the timing, degree and appropriate side rear shock absorbing unit to stiffen. Active suspension offers significant advantages over non-active independent rear suspension in that it minimizes adverse handling characteristics caused by suspension leaning in turns while still allowing the comfort and handling of an independent rear suspension, as opposed to a non-independent rear suspension which provides a poor quality ride.
US08645020B2 Channel diagnostic system for sent receiver
A system for performing diagnostic checks on a data message transmitted from a sensor and received by a receiver includes a receiver clock tick counter, a prescaler counter, a calibration pulse detector, a nibble counter, and a calculator. The system receives first and second data messages transmitted from the sensor. Pulse widths of first and second calibration pulses of the first and second data messages, respectively, and lengths of the first and second data messages are measured using the receiver clock tick, prescaler, and nibble counters based on a compensated receiver clock signal. Thereafter, the pulse widths of the first and second calibration pulses and the lengths of the first and second data messages are compared using the calculator to perform the diagnostic checks.
US08645018B2 System and method for determining oil change timing of automatic transmission
A system and method for determining the time to change the oil of an automatic transmission includes: continuously tracing/storing oil change-related information, which serves as a basis for an oil change, from the point of time when new automatic transmission oil is provided, such as the point in time of a new car purchase or the point in time of an automatic transmission oil change; determining whether or not it is time to change the oil of the automatic transmission on the basis of the oil change-related information, a preset change reference value, an oil temperature reference value, a recommended vehicle travel mileage and the like. When it is determined to be the time to change the oil of the automatic transmission, an automatic transmission oil change signal is generated to inform a driver of the necessity of changing the oil of the automatic transmission.
US08645017B2 Dynamic discovery of vehicle communication interface device and method
A communications system that includes a vehicular diagnostic tool and a vehicle communication interface (VCI) configured to be connected to a vehicular computing system. In operation, the vehicular diagnostic tool automatically detects the presence of the VCI when the VCI is proximate thereto. Thereafter, the VCI and vehicular diagnostic tool communicate through a wireless connection. Also, a method of communicating using the aforementioned vehicular diagnostic tool and VCI.
US08645012B2 System and method for automatically navigating a depth contour
A system for controlling a marine vessel that includes a sonar depth finder configured to display a chart for a body of water. The chart has depth information for the body of water, and is programmed to allow a user to select from a plurality of depths indicated on the sonar depth finder display. The sonar depth finder further is configured to generate a route for the marine vessel. The route includes a path through the body of water where each point along the path is at the desired depth. The system includes a vessel control device in communication with the sonar depth finder. The vessel control device is configured to receive transmissions from the sonar depth finder. The transmissions include the route generated by the sonar depth finder. The vessel control device is further configured to automatically direct the marine vessel along the route.
US08645009B2 Method for flying an aircraft along a flight path
A method of flying an aircraft, where the aircraft has an associated performance envelope, along a flight path based determining an altitude profile for a cruise-climb along the flight path based on the performance envelope of the aircraft and flying the aircraft along the flight path to approximate the altitude profile.
US08645007B2 Aircraft with an arrangement of flow-influencing devices
An aircraft, which has a respective arrangement of flow-influencing devices in at least one surface segment of each wing extending in the wingspan direction in order to influence the fluid flow over the surface segment, and of flow condition sensor devices for measuring the flow condition on the respective segment, and a flight control device, wherein the flight control device has a flow-influencing target parameter setting device connected with the arrangement of flow-influencing devices for generating target parameters for the flow-influencing devices of the at least one surface segment, wherein the flow-influencing devices are designed in such a way as to use the target parameters to change the local lift coefficients or correlations between the drag and lift coefficients in the segment where respectively located.
US08645001B2 Method and system for blind spot identification and warning utilizing visual indicators
A method for detecting and alerting a driver of vehicles in their blind spots, includes: tracking movement and relative position of a driver to one or more vehicles; determining one or more driver blind spots; determining when at least one of the one or more vehicles approaches one of the driver blind spots; determining when at least one of the one or more vehicles occupies one of the driver blind spots; activating one or more indicators in response to one or more vehicles approaching and occupying one of the driver blind spots; wherein the one or more indicators comprise light emitting diodes (LED), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma, projected elements, and electroluminescent elements; and wherein a sequence and pattern of activating the one or more indicators is determined based on the relative position of the driver to the one or more vehicles.
US08645000B2 Temperature controller having phase control and zero-cross cycle control functionality
The present invention relates to a temperature controller having phase control and zero-cross cycle control function that can be achieved at a low cost by controlling power that is supplied to a load, by generating a phase control signal or a zero-cross control signal according to control target temperature of a load, using a microcomputer.
US08644999B2 Keep alive method for RFD devices
A method and system is disclosed that includes a controller that determines a sleep schedule for reduced function devices on a home network. The devices have various sleep schedules in which to operate in an active state or a reduced function state. The controller determines the different schedules by sending communication messages to each device via a communication module. A timer is used to determine a sleep schedule for reduced function devices (RFDs) on the network. The sleep schedule is used to monitor when the devices are communicating on the network and are no longer able to communicate with the controller.
US08644998B2 Pre-programmed energy management ballast or driver
A pre-programmed energy saving ballast or driver is presented, having a pre-defined energy profile to which the output power is controlled in accordance with the current time ascertained from the input power connection via simplex clock information or from received broadcast time signals, and which allows a user to select from a number of pre-programmed profiles and/or to modify and store user-defined energy profiles.
US08644996B2 Positioner
A positioner operating mode identifying function is provided in a calculating unit. A pressure value of an amplified pneumatic pressure signal, from a single-mode pilot relay, is detected by a pressure sensor and sent to the calculating unit. The calculating unit, through the positioner operating mode identifying function, monitors a change in the amplified pneumatic pressure signal corresponding to a change in the control signal, and if the direction of change in the control output and the direction of change of the amplified pneumatic pressure signal are the identical direction, identifies the operating mode of the positioner as the positive operating mode. The operating mode of the positioner is identified as the negative operating mode if the direction of change in the control output and the direction of change of the amplified pneumatic pressure signal are the opposite directions. The identification results displayed on a screen of a display unit.
US08644994B2 Spatial information correlation for control of an energy park
A spatial correlation system and method is disclosed to infer and anticipate the environmental and other conditions of an energy park from individual energy collector information. Individual collector information is acquired and formatted into a pixelized image according to the spatial location of the collector. Image processing and other spatial correlating algorithms are applied to generate spatially correlated descriptions of the energy park. The descriptions are of the current and anticipated conditions. The collectors are made to respond to the descriptions in order to maximize energy collection, avoid disruptive conditions, and reduce stress loading. The system combines locally acquired collection information in a manner that replaces costly collector instrumentation.
US08644992B2 Method to improve washer motor efficiency and performance
The present subject matter relates to methods and apparatus for controlling operation of a washing machine motor. Different control algorithms may be used during different time periods of operation of the motor where each algorithm is configured to provide different operating characteristics of the motor based on the needs of the washing machine system. The method and apparatus both provide for changing from one motor control algorithm to another algorithm while the motor is spinning. For certain type motors, a time period may be established between operation of the motor under a first or second control algorithms where no energy is supplied to the motor but the motor is permitted to continue to spin. During this period of time for these type motors, magnetic fields in the motor are permitted to subside prior to application of the second control algorithm.
US08644991B2 Maneuvering robotic vehicles
Configurations are provided for vehicular robots or other vehicles to provide shifting of their centers of gravity for enhanced obstacle navigation. A robot chassis with pivotable driven flippers has a pivotable neck and sensor head mounted toward the front of the chassis. The neck is pivoted forward to shift the vehicle combined center of gravity (combined CG) forward for various climbing and navigation tasks. The flippers may also be selectively moved to reposition the center of gravity. Various weight distributions allow different CG shifting capabilities.
US08644987B2 Robot and walking control apparatus and method thereof
Disclosed are a robot, in which a walking pattern of the robot is changed into a new walking pattern by stages when it is necessary to suddenly change the walking pattern to promote stabilization in walking, and a walking control apparatus and method thereof. When the walking pattern is changed, a preview time is decreased by stages and then is restored to its original state and thus it is possible to prevent the robot from losing its balance.
US08644986B2 Control device, control method, computer program, and recording medium
A control device that controls grip of an object is disclosed. The control device includes: detecting means for detecting a slip of the object and outputting a slip detection value; change-value calculating means for calculating, on the basis of the slip detection value, a change value for changing a command value, which sets gripping force for the object, to magnitude for resting the object; suppression-value calculating means for calculating, on the basis of the slip detection value, a suppression value for suppressing the command value to necessary minimum magnitude for resting the object; and setting means for setting the magnitude of the command value on the basis of the change value and the suppression value.
US08644985B2 System and method for carrier identification in a pneumatic tube system
A system and method provides for the identification and monitoring of carriers within a pneumatic carrier system. Each carrier which is to be employed within the system includes an identification device such as a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip which has stored thereon identification information for the carrier. Positioned throughout the system are communications devices such as antennas and readers which are employed to read and/or write identification information on the chip. When a carrier is put in the system, a destination location can be associated with the particular carrier ID. This associated information is then employed to, among many things, monitor and confirm identity of the carrier as it moves to its destination.
US08644984B2 Robot programming device for palletizing operation by robot
A robot programming device capable of reducing the operation of a robot in the field required for generating a program for palletizing operation, and shortening a time to generate the palletizing program. The robot programming device includes a storing part for storing three-dimensional models of the plurality kinds of units, a conveyor, a recognition device, a robot and a plurality of pallets; a layout making part for making a layout, in a virtual space, of the three-dimensional models stored in the storing part; a displaying part for displaying the layout made by the layout making part; an information setting part for setting information regarding each component displayed on the displaying part; and a program generating part for generating a palletizing program for the robot based on the layout of the three-dimensional models and the information set by the information setting part.
US08644978B1 Machining apparatus and method of making endodontic instruments
A machining apparatus and method for fabricating endodontic instruments adapted for use in performing root canal procedures is disclosed. The machining apparatus includes computer numerical control (CNC) machining that automates much of the fabrication process. The disclosed machining apparatus and method is programmable to efficiently produce varying configurations of endodontic instruments on the same machining apparatus.
US08644977B2 System for controlling pouring machines, equipment for pouring molten metal and method of pouring
A system for controlling pouring machines, equipment for pouring molten metal using the system and a method of pouring the molten metal where the molten metal can be smoothly poured by the coordinated operation of a casting machine having a first automatic pouring machine and the second automatic pouring machine. The system for controlling the pouring machines has a main control device, a control device for controlling the first pouring machine, and a control device for controlling the second pouring machine so that the operations of two automatic pouring machines are controlled and a smooth coordinated operation of the two automatic pouring machines is realized so that the automatic pouring machines can pour the molten metal into each of a number of molds of a casting line for molds.
US08644973B2 Method of designing a surgical kit for cartilage repair in a joint
A design system for a surgical kit includes surgical tools and an implant. The design system includes the basic blocks of: I. Determining physical parameters for cartilage damage in a joint; II. Generating design parameters of a medical implant; and III. Generating design parameters of a set of tools for implanting the implant.
US08644969B2 Content provisioning and revenue disbursement
A method for provisioning content to users, including for each of a plurality of items of media content, maintaining information about one or more owners of the item of media content, and maintaining information about one or more providers of the item of media content, for each of a plurality of users, maintaining information about items of media content acquired by the user and about player devices owned by the user, for each of a plurality of time periods, maintaining a history log of items of media content played by one or more of the plurality of users during the time period, receiving a request from a user to play a designated item of media content on a designated player device, during a current time period, identifying an appropriate provider of the designated item of media content, according to a location of the user and according to the designated player device, causing the identified provider of the designated item of media content to transmit the designated item of media content to the user's designated player device, updating the history log for the current time period to reflect the user having played the designated item of media content, and calculating revenue disbursement among the owners of the plurality of items of media content, and the providers of the plurality of media content, for the current time period, based on the history log of the current time period. A system is also described and claimed.
US08644959B2 System and method for functionalization in line with demand, for control and regulatory devices
A system for demand-based functionalization of a motor control unit comprises a motor control unit, a first data store having a plurality of functional modules each configured to perform one or more functions of the motor control unit and an access device configured to access the first data store and to select at least one of the plurality of functional modules and to load at least one of the plurality of functional modules into the motor control unit. The selection is based on a demand and the selective loading results in a flexibly customizable functionality of the motor control unit.
US08644951B1 Medical devices having MRI compatible metal alloys
An MRI compatible medical device includes a non-magnetic metal alloy portion including a first and at least a second metal. A surface of the metal alloy portion includes an integral MRI heating resistant surface structure having a thickness≧3 nanometers. The MRI heating resistant surface structure includes one or more of (i) a matrix phase including the first and second metal having a plurality of nanometer or micron scale particles, precipitates and/or inclusions constituting a volume fraction≧3%, wherein the particles, precipitates or inclusions differ in chemical composition and physical characteristics of the matrix phase and are discontinuously distributed therein; (ii) a level of crystallinity at least 5% less as compared to a level of crystallinity in the bulk of the metal alloy portion; (iii) one or more metal atoms different from the first and second metal having a concentration profile evidencing diffusion into the metal alloy portion.
US08644939B2 Method and device for the detection, identification and treatment of sleep apnea/hypopnea
A method and device for treating sleep apnea and sleep hypopnea by monitoring respiratory-related activity from the internal branch of the superior laryngeal nerve, interpreting these internal signals to detect and classify apnea events, and stimulating nerves or muscles to elicit appropriate corrective responses to adverse respiratory events.
US08644937B2 Electronics package suitable for implantation
The invention is directed to a method of bonding a hermetically sealed electronics package to an electrode or a flexible circuit and the resulting electronics package that is suitable for implantation in living tissue, such as for a retinal or cortical electrode array to enable restoration of sight to certain non-sighted individuals. The hermetically sealed electronics package is directly bonded to the flex circuit or electrode by electroplating a biocompatible material, such as platinum or gold, effectively forming a plated rivet-shaped connection, which bonds the flex circuit to the electronics package. The resulting electronic device is biocompatible and is suitable for long-term implantation in living tissue.
US08644935B2 Methods of forming sealed devices containing heat sensitive components
An implantable device is provided. The device is constructed from an open body containing electronic components, a heat-sensitive component, and a sealing component. The device is formed in a moisture controlled environment, such that the heat-sensitive component is attached to the open enclosure after the enclosure has been heated. The sealing component is subsequently affixed to the open enclosure to form a sealed enclosure.
US08644925B2 Wearable monitoring and treatment device
A wearable therapeutic device to facilitate care of a subject is provided. The wearable therapeutic device can include a garment having a sensing electrode. The garment includes at least one of an inductive element and a capacitive element, and a controller identifies an inductance of the inductive element or a capacitance of the capacitive element, and determines a confidence level of information received from the sensing electrode based on the inductance or the capacitance. The wearable therapeutic device also includes an alarm module coupled with the controller and configured to provide a notification to a subject based on the confidence level.
US08644924B2 Preferential mechanical unloading during anti-tachycardia pacing
A pacing device and method for operating same is disclosed in which the point of origin of an arrhythmia is estimated in order to more provide more effective treatment. The origin of an arrhythmia may be estimated by analyzing the timing of electrical events as detected at different electrode sites and/or using different sensing vectors. Anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) may then be delivered to the most appropriate location.
US08644922B2 Method and apparatus for a small power source for an implantable device
An example includes apparatus including a non-thin-film battery, that can include an implantable housing, electronics disposed in the implantable housing, and a battery disposed in the implantable housing, the battery comprising: a plurality of cells electrically connected to one another, with at least one cell including a stack including at least one substantially planar anode having a thickness greater than 1 micrometer and at least one substantially planar cathode having a thickness greater than 1 micrometer, and a cell housing enclosing the stack of substantially planar anodes and cathodes and displacing less than approximately 0.024 cubic centimeters, wherein the plurality of cells are interconnected in at least one of series and parallel, and terminals interconnecting the battery and the electronics.
US08644921B2 Neuromodulation system and method for treating apnea
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for treating apnea by controlled delivery of a swallow stimulus to a subject in which apnea is detected. In the systems and method, burst electrical or mechanical stimulation to one or more swallow-related nerves and/or muscles can be timed for delivery between the expiratory phase of the respiration cycle, following detection of an apneic event in the subject.
US08644920B2 Implantable medical device having magnetic resonance tomography antenna
The disclosure relates to a device and a method for detecting electromagnetic fields, in particular fields occurring in imaging magnetic resonance tomography.
US08644919B2 Shielded stimulation and sensing system and method
Spatial arrays of electrodes are provided, each array in a region of tissue. The electrodes of an array are connected so that some of the electrodes serve as shield electrodes relative to a pair of electrodes used for pulse stimulation or sensing of electrical activity, or both. The shield electrodes are connected together, defining an electrical node, the node defining a stable potential in predetermined relationship with power supply levels or with reference voltages for sensing circuitry. Multiplexing techniques may be employed so that sensed activity at each of several electrode locations can be communicated to electronics external to the electrode locations.
US08644917B2 Cardio mapping system and method for cardio mapping
A method and system for determining the mechanism of cardiac arrhythmia in a patient is disclosed. The method basically entails measuring the impedance of cardiac tissue in a portion of the patient's heart using a catheter during an episode of supraventricular tachycardia to produce an iso-impedance map of that cardiac tissue on a video display and analyzing the pattern of the iso-impedance map to differentiate focal arrhythmia caused by a circumscribed region of focal firing and reentrant arrhythmia caused by a macroreentrant circuit. The method can also be used to identify regions of coherent rapidly conducting tissue e.g., Bachman's bundle or the inferoposterior pathway insertion points, to identify focal “mother rotors” throughout the left atrium that may participate in the generation and maintenance of atrial fibrillation and to identify areas of CAFE (complex atrial/fractionated electrograms) that truly reflect these mother rotors.
US08644916B2 Differentiating decompensation detection based on co-morbidities in heart failure
This document discusses, among other things, a system comprising a sensor signal processor configured to receive a plurality of electrical sensor signals produced by a plurality of sensors and at least one sensor signal produced by an implantable sensor, a memory that includes information indicating a co-morbidity of a subject, a sensor signal selection circuit that selects a sensor signal to monitor from among the plurality of sensor signals, according to an indicated co-morbidity, a threshold adjustment circuit that adjusts a detection threshold of the selected sensor signal according to the indicated co-morbidity, and a decision circuit that applies the adjusted detection threshold to the selected sensor signal to determine whether an event associated with worsening heart failure (HF) occurred in the subject and outputs an indication of whether the event associated with worsening HF occurred to a user or process.
US08644915B2 Handheld electrocardiographic device
A handheld electrocardiographic device for perform an ECG signal acquisition is provided. The ECG device includes at least two electrodes for obtaining ECG signals from a user's skin, an analog signal processing module, an analog/digital converter for digitizing the ECG signals, a processor, which controls the ECG device and processes the ECG signals, a display unit for displaying a processed result of ECG signals and other related information, a memory for data storage, a battery for providing power, at least a contacting interface having at least one of the electrodes mounted thereon, and a detecting unit for sensing a physical condition of the contacting interface, wherein the processor compares the physical condition to a preset criterion, and takes the result as a reference for processing the ECG signals.
US08644909B2 Radiographic imaging method and apparatus
A reference frame is described for use in a radiographic procedure. The reference frame is positionable relative to a joint or bone to be imaged, and is radio-transparent. The frame has embedded or affixed thereto a plurality of computer recognizable radio opaque markers. A method of obtaining three dimensional images of bones and joints using the frame is described.
US08644907B2 Method and apparatus for surgical navigation
Disclosed is a surgical navigation system for tracking an instrument relative to a patient. The system can track a portion of the patient, an instrument, and/or both relative to image data, a coordinate system, an atlas, a morphed atlas, or combinations thereof. The system can include a tracking device on the instrument to provide six degree of freedom information regarding the location of the instrument.
US08644903B1 Electrode for recording and stimulation
Improved electrode assemblies for recording and stimulation. Cortical and depth electrode structures are provided as well as inline interconnection systems. Methods of manufacture are further taught to provide enhanced surfaces for cortical electrodes. The inline interconnection systems include connector assembly embodiments for electrode leads which have structure providing ease of EEG recording as well as stimulation.
US08644900B2 Method and apparatus for noninvasively monitoring parameters of a region of interest in a human body
Apparatus and methods are provided for monitoring a parameter of a region of interest (ROI) within a first tissue type within a body. A control unit drives a measurement unit to provide an operating condition such that acoustic waves overlap with a region within the ROI that is illuminated by illuminating light such as to generate a first set of tagged photons, and such that the acoustic waves overlap with a region of tissue within a second tissue type that is illuminated by illuminating light such as to generate a second set of tagged photons, the first and second sets of tagged photons being distinguishable from one another. The control unit determines the parameter of the ROI by extracting data portions associated with, respectively, the light response of the ROI and the light response of the second tissue type, by distinguishing between the sets of tagged photons.
US08644899B2 Coated conductor
A coated conductor with a substantially round cross section has a high temperature superconductor layer which is sandwiched between an inner substrate layer and an outer substrate layer to place the high temperature superconductor layer in the region of neutral strain axis.
US08644898B1 Superconductor device having a pattern of engineered defects for controlling magnetic flux
A device includes a circuitry layer having one or more circuitry regions and a superconducting layer having a plurality of naturally-occurring defects. Potential wells are formed in the superconducting layer and located outside of the bounds of the circuitry regions. A pattern of engineered defects is formed in the superconducting layer and are configured such that, upon encountering a pulse of electromagnetic energy applied at a high potential region of the superconducting layer prior to energizing any circuits within the circuitry layer and when the superconducting layer is in a superconducting state, magnetic flux trapped within the naturally-occurring defects is directed to one or more of the potential wells.
US08644896B1 Tunable notch filter including ring resonators having a MEMS capacitor and an attenuator
A tunable notch filter, comprises a transmission line coupled to an antenna; a plurality of ring resonators inductively coupled to the transmission line, wherein each ring resonator of the plurality of ring resonators is grounded and comprises a variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitor; wherein a set of variable MEMS capacitors of the plurality of variable MEMS capacitors are independently tunable to vary a notch location and a notch width of the tunable notch filter; and wherein a set of ring resonators of the plurality of ring resonators further comprises an attenuator configured to reduce power reflected from the antenna.
US08644894B2 Mobile wireless device with multi-band antenna and related methods
A mobile wireless communications device may include a portable housing, and a printed circuit board (PCB) carried by the housing and having opposing upper and lower portions. The device may also include at least one wireless transceiver carried by the portable housing, and a satellite positioning signal receiver carried by the portable housing. An antenna assembly may be carried adjacent the upper portion of the PCB. The antenna assembly may include a horizontal conductor extending along the upper portion of the PCB in spaced relation therefrom. The horizontal conductor may be coupled to the satellite positioning receiver. The antenna assembly may also include a loop conductor extending from the horizontal conductor toward the lower portion of the PCB and in spaced relation from the PCB. The loop conductor may be coupled to the wireless transceiver.
US08644893B2 Ipad and keypad cover structure
An iPad and keypad cover structure includes an iPad leather cover, a cover board, and a foldable member to connect the iPad leather cover and the cover board. The cover board has a fold line at a central portion thereof and at least one fixing tongue at an outer edge thereof. A keypad is provided on an inner side of the cover board. The iPad leather cover has a chamber at an inner side thereof and at least one transverse engaging piece disposed on an outer side thereof. The fixing tongue is inserted in the engaging piece of the iPad leather cover to secure the iPad and keypad cover structure when the cover board is folded face-to-face or back-to-back relative to the iPad leather cover. An iPad and the keypad are received therein face-to-face when the cover board is folded face-to-face relative to the iPad leather cover.
US08644891B2 Voice communication apparatus connectable to wireless LAN, radio circuit activation method, and radio circuit activation program
In order to reduce power consumption while an incoming call is detected by each of a plurality of communication methods, a mobile phone includes a radio circuit, a wireless LAN circuit, and a control portion to control power supply to them. The control portion cuts off power supply to the radio circuit when communication for a call by the wireless LAN circuit is established when power is supplied to both the radio circuit and the wireless LAN circuit.
US08644890B2 Power management for wireless direct link
Disclosed herein are exemplary techniques for managing power in a direct wireless link between two wireless devices. The present invention provides at least three direct link power management techniques: Fast Resumption Mode (FRM) wherein the direct link is resumed automatically at a specified timing synchronization function (TSF); Slow Resumption Mode (SRM) wherein the direct link may be resumed by sending a Resume-Request via the access point; and Reverse Polling (RP), wherein one peer station of the direct link is continually awake and the other peer station uses reverse polling to start a service period. Thus, a method for power management of a direct wireless link between two wireless devices is disclosed. The method comprising the steps of establishing a direct wireless link between the first wireless device and the second wireless device; transmitting, from a first wireless device, a frame having a time value; receiving, at the second wireless device, the frame from the first wireless device; suspending the direct wireless link a duration determined based on the time value; and resuming the direct wireless link at a time determined based on the time value.
US08644889B2 Restoring connectivity to a desubscribed telematics unit
Aspects of the invention include a method and system for restoring connectivity from a telematics service provider to a desubscribed telematics unit, and therefore, restored a capability of providing telematics services to a vehicle owner. A vehicle owner with a lapsed subscription and a desubscribed telematics unit installed in his vehicle may have the need to request certain telematics services from the telematics service provider. Aspects of the invention provide for a vehicle owner with a lapsed subscription and a desubscribed telematics unit to request certain “a la carte” services from a telematics service provider using the vehicle owner's personal cellular telephone connected to the desubscribed telematics unit across a personal wireless link.
US08644888B2 Wireless headset switching system
A wireless headset system including a switching unit having a detection circuit coupled to a wireless adapter. The detection circuit provides a first output signal to the wireless adapter upon detection of a triggering event, such as activation of a manual switch or detection of voltage of an audio output signal from a mobile communications device. The first output signal causes the wireless adapter to enter into an active audio channel mode. The detection circuit also provides a second output signal to the wireless adapter when no triggering event is detected, and the second output signal causes the wireless adapter to enter into a standby mode. Placing at least the wireless adapter in a standby mode saves battery life of the system.
US08644887B1 Device call notification extension
An aspect provides a method, comprising: detecting an incoming voice call at an information handling device; detecting one or more external notification extension conditions at the information handling device; and in response to detecting one or more external notification extension conditions at the information handling device, extending a notification of the incoming voice call at the information handling device. Other aspects are described and claimed.
US08644884B2 Sensor-based user interface control
Methods and devices for sensor-based user interface control are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for determining a characteristic of handedness includes sensing a rotation of a mobile device, determining a direction of rotation based at least in part on accessing information indicative of a first position state prior to sensing the rotation and accessing information indicative of a second position state subsequent to sensing the rotation, and determining the characteristic of handedness based at least in part on the direction of rotation, the first position state, and the second position state. The characteristic of handedness includes one of a left handedness or right handedness. The method further includes determining a user interface mode based on the determined characteristic of handedness, and controlling the mobile device in accordance with the determined user interface mode.
US08644881B2 Mobile terminal and control method thereof
A method for controlling a mobile terminal, and which includes receiving, via an input unit, a selection signal indicating a selection of a predetermined button among multiple predetermined buttons on the mobile terminal, in which the multiple predetermined buttons corresponding to different preset functions executed on the mobile terminal; capturing, via a camera included on the mobile terminal, a preview image of an object upon receiving the selection signal; recognizing, via a controller included on the mobile terminal, a character string included in the captured preview image; and performing, via the controller, a preset function using the recognized character string and that corresponds to the selection of the predetermined button.
US08644877B2 Terminal apparatus, base station apparatus detection method, wireless communication system, and base station apparatus
A terminal apparatus in a wireless communication system having a first and second base station group, and for which access is permitted for a specific base station, and not for a base station other than the specific base station, in the base station belonging to the second base station group, including: a reception unit which receives an identifier from any of base stations belonging to the first base station group; and a detection unit which executes base station detection processing for the second base station group, if the received identifier is an identifier of a base station corresponding to the specific base station in the base station belonging to the first base station group, and restrict execution of the base station detection processing, if not the identifier of the base station corresponding to the specific base station in the base station belonging to the first base station group.
US08644875B2 Transmit power control in multi-radio apparatus
A method, apparatus, and computer program for controlling transmission power of a radio apparatus are provided. The method includes: determining, in a radio apparatus configured to support a cellular radio access technology in communication with a cellular counterpart apparatus and a short range radio access technology in communication with a short range counterpart apparatus, a maximum total transmit power of the radio apparatus; causing the radio apparatus to use a first transmit power level in transmission to the cellular counterpart apparatus; determining a remaining transmission power margin by computing a difference between the maximum total transmit power and the first transmit power level; and causing the radio apparatus to autonomously limit a second transmit power level to fall within the remaining transmission power margin and to use the second transmit power level in transmission to the short range counterpart apparatus.
US08644870B2 Sum-rate balancing in wireless multicell and multicarrier system
A method in a communication node of a wireless communications system that provides at least two communication links each having at least two frequency channels. The communication node is configured to communicate with a receiving communication node over a link under influence of interference from surrounding transmitter(s) using said frequency channels. The method includes determining a target for said link for the sum of the data rates and allocating power on the frequency channels to reach said target while minimizing the sum of the power on said link.
US08644869B2 Method and apparatus for communication using multiple carriers
A method and apparatus for communication using multiple carriers is provided. A mobile station receives information regarding at least one assigned carrier selected from the available carriers based on the multiple carrier capability from a base station. The mobile station activates or inactivates the at least one assigned carrier by receiving a message comprising information indicating activation or inactivation of the at least one assigned carrier from the base station. Signaling overhead for managing multiple carriers may be reduced.
US08644867B2 Mobile station apparatus, communication system and communication method
To provide a mobile station apparatus and a communication system that realize an efficient transmission control for a base station apparatus to allocate resources of the PUSCH with appropriate AMC mode in accordance with the channel feedback report and the scheduling request from the mobile station apparatus, and also enable rapid transmission of the uplink data (enable rapid transmission of the UL-SCH) when the mobile station apparatus transmits only the channel feedback report. A mobile station apparatus 200 applied to a system in which a base station apparatus 100 allocates the physical uplink shared channel and the mobile station apparatus 200 transmits uplink data using the physical uplink shared channel, transmits to the base station apparatus 100 the scheduling request requesting the base station apparatus 100 to allocate resources for transmitting the uplink data, using the physical uplink shared channel.
US08644865B2 Method of measuring interference
A method of measuring interference to perform efficient data communication is disclosed. A method of measuring interference of neighboring cells comprises allocating one or more first resource elements, to which pilot signals are allocated, to predetermined symbol regions included in a first resource block; allocating one or more second resource elements for measuring interference of the neighboring cells to a first symbol region of the predetermined symbol regions; and measuring interference of the neighboring cells using the one or more second resource elements.
US08644863B2 Multiple paging channels for efficient region paging
Systems and methods are described that mitigating coverage gaps near region boundaries using a plurality of multi-sector broadcast (MSBC) paging channels in wireless networking environments. One or more MSBC paging channels can be assigned unique time slots, such that although the channels can be identical, they are disjointed in time. Accordingly, such channels and/or dynamically generated paging zones associated therewith can be overlapped in areas where wireless device density is high and requires substantial paging capacity. Additionally, a single paging channel can be employed in multiple instances in a paging region without overlap to mitigate inter-channel interference.
US08644860B2 Apparatus, and associated method, for paging a mobile station with page addresses upon a paging channel
An apparatus and a method for facilitating paging of a mobile station in a multi-user communication system. A page message is generated that includes page addresses of mobile stations that are to be paged. The page addresses are shortened addresses, if possible, that are selected to unambiguously identify the paged mobile stations. The page message includes page addresses of corresponding lengths and of unequal values.
US08644859B2 Apparatus to provide augmented reality service using location-based information and computer-readable medium and method of the same
An augmented reality (AR) service apparatus includes a camera to capture an actual image, a controller to receive feature point information about the captured image from at least one of a plurality of base stations (BSs), detect a location of the camera by matching data of feature points with data of the image, and provide location-based information in a same direction as the captured image according to the location of the camera, and a display to realize an AR service by combining the captured image with the location-based information under control of the controller.
US08644853B2 Providing base station almanac to mobile station
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a hierarchal base station almanac received at a mobile station.
US08644852B2 Method and system for capturing and providing typological and contextual information about a location based on wireless beacons
Systems and methods for providing contextual information about a place within a range of a wireless signal beacon are provided. A reference database of wireless beacons stores attributes associated with wireless beacons. Wireless-enabled devices and/or server systems receive information identifying wireless beacons in range of the wireless-enabled devices and determine a received signal strength indication of the wireless beacons. The wireless-enabled devices and/or server systems then retrieve from the reference database extended attributes that are associated with the wireless beacons and determine at least one associated contextual attribute about the place within range of the wireless beacons.
US08644851B2 Channel availability for white-space devices, associated apparatus and methods
An apparatus configured to determine one or more channels available for use by respective one or more white-space devices in a particular determined geographical location. The apparatus is configured to: receive geographic location signalling associated with the particular determined geographical location of one or more white-space devices; receive uncertainty indication signalling for the uncertainty associated with the particular determined geographic location of the one or more white-space devices; and determine the one or more channels available for use by the respective one or more white-space devices in the particular determined geographical location by using the geographic location signalling and uncertainty indication signalling.
US08644849B2 System and method for anticipating wireless signal loss to provide robust location based services
A system and method for anticipating wireless signal loss and providing location based services in view of the anticipated wireless signal loss is disclosed.
US08644847B1 Providing geographic location information on a telephone device
In one implementation, a computer-implemented method includes receiving, from a first telephone device and at a second telephone device, a request to accept a telephone call. The method further includes obtaining information that indicates a first current geographic location of the first telephone device or the associated first user based on the second telephone device or an associated second user being a member of a group of call recipients that are permitted to receive the information that indicates the first current geographic location. The method additionally includes, using the obtained information, providing a representation of the first current geographic location of the first telephone device on the second telephone device in association with the telephone call from the first telephone device.
US08644844B2 Extending outdoor location based services and applications into enclosed areas
Methods and systems for indoor mobile unit positioning, for seamlessly toggling a mobile unit positioning between outdoor positioning and indoor positioning and for providing location based services or application generated by an external location server to the mobile unit while the mobile unit is indoors. The indoor mobile unit positioning includes mobile unit-based positioning which makes use of reception of access point signals by the mobile unit.
US08644834B2 Resource allocation
A system is proposed to provide handover in a mobile telecommunications environment, particularly applicable to 3GPP networks, in which a user device, such as a mobile telephone, receives signalling for persistently allocated resources generated by a target base station via a source base station.
US08644832B2 Redirecting handovers in LTE networks
The disclosed subject matter relates to an architecture that can redirect communications upon detection of a handover failure in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network. In particular, the architecture can obtain information indicative of a handover failure that is available in a first portion of the LTE network that has no control over the communication path. Furthermore, the architecture can utilize the information to instruct a second portion of the LTE network, one that can control the communication path but conventionally has no access to the information, to reroute the communication path to avoid unresponsive or failing network entities.
US08644829B2 Method and system for signaling release cause indication in a UMTS network
A method and system for processing signaling release indication cause between user equipment and a wireless network, the method comprising the steps of: monitoring, at the user equipment, whether a signaling connection release indication should be sent to the wireless network; appending, at the user equipment, a cause for the signaling connection release indication to the signaling connection release indication; sending the appended signaling connection release indication to the wireless network; receiving the signaling connection release indication at the wireless network; and filtering said cause to determine whether to raise an alarm.
US08644823B2 System and method for shared binding maintenance
The present disclosure provides a system and method for shared binding maintenance. In accordance with one example embodiment, there is provided a method for use on a network component for updating bindings, comprising: receiving a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) message concerning a particular Address-of-Record (AOR); and updating a list of one or more bindings for the particular AOR in a registration repository.
US08644818B1 Radio access point device location verification based on wireless user device roaming history
Techniques are provided to detect when a radio access point device in a wireless cellular communication network is operating at a location other than its expected location. Roaming history data is obtained for wireless user devices in a wireless cellular communication network with respect to base transceiver stations each configured to serve a corresponding coverage area at a fixed known location and with respect to radio access point devices each configured to serve a corresponding relatively smaller coverage area in the wireless cellular communication network than a macro base transceiver station. Radio access point devices are also readily movable from one location to another location. The roaming history data of wireless user devices is analyzed against expected locations of radio access point devices to determine when a radio access point device is operating at a location other than its expected location.
US08644816B2 Transmitting data over a plurality of different networks
A method for transmitting data from a mobile communication device to a remote server across a wireless network is described. The method comprising the following steps. Data is transmitted from an application executing on the mobile communication device using a standard reliable communication protocol. Prior to transmitting the data across the wireless network, receipt of the data is acknowledged, thereby simulating, to the application, receipt of the data by the remote server. Data is transmitted from the mobile communication device to the remote server using an intermediary communication protocol. A mobile communication device and a system implementing the method are also described.
US08644814B2 Automated fault reporting in femto cells
An arrangement for wireless communication includes apparatus operable to establish a region of wireless communications capability, and operable to establish communication with a communications hub by way of a backhaul. The apparatus is operable to determine availability of communication facilities on the backhaul and, in response to a request by a communications device operating with the use of the region of wireless communications capability, is operable to offer the backhaul implemented communication facilities to the communications device subject to the existence of a fault in offering of said facilities. The apparatus includes fault detection means operable to detect the presence of a fault. In the event of a fault being detected, the apparatus is operable to emit a signal intended to communicate the existence of the fault to t communications device.
US08644812B2 Safety promoting techniques for mobile communication
A method for controlling operation of an active mobile communication device, including the following steps: performing a first determination of whether the device is in a moving vehicle at a relevant location; performing a second determination of whether the user of the device is the vehicle operator; and producing a risk indication signal as a function of the first and second determinations.
US08644810B1 Method and system for dynamic font support on mobile devices
The method and system for dynamic font support on a mobile communication device is disclosed herein. The present invention determines if a mobile communication device such as a mobile phone can properly render a digital communication from an enterprise using the native language of the mobile communication device. If not, the invention will render the digital communication at a server and transmit a raster equivalent to the mobile communication device.
US08644806B2 System and method for telephony using internet domain names and electronic addresses
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), or a portion thereof, or an e-mail address are employed as auxiliary indicators of dialing of a voice call from a mobile phone to an URL- or specific e-mail address-associated part, with the part originating the call not identifying the telephone number of the other part An automated conversion is performed from an URL, or a portion thereof, or e-mail address, for an intended telephone number, or multiple intended telephones, in response to requirements started at the telephone system by the caller A part with presence in the Internet achieves a better availability with the public by means of voice telephone calls, since the URL's and e-mail addresses are convenient, known by, and significant to the clients.
US08644805B2 Smart-phone answering service for handling incoming calls
An electronic device capable of receiving and sending calls is configured with at least two modes. When a call is received by a device in a normal mode, the device displays information and presents selectable options for handling the received call. When the device is in a restricted or meeting mode, the device provides authorized callers with the option of prompting the called party to immediately answer the call or to record a message for later retrieval or take other appropriate action. Settings associated with the normal mode and settings associated with the meeting mode are adjustable.
US08644804B2 Method and system for providing web-enabled cellular access to meter reading data
A method and a system for collection of meter readings from meter reading and transmitting devices (12, 14) and for viewing on a web-enabled wireless communication device (28) comprises addressing at least one receiver (15) through the Internet (21) and obtaining a data file of meter data for a plurality of meter reading devices (12, 14) that have previously communicated with the receiver (15). The receiver (15) can then re-transmit the meter data through a wide area network such as the Internet (21) to a web site (10) operated by an organization marketing AMR systems. The meter data is then accessed and displayed at a customer demonstration site using a handheld wireless smart phone (28) which receives a web page (22) that is reduced in size for transmission through the cellular network to the smart phone (28).
US08644799B2 Charging system and method
The present invention provides a charging method, including: a mobility management network element obtaining charging policy information of a terminal from a user subscription data network element; an access network element obtaining the charging policy information of the terminal from the mobility management network element; and the access network element storing the charging policy information of the terminal, and charging for services of the terminal according to the charging policy information. Accordingly, the present invention also provides a charging system, an access network element and a mobility management network element. The technical scheme of the present invention can send the charging policy information to the radio side network element in the LIPA structure to realize the dynamic charging based on users of services; and it can cover the LTE network and the 3G network at the same time.
US08644798B2 Method and apparatus for separable voice billing for business and personal airtime use
Separable billing of business and non-business calls to/from a remote station or wireless communications device is provided. Business calls may be billed to the business, or other entity that provides a telephone to a user, and non-business calls may be billed to a user personally. When a call is desired to be connected, it is determined if the number of the call is a business number. If the number is a business number, the call is placed and billed to the business. If the number is not a business number, the call is placed and billed to the user when the user approves personal billing for the call. If the user does not approve personal billing of a non-business call, the call may be denied.
US08644795B2 System and method for managing individual use of a mobile telecommunications account
Disclosed are a system and method for managing access to a mobile telecommunication account by disabling use of a mobile device associated with a mobile telecommunication account or sub account when the mobile network detects that a restriction contained in a restriction database is violated.
US08644791B2 Communications module apparatus, integrated circuit and method of communicating data
A communications module apparatus for an automotive network comprises an input for receiving data to be transmitted. The apparatus also comprises a first output for coupling to a first bus line and a second output for coupling to a second bus line. An alternating voltage signal transmission circuit for transmitting at least part of the received data is also provided. The alternating voltage signal transmission circuit is coupled to the first output and the second output.
US08644790B2 Automobile top antenna devices and antenna amplifiers thereof
Antenna amplifiers and automobile top antenna devices are provided. The antenna amplifier includes an AM frequency selection circuit, an AM signal amplification circuit, an FM frequency selection circuit, an FM signal amplification circuit, and a power circuit. The antenna amplifier is further provided with a trap circuit that has an end connected to the ground terminal of the antenna amplifier, and another end connected to a metal mounting base for an antenna on the automobile top. The antenna device includes a shark-fin antenna case, a metal mounting base, an antenna support and a radio receiving antenna. The antenna case is mounted on the metal mounting base to form an internal accommodation space in which the antenna support, the radio receiving antenna and a circuit board with an antenna amplifier are provided.
US08644789B2 Unmanned lighter-than-air-safe termination and recovery methods
Innovative new methods in connection with lighter-than-air free floating platforms, of facilitating legal transmitter operation, platform flight termination when appropriate, environmentally acceptable landing, and recovery of these devices are provided. Especially, termination of radio transmissions and flight related to regional, governmental and international border requirements, regulations and laws. The new methods comprise specific criteria, detection of the criteria and elements of operation for reducing or preventing illegal transmissions, for producing rapid descend to the ground, for environmentally acceptable landing and for facilitating recovery all with improved safety and enhanced compliance with known regulations.
US08644783B2 Methods and systems for determining an offset term for a synthesizer signal, and methods and systems for producing a phase-corrected digital signal
A fractional-N PLL synthesizer has an up-down counter counting up for positive edges of a frequency-divided signal produced by a frequency divider with a fractional divide ratio in a feedback path of the synthesizer and down for positive edges of a reference signal. A phase offset between portions of the synthesizer signal before and after a loss-of-lock interval is then assessed as a numerical value proportional to the product of the divide ratio and the cycle difference registered by the up-down counter (36) after the loss-of-lock interval. A correction term derived from the phase offset can be used in a signal processing device as employed, e.g., in a GNSS receiver, for producing, from an analog input signal, a phase-corrected baseband signal where portions of the signal before and after loss of lock are phase coherent.
US08644780B2 Gain control circuit, FM receiver and computer program product
The present invention provides a gain control circuit for an FM receiver that can reduce a reproduced audio output according to the magnitude of the noise component of an intended signal included in a received signal.The gain control circuit of the present invention is constituted by a noise level measurement circuit 26 and a preamplifier 25. The noise level measurement circuit 26 measures a noise level in an audio signal Sa1 output from an FM detector 4 and outputs a control signal Sc corresponding to the noise level. The preamplifier 25 reduces an output according a value of the control signal Sc. With the gain control circuit of the present invention, the volume of the speaker is reduced as the noise component in the audio signal Sa1 increases due to a decrease in received electric field strength, and therefore discomfort caused by unpleasant noise can be reduced.
US08644778B2 Usage of measurement antenna transmitting communication signal for power adjustment in wireless device
A method is disclosed including, using a measurement antenna in a wireless device, determining whether a user is proximate the wireless device at least by transmitting a signal using the measurement antenna; in response to a determination the user is not proximate the wireless device, transmitting the signal using a main antenna at a normal transmit power; and in response to a determination the user is proximate the wireless device, transmitting the signal using the main antenna at a limited transmit power. Another method includes in response to a determination a user is not proximate a wireless device, transmitting a signal using a first set of main antennas; and in response to a determination the user is proximate the wireless device, transmitting the signal using the second set of main antennas. Apparatus and program products are also disclosed.
US08644776B1 Systems and methods for providing improved power performance in wireless communication systems
A power detection system is disclosed that determines a power level of a transmission signal. The power detection system includes an adjustable comparator circuit, an algorithmic state machine, and an output node. The adjustable comparator circuit receives the transmission signal and provides an adjusted transmission signal, and further compares the adjusted transmission signal to a reference signal. The algorithmic state machine iteratively adjusts the adjustable comparator circuit until the adjusted transmission signal is substantially close to the reference signal. The output node is coupled to the algorithmic state machine and provides an output signal that is responsive to the power level of the transmission signal and to the reference signal.
US08644771B1 Short range wireless power consumption management
A portable communication device is provided. The device comprises a first radio transceiver operable for wireless communication in an unlicensed radio spectrum band, a directional antenna coupled to the first radio transceiver, a processor, and an application. When executed by the processor, the application analyzes a power level of a signal received by the first radio transceiver and controls a transmission power level of the first radio transceiver based at least in part on the power level of the received signal.
US08644769B2 Power usage management of wireless input devices
Input devices such as computer mice are commonly used for interacting with personal computers (PCs). Increasingly, wireless computer mice are becoming popular with users due to their ability to provide cordless accessibility for interaction with the PCs. The wireless computer mice are usually powered using batteries and uses radio frequencies (RF) for transmitting the users' input to the PCs. The wireless computer mice usually have a fixed transmission power, thus resulting in a fixed transmission range. Notably, the battery life and transmission range of the wireless mice share an inversely proportional relationship. Hence, a long battery life cannot be obtained without decreasing the transmission range and vice versa. However, existing wireless computer mice typically do not have provisions for making such adjustments. An embodiment of the invention describes an apparatus and a method for managing power usage of wireless input devices.
US08644768B2 System, method, and circuit for distance measurement between two nodes of a radio network
A system and method for distance measurement between two nodes of a radio network is provided. A first unmodulated carrier signal is transmitted by the first node and received by the second node. A second unmodulated carrier signal is transmitted by the second node and received by the first node. A first value and a second value of a first phase are measured by the first node, whereby the first value of the first phase is assigned to a first frequency of the received second carrier signal and the second value the first phase is assigned to a second frequency of the received second carrier signal, whereby the first frequency and the second frequency have a frequency difference. A third value and a fourth value of a second phase are measured by the second node, whereby the third value of the second phase is assigned to a third frequency of the received first carrier signal and the fourth value of the second phase to a fourth frequency of the received first carrier signal, whereby the third frequency and the fourth frequency have the frequency difference. The distance is determined from the frequency difference from the first value and the second value of the first phase and from the third value and fourth value of the second phase.
US08644767B1 Enhanced signal wraparound monitor
A system and methods for wraparound signal monitoring are presented. An initial signal is transmitted through a signal path to provide a transmitted signal, and the transmitted signal is transmitted through an inverse signal path to provide an inverse signal. The inverse signal path comprises an inverse of the signal path. The transmitted signal is filtered to provide a filtered signal, and the filtered signal is transmitted through the inverse signal path to provide an inverse filtered signal. The inverse signal, the inverse filtered signal, and the initial signal are compared to provide a signal status.
US08644764B2 Weighting matrix selection based on information acquired from remote station
The present disclosure provides for an improved application of signal strength weightings in an SDMA sectored cellular network. The improved signal strength weightings application is conducted through the improved selection of weightings from a new codebook subset or by the selection of weightings from a larger codebook subset. In a further embodiment, an antenna beam index or bit map can be used to select the best beam(s) in an SDMA sectored cellular network. In another embodiment, a field or factor in an uplink or downlink transmission packet can designate which directional transmission beam is best suited for the transmission or when the directional transmission beam should be activated.
US08644763B2 Cooperative transceiving between wireless interface devices of a host device
A method and/or apparatus for cooperative transceiving between wireless interface devices of a host device includes processing that begins by providing an indication of receiving an inbound packet from one wireless interface device (e.g., Bluetooth compliant radio transceiver, IEEE 802.11 compliant radio transceiver, etc.) to another. The wireless interlace device receiving the indication processes the indication and, based on the processing, transmits an outbound packet in accordance with the processing of the indication. For example, the wireless interface device receiving the indication may delay transmission until the other wireless interface device has received the packet, or, if transmission of the packet would not interfere with the receiving of the packet by the other wireless interface device, the wireless interface device receiving the indication would transmit its packet.
US08644761B2 Communication apparatus, program, communication method and communication system
A communication apparatus including a first storage unit, a second storage unit logically or physically discriminated from the first storage unit, a first communication unit, a second communication unit for transmitting data stored in the second storage unit through electric field coupling or magnetic field coupling, and a selecting unit for selecting at least either the first storage unit or the second storage unit as a storage destination of the data received by the first communication unit.
US08644760B2 Arrangement for an NFC compatible mobile device for delayed transfer of an established friend connection and a related method
An arrangement for an NFC compatible mobile device for delayed transfer of an established friend connection and a related method. The arrangement is suitable, for example, for delaying the transmission of information about a friend connection established over the NFC relative to another NFC compatible device to a remote device, such as a server, in that case the network connection is not available or does not fulfill a predetermined criterion.
US08644754B2 Method and apparatus for interactively monitoring a physiological condition and for interactively providing health-related information
An interactive health monitoring system. A multimedia processor is a electronic apparatus comprising a microprocessor, hardware, software, and a modem. One or more physiological data monitors are coupled to provide a signal representative of a user's physiological parameter to the multimedia processor through an isolated interface circuit. A hand-held program controller with directional buttons is operated by the user to control the various functions of the multimedia processor. A television is coupled to the multimedia processor to provide sound and a video display based upon output signals from the multimedia processor. Software necessary for the system and medical information are downloaded from a remote server based upon the user's operation of the hand-held program controller and also based upon predetermined software routines and data stored within the system.
US08644751B2 Heating device and image forming apparatus using the same
A heating device includes an illuminating unit that applies laser light towards a strip-like illumination area formed along a direction crossing a direction of movement of a recording medium; and a reflecting member that surrounds the illumination area, the reflecting member reflecting again reflected light from the illumination area. The reflecting member has protruding reflecting surfaces that protrude continuously towards the recording medium along a widthwise direction crossing a longitudinal direction of the illumination area, the protruding reflecting surfaces being disposed side by side in the longitudinal direction of the illumination area. The protruding reflecting surfaces are positioned at substantially equal distances from the illumination area along the widthwise direction of the illumination area, and changed so that an entire or a portion of a cross-sectional shape along the longitudinal direction of the illumination area is curved or inclined.
US08644747B2 Heating device, image forming apparatus, heating member and mounting method
A heating device including a heating member that heats a recording medium; a pressure unit that applies pressure to the heating member; and a rotation member that is mounted to the heating member. The rotation member is rotated upon receiving an external force and the heating member is rotated along with a rotation of the rotation member by a frictional force between the heating member and the rotation member.
US08644746B2 Fixing apparatus for fixing toner onto a sheet
A fixing apparatus according to an embodiment includes: a first roller; a second roller that forms a nip between the second roller and the first roller and pressurizes a sheet passing through the nip against the first roller; a third roller that is disposed in parallel with the first and second rollers; a fixing belt that is stretched over the first and third rollers; a heater that uniformly heats the fixing belt in a direction of a width of the fixing belt; and a heat-uniformizing member that is a shaft-shaped heat-uniformizing member embedded in the third roller. An effective length in a longitudinal axial direction of the heat-uniformizing member is set to be the same or greater than a width of a predetermined maximum sheet so as to uniformly distribute heat of the fixing belt which is in contact with the third roller in the longitudinal axial direction.
US08644744B2 Fixing device and image forming apparatus
A fixing device includes: a fixing member that fixes a toner image on a recording medium; a pressure member that forms a fixing pressure portion between the pressure member and the fixing member by making pressure contact with an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member, the fixing pressure portion being passed through by the recording medium holding an unfixed toner image; a heat supplier that supplies heat to the fixing member; and a thermal diffusion member that diffuses heat on a surface of the fixing member by contact with the fixing member.
US08644741B2 Developing device and image forming apparatus
Provided is a developing device employing single-component development in which in an upstream side of a most proximate area of a developing roller and a blade for regulating a toner layer, toner aggregation is made difficult to occur between the developing roller and the blade, and uniformity of the toner layer on the developing roller is increased, so as to be able to perform development which does not apply heavy stress and is excellent in uniformity. In the developing device, the blade is divided into two areas of a downstream area in a rotational direction of the developing roller including the most proximate part to the developing roller and an upstream area in a rotational direction of the developing roller not including the most proximate part, and adhesion between a toner and the blade in the upstream area is made smaller than that in the downstream area.
US08644736B2 Developing apparatus
In the present invention, for a developing apparatus provided with a sensor for detecting the toner density of a developer, retention of the developer near the sensor face can be suppressed by increasing the force with which the developer present near the sensor face is carried in a shaft direction of a stirring/carrying member.
US08644735B2 Cartridge capable of varying ratio of circumferential speeds of supply roller to developing roller
A cartridge includes a developing roller, supply roller, input rotary body, developing roller rotary body, and supply roller rotary body. The developing roller/supply roller rotary bodies transmit the drive force inputted from the input rotary body to the developing roller/supply roller, respectively. The developing roller rotary body includes first and second drive input parts having different diameters. The input rotary body includes first and second drive output parts engaged with the first and second drive input part, respectively and having different diameters. The first drive output part is movable between a first position and second position. The first drive input part and the first drive output part are engaged when the first drive output part is in the first position. The second drive input part and the second drive output part are engaged when the first drive output part is in the second position.
US08644733B2 Cartridge drive shaft gear
Image recording devices, such as electrophotographic devices, laser printers, copiers, and fax machines, often have a cartridge that utilizes a drive gear to transmit rotational force from the printer to the print cartridge. Also, it is desirable to remanufacture print cartridge both to reduce waste and to save resources. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a drive gear mechanism that is easily replaced or reused when a print cartridge is remanufactured.
US08644731B2 Charging device and image forming apparatus
A charging device includes a charger facing a rotatably supported image carrier and configured to charge the image carrier on which an electrostatic latent image is to be formed, and a movement mechanism configured to move the charger between a charging position at which the charger is close to the image carrier and a retracted position at which the charger is retracted away from the image carrier. The movement mechanism includes a support member supporting the charger that has been moved to the retracted position by the movement mechanism, and a movable member configured to move when a driving force from a drive source is transmitted thereto. The movable member moves to the charging position or the retracted position when the movable member is moved in a direction of a rotational axis of the image carrier while being in contact with the support member.
US08644730B2 Process cartridge
A process cartridge includes: a drum cartridge; a developing cartridge, which holds a developing roller at a first end portion thereof, and which is detachably mounted to the drum cartridge; a lock member, which is provided to the drum cartridge, and which is displaceable between a lock position and a lock release position; an operation member that displaces the lock member to the lock release position; a lifting member that lifts a second end portion of the developing cartridge from the drum cartridge as the lock member is displaced to the lock release position; a developing-side holding part that extends in a direction orthogonal to the lifting direction of the second end portion from the drum cartridge; and a drum-side holding part that extends in parallel with the developing-side holding part while being opposed to the developing-side holding part in the lifting direction when the developing cartridge is mounted.
US08644728B2 Unit frame having grip part
An image forming unit includes a cartridge and a unit frame. The cartridge has a cartridge-grip. The unit frame is configured to accommodate the cartridge. The unit frame includes a first plate, a second plate, a first beam, and a second beam. The first plate has a through hole. The first beam extends between the first plate and the second plate. The first beam includes a frame-grip disposed between an upper end of the first beam and a lower end of the first beam. The second beam extends between the first plate and the second plate. When the cartridge is accommodated in the unit frame, a distance between the lower end of the first beam and an upper end of the frame-grip is smaller than a distance between the lower end of the first beam and an upper end of the cartridge-grip.
US08644725B2 Multiple stiffness seal for imaging component surfaces
An end seal for use in an image forming apparatus that provides increased contact pressure using projecting ribs at nip locations formed between an end of a roll and the ends of other components such as a doctor blade or flap seal and lower contact pressure along the end of the roll. Contact pressure may be varied by changing the thickness along portions of the projecting ribs or the use of transverse ribs between each of the projecting ribs and a second surface of the end seal.
US08644722B2 Fixing device and image forming apparatus with the same
A fixing device is provided with a fixing unit for fixing a toner image; a magnetic flux generator including a switching element for generating a magnetic flux; and a control unit for performing a start-up mode for raising the temperature of the fixing unit to a fixing temperature by the magnetic flux and a steady mode for maintaining the temperature of the fixing unit at the fixing temperature. The control unit turns off the switching element when the temperature of the switching element is equal to or higher than a first reference temperature lower than a destruction temperature during a period of the start-up mode, and turns off the switching element when the temperature of the switching element is equal to or higher than a second reference temperature lower than the destruction temperature and higher than the first reference temperature during a period of the steady mode.
US08644720B2 Method and apparatus for fusing a heat curable toner to a carrier sheet
A method and apparatus for fusing a heat curable toner to a carrier sheet having said toner thereon. In the method, the toner is sandwiched between said carrier sheet and a movable fuser belt and heated to a first temperature by a first means, which first temperature is above a first glass transformation temperature of the toner. The toner is kept at an elevated temperature for a predetermined time by a second means, which elevated temperature is above the first glass transformation temperature, thereby raising the glass transformation temperature of the toner to a second glass transformation temperature. The apparatus has at least a first endless fuser belt, first heating means for heating the toner to a first temperature, second heating means located downstream of said first heating means for keeping the toner at an elevated temperature for a predetermined time and control means for controlling the first and second heating means.
US08644719B2 Cleaning device, image formation device, and image formation method
A cleaning device includes a cleaning roller which contacts an intermediate transfer belt for carrying an image developed using a liquid developer, a cleaning roller which contacts the other cleaning roller and has a greater axial length than the other cleaning roller, and a rubber blade which contacts the cleaning roller and has a greater axial length than the cleaning roller.
US08644716B2 Heating device and image forming apparatus
A heating device includes a first rotating member and a second rotating member revolving in contact with the first rotating member. The second rotating member heats a passing recording medium having a toner image and held between the first and second rotating members, thereby fixing the toner image on the recording medium. The heating device further includes a pair of supporting plates supporting the first and second rotating members by being arranged on both sides across the first and second rotating members in a width direction crossing the passing direction of the recording medium. The supporting plates each have a tabular section with a first surface facing the first and second rotating members. The heating device further includes a resistance element arranged on a second surface side opposite to the first surface of the tabular section, and representing the type of a fixing device by using resistance.
US08644715B2 Method and device for monitoring and controlling phase difference based on DQPSK modulation
A method and a device for monitoring and controlling a phase difference based on DQPSK modulation are provided, and the method includes: performing the nth power multiplication operation respectively on a first differential current signal and a second differential current signal output after DQPSK demodulation to correspondingly obtain a first monitor signal and a second monitor signal, where, n is a positive integral multiple of 4; monitoring phase differences between respectively two arms of a first demodulator according to the first monitor signal and two arms of a second demodulator according to the second monitor signal; adjusting the phase differences between respectively two arms of the first demodulator and two arms of the second demodulator using the monitor result, so that the differences can meet demodulation requirements and a receiver can obtain transmitted information.
US08644714B2 Multi-wavelength optical source generator
Provided is a multi-wavelength optical source generator. The multi-wavelength optical source generator includes: a gain part generating a plurality of lights through a plurality of gain waveguides; a reflective part transmitting or reflecting lights provided from each of the plurality of gain waveguides according to a wavelength; and a multiplexing part multiplexing a plurality of lights transmitted and outputted through the reflective part.
US08644706B2 Distributed cable modem termination system with software reconfigurable MAC and PHY capability
Distributed and highly software reconfigurable CMTS (CMRTS) device, based on MAC and PHY units with FPGA and DSP components, for a HFC CATV network. The various CATV RF modulators, such as QAM modulators, may be divided between QAM modulators located at the cable plant, and remote QAM modulators ideally located at the fiber nodes. A basic set of CATV QAM data waveforms may optionally be transmitted to the nodes using a first fiber, and a second set of IP/on-demand data may be transmitted to the nodes using an alternate fiber or alternate fiber frequency, and optionally using other protocols such as Ethernet protocols. The nodes will extract the data specific to each neighborhood and inject this data into unused QAM channels, thus achieving improved data transmission rates through finer granularity. A computerized “virtual shelf” control system for managing and reconfiguring the FPGA and DSP based CMTRS units is also disclosed.
US08644705B2 Method, and system for a re-configurable optical multiplexer, demultiplexer and optical add-drop multiplexer
A system for a re-configurable optical de-multiplexer, multiplexer or add/drop multiplexer is provided. A re-configurable de-multiplexer system comprises a wavelength selective switch having an input port, an output port and an internal port; a wavelength division de-multiplexer (WDM) optically coupled to the internal port and a plurality of dropped-channel ports optically coupled to the WDM. The wavelength selective switch receives a plurality of input wavelength-division multiplexed channels from the input port and routes a first subset of the channels to the output port and a second subset of channels to the internal port and then to the WDM. The WDM separates each of the dropped channels to a different respective one of the channel ports.
US08644704B2 Method and system for an adaptive channel grid of an optical network
In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure a method for adaptively spacing channels of an optical network comprises determining a first desired power level of a first channel of an optical network. The method further comprises determining a second desired power level of a second channel of the optical network, the second desired power level being less than the first desired power level. Additionally, the method comprises determining a first spectral space between the first channel and one or more channels neighboring the first channel based at least on the first desired power level. The method also comprises determining a second spectral space between the second channel and one or more channels neighboring the second channel based at least on the second desired power level, the second spectral space less than the first spectral space.
US08644701B2 Camera platform for 3-D photography
“A camera platform for three dimensional photography comprises a first support wall having an inner surface, an outer surface and a fastening end, and a second support wall having an inner surface, an outer surface and a fastening end. The first and second support walls are connected substantially at right angles to each. The inner surface of the first support wall and the inner surface of the second support wall define a quadrant. A fixed camera connector for a first camera is formed on the outer surface of the first support wall, and an adjustable camera connector for a second camera is formed on the outer surface of the second support wall. A beam splitter support frame outside the quadrant between the outer surface of the first support wall and the outer surface of the second support wall supports a beam splitter.”
US08644693B2 Integrated micromachining proximity switch sensors in air/oil lubricators
An apparatus integrated with micromachined (a.k.a. MEMS, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) silicon thermal sensor as a proximity switch sensor in air/oil Lubricators is disclosed in the present invention. The present invention relates to mass flow sensing and measurement for both gas and liquid phase and relates to air/oil lubrication process for multi-point lubrication machine. The invented apparatus is utilized as an alarm device to prevent mechanical system failures caused by the discontinuity of oil lubrication. The MEMS silicon thermal sensor is distinguished with a variety of advantages of small size, low power consumption, high reliability and high accuracy. In addition to the above benefits, the most significant and critical advantage is its fast response time of less than 20 msec, which makes the proximity switch control become viable for preventing equipment damage from oil lubricants discontinuity.
US08644691B1 Adaptively and accurately seeking a video frame of a video sequence rendered on a data processing device
A method includes initiating, through an interface of a multimedia application executing on a data processing device, seeking of a desired frame of a video sequence rendered thereon. The desired frame corresponds to a desired point in time. The method also includes causing, through a set of instructions associated with a processor of the data processing device and/or an operating system executing thereon, the processor to decode frames of the video sequence from a closest frame in a temporal past relative to the desired frame following the initiation. Further, the method includes rendering, through the processor and on the interface, frames of the video sequence after a predeterminable threshold time period at a lower frame rate than a frame rate of the video sequence otherwise at least until the desired frame is decoded and rendered when the desired frame is not decoded within the predeterminable threshold time period.
US08644690B2 Large format video archival, storage, and retrieval system
A method and system for storing a video on a storage device are provided. The method includes formatting each image in a plurality of images into a plurality of tiles, the plurality of images being captured as a temporal sequence of images at successive points in time. The method further includes selecting a tile from each image in the temporal sequence of images to obtain a temporal sequence of tiles to generate a video segment; selecting another tile from each image in the temporal sequence of images to obtain another temporal sequence of tiles to generate another video segment; and repeating the selecting a tile from each image in the temporal sequence of images to obtain a plurality of temporal sequences of tiles to generate a plurality of video segments. The obtained plurality of video segments are stored in a file on the storage device.
US08644685B2 Image editing device, image editing method, and program
An image editing device includes: a display controller that outputs a video signal to a display device; an input interface that receives from a user settings information about a plurality of candidate images, about a total play time of a sequence of images to be created, and about displaying effects of the respective images used in the sequence of images; and an image sequence creating unit that creates the sequence of images using a plurality of images that are selected from the plurality of candidate images. When the total play time and the displaying effects are set, or when at least one of the total play time and the displaying effects is changed, a total count of images planned to be used in the sequence of images, or an estimated value of the total count, is determined and displayed on the display device.
US08644684B2 Editing method and recording and reproducing device
In order to provide a recording and reproducing device that allows a user to select and manage arbitrary play lists, a unit of management for managing all registered play list information and an upper management hierarchical level are added. The unit of management is adapted to be handled on the same level with unified information that indicates a reproduction range of all AV data. User-defined unified information is adapted to be handled on the added management hierarchical level. The user-defined unified information is formed to allow arbitrary reproduction ranges contained on a lower hierarchical level to be registered.
US08644683B2 Moving image data processing apparatus and method
A moving image processing apparatus gives an ID to a video segment obtained by dividing moving image data, and stores information for associating a section of each video segment with the ID as video segment section information. Here, meta-data corresponding to each video segment is managed by associating the meta-data with the ID given to each video segment. In editing operations, editing in units of a video segment is performed, and an arrangement of video segment IDs is manipulated. Therefore, even if the editing is performed, there arises no inconsistency in referring to meta-data information so that it is equivalent to having the meta-data updated in synchronization with the moving image editing. Thus, it is possible to have virtual editing of the moving image automatically followed by an update of the meta-data and also alleviate a burden of reediting the meta-data of an editor.
US08644672B2 Apparatus and method for image coding and decoding
A multiplexed stream is inputted, and a video stream is separated therefrom. A predetermined conversion process is performed on the separated video stream. Whether multimedia coding data is contained in the multiplexed stream is determined. Coding control information for instructing the predetermined conversion process to not change a display format of the video stream is generated when the multimedia coding data is contained in the multiplexed stream. A multiplexed stream is generated which includes the converted video stream.
US08644668B2 Docking port optical cover
According to the invention, a system for covering the docking port of an optical communication device and protecting a terminating end of an optical fiber at the optical communication device is disclosed. The system may include body, where the body is configured to be at least partially received by the docking port of the optical communication device. The body may also be configured at partially receive the optical fiber. The body may not allow communication between the optical fiber and the optical communication device.
US08644667B2 Backplane structure allowing setting of equal peer-to-peer communication distance between two blades arbitrarily inserted into a plurality of fixedly arranged slots
A backplane, a method for making a backplane, and optical communication apparatuses. The backplane includes: a plurality of optical elements each selected from the group consisting of: (i) optical fibers, (ii) optical waveguides, and (iii) a combination thereof, where the plurality of optical elements have the same length, where the plurality of optical elements form at least one bundle, where the elements are bundled at both ends of the at least one bundle such that end portion lengths of the plurality of optical elements differ from each other, thus forming a broadcast-star topology, and where the plurality of optical elements is connected such that communication distance between at least two blades that can be inserted into the back plane is constant.
US08644665B2 Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus
To project a rectangular laser spot having a predetermined size and a high laser power density onto the surface of an object, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprises a control unit for controlling power of a laser light source, an optical waveguide unit (1) including a core section (10) transmitting laser light and a clad section (11) covering the core section (10), and a lens (3) for forming the laser light output through the optical waveguide unit (1) into a laser spot having a predetermined shape, an output end surface (15) of the core section (10) has a rectangular shape with one side length of 1 μm to 20 μm and the other side length of 1 mm to 60 mm, and the laser source is set to make the power density of the laser spot output from the core section (10) to be 0.1 mW/μm2 or more.
US08644661B2 Photonic integrated circuit with a waveguide crossing structure
A photonic integrated circuit comprises a plurality of optical waveguides. Some waveguides cross some other waveguides at respective crossing locations. Some waveguides have varying widths wherein a width of a waveguide at a respective crossing location is smaller than the wavelength of the optical signal.
US08644660B2 Opto-electric hybrid board and manufacturing method therefor
Provided are an opto-electric hybrid board and a manufacturing method. The opto-electric hybrid board includes an optical waveguide unit and an electric circuit unit having an optical element mounted thereon. The optical waveguide unit includes socket portions for locating the electric circuit unit, which are formed on a surface of an undercladding layer and formed of the same material as a core. The socket portions are located at predetermined locations with respect to one end surface of a core. The electric circuit unit includes bent portions which are formed by bending a part of an electric circuit board so as to stand, for fitting into the socket portions. The bent portions are located at predetermined locations with respect to the optical element. The optical waveguide unit and the electric circuit unit are coupled in a state in which the bent portions fit into the socket portions.
US08644656B2 Optical waveguide laminated wiring board
A via hole is formed in a first cladding layer laminated on a wiring board. A conductive material is filled in the via hole so as to form a first conductor portion (a portion of a conductive via) having a mushroom-like shape projecting from a surface of the first cladding layer. Then, a second cladding layer is formed to cover the first conductor portion, the first cladding layer and a core layer, and a via hole is formed in the second cladding layer. A conductive material is filled in the via hole so as to form a second conductor portion (a remaining portion of the conductive via) connected to the first conductor portion.
US08644655B2 Opto-electric hybrid board and manufacturing method therefor
Provided are an opto-electric hybrid board which eliminates the necessity of an aligning operation of a core of an optical waveguide unit and an optical element of an electric circuit unit and which is excellent in mass-productivity, and a manufacturing method therefor. The opto-electric hybrid board includes an optical waveguide unit and an electric circuit unit having an optical element mounted thereon, the electric circuit unit being coupled to the optical waveguide unit. The optical waveguide unit includes protruding portions which are extendingly provided at portions of at least one of the undercladding layer and the overcladding layer, and are located and formed at predetermined locations with respect to a light transmitting surface of a core. The electric circuit unit includes fitting holes into which the protruding portions fit, and are located and formed at predetermined locations with respect to the optical element.
US08644654B2 Optical coupler module having optical waveguide structure
The optical coupler module for converting and transmitting electrical/optical signals includes a semiconductor substrate, a first film, a second film, an electrical transmission unit, at least one signal conversion unit and an optical waveguide structure. The first film and the second film are formed on opposite surfaces of the semiconductor substrate. The signal conversion unit and the optical waveguide structure are disposed on opposite sides of the semiconductor substrate. The optical waveguide structure has a reflector and a waveguide body. The optical signal generated from the signal conversion unit sequentially passes the first film, the semiconductor substrate and the second film and enters the optical waveguide structure. Then, the optical signal is reflected by the reflector and transmitted in the waveguide body to be outputted. Alternatively, the optical signal is transmitted in a reverse direction from the optical waveguide structure to the signal conversion unit.
US08644652B2 Slotted optical fibers and methods and apparatuses for the same
The present application relates to optical fibers having at least one slot. The optical fiber may be used, for example, in various sensing application. In some embodiments, a cross-section of the optical fiber perpendicular to the longitudinal axis has a largest dimension less than or equal to about 4 μm, and the slot has a width of about 5 nm to about 500 nm and a depth of at least about 10 nm. Also disclosed herein are methods of using the optical fibers and apparatuses including the optical fibers.
US08644648B2 Organic electro-optic modulators with transparent conducting electrodes and related device structures
Electro-optic (EO) modulator and related device structures which can be used in conjunction with high EO materials to lower switching voltage and improve related performance parameters.
US08644646B2 Automatic identification of digital content related to a block of text, such as a blog entry
A system for identifying digital content related to a portion of a block of text receives, automatically or via input by a user, an indication of one or more words included in the block of text. The system searches a database of digital content based on the one or more words and retrieves from the database one or more digital content items or identifiers of digital content items that are related to the one or more words. The system provides the retrieved digital content items or identifiers to the user, and receives a selection of one or more of the provided items or identifiers from the user. The system associates for display or replay the one or more selected digital content items with the one or more words in the block of text. Other embodiments of the system are also disclosed.
US08644640B2 Purple fringing artifact reduction within a digital image with guidance from a green channel
Methods and a processing device are provided for reducing purple fringing artifacts appearing in a digital image. A linear filter may be applied to a digital image to identify purplish candidate regions of pixels. Ones of pixels that are in any of the purplish candidate regions and are within a predefined distance of a high gradient/high contrast region may be identified as damaged pixels. A map of the damaged pixels may then be created, or formed. The damaged pixels may be reconstructed based on interpolation of values from undamaged pixels on a fringe boundary with guidance from a green channel. In various embodiments, the damaged pixels may be reconstructed based on a Poisson blending approach, an approximated Poisson blending approach, or a variety of approaches based on interpolation of values from undamaged pixels on a fringe boundary, with guidance from a green channel.
US08644639B2 System and method for reduction of block noise
A block noise reduction system and method which may determine a feature value of a local texture at each location of input pixel, may selectively determine 1D filtering mode or 2D filtering mode as a filtering mode based on the determined feature value, and may perform filtering to preserve an edge according to the determined filtering mode.
US08644635B2 Image processing method and image processing apparatus
An image processing method and an image processing apparatus, the method including: generating a blurry image by using a maximum telephoto image among N (where N is a natural number equal to or greater than 2) live view images; generating an alpha map by using two or more images of the N live view images; and generating a soft focus image by combining the maximum telephoto image and the blurry image by using the alpha map.
US08644630B2 Apparatus for determining motion vectors and a reference picture index for a current block in a picture to be decoded
In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a decoder. The decoder is configured to obtain first and second motion vectors of a block other than the current block. The other block neighbors the current block at one of a left, top and top right position. The decoder is configured to determine first and second motion vectors of the current block using the first and second motion vectors of the other block such that the first motion vector of the current block has a same direction as the first motion vector of the other block and the second motion vector of the current block has a same direction as the second motion vector of the other block.
US08644629B2 Compression and decoding of single sensor color image data
A method is described to greatly improve the efficiency of and reduce the complexity of image compression when using single-sensor color imagers for video acquisition. The method in addition allows for this new image compression type to be compatible with existing video processing tools, improving the workflow for film and television production.
US08644628B2 Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding and multi-view image
A Method and apparatus for encoding and decoding a multi-view image are provided. The method of encoding a multi-view image includes determining whether each of pictures included in multi-view image sequences is a reference picture referred to by other pictures included in the multi-view image sequences for inter-view prediction, and encoding the pictures using at least one of inter-view prediction and temporal prediction based on the determination result, thereby efficiently encoding and decoding the multi-view image at high speed.
US08644627B2 Using resolution numbers to determine additional component values
First and second codewords are determined, based on first feature vector components of the image elements in an image block, as representations of a first and second component value. Third and fourth codewords are determined, based on second vector components, as representations of a third and fourth component value. First N1 and second N2 resolution numbers are selected based on the relation of a distribution of the first vector components and a distribution of the second vector components. N1 additional component values are generated based on the first and second component values and N2 additional component values are generated based on the third and fourth component values. Component indices indicative of the generated component values are then provided for the different image elements.
US08644626B2 Method for storing and processing image sequence and method for compressing, storing and processing image sequence
The present invention relates to a method for storing an image sequence and a method for compressing, storing an image sequence. The method for storing an image sequence comprises the following steps: within the image sequence, forming a pixel-bit sequence according to known positions and order of each pixel in each of image frames formed by pixels; within the image sequence, setting a pixel value of a first pixel-bit position of a preceding image frame as a “preceding pixel value”, while setting the pixel value of the same pixel-bit position of the succeeding image frame adjacent to the said preceding image frame as a “succeeding pixel value”, comparing the said “preceding pixel value” with the said “succeeding pixel value”; creating a recording program to record a number of times of consecutively repeated presence of the “preceding pixel value” in the pixel-bit position. The present invention can decrease the data storage amount of the image when the image is processed and stored by statistically recording the repeated data content.
US08644625B2 Object detection device, method and program
When scores of classifiers for discriminating an image to be discriminated are sequentially obtained in a predetermined order, positions of saturated pixels in the image to be discriminated are detected. For each classifier which outputs the score based on pixel values at the detected position, the score is obtained by obtaining a value determined based on a difference between a discontinuing threshold set in advance correspondingly to the identified classifier and a discontinuing threshold set in advance correspondingly to a classifier immediately before the identified classifier. For each of the other classifiers, the score is obtained by obtaining an output obtained by applying the classifier to the image to be discriminated. A sum of the scores obtained so far is compared with the discontinuing threshold. If the sum exceeds the discontinuing threshold, the score of the next classifier is obtained.
US08644624B2 System and method for indoor-outdoor scene classification
Embodiments include a scene classification system and method. In one embodiment, a method includes forming a first plurality of image features from an input image, processing the first plurality of image features in the first scene classifier.
US08644619B2 Key blank identification system with groove scanning
A key identification system is provided. The key identification system comprises an imaging system to capture an image of a master key, and a logic to analyze the captured image. The imaging system may be capture an image of a groove in the master key from an angle between perpendicular and parallel to the blade of said master key. The logic analyzes the captured image to compare characteristics of the groove with groove characteristics of known key blanks to determine the likelihood of a match between the master key and a known key blank. The key identification system may further compensate for displacement or orientation of the master key with respect to the imaging system when analyzing characteristics of the groove.
US08644618B2 Automatic evaluation of line weights
Systems and methods may automatically evaluate printed line weights in an image composition. An image composition may be received and the number of horizontal and vertical rows of pixels may be determined. The number of positive pixels in each of the horizontal and vertical rows may then be determined. An actual size of a pixel may be calculated. The actual size of a pixel may be multiplied by the number of positive pixels in each of the horizontal rows and each of the vertical rows to determine a positive line weight of each of the horizontal rows and each of the vertical rows. A predetermined minimum permissible positive line weight for the image composition may be identified and compared to the positive line weight of each of the horizontal rows and each of the vertical rows.
US08644617B2 Method and system for edge detection
A method executed by a computer system for detecting edges comprises receiving an image comprising a plurality of pixels, determining a phase congruency value for a pixel, where the phase congruency value comprises a plurality of phase congruency components, and determining if the phase congruency value satisfies a phase congruency criteria. If the phase congruency value satisfies the phase congruency criteria, the computer system categorizes the pixel as an edge pixel. If the phase congruency value does not satisfy the phase congruency criteria, the computer system compares a first phase congruency component of the plurality of phase congruency components to a phase congruency component criteria. If the first phase congruency component satisfies the phase congruency component criteria, the computer system categorizes the pixel as an edge pixel, and if the first phase congruency component does not satisfy the phase congruency component criteria, categorizes the pixel as a non-edge pixel.
US08644616B2 Character recognition
Systems and methods for character recognition by performing lateral view-based analysis on the character data and generating a feature vector based on the lateral view-based analysis.
US08644615B2 User-assistance information at least partially based on an identified possible non-imaged portion of a skin
Described embodiments include a system, method, and program product. A described system includes a circuit that determines a substantial correspondence between a human-perceivable feature included in a border region segment of a selected medical skin image and a human-perceivable feature included in each other medical skin image of a plurality of medical skin images. A circuit gathers the determined substantial correspondences. A circuit generates data indicative of a border region-overlap status of the selected medical skin image. A circuit adds the data to an omitted-coverage list. A circuit iteratively designates a next medical skin image as the selected digital image, and initiates a processing of each of the iteratively designated next medical skin images. A circuit identifies a possible non-imaged portion of the region of interest. A circuit outputs user-assistance information based on the identified possible non-imaged portion of the skin.
US08644613B2 Image selection device and image selection method
When image data are input from a memory card or the like, a printing apparatus detects face region captured in these image data. Where the size and position of a face region fall within permitted ranges therefor set in advance in a permitted range table derived via sense evaluation testing, the input image data is selected as a printing target candidate. If the face region size and position do not each fall within their permitted range, however, the image data is not selected as a printing target. As a result, image data suitable for printing can be efficiently selected as printing targets from image data that contain human faces.
US08644612B2 Information processing apparatus and locus data recognition method
An information processing apparatus includes a gesture locus data recognition unit configured to execute processing for recognizing gesture locus data included in locus data according to characteristic data of the locus data and gesture characteristic shape data included in gesture dictionary data and output a result of the processing, a separation unit configured to separate gesture locus data and locus data other than the gesture locus data from the locus data according to the result of the recognition by the gesture locus data recognition unit, and a character locus data recognition unit configured to execute processing for recognizing locus data of a character included in the locus data other than the gesture locus data according to the characteristic data of the locus data other than the gesture locus data which is separated by the separation unit, and the locus characteristic data of a character included in a character dictionary data, and output a result of the processing.
US08644611B2 Segmental rescoring in text recognition
A method for text recognition includes generating a number of text hypotheses for an image, for example, using an HMM based approach using fixed-width analysis features. For each text hypothesis, one or more segmentations are generated and scored at the segmental level, for example, according to character or character group segments of the text hypothesis. In some embodiments, multiple alternative segmentations are considered for each text hypothesis. In some examples, scores determined in generating the text hypothesis and the segmental score are combined to select an overall text recognition of the image.
US08644608B2 Bone imagery segmentation method and apparatus
There is described an apparatus and method for recovering a contour of a bone from an input image of the bone with its surrounding tissues. The method comprises receiving the input image; applying in parallel at least three image processing functions to the input image to obtain at least three resulting images indicative of respective features of the input image, at least one of the at least three image processing functions pertaining to a spatial domain, and at least another one of the at least three image processing functions pertaining to a frequency domain; combining the at least three resulting images together to form a compounded image, the compounded image identifying at least two regions based on the respective features; identifying the contour of the bone based on the at least two regions of the compounded image; and outputting an output image for display, the output image comprising the contour identified.
US08644605B2 Mapping colors of an image
A method and system for mapping colors of an image. The method including the steps of: segmenting an image into a plurality of regions, so that pixels in each of the plurality of regions have a characteristic that meets a predetermined similarity; determining an initial contrast between adjacent regions in the plurality of regions; and transforming an initial color of each of the plurality of regions into a target color; where a target contrast between the adjacent regions in the plurality of regions is equal to or greater than the initial contrast or a difference between the target contrast and corresponding initial contrast is less than a predetermined threshold; and where at least one of the steps is carried out by a computer device.
US08644603B2 Methods and system for spectral image sampling
The present invention relates to spectral image sampling. An image is projected onto an array of optical transformation devices. Image intensity values transmitted by said array of optical transformation devices are detected at each sensor element of an image sensor. The image sensor comprises a plurality of photosensitive sensor elements configured to detect a magnitude of incident light, wherein said sensor elements are shaped as regular polygons whose aspect ratio is controlled to minimize sensor element count while obtaining a desired image quality. The detected image intensity values are processed to infer the image.
US08644599B2 Method and apparatus for spawning specialist belief propagation networks
A method and apparatus for processing image data is provided. The method includes the steps of employing a main processing network for classifying one or more features of the image data, employing a monitor processing network for determining one or more confusing classifications of the image data, and spawning a specialist processing network to process image data associated with the one or more confusing classifications.
US08644590B2 Method of measuring measurement target
In order to measure a measurement target on a PCB, height information of the PCB is acquired by using a first image photographed by illuminating a grating pattern light onto the PCB. Then, a first area protruding on the PCB by greater than a reference height is determined as the measurement target by using the height information. Thereafter, color information of the PCB is acquired by using a second image photographed by illuminating light onto the PCB. Then, the first color information of the first area determined as the measurement target out of the color information of the PCB is set as reference color information. Thereafter, the reference color information is compared with color information of an area except for the first area to judge whether the measurement target is formed in the area except for the first area. Thus, the measurement target may be accurately measured.
US08644587B2 Method for detecting optical defects in transparencies
A method of detecting optical defects in a transparency may comprise the steps of providing a digital image of the transparency having a plurality of image pixels and detecting at least one candidate defect. The candidate defect may be detected by determining a grayscale intensity of each one of the image pixels and calculating an intensity gradient across adjacent pairs of the image pixels. Each image pixel may be assigned a gradient value comprising a maximum of the absolute value of the intensity gradients associated with the image pixel. A gradient image may be constructed comprising the gradient values assigned to corresponding ones of the image pixels. Image pixels may be identified as candidate pixels if such image pixels have a gradient value exceeding a gradient threshold. The candidate pixels may comprise the optical defect.
US08644582B2 Support system for histopathological diagnosis, support program for histopathological diagnosis and support method for histopathological diagnosis
A support system for histopathological diagnosis includes a cell nucleus uniformity evaluation unit evaluating a uniformity of a plurality of cell nuclei included in a ductal region in an image. With this configuration, there is provided a support system, a support method and a support program for histopathological diagnosis, which enables realization of highly accurate cancer differentiation in a pathological diagnosis.
US08644581B2 Systems and methods for cellular analysis data pattern global positioning
In accordance with the principles of the invention, methods, systems, and computer-readable mediums are provided for positioning cellular analysis data including measuring a similarity between pixel data in a target sample data and pixel data in a template data. An offset position is determined based on the measured similarity. The pixel data in the template data is shifted based on the offset position to produce shifted template data having pixel data at shifted locations which match the corresponding pixel data in the target sample data.
US08644575B2 Processing of abdominal images
According to one embodiment there is provided a computer-automated image processing method applied to a four-dimensional (4D) image data set of a patient's abdomen, e.g. by dynamic contrast enhanced computer-assisted tomography (DCE-CT). One of the three-dimensional (3D) scan images is taken to as the reference volume and the others as target volumes. Before registration between the 3D scan images, the image data set is partitioned into an abdominal cavity domain, containing the organs inside the abdominal wall, and an abdominal wall domain including the abdominal wall and externally adjacent skeletal features, such as the spine and ribs. Registration is then carried out separately on the two domains to obtain two warp fields which are then merged into a 4D image data set of the whole volume for further use, which may be to carry out perfusion measurements, to display and to store the registered 4D image data set.
US08644571B1 Intensity-modulated proton therapy
The therapeutic treatment of a patient using intensity-modulated proton therapy is described. In one example, a method of creating a proton treatment plan is presented that divides volumes of interest into sub-volumes, applies dose constraints to the sub-volumes, finds one or more feasible configurations of a proton therapy system, and selects a proton beam configuration that improves or optimizes one or more aspects of proton therapy. In some implementations, the method of dividing volumes into sub-volumes includes creating fractional sub-volumes based at least in part on proximity to a target volume boundary. In some implementations, the method of finding an improved or optimal proton beam configuration from a set of feasible configurations includes finding a minimum of a cost function that utilizes weighting factors associated with treatment sites.
US08644570B2 System and method for automatic registration between an image and a subject
A patient defines a patient space in which an instrument can be tracked and navigated. An image space is defined by image data that can be registered to the patient space. A tracking device can be connected to a member in a known manner that includes imageable portions that generate image points in the image data. The tracking device can be tracked to register patient space to image space.