| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08705934B2 |
Moving picture processing apparatus, moving picture processing method, and program
A moving picture processing apparatus including a representative picture selection unit for selecting a predetermined number of representative pictures that are representative of a plurality of pictures from a plurality of pictures of a moving picture, and a configuration image generation unit for generating a configuration image in which the predetermined number of representative pictures are reduced at a fixed ratio and arranged in order of appearance of the representative pictures of the moving picture. The representative pictures are selected as the predetermined number of pictures adjusted to maximize a display occupancy rate of the configuration image in a predetermined range of display area. |
| US08705933B2 |
Video bookmarking
The video bookmark feature allows a user to tag an item or segment of interest within audio/video content being watched. Each tag, or bookmark, can contain within it metadata associated with the content captured by the receiver at the time the bookmark was recorded; further information can be derived via interaction over the Internet with a service provider. Applications supported by video bookmarks include telescoping ads, capturing screen shots for later review or printing, and retrieving more information about any arbitrary subject being viewed, whether it is a scene in a program, an advertisement, or other associated information about the subject. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract. |
| US08705930B2 |
Transition housing and cap for fiber breakout assembly
A breakout assembly in accordance with one aspect of the invention includes a housing including a tubular body defining a passage extending from a first end to an opposite second end of the body. An interior surface of the body includes a plurality of longitudinal guides, the interior surface further including a stop. The tubular body defines a plurality of openings extending through the body on opposite sides of the stop. The breakout assembly further includes a cap which is slidably received within the body of the housing, wherein notches within the cap receive the guides of the housing, and wherein the cap is engageable with the stop. The cap defines a plurality of internal openings extending through the cap. A multi-fiber cable can be received within the body from one end, and a plurality of breakout tubings are received within the body of the opposite end. The multi-fiber cable includes a breakout end terminating within the tubular body wherein a plurality of the broken out fibers pass through the cap, and into the breakout tubings. In one preferred embodiment, epoxy is placed within the tubular body, on opposite sides of the cap. |
| US08705927B2 |
Universal cable management panel
A cable management panel including a chassis and a drawer. The chassis defining rear and side openings for cable entry and exit. The drawer having a front panel that may include angled adapters. The drawer having an open rear that accommodates cables entering from the rear openings of the chassis, and that accommodates the addition of a rear wall. The cable management panel being adaptable to provide a variety of cable routing configurations to accommodate a user's particular cable routing needs. |
| US08705926B2 |
Fiber optic housings having a removable top, and related components and methods
Fiber optic housings having a removable top, and related components and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a fiber optic housing is provided having a removable top or cover. In one embodiment, the fiber optic housing comprises a top, a bottom, a right side, and a left side defining at least one interior chamber configured to support fiber optic equipment. The top comprises a base and a cover in one embodiment. The cover of the top is configured to provide a gap between the base and the cover such that at least one of the right side and the left side of the fiber optic housing is configured to be slidably engaged into and out of the gap. In this manner, the top can be easily removed to provide access to the interior of the fiber optic housing. |
| US08705925B2 |
Optical waveguide film, laminated type optical waveguide film, optical waveguide, optical waveguide assembly, optical wiring line, optical/electrical combination substrate and electronic device
An optical waveguide film includes at least one optical waveguide area having an X-direction and a Y-direction orthogonal to the X-direction. Such an optical waveguide film includes a plurality of core portions arranged side by side within the same layer so as to extend along the X-direction, each of the core portions having side surfaces, and the core portions adjoining to each other in the Y-direction being arranged through a gap therebetween; and a plurality of cladding portions provided so as to cover the side surfaces of each of the core portions, each of the cladding portions formed of a resin having an optical refractive index smaller than that of each of the core portions, and the cladding portion between the adjoining core portions providing each gap. In the optical waveguide film, a size of the gap between the adjoining core portions varies along the X-direction in at least a part of the optical waveguide area. This makes it possible to precisely match a gap between core portions in a cut end surface with a desired value by selection of cutting positions of the optical waveguide film even when the optical waveguide film is shrunken. |
| US08705924B2 |
Ultra high numerical aperture optical fibers
Various embodiments described include optical fiber designs and fabrication processes for ultra high numerical aperture optical fibers (UHNAF) having a numerical aperture (NA) of about 1. Various embodiments of UHNAF may have an NA greater than about 0.7, greater than about 0.8, greater than about 0.9, or greater than about 0.95. Embodiments of UHNAF may have a small core diameter and may have low transmission loss. Embodiments of UHNAF having a sufficiently small core diameter provide single mode operation. Some embodiments have a low V number, for example, less than 2.4 and large dispersion. Some embodiments of UHNAF have extremely large negative dispersion, for example, less than about −300 ps/nm/km in some embodiments. Systems and apparatus using UHNAF are also disclosed. |
| US08705919B2 |
Lens-integrated optical waveguide and method of making the same
A lens-integrated optical waveguide includes an optical conduit, a lens, and a non-wetting coating underlying the lens. A method for making an lens-integrated optical waveguide includes: forming an optical conduit having an end defining a planar end surface through which lights are transmitted out and received in; injecting a curable glue into a mold to form a pool of curable glues, the mold including a cavity having a concave shape to define a lens outer face; dipping the planar end of the optical conduit into the pool of curable glues; and curing the pool of curable glues onto the planar end surface of the optical conduit. |
| US08705908B2 |
Optical transmission module, method for manufacturing optical transmission module, and electronic device
An optical transmission module has an optical wiring for transmitting light, and an optical element for irradiating a light incidence plane of the optical wiring with light and a control circuit component for driving light emission of the optical element based on an externally input electric signal, or an optical element for receiving light emitted from a light emitting surface of the optical wiring and converting to an electric signal and a control circuit component for amplifying the electric signal output from the optical element and outputting to the outside. A plurality of boards overlapped and stacked so as to form a step with each other is arranged. A first board stacked at one end in a stacking direction of the plurality of boards is mounted with the optical wiring and the optical element so as to sandwich both surfaces in the stacking direction, and a board surface on the first board side of a second board stacked at another end is mounted with the control circuit component. |
| US08705904B2 |
Photonic integrated circuits having chirped elements
Consistent with the present disclosure, optical devices are provided along different optical paths in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The optical components have different optical losses associated therewith so that optical signals propagating in the optical paths have desired power levels, which may be uniform, for example. |
| US08705903B2 |
Optical fiber instrument system for detecting and decoupling twist effects
An instrument system that includes an elongate body, an optical fiber, and a detector is provided. The elongate body is capable of being twisted. The optical fiber includes a first portion coupled to the elongate body and a second portion having a curved shape adapted to reduce transfer of twisting or bending from the elongate body to the second portion, the second portion having a strain sensor provided thereon. The detector is coupled to the optical fiber and adapted to receive a signal from the strain sensor. |
| US08705900B2 |
Optical modulator
Disclosed is an optical modulator which substantially lowers loss and has little attenuation in the intensity of an optical signal after modulation. The optical modulator includes a 1×2 RZ pulse carver wherein optical phase shifters used for modulation are arranged along two arm waveguides held between a 1×2 coupler and a 2×2 coupler, two interferometric modulators connected respectively to two output ports of the 2×2 coupler, and a 2×1 coupler for combining the outputs of the interferometric modulators. |
| US08705897B1 |
Method and apparatus for archiving and visualizing digital images
A computer based, digital image management system that visually presents an entire archive in a manner that facilitates easy, non-textual, searching for specific images. In one embodiment, the system includes two elements: a file management methodology and a graphical user interface. The file management method utilizes reference files that contain multiple properties (metadata) relating to each image file. Image files are grouped into a multiplicity of collections based on user-defined associations of the properties. The graphical user interface visually represents the groups of image files on 2-dimentional or 3-dimensional graphic metaphors. In addition, the graphical interface uses multiple display variables such as icons, mnemonics, size, movement, color, and luminance to signify relationships between groups, and/or communicate key properties of individual or groups of images. |
| US08705886B2 |
System, medium, and method compensating brightness of an image
A system, medium, and method compensating brightness of an image, by compensating the brightness of a main object included in the image. The system includes a brightness distribution calculation unit dividing the obtained image into a plurality of divided regions and calculating the brightness distribution of each divided region, and a compensation unit determining a main region including a main object in the obtained image according to the calculated brightness distribution and compensating the obtained image according to the determination result. |
| US08705884B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method for controlling the same
A first generation unit generates a RAW image reduced in the horizontal direction from a RAW image including pixels each having single-color signal information, by limiting the band of spatial frequencies in the horizontal direction and decreasing the number of pixels in the horizontal direction. The RAW image reduced in the horizontal direction is stored in a line memory. A second generation unit generates a reduced RAW image by decreasing, at least in the vertical direction, the number of pixels of the RAW image reduced in the horizontal direction. This makes it possible to generate a reduced RAW image using little memory capacity. |
| US08705883B2 |
Noise reduction device and noise reduction method
A noise reduction device includes a line buffer that stores a blend value obtained by blending a pixel value stored in the line buffer with a processing target pixel value at a given ratio by an amount of one line of an image, and a selector that selects the blend value when a difference between the blend value in the line buffer and the target pixel value is less than a threshold, and that selects the target pixel value when the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold. |
| US08705878B2 |
Imaging apparatus, character information association method and character information association program
An imaging apparatus configured to associate character information detected from an imaged picture displayed on a screen with a recorded picture displayed on the same screen including an imaging unit configured to image a subject and output an imaged picture, a picture recording unit configured to record pictures, a playback unit configured to play back a recorded picture recorded in the picture recording unit, and a character information detection unit configured to detect character information from the imaged picture outputted by the imaging unit. |
| US08705877B1 |
Method and apparatus for fast computational stereo
A method, system and computer program for segmenting an image are provided. The method may include the steps of acquiring a plurality of images, and clustering pixels from one of the plurality of images into one or more segments, each segment being defined in a state of either stable, mesostable or unstable. The clustering may include the steps of determining residual pixels changing by more than a predetermined threshold, grouping the determined residual pixels to form segments selected from the group of unstable and mesostable segments, determining depth for all unstable and mesostable segments, transitioning unstable segments to corresponding mesostable segments if predetermined stability criteria are met, transitioning mesostable segments to corresponding stable segments upon a determination that the mesostable segments have remained stable for a predetermined number of frames, and merging stable and mesostable segments. |
| US08705873B2 |
Secure item identification and authentication system and method based on unclonable features
The present invention is a method and apparatus for protection of various items against counterfeiting using physical unclonable features of item microstructure images. The protection is based on the proposed identification and authentication protocols coupled with portable devices. In both cases a special transform is applied to data that provides a unique representation in the secure key-dependent domain of reduced dimensionality that also simultaneously resolves performance-security-complexity and memory storage requirement trade-offs. The enrolled database needed for the identification can be stored in the public domain without any risk to be used by the counterfeiters. Additionally, it can be easily transportable to various portable devices due to its small size. Notably, the proposed transformations are chosen in such a way to guarantee the best possible performance in terms of identification accuracy with respect to the identification in the raw data domain. The authentication protocol is based on the proposed transform jointly with the distributed source coding. Finally, the extensions of the described techniques to the protection of artworks and secure key exchange and extraction are disclosed in the invention. |
| US08705869B2 |
Computer-readable storage medium, image recognition apparatus, image recognition system, and image recognition method
First, it is determined whether or not a contour or vertices have been detected from a certain image. Then, when it is determined that a contour or vertices have been detected from the certain image, a pattern matching process is performed on, in the image, an area surrounded by the contour or the vertices detected from the image. Then, when it is determined that a predetermined object or a predetermined design is displayed in the area, detection position information indicating a position related to the area is stored in a storage area. On the other hand, when it is determined that a contour or vertices have not been detected from the certain image, a pattern matching process is performed on the image on the basis of the detection position information stored in the storage area. |
| US08705868B2 |
Computer-readable storage medium, image recognition apparatus, image recognition system, and image recognition method
First, a difference between a pixel value of a first pixel in an image and a pixel value of a second pixel is calculated, the second pixel placed a predetermined number of pixels away from the first pixel. Then, when the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, an edge determination threshold is calculated on the basis of: the pixel value of the first pixel or a pixel value of a pixel near the first pixel; and the pixel value of the second pixel or a pixel value of a pixel near the second pixel. Then, an edge pixel corresponding to an edge present between the first pixel and the second pixel is detected by comparing the edge determination threshold with a pixel value of each pixel placed between the first pixel and the second pixel. |
| US08705866B2 |
Region description and modeling for image subscene recognition
A method and apparatus is described here that categorizes images by extracting regions and describing the regions with a 16-dimensional subscene feature vector, which is a concatenation of color, texture, and spatial feature vectors. By comparing the spatial feature vectors in images with similarly-obtained feature vectors in a Gaussian mixture based model pool (obtained in a subscene modeling phase), the images may be categorized (in a subscene recognition phase) with probabilities relating to each region or subscene. Higher probabilities are likelier correlations. The device may be a single or multiple core CPU, or parallelized vector processor for characterizing many images. The images may be photographs, videos, or video stills, without restriction. When used real-time, the method may be used for visual searching or sorting. |
| US08705860B2 |
Grouping variables for fast image labeling
This application describes grouping variables together to minimize cost or time of performing computer vision analysis techniques on images. In one instance, the pixels of an image are represented by a lattice structure of nodes that are connected to each other by edges. The nodes are grouped or merged together based in part on the energy function associated with each edge that connects the nodes together. The energy function of the edge is based in part on the energy functions associated with each node. The energy functions of the node are based on the possible states in which the node may exist. The states of the node are representative of an object, image, or any other feature or classification that may be associated with the pixels in the image. |
| US08705859B2 |
Methods and systems for image data processing
Methods, storage mediums, and systems for image data processing are provided. Embodiments for the methods, storage mediums, and systems include configurations to perform one or more of the following steps: background signal measurement, particle identification using classification dye emission and cluster rejection, inter-image alignment, inter-image particle correlation, fluorescence integration of reporter emission, and image plane normalization. |
| US08705858B2 |
Image processing device
An image processing device may create corrected image data by correcting object image data by utilizing base image data. The image processing device may determine a first polar coordinate value which represents first pixels in the object image data, calculate a first orthogonal coordinate by executing an orthogonal transformation on the first polar coordinate value, determine a second polar coordinate value which represents second pixels in the base image data, calculate a second orthogonal coordinate value by executing an orthogonal transformation on the second polar coordinate value, and create the corrected image data by correcting the object image data such that a coordinate value of each particular pixel in the object image data approaches the second orthogonal coordinate value. The each particular pixel may be included in a surrounding area of the first orthogonal coordinate value. |
| US08705857B2 |
System and method of image processing perceptual visibility of imagery
An image processing system and method corrects the perceptual quality of an image by adjusting the image colors. “Color” in this sense is to be understood as encompassing three-dimensional parameterizations of color, incorporating both intensity and hue. These measurements are made using creative computations developed and adapted from the RETINEX™ theory (Land, 1977), where the RETINEX implementation adjusts any pixel in any direction in color space and further to automatically determine the best direction for it to be adjusted to increase the perceptual visibility of the algorithm with a minimal amount of change to the original image values. |
| US08705849B2 |
Method and system for object recognition based on a trainable dynamic system
A system for object recognition in which a multi-dimensional scanner generates a temporal sequence of multi-dimensional output data of a scanned object. That data is then coupled as an input signal to a trainable dynamic system. The system exemplified by a general-purpose recurrent neural network is previously trained to generate an output signal representative of the class of the object in response to a temporal sequence of multi-dimensional data. |
| US08705846B2 |
Position measuring apparatus, position measuring method, image processing apparatus and image processing method
A position measuring apparatus which measures a position of a position measurement target easily and accurately without using any parameter inside a camera in the measurement, based on images captured from mutually different viewpoints. The position measuring apparatus which measures the three-dimensional position of the position measurement target, based on the input images captured from the mutually different viewpoints, and the position measuring apparatus includes: a ray information storage unit configured to store ray information in which each of ray vectors is associated with a corresponding one of pixels in one of the input images, each of the ray vectors indicating a forward direction of a light incident onto an optical system for a corresponding one of the input images; and a position measuring unit configured to measure the three-dimensional position of the position measurement target, using the ray information stored in the ray information storage unit. |
| US08705842B2 |
Robot cleaner and controlling method of the same
A robot cleaner and a method for controlling the same are provided. A region to be cleaned may be divided into a plurality of sectors based on detection data collected by a detecting device, and a partial map for each sector may be generated. A full map of the cleaning region may then be generated based on a position of a partial map with respect to each sector, and a topological relationship between the partial maps. Based on the full map, the robot cleaner may recognize its position, allowing the entire region to be completely cleaned, and allowing the robot cleaner to rapidly move to sectors that have not yet been cleaned. |
| US08705835B2 |
Paper sheet processing apparatus
A paper sheet processing apparatus that performs a recognizing process of a paper sheet includes: a paper sheet recognition sensor (11) that reads an image of a paper sheet; a number-attribute information memory (131) that stores number attribute information including number recognition conditions for recognizing a number given to a paper sheet; and an image processing unit (134) and a character recognizing unit (135) that recognize a number of a paper sheet from an image read by the paper sheet recognition sensor (11), based on number recognition conditions stored in the number-attribute information memory (131). |
| US08705830B2 |
Method and device for processing 3-D image data of a skull
The invention relates to a method and a device for processing 3-D image date of a skull (S), wherein image date are selected or calculated for the 3-D image data and are presented as 2-D image data in a plane. For fast, overview-like inspection of the skull (S), the skull surface (O) is determined from the 3-D image data, and the corresponding image data at a defined distance (d) from the skull surface (O) are determined and presented as 2-D image data in a plane. |
| US08705829B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing 2D to 3D registration
A method and apparatus for performing 2D to 3D registration includes an initialization step and a refinement step. The initialization step is directed to identifying an orientation and a position by knowing orientation information where data images are captured and by identifying centers of relevant bodies. The refinement step uses normalized mutual information and pattern intensity algorithms to register the 2D image to the 3D volume. |
| US08705824B2 |
Apparatus and method for ordering stored images
An apparatus comprising—an imaging component for acquiring magnetic resonance images;—a storage component for storing the magnetic resonance images in a stack;—a sorting component for sorting the magnetic resonance images in the stack using machine defined meta information of the images; and—an interface for reading the ordered stack. |
| US08705821B2 |
Method and apparatus for multimodal visualization of volume data sets
The invention relates to a method and a corresponding apparatus for multimodal visualization of volume data sets of an object, in particular a patient, comprising the following steps: acquiring a first volume data set of the object with a first imaging modality and a second volume data set of the object with a second imaging modality, said first and second volume data set each comprising a plurality of sample points and values (f1,f2) associated with said sample points, establishing a transfer function, said transfer function defining optical properties (c,α) of certain values (f1,f2) of said first and second volume data set, and visualizing the optical properties (c,α) of said certain values (f1,f2) of said first and second volume data set. In order to reduce the complexity of finding a good transfer function so that a transfer function can be defined by the user in an intuitive and familiar way, the transfer function is established by using information (I(f1),I(f2)) contained in a distribution (P(f1),P(f2)) of values (f1,f2) of said first and second volume data set. |
| US08705817B2 |
Measurement of geometric quantities intrinsic to an anatomical system
A method for measuring geometric quantities intrinsic to an anatomical system of a patient, based on two stereoscopic images. Registration data are received on each of the two stereoscopic images. By using geometric calibration information, a three-dimensional geometric primitive is determined defined by at least a portion of the received registration data. Based on the three-dimensional geometric primitive, a value of geometric quantity intrinsic to the anatomical system is computed. |
| US08705815B2 |
Systems and methods for automatic skin-based identification of people using digital images
Systems and methods are provided for automatic identification of a person based on an analysis of the person's skin. In one embodiment, a method for automatically identifying a person comprises acquiring white-light and UV images of a portion of the person's skin, generating a skin mask from the white-light image, and comparing the skin mask with a pre-stored skin mask of the person. If a substantial match is not found between the two skin masks, the person is not identified, and an error message such as “wrong person” or “person unknown” is returned. Otherwise, the method proceeds to obtain results associated with certain skin conditions using at least the UV image. The results are compared with pre-stored results to determine if the person is the right person or the wrong person. |
| US08705814B2 |
Apparatus and method for detecting upper body
Disclosed is a method of detecting an upper body. The method includes detecting an omega candidate area including a shape formed of a face and a shoulder line of a human from a target image, cutting the target image into the upper body candidate area including the omega candidate area, detecting a human face from the upper body candidate area, and judging whether the upper body of the human is included in the target image according to the result of detecting the human face. |
| US08705808B2 |
Combined face and iris recognition system
A system using face and iris image capture for recognition of people. The system may have wide field-of-view, medium field-of-view and narrow field-of-view cameras to capture images of a scene of people, faces and irises for processing and recognition. Matching of the face and iris images with images of a database may be a basis for recognition and identification of a subject person. |
| US08705805B2 |
Secure portable token and systems and methods for identification and authentication of the same
A portable token and systems and methods for identification and authentication of the same are disclosed. The portable token may be utilized for a variety of purposes and uses a thin section of rock as a unique identifying element, which is extremely resistant to forgery or duplication. Identification and authorization of tokens is achieved by a system that uses optical examination of the microstructure and the refractive properties of crystalline minerals within the identifying element, by transmitted polarized light techniques. Comparison between stored reference data and acquired examination data is the basis for verifying authenticity. The naturally-occurring three-dimensional orientations of the optical axes of mineral crystals contribute to the identification information by their effects. |
| US08705799B2 |
Tracking an object with multiple asynchronous cameras
The path and/or position of an object is tracked using two or more cameras which run asynchronously so there is need to provide a common timing signal to each camera. Captured images are analyzed to detect a position of the object in the image. Equations of motion for the object are then solved based on the detected positions and a transformation which relates the detected positions to a desired coordinate system in which the path is to be described. The position of an object can also be determined from a position which meets a distance metric relative to lines of position from three or more images. The images can be enhanced to depict the path and/or position of the object as a graphical element. Further, statistics such as maximum object speed and distance traveled can be obtained. Applications include tracking the position of a game object at a sports event. |
| US08705798B2 |
Systems and methods for multi-pass adaptive people counting utilizing trajectories
People are counted in a segment of video with a video processing system that is configured with a first set of parameters. This produces a first output. Based on this first output, a second set of parameters is chosen. People are then counted in the segment of video using the second set of parameters. This produces a second output. People are counted with a video played forward. People are counted with a video played backwards. The results of these two counts are reconciled to produce a more accurate people count. |
| US08705796B2 |
Obstacle detection device
The present invention provides an obstacle detection device that enables stable obstacle detection with less misdetections even when a bright section and a dark section are present in an obstacle and a continuous contour of the obstacle is present across the bright section and the dark section. The obstacle detection device includes a processed image generating unit that generates a processed image for detecting an obstacle from a picked-up image, a small region dividing unit that divides the processed image into plural small regions, an edge threshold setting unit that sets an edge threshold for each of the small regions from pixel values of the plural small regions and the processed image, an edge extracting unit that calculates a gray gradient value of each of the small regions from the plural small regions and the processed image and generates, using the edge threshold for the small region corresponding to the calculated gray gradient value, an edge image and a gradient direction image, and an obstacle recognizing unit that determines presence or absence of an obstacle from the edge image in a matching determination region set in the edge image and the gradient direction image corresponding to the edge image. The small region dividing unit divides the processed image into the plural small regions on the basis of an illumination state on the outside of the own vehicle. |
| US08705795B2 |
Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program
An information processing apparatus includes a selection unit configured to select a plurality of specific areas of a target object, a learning unit configured to learn a detection model that relates to each of the plurality of specific areas, a generation unit configured to generate an area combination as a combination of specific areas selected from the plurality of specific areas, a recognition unit configured to recognize the target object based on the detection model and the area combination, and an addition unit configured to add a new specific area based on a recognition result obtained by the recognition unit. If the new specific area is added by the addition unit, the learning unit further learns a detection model that relates to the new specific area. |
| US08705789B2 |
Magnet-less loudspeaker
A loudspeaker, which includes a ferrite core, a voice coil, and a movable membrane. The voice coil is wound around the core and cooperatively defining an exciting device. The movable membrane is disposed in close proximity to the exciting device with a gap formed thereinbetween. The loudspeaker is constructed without permanent magnets. |
| US08705787B2 |
Custom in-ear headset
A custom in-ear headset. The headset includes a housing having a proximate housing portion and a distant housing portion. The distant housing portion is shaped and sized to fit inside an ear canal of a user. The headset includes a miniature speaker that is acoustically coupled to a sound outlet in the distant portion of the housing for conveying sound pressure to an ear canal of the user. The headset further includes any one or more of: (a) a microphone with a sound inlet in the proximate housing portion, (b) a bone conduction microphone arranged in the distant housing portion, or (c) a microphone with a sound inlet in the distant housing portion. The headset further includes at least one ridge projecting from and circumscribing the distant housing portion. |
| US08705786B2 |
Dynamic microphone unit and dynamic microphone
A dynamic microphone unit has a diaphragm 5 vibrating in response to sound waves, a voice coil 6 fixed to the diaphragm 5 and vibrating in cooperation with the diaphragm 5, a magnetic circuit including a magnetic gap around the voice coil 6 and generating a magnetic field in a magnetic gap, a first air chamber 11 adjacent to the reverse of the diaphragm 5 holding an acoustic resistance therein, a second air chamber 9 behind the voice coil, and a communication passage 22 for sound waves between the first air chamber 11 and the second air chamber 9. |
| US08705784B2 |
Acoustic in-ear detection for earpiece
An apparatus comprising an earpiece and a signal processor is disclosed. The earpiece is suitable to be applied at an auditory opening of a user's ear. The earpiece comprises a speaker enabled to be supplied with an audio signal for rendering, and a microphone arranged in vicinity of the speaker to acquire a sound signal from sounds present inside the auditory opening when the earpiece is applied at the ear. The signal processor is arranged to determine whether the earpiece is applied at the user's ear by analysis of the acquired sound signal comprising any of a sound signal component of an in-ear sound type present when the earpiece is applied or an outside-ear sound type present when the earpiece is not applied. A method and a computer program are also disclosed. |
| US08705779B2 |
Surround sound virtualization apparatus and method
A surround sound virtualization apparatus and method. The surround sound virtualization apparatus may include an audio decoder to perform head-related transfer function (HRTF) filtering, and a time delay unit to provide a time delay to a plurality of output signals of the audio decoder. |
| US08705775B2 |
Capacitive microphone with integrated cavity
A capacitive microphone and method of fabricating the same are provided. One or more holes can be formed in a first printed circuit board (PCB). A diaphragm can be surface micro-machined onto an interior surface of the first PCB at a region having the one or more holes. Interface electronics can also be interconnected to the interior surface of the PCB. One or more spacer PCBs can be attached to a second PCB to the first PCB, such that appropriate interconnections between interconnect vias are made. The second PCB and first PCB with spacers in between can be attached so as to create a cavity in which the diaphragm and interface electronics are located. |
| US08705757B1 |
Computationally efficient multi-resonator reverberation
A signal processor to produce a simulated reverberation effect based on an input signal and conveying the impression of multiple interconnected resonating spaces. A feedback delay network produces a reverberation tail signal, which is delayed by varying amounts in a delay module. A panning module produces a multi-channel signal based on the reverberation tail signal and its echoes. |
| US08705751B2 |
Compression and mixing for hearing assistance devices
This application relates to a system for compression and mixing for hearing assistance devices by application of compression to individual sound sources before mixing, according to one example. Variations of the present system using surround sound provide separate signals from a surround sound synthesizer which are compressed prior to mixing of the signals. |
| US08705748B2 |
Method for spatially processing multichannel signals, processing module, and virtual surround-sound systems
Embodiments of a virtual surround-sound system and methods for simulating surround-sound are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed. In some embodiments, a processing module may include spatial processor spatially processes surround-left and surround-right channel signals and front-left and front-right channel signals and combines the spatially-processed signals for providing to drivers of center speaker after crosstalk cancellation and combining with a center-channel signal. In some embodiments, the processing module may include circuitry to cause the spatial processor to refrain from spatially processing either the front-left and front-right channel signals when front-left and/or front-right speakers are connected. |
| US08705747B2 |
Object-based 3-dimensional audio service system using preset audio scenes
Provided are an object-based three dimensional (3-D) audio service system using preset audio scenes and a method thereof. The system and the method are suggested for enabling a user to easily and conveniently watch and listen an object based 3-D audio service by eliminating inconvenience that requires a user to control each of object audio signals of sound sources. The system includes: audio input means for inputting an audio signal; preset audio scene generating means for extracting object audio signals from the audio signal inputted through the audio input means and generating more than one of 3-D audio scene information by arranging the extracted object audio signals in a 3-D space and editing features of each object; and encoding means for encoding and multiplexing the audio signal and the 3-D audio scene information for each object audio signal. |
| US08705745B2 |
Method and system for transmitting deferred media information in an IP multimedia subsystem
A method for transmitting deferred media information in an Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) includes: a sending party of the media information sends a key generation parameter encrypted with a Ka to a mailbox application server of a receiving party of the media information, the mailbox application server stores or saves the encrypted key generation parameters, and sends the encrypted key generation parameters to a key management server (KMS); the KMS generates a media key K and forwards it to the sending party through the mailbox application server of the receiving party; the receiving party obtains the encrypted key generation parameter from the mailbox application server and sends it to the KMS; the KMS generates the K and sends it to the receiving party; the receiving party decrypts the encrypted media information by using the K. A corresponding system is also disclosed. The method and system decrease signaling interaction between the sending party and the KMS, reduce the storage pressure of the KMS; realize the end-to-end secure transmission of the deferred media in the IMS. |
| US08705742B2 |
Data compression apparatus and data decompression apparatus
In a first data compression process, a compressed code of an input symbol is generated in accordance with a compression dictionary selected on the basis of P symbols immediately preceding the input symbol, and a (P+1)K+1-th compressed code is encrypted to generate a compressed and encrypted code. Then, compressed and encrypted data comprising compressed and encrypted codes and other compressed codes is output. In a second data compression process, a bit string is added to the head of compression target data, and a compressed code of an input symbol is generated in accordance with a compression dictionary selected on the basis of a bit string or a symbol immediately preceding the input symbol. Then, a plurality of compressed codes are alternately output to different output destinations. |
| US08705739B2 |
On-the-fly encryption on a gaming machine
Systems, apparatus and methods for on-the-fly encryption of data storage on a computerized wagering gaming machine are described herein. In some embodiments, a method includes accessing, using an on-the-fly encryption operation, data from a nonvolatile data storage in a computerized wagering gaming machine. |
| US08705736B2 |
Image encryption for print-and-scan channels using pixel position permutation
An image encryption method that includes receiving image data based on an image, wherein the image data comprises a plurality of pixel values, and permuting a plurality of, and preferably all of, the pixel values using at least a secret key to create permuted image data. Also, an image decryption method that includes scanning a printed image to create scanned image data. The printed image is generated from permuted image data that is generated by permuting a plurality of first pixel values of first image data using at least a secret key, obtaining a plurality of second pixel values from the scanned image data, and reverse-permuting a plurality of the second pixel values using at least the secret key to create reverse-permuted scanned image data. |
| US08705732B2 |
Generating a session key for authentication and secure data transfer
A device for generating a session key which is known to a first communication partner and a second communication partner, for the first communication partner, from secret information which may be determined by the first and second communication partners, includes a first module operable to calculate the session key using a concatenation of at least a part of a random number and a part of the secret information. The device also includes a second module operable to use the session key for communication with the second communication partner. |
| US08705728B2 |
Shared protection scheme for multiple variable batteries
A device includes a plurality of subscriber line interface circuits and a shared protection device. Each subscriber line interface circuit has a voltage input terminal and first and second interface line terminals. The shared protection device is coupled to the interface line terminals and operable to sense a negative reference voltage representing a most negative one of the voltages present on the voltage input terminals and to provide overvoltage protection responsive to a voltage on at least one of the interface line terminals exceeding the negative reference voltage. |
| US08705727B2 |
Methods and apparatus for enhancing ringback tone quality during telephone communications
A system for enhancing tonal quality for ringback signals in a telecommunications network by adjusting audio processing during an alerting interval of a telecommunications session (e.g. during a telephone call). The system may be embodied in a telecommunications switching device and include a ringback manager process that provides the ability to adjust audio processing (e.g., by signaling to in-path equipment) which enhances the tonal quality of the ringback signal. As an example, a telephone system (e.g. equipment associated with establishment and operation of telephone communications sessions) can disable or attenuate operation of voice quality enhancement processing such as echo cancellation, noise reduction, adaptive level control, and the like, during the ringback or alerting interval or period of a telephone call so that the ringback tone provided to the calling party is not distorted by such processing. |
| US08705724B2 |
Method of posting a voice related message on a remotely accessible networking page
A method of posting a voice related message on a remotely accessible networking page includes receiving, at a data center, a voice connection from a communications device. An account on the remotely accessible networking page that is associated with the voice connection is identified at the data center. A voice post is generated during or from the voice connection. Via the data center, the voice post is associated with the remotely accessible networking page so that the voice post is associated with the identified account. |
| US08705714B2 |
Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus
A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations. |
| US08705712B2 |
System and method for delivering content to a user of a telephony device
A system and method for utilizing information exchanged during an initiation phase (i.e., the “ringing” phase) of a conventional telephone connection request received from a telephony device, in order to identify and provide a user with content or enhanced services. In a convention telephone call the connection request includes information that identifies the user and/or telephony device that placed the phone call (the originating number) and the dialed phone number (the signaling number). The connection request is rejected and the call is terminated Prior to termination of the call the originating dumber and/or signaling number are extracted and used to identify a task that is desired by a user; content associated with the task is delivered to the user. |
| US08705711B2 |
Method for processing a telephone call using IVR for delivery of multimedia messages to a mobile device
A method for processing a wireless or land line telephone call from a telephone caller over a public switched telephone network (PSTN) through an IVR system for providing control to the called party for delivering SMS and/or MMS messaging to a mobile device of the caller while the call is being processed or is placed “on-hold” which may include logging of demographic information of the caller derived from the 10 digit number to form a demographic profile of the caller to differentiate and classify the caller based on the caller's demographics. |
| US08705710B2 |
Methods and systems for telephony call completion
The present invention is directed to processing calls to busy and Do-Not-Disturb capable telecommunications lines. In one embodiment, the presence of a subscriber accessing a computer network over a first telephone line via a first computer terminal is detected, wherein the subscriber also has a first telephone station connected to the first line. When a caller calls the first line and the first line is busy, the call is forwarded to a second telephone line associated with a call manager system. The call manager system determines when the subscriber is no longer accessing the computer network. At least partly in response to determining that the subscriber is no longer accessing the computer network, the call manager system transmits a text message to the caller, the message including the subscriber's phone number. The caller can then call back the first line using the transmitted phone number. |
| US08705703B2 |
Emergency telephone call notification service system and method
A system and method for emergency telephone call notification. The system includes an AIN capable switch, a service control point (SCP) having a database of designated contact numbers associated with a service subscriber telephone number, and an intelligent peripheral (IP) in communication with the SCP for contacting the designated contact numbers. The method includes the steps of recognizing an N11 trigger and the SCP initiating telephone calls, via the IP, to each of the contact numbers corresponding to the telephone number of the subscriber making the emergency telephone call. |
| US08705696B2 |
Radiotherapy system
A radiotherapy system comprising a support for a patient undergoing radiotherapy treatment, a gantry rotatable about an axis, a source of radiation mounted on the gantry and producing a beam of radiation directed towards a target region of the patient, a collimator coupled to said radiation source, the collimator comprising a plurality of movable, beam-limiting elements, to collectively define a shaped aperture through which the radiation beam passes, a portal imager mounted on the gantry opposite the radiation source for detecting the radiation after it has passed through the patient and generating corresponding images, and associated circuitry for controlling at least the gantry, the source, the collimator, and the portal imager, collating detected data comprising a plurality of images acquired including images at a plurality of angles of rotation of said gantry and images at a plurality of collimator shapes; generating a three-dimensional image of the target region based thereon. |
| US08705687B2 |
Input circuit in high speed counter module in PLC
An input circuit in high speed counter module for PLC is provided, the input circuit being configured such that various types of pulse signals are changed to a single type of pulse signal and transmitted to an MPU, whereby the type of input pulse is checked or an operation of checking addition/deduction is omitted to increase an interrupt process speed. |
| US08705686B2 |
Adjustable hard stops for nuclear reactor restrainer brackets and methods of using the same
Hard stops are useable in an operating nuclear reactor to separate and bias restrainer brackets and inlet mixers. Hard stops include a lip clamp that clamps to a restrainer bracket and a wedge member that biases against the inlet mixer. The wedge member and lip clamp are engaged such that the two components can slide against one another to bias the restrainer bracket and inlet mixer. The lip clamp includes a clamp arm and an engagement member to clamp opposite sides of the restrainer bracket. Ratchet assemblies maintain selective positioning various components of the hard stops. Hard stops may be used in several different numbers, positions, and configurations in repair or modification systems. Hard stops may be installed by determining location on an outside of a restrainer bracket for the hard stop, securing the hard stop at the location, and biasing the hard stop between two components at the location. |
| US08705680B2 |
CDR circuit
A recovered clock (123) is generated by making the phase of a reference clock (122) having the same frequency as the data rate frequency of input data (120) match the phase of the input data (120). The input data (120) is written in a FIFO (101) using the recovered clock (123). For readout from the FIFO (101), the FIFO (101) is caused to output recovered data (121) using the reference clock (122) asynchronous to the recovered clock (123). |
| US08705679B1 |
Method and apparatus for clear channel assessment qualification
In a method for detecting a synchronization field in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a plurality of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) values corresponding to the OFDM signal are generated. A plurality of magnitude or power values corresponding to the plurality of DFT values is determined. It is determined whether the plurality of magnitude or power values corresponds to a pattern of magnitude or power values. An indication that the synchronization field is detected in the OFDM signal is generated based on whether it is determined that the plurality of magnitude or power values correspond to the pattern of magnitude or power values. |
| US08705678B1 |
Multiple channel distributed system and method
A complex acquisition system and method for synchronizing components thereof. The complex acquisition system further including a master acquisition module. The master acquisition module further including an analog to digital acquisition signal generator for generating an analog to digital acquisition signal, a memory acquisition signal generator for generating a memory acquisition signal, a delay calibration signal for generating a delay calibration signal, a step source signal generator for generating a step source signal, and a synchronization module. The complex acquisition system further includes a plurality of slave acquisition modules, each also including a synchronization module. The complex acquisition system additionally includes a distribution system for distributing each of the analog to digital acquisition signal, memory acquisition signal, delay calibration signal and step source signal to each of the synchronization modules in the master and plurality of slave acquisition modules. |
| US08705673B2 |
Timing phase detection using a matched filter set
Various embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for phase identification in data processing systems. As one example, a circuit is disclosed that includes a bank of matched filters with two or more matched filters tuned to detect patterns corresponding to a timing pattern sampled using different phases of a sample clock. In particular, the bank of matched filters includes at least a first matched filter tuned to detect a first pattern corresponding to the timing pattern sampled using a first phase of a sample clock, and a second matched filter tuned to detect a second pattern corresponding to the timing pattern sampled using a second phase of the sample clock. The circuits further include a logic circuit operable to determine whether the sample clock is closer to the first phase or the second phase based on an output of the first matched filter and an output of the second matched filter. |
| US08705665B2 |
Process for performing log-likelihood-ratio clipping in a soft-decision near-ML detector, and detector for doing the same
A process for computing Log-Likelihood-ratios (LLRs) in a detector of a wireless communication receiver is disclosed, with the, LLRs being used by a channel decoder. A signal is received from a telecom front end, the signal corresponding to data belonging to a finite set of constellation symbols, each constellation symbol being arranged in a lattice constellation impaired by additive noise and a multiplicative channel. A limited set of distances representative of Euclidian distances between the received signal and a finite set of predetermined constellation symbols are computed, possibly multiplied by the channel. A set of soft decision LLRs are derived from the computed set of distances under the constraint of a limited length of the list of distances. The derived LLRs are completed by clipping values read from a look-up table which is simultaneously addressed by the values of the SNR and a bit index. |
| US08705658B2 |
Method and apparatus of modulating signal in broadcasting and communication system
Modulating method and apparatus in a broadcasting and communication system are provided. The modulating apparatus includes: a first quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulating unit QPSK-modulating first data including in-phase (I) data and quadrature (Q) data to generate a first signal; a phase rotating unit rotating a phase of the first signal by θ to generate a phase rotated signal; a second QPSK modulating unit QPSK-modulating second data different from the first data and including I′ data and Q′ data to generate a second signal; and a layer modulating unit modulating the phase rotated signal and the second signal to output a final signal. |
| US08705656B2 |
Transmission and reception apparatus and method
A transmission apparatus includes a plurality of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation signal generators, which generate a first OFDM modulation signal and a second OFDM modulation signal. The transmission apparatus also includes a transmitter that transmits the first OFDM modulation signal from a first antenna and the second OFDM modulation signal from a second antenna, in an identical frequency band. A reception apparatus is provided, which includes a plurality of antennas that receive a plurality of OFDM modulation signals; a plurality of OFDM demodulators that transform the plurality of OFDM modulation signals to a plurality of reception signals using Fourier transform; an estimator that outputs a distortion estimation signal using one or more symbols for demodulation included in the plurality of reception signals; and a demodulator that compensates for distortion of the reception signals using the distortion estimation signal and demodulates a data symbol included in the reception signals. |
| US08705654B1 |
Measuring phase shift in a radio frequency power amplifier
The present disclosure relates to RF circuitry having delay locked loop (DLL) circuitry that may be used to measure amplitude modulation-to-phase modulation (AMPM) distortion of an RF power amplifier during factory calibration or during real time operation of the RF circuitry. During a calibration mode, the DLL circuitry may be calibrated using a reference clock signal. During a phase measurement mode, the DLL circuitry may use the reference clock signal, which is representative of an RF input signal to the RF power amplifier, and a feedback signal, which is representative of an RF output signal from the RF power amplifier, to measure a phase difference between the RF input signal and the RF output signal. By measuring the phase difference at different amplitudes of the RF output signal, the AMPM distortion of the RF power amplifier may be determined and used to correct for the AMPM distortion. |
| US08705647B2 |
Maximum-likelihood MIMO demodulation for frequency-selective channels
A method is described that enables maximum-likelihood (ML) demodulation for MIMO communications over frequency-selective channels. An equalizer is typically employed to suppress inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to frequency-selectiveness of the channel, but the noise of the equalizer output can be highly correlated such that standard ML-MIMO demodulations cannot directly apply. The method comprises first constructing equivalent post-equalization MIMO channel and noise covariance matrix, and then de-correlating the equalizer output so that ML or near-ML MIMO demodulations can be applied to improve the performance. Additionally, successive ISI cancellation (SIC) is described for further performance improvement. |
| US08705644B2 |
Method for generating and transmitting a reference signal for uplink demodulation in a clustered DFT-spread OFDM transmission scheme
Disclosed is a method for generating and transmitting a reference signal in a clustered DFT-spread OFDM transmission scheme. A method for generating and transmitting a DM-RS in a clustered DFT-spread-OFDM scheme comprises: a step of generating DM-RS sequences corresponding to the number of clusters allocated for an uplink transmission; and a step of mapping the generated DM-RS sequences to the relevant DM-RS symbol positions for each cluster. Accordingly, the method for generating and transmitting a reference signal according to the present invention, in which DM-RS sequences are allocated and transmitted on a cluster basis, uses a complete DM-RS sequence for each cluster, and therefore inter-cell interference can be weakened, and problems which might occur when applied to a multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) scheme can be solved. |
| US08705643B2 |
Channel estimation for a control channel in an OFDM system
A method of channel estimation for a control channel in an OFDM system of the present invention includes the steps of: performing weighted averaging over time of input LS estimates of a plurality of channel condition matrices; performing frequency domain averaging on the input LS estimates; performing channel estimates on multiple subcarriers of pilot OFDM symbols from the frequency domain averaged input LS estimates; and performing channel estimates on multiple subcarriers of OFDM symbols in the control channel from the channel estimates on the subcarriers of pilot OFDM symbols. |
| US08705642B2 |
Method for mitigating interference in OFDM communications systems
The method for mitigating interference in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communications systems uses comb-type pilot signals in a doubly selective channel where the pilot signals are calculated to have zero correlation sequences in order to maintain orthogonality where there is a high Doppler effect to mitigate intercarrier interference. The pilot signals may be precomputed, stored in a look-up table, and selected based upon total power constraints of the pilot signals. The steps of the method may be performed by a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) equalizer. |
| US08705625B2 |
Video compression and encoding method
Disclosed herein is a method for decoding a video signal having at least one frame with a plurality of blocks including a current block, including generating, for at least a selected pixel in the current block, a predicted value for at least one pixel located in a row i and a column j of the current block using a processor and according to the following equation: Xij=Li+Aj−C; wherein Xij is the predicted value, Li is the value of a pixel to the left of the current block, Aj is the value of a pixel in a row above the current block and C is the value of a pixel in the row above and the column to the left of the current block and decoding the current block using the predicted value. |
| US08705624B2 |
Parallel decoding for scalable video coding
A method for decoding a stream encoded using a scalable video coding and including a plurality of layers of frames divided into a plurality of blocks, decodes block-wise in parallel the layers of the stream. A target block in an enhancement layer is decoded as soon as the block data required for its decoding are available from the reference layer. |
| US08705622B2 |
Interpolation filter support for sub-pixel resolution in video coding
This disclosure describes filtering techniques applied by an encoder and a decoder during the prediction stage of a video encoding and/or decoding process. The filtering techniques may enhance the accuracy of predictive data used during fractional interpolation, and may improve predictive data of integer blocks of pixels. There are several aspects to this disclosure, including a useful twelve-pixel filter support that may be used for interpolation, techniques that use coefficient symmetry and pixel symmetry to reduce the amount of data needed to be sent between an encoder and a decoder to configure the filter support for interpolation, and techniques for filtering data at integer pixel locations in a manner that is similar to sub-pixel interpolation. Other aspects of this disclosure concern techniques for encoding information in the bitstream to convey the type of filter used, and possibly the filter coefficients used. Predictive coding of filter coefficients is also described. |
| US08705621B2 |
Method and apparatus for scalable compression of video
A method and apparatus for producing a fully scalable compressed representation of video sequences, so that they may be transmitted over networks, such as the Internet, for example. Because the signal is scalable, users receiving the signal can obtain the signal at the appropriate resolution and quality that their system will handle or that they desire. A “motion compensated temporal wavelet transform” is implemented in order to enable compression of the video in a scalable fashion while still taking advantage of inter-frame redundancy in a manner which is sensitive to scene and camera motion. The motion compensated temporal wavelet transform is implemented by decomposing the video sequence into a set of temporal frequency bands and then applying a sequence of motion compensated lifting operations to alternately update an odd frame sub-sequence based upon an even sub-sequence and vice versa in a manner which is sensitive to motion. |
| US08705617B2 |
Multiple layer video encoding
Certain embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods for processing multimedia data. The systems and methods comprise receiving a first set of quantized coefficients representing at least one video frame, receiving a second set of quantized coefficients representing the at least one video frame, and generating, using the first set of quantized coefficients and second set of quantized coefficients, a third set of quantized coefficients representing the at least one video frame. In certain embodiments, quantization parameters associated with the first and second sets are used in producing the third set of quantized coefficients. |
| US08705615B1 |
System for generating controllable difference measurements in a video processor
Disclosed are systems and methods used in motion estimation and in other systems. Embodiments of the invention include a built-in masking function that can be used in conjunction with either a difference measurement. A controllable mask bit may be set for each individual ai:bi comparison. In one embodiment, to include the particular location represented by the “i” value in the comparison, the mask bit is left unset; to ignore any location, the mask bit is set. If the mask bit is set, the comparison value is calculated as zero, i.e., there is no difference entered into the calculation, even if there is an actual difference in the two datasets. |
| US08705613B2 |
Adaptive joint source channel coding
Adaptive joint source channel coding associates multiple predictors with a reference data unit, such as a macroblock or frame of video data. An encoder determines a sub-codebook in which each of the selected multiple predictors decodes to the reference data unit. An identifier for the sub-codebook is transmitted through a channel to a decoder for subsequent decoding of the reference data unit. The reference data unit itself does not need to be sent. The multiple predictors are contained within a decoding region and the identifier for the sub-codebook specifies the decoding region. The decoder uses the identified sub-codebook and one of the predictors to decode the reference data unit. If none of the original predictors are correctly received, different types of error handling are employed based on the type of channel. |
| US08705611B2 |
Image prediction encoding device, image prediction encoding method, image prediction encoding program, image prediction decoding device, image prediction decoding method, and image prediction decoding program
An image prediction encoding device includes a prediction signal generator that produces a prediction signal with respect to a target pixel signal of a target region that is among regions divided by a block division unit, a motion estimator that searches for a motion vector required for the production of the prediction signal from an already reproduced signal, and a subtractor that produces a residual signal indicating a difference between the prediction signal and the target pixel signal. The prediction signal generator determines a search region that is a partial region of the already reproduced signal based on the motion vector and produces one or more type 2 candidate prediction signals. The prediction signal generator includes a candidate prediction signal combining unit that produces the prediction signal by processing the type 2 candidate prediction signals and a type 1 candidate prediction signal produced based on the motion vector. |
| US08705609B2 |
Moving image coding device and method
The present invention relates to a moving image coding apparatus and method involving the simultaneous parallel running of respective modules, namely: a segment-unit-coding module in which an input image frame is divided into segment units and the integer pel (integer pixel) motion is estimated while at the same time the 1/n pixel images are generated with respect to the segments of the image coded in the coding module; and a macroblock-unit-coding module in which the segments of the image frame whose the integer pel motion has been estimated in the segment-unit-coding module are received as input in the form of macroblock units and are coded in macroblock units through the 1/n pixel motion estimation. By separating the coding units into different modules and employing the techniques of parallel processing and pipelining, the present invention makes it possible to effect high-speed encoding with reduced delay in the coding rate due to differences in the processing speeds of the respective modules. |
| US08705607B1 |
Non-disruptive adapter equalizer coefficient update method for active links
Various embodiments of the innovation provide adaptive equalization training for a receiver in a communication system. In certain embodiments, the receiver's coefficients are re-optimized while links are active and initialized. |
| US08705606B2 |
Methods and circuits for adaptive equalization
An integrated circuit equalizes a data signal expressed as a series of symbols. The symbols form data patterns with different frequency components. By considering these patterns, the integrated circuit can experiment with equalization settings specific to a subset of the frequency components, thereby finding an equalization control setting that optimizes equalization. Optimization can be accomplished by setting the equalizer to maximize symbol amplitude. |
| US08705603B2 |
Adaptive data recovery system with input signal equalization
Data receivers often include equalizers for operating on received signals. The equalizers often have a plurality of taps, with signals from each tap weighted based on tap settings or values. The tap settings may be set based on bit error rates of data output from the equalizer. In some embodiments data output from the equalizer is split into two signals, and the two signals are processed to indicate a data eye of the data output from the equalizer. Preferred tap settings may be determined by setting tap settings to different values and using tap settings expected to maximize the data eye. This may be performed separately for different bit settings in an attempt to reduce effects of inter-signal interference. |
| US08705595B2 |
Digital output power measurement in radio communication systems
Devices and methods related to devices capable to perform digital output power measurement besides attenuation control are provided. A device includes a digital signal processing unit, a transmitter and a feedback receiver. The digital signal processing unit is configured to control attenuation along a transmission path and a feedback path based on a comparison of a power of a digital input signal with a raw power of a corresponding digital feedback signal, and to calculate an output power value of an analog RF signal to be broadcasted, using the raw power of the digital feedback signal and one or more feedback gain factors related to gain in the feedback receiver. |
| US08705590B2 |
Code generating apparatus, reference signal generating apparatus, and methods thereof
A demodulation reference signal generator includes a non-correlation sequence generator to generate a non-correlation sequence for RS of a first resource block; a first spectrum spreading unit to spread spectrums of elements in the non-correlation sequence for RS to be mapped to a first frequency resource of the first resource block, by using a first group of codes; a second spectrum spreading unit to spread spectrums of elements in the non-correlation sequence for RS to be mapped to a second frequency resource of the first resource block, using a second group of Codes; the first and second frequency resources are adjacent frequency resources used for RS transmission in the first resource block, and the first and second groups of Codes are mirrors in column to each other; and a mapping unit to map the spectrum-spread elements to the first and second frequency resources. |
| US08705589B2 |
Method for pulse-based ultra-broadband communication between at least one transmitting node and at least one receiving node
An ultra-broadband signal having a plurality of pulses is transmitted from one or more transmitting nodes to one or more receiving nodes. In the ultra-broadband signal, data are transmitted by pulses having a first pulse rate in a first data transmission and by pulses having a second pulse rate in at least one second data transmission, with each second pulse rate higher than the first pulse rate. The pulses having the second pulse rate are transmitted in intervals, during which no pulses having the first pulse rate are transmitted. This has the advantage that by utilizing time gaps between pulses of the first data transmission, the data of a second data transmission can be transmitted at a higher pulse rate. The transmitting and receiving nodes need not be coordinated explicitly or coordinated from the outside. |
| US08705586B2 |
Solid-state laser element
To suppress the amplification of spontaneous emission light in a principal plane width direction to thereby suppress a gain in directions other than a beam axis direction and output a high-power laser, in a solid-state laser element of a plane waveguide type that causes a fundamental wave laser beam to oscillate in a beam axis direction in a laser medium of a flat shape and forms a waveguide structure in a thickness direction as a direction perpendicular to a principal plane of the flat shape in the laser medium, inclined sections 12 are provided on both sides of the laser medium, the inclined sections 12 inclining a predetermined angle to reflect spontaneous emission light in the laser medium to a principal plane side of the flat shape, the spontaneous emission light traveling in the beam axis direction and a principal plane width direction as a direction perpendicular to the thickness direction. |
| US08705585B2 |
Surface-emitting laser array, optical scanning device, and image forming device
A surface-emitting laser array includes a plurality of surface-emitting laser elements. Each surface-emitting laser element includes a first reflection layer formed on a substrate, a resonator formed in contact with the first reflection layer and containing an active layer, and a second reflection layer formed over the first reflection layer and in contact with the resonator. The second reflection layer contains a selective oxidation layer. The first reflection layer contains on the active layer side at least a low refractive index layer having an oxidation rate equivalent to or larger than an oxidation rate of a selective oxidation layer contained in the second reflection layer. The resonator is made of an AlGaInPAs base material containing at least In. A bottom of a mesa structure is located under the selective oxidation layer and over the first reflection layer. |
| US08705584B2 |
DBR laser diode with symmetric aperiodically shifted grating phase
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a DBR laser diode is provided where the wavelength selective grating of the laser diode is characterized by an aperiodically shifted grating phase φ and a Bragg wavelength λB. The aperiodically shifted grating phase φ is substantially symmetric or substantially π-shifted symmetric relative to a midpoint CL or shifted midpoint CL* of the DBR section. The phase φ of the wavelength selective grating is characterized by aperiodic phase jumps of magnitude φJ1, J2, . . . and segment lengths l0, 1, . . . . The phase jumps of the wavelength selective grating are arranged substantially symmetrically about a midpoint CL or shifted midpoint CL* of the DBR section along the optical axis of the DBR laser diode. At least two phase jumps reside on each side of the midpoint CL or shifted midpoint CL* of the DBR section. |
| US08705582B2 |
Distributed feedback laser having enhanced etch stop features
In one example embodiment, a DFB laser includes a substrate; an active region positioned above the substrate; a grating layer positioned above the active region, the grating layer including a portion that serves as a primary etch stop layer; a secondary etch stop layer positioned above the grating layer; and a spacer layer interposed between the grating layer and the secondary etch stop layer. |
| US08705579B2 |
Generating and implementing a signal protocol and interface for higher data rates
A data Interface for transferring digital data between a host and a client over a communication path using packet structures linked together to form a communication protocol for communicating a pre-selected set of digital control and presentation data. The signal protocol is used by link controllers configured to generate, transmit, and receive packets forming the communications protocol, and to form digital data into one or more types of data packets, with at least one residing in the host device and being coupled to the client through the communications path. The interface provides a cost-effective, low power, bi-directional, high-speed data transfer mechanism over a short-range “serial” type data link, which lends itself to implementation with miniature connectors and thin flexible cables which are especially useful in connecting display elements such as wearable micro-displays to portable computers and wireless communication devices. |
| US08705578B2 |
Method and system for implementing time synchronization in local area network (LAN)
A method and a system for implementing time synchronization in a local area network are disclosed, and the local area network includes a master system device (1) and a slave system device (31, 32, 33). The method includes: the master system device (1) synchronizing a local time according to a Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) time normally received from a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite and a network clock aligned with the UTC time, and regularly broadcasting the local time to each network node which serves as the slave system device (31, 32, 33) and needs to perform time synchronization; and the slave system device (31, 32, 33) synchronously updating the local time according to the received local time of the maser system device (1) and a local network clock aligned with the network clock of the maser system device (1). |
| US08705576B2 |
Method and apparatus for deblocking-filtering video data
Provided are a method and an apparatus for filtering video data. The method includes determining whether a difference value of illumination change (DVIC) of a current image processing unit containing a current block is different from a DVIC of an image processing unit that is adjacent to the current image processing unit and based on the determining, adjusting a filtering strength of a deblocking filter and performing deblocking filtering on a boundary of the current block using the filter with the adjusted filtering strength. |
| US08705573B2 |
Apparatus and method for coding an information signal into a data stream, converting the data stream and decoding the data stream
More customization and adaptation of coded data streams may be achieved by processing the information signal such that the various syntax structures obtained by pre-coding the information signal are placed into logical data packets, each of which being associated with a specific data packet type of a predetermined set of data packet types, and by defining a predetermined order of data packet types within one access unit of data packets. The consecutive access units in the data stream may, for example, correspond to different time portions of the information signal. By defining the predetermined order among the data packet types it is possible, at decoder's side, to detect the borders between successive access units even when removable data packets are removed from the data stream on the way from the data stream source to the decoder without incorporation of any hints into the reminder of the data stream. |
| US08705572B2 |
RoCE packet sequence acceleration
Disclosed herein are methods and apparatus for accelerating RoCE packet sequence transmission and reducing processing latency in received RoCE packets. Under the disclosed method, the RoCE protocol stack and RDMA verbs are implemented partially in the host software and partially in the adapter hardware, thereby providing a better balance between simplifying the adapter configuration and maximizing the host processing efficiency. Particularly, the adapter implemented with partial RoCE offload is able to perform a few major functionalities under the RoCE protocol, such as offloading a complete RoCE packet sequence for transmission, building individual packets out of the RoCE packet sequence and performing Invariant CRC calculation, insertion, validation and removal thereof. |
| US08705565B2 |
Secure transmission system and method
A method is provided for transmitting information from a user to a first network entity over a communications network. The user enters information into a browser executed at a user terminal. The browser generates a first message comprising the information using a first communication protocol for despatch over the network via a network port, the first message including an identifier of the first network entity. A client executed at the user terminal receives the first message before the first message reaches the network port. The first message is wrapped in a second message of a second communication protocol used for transmitting messages between the client and a second network entity. The second message is transmitted to the second network entity over the communications network. The first message is unwrapped from the second message at the second network entity, the identifier of the first network entity translated to a network address of the first network entity and the first message is transmitted to the first network entity over the communications network. |
| US08705561B2 |
Broadcasting method and radio apparatus
A processing unit sets the time interval before packet signals are broadcast, using a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) scheme. A modem unit and an RF unit broadcasts the packet signals at the time intervals set by the processing unit. The RF unit and the modem unit receive a control signal broadcast from an access control apparatus at a predetermined frequency. The processing unit sets the time interval, during which the control signal is receivable, to a time length shorter than the time interval for the remaining cases. |
| US08705555B2 |
Route control method and route control system
A route control system includes a status measuring unit, a cost management unit, a route determining unit, and a route setting unit. The status measuring unit checks a status of each node included in a network. The status is a wake state or a sleep state. The cost management unit updates a link cost for a link connected to a node in the wake state to a value smaller than any link cost for a link connected to a node in the sleep state. The route determining unit determines an optimum route connecting a first terminal to a second terminal. A sum of the link costs for the optimum route is lowest among the link costs for other available routes connecting the first terminal to the second terminal. The route setting unit sets a requested data flow in the optimum route. |
| US08705553B2 |
Method for enabling a home base station to choose between local and remote transportation of uplink data packets
The present invention relates to methods and devices that allow for different types of transportation of data packets (6) in conjunction with a home base station (1). Traffic arriving in the home base station (1) from a mobile terminal (2) connected to the home base station (1) can be transported either via a core network (15) of a mobile telecommunications system or by means of local transportation, which implies that the traffic is forwarded to a local node (4) in a local network (20) without passing the core network (15). The home base station (1) examines data packets (6) that are received from the mobile terminal (1) and determines the appropriate type of transportation for each data packet (6). Thus it is not required for traffic that is destined for local nodes (4) to pass the core network (15), which allows for efficient traffic forwarding with several benefits such as offloading the core network (15). |
| US08705550B2 |
Device interface architecture and protocol
An interface architecture and protocol are provided for transferring messages between a plurality of devices. The architecture provides the capability to generate a plurality of service messages according to a single message format, and to transfer the service messages between a plurality of control points or service entities according to an efficient multiplexing protocol. The control points can be software applications or device drivers running on a terminal equipment device, and the service entities can be communication services such as network access services or device management services running on an attached data communication device such as a modem or a cellular phone. |
| US08705549B2 |
Structure and implementation of universal virtual private networks
A Universal Virtual Private Network (VPN) apparatus, and method and system for using universal VPNs. The Universal VPNs include a first Internet Protocol (IP) switch connected to a second IP switch by a public telecommunications medium. Each IP switch has an interswitch port and access ports to which hosts are directly connected. A virtual private line services (VPLS) packet received by the first IP switch from a source host directly connected to an access port of the first IP switch is routed by the first IP switch to destination hosts of a universal VPN attached to access ports of the first and second IP switches via respective transmission paths that use a VPLS transmission protocol throughout each respective transmission path. The VPLS packet includes a header appended to an IP frame including a packet payload including a first message, the header including a VPN label identifying the universal VPN. |
| US08705548B2 |
Method and apparatus for the transmission of data via a bus network using the broadcast principle
There is provided a method for the transmission of data via a bus network to which a plurality of subscribers are connected. The method includes a first step of transmitting data from at least one subscriber, e.g., Master, to at least another subscriber, e.g., TNx or STNx, by employing a data transmission protocol designed for point-to-point transmission. The method includes a second step of defining a broadcast message, within which selected data can be transmitted in a broadcast transmission mode, within the point-to-point transmission protocol. In a supplementary or alternative embodiment, the method includes inserting a safety broadcast message in addition to a standard or general broadcast protocol. There is also provided an apparatus for transmission of data via a bus network. |
| US08705547B2 |
Interconnecting network processors with heterogeneous fabrics
Techniques for performing protocol translation for a modular system may be described. In some examples, a first packet created in accordance with a first protocol may be received. A packet type for the first packet may be determined, a second protocol based on the packet type may be selected and the first packet may be translated to a second packet in accordance with the second protocol. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08705542B2 |
L2 method for partial VLAN service migration
An upgraded edge node (e.g., enhanced PBB edge node, enhanced IP/MPLS edge node) and a method are described herein for providing a VLAN service for a customer in a metro network. In addition, a metro network is described herein which includes the upgraded edge nodes, traditional PB edge nodes, and a PB domain that has PB core nodes located therein. |
| US08705541B2 |
Network gateway for time-critical and mission-critical networks
A network gateway for time-critical and mission-critical networks is provided. The network gateway comprises a decision unit for determining, based on at least one network event; a processing unit for processing frames determined to be associated with the at least one service; a queue for buffering frames; and a traffic shaper for performing bandwidth management on frames stored in the queue. |
| US08705540B2 |
Network relay apparatus
The network relay apparatus includes: a plurality of distributed processing units configured to receive and send a packet from and to an external device; an integrated processing unit connected with the plurality of distributed processing units; and a mode selector configured to change over a processing mode of the network relay apparatus between a distributed processing mode and an integrated processing mode, based on at least either one of a load applied to the network relay apparatus and a packet type determined according to header information of the received packet. |
| US08705539B2 |
Determining a route advertisement in a reactive routing environment
In an example embodiment, a method and system is provided to determine and advertise a route advertisement in a reactive routing environment. In response to receiving a network address query with respect to a destination address at a routing device, an aggregate value, e.g. an address prefix, is determined and advertised in reply to the network address query. Determining of the aggregate value may comprise identifying within a range of network addresses represented by the aggregate value respective addresses for which the routing device does not have reachability information. The routing device may send address queries with respect to the identified addresses, to determine reachability via the routing device of those addresses. The aggregate value may be advertised conditional upon determining that a percentage of addresses within the corresponding range that can be reached via the routing device satisfies a predefined minimal coverage value. |
| US08705538B1 |
Methods and systems for dynamic division of path capacity
Methods and systems are disclosed that relate to selecting a path for sending an I/O request from a host to a data storage subsystem from among a plurality of paths from the host to the subsystem. An exemplary method includes identifying a limitation on the traffic level for the plurality of paths, tracking a first metric corresponding to the limitation on the traffic level for each path, and transmitting a first I/O request having an urgency level other than the highest urgency level by one of the plurality of paths whose first metric does not exceed its limitation on the traffic level. |
| US08705534B2 |
Provider edge bridge with remote customer service interface
A method and Provider Edge Bridge for providing a Port-based interface. In one embodiment, the Provider Edge Bridge includes a Customer Virtual Local Area Network (C-VLAN) component; a first Service VLAN (S-VLAN) component connected to the C-VLAN component and to a Provider Bridged Network; and a second S-VLAN component connected to the C-VLAN component, to the first S-VLAN component, and to customer equipments. In another embodiment, the Provider Edge Bridge includes the C-VLAN component and a single S-VLAN component connected to the C-VLAN component, to the Provider Bridged Network, and to the customer equipments. In both embodiments, the Provider Edge Bridge is configured to provide the Port-based interface without utilizing a S-VLAN mapping component. |
| US08705533B1 |
Fast packet encapsulation using templates
A network device assigns unique encoded values, represented by mnemonics, to protocol headers supported by the network device, and defines a plurality of templates, where each template includes a set of the mnemonics. The network device also stores the plurality of templates in a template table, where the template table enables the network device to create one or more protocol headers for packets transmitted by the network device. |
| US08705528B2 |
Subnet scoped multicast/broadcast packet distribution mechanism over a routed network
In one embodiment, a subnet-scoped multicast packet is received on an interface of a forwarding device that is connected to a host device of a subnet of a forwarding domain. The received subnet-scoped multicast packet is transmitted from one or more other interfaces of the forwarding device that are connected to one or more other host devices of the subnet. The received subnet-scoped multicast packet is also encapsulated with an additional header. The encapsulated subnet-scoped multicast packet is forwarded from the forwarding device to an intermediate router which routes the encapsulated subnet-scoped multicast packet to one or more other forwarding devices configured to decapsulate the encapsulated subnet-scoped multicast packet and transmit the decapsulated subnet-scoped multicast packet to one or more connected host devices of an additional portion of the subnet. |
| US08705523B2 |
Conjoined class-based networking
A data communication network includes two logically distinct class-based networks conjoined by at least one common node that has membership in each of the respective classes of the two logically distinct class-based networks. Optionally, three or more class-based networks may be conjoined to form a data communications network. |
| US08705522B2 |
Mobile router support for IPv6
A method and system for supporting mobile routers in Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is provided. A mobile router obtains a care-of-address associated with an address configuration. The mobile router registers the care-of-address with a home agent. A bi-directional tunnel is established between the mobile router and the home agent. Packets are then forwarded via the bi-directional tunnel. |
| US08705516B2 |
Enhanced directory assistance system with voice over IP call handling
A method for operating a directory assistance system responsive to Voice over IP device requests including receiving a first directory assistance request from at least one Voice over IP device and identifying the requested information on a database. The requested information is formatted in the database in accordance with a format required by the Voice over IP device and is then a notification message is transmitted to indicating its availability. A second request is received from the Voice over IP device for retrieval of the formatted requested information, which is in turn transmitted to the Voice over IP device via the web server. |
| US08705514B2 |
Apparatus for controlling a transfer destination of a packet originating from a virtual machine
Transfer destination of a packet originating from a virtual machine is controlled so as to allow a capture device arranged in a communication network to capture a packet that is transferred using a communication tunnel. A first server acquires a first packet originating from a source virtual machine being operated by the first server, encapsulates the first packet by adding source and destination addresses. The first server further adds a transfer-destination address to the encapsulated first packet to generate a second packet when the first packet is determined to be a target packet to be captured by the capture device. Then, the first server transmits the second packet including the transfer-destination address to the second server using the communication tunnel while the second packet including the first packet is transferred to the transfer-destination address. |
| US08705510B2 |
Method for transmitting feedback information and data using a precoding codebook for multicell cooperative communication in a wireless communication system
Disclosed are a feedback-transmitting method and data-transmitting method, and a method for generating a codebook that can be used in a system such as LTE-A. When multiple base stations operate in a cooperative mode, using a codebook generated according to the present invention, an existing codebook for single cell transmission can be used to generate a codebook for cooperative transmission. |
| US08705508B2 |
Method and system for performing time synchronization between nodes in wireless communication system
A method is provided for synchronizing time between nodes in a wireless communication system. A reference node transmits a first packet to a correspondent node. Upon receiving the first packet, the correspondent node transmits a second packet with a reception time of the first packet recorded therein, to the reference node. Upon receiving the second packet, the reference node calculates a forward delay time using a transmission time and the reception time of the first packet. The correspondent node receives a third packet with the forward delay time from the reference node, and calculates a reverse delay time. The correspondent node calculates an offset value for the synchronization using the forward delay time and the reverse delay time. |
| US08705507B2 |
Radio communication device and radio communication method
The present invention makes it possible to obtain the transmission diversity effect by applying a CDD while reducing the inter-code interference when performing a code multiplexing. When an Ack/Nack signal is transmitted from a user terminal to a base station in an upstream control channel by using an Ack/Nack resource, the signal is code-multiplexed by using a code sequence containing an orthogonal sequence and a cyclic-shifted sequence and transmitted from a plurality of user terminals to the base station. Upon using an aggregation size indicating the number of control signals of the downstream control channel, if the aggregation size is greater than one, it is determined that no resource located at the right of the axis of the cyclic-shifted amount of the cyclic-shifted sequence in the same orthogonal code of the orthogonal sequence is used, and the Ack/Nack signal to which CDD is applied from a plurality of antennas is transmitted by using a resource ACK #0 allocated to the own device and an unused resource ACK #1, which have the same orthogonal code, but have different cyclic-shifted amounts. |
| US08705506B2 |
Time reservation for a dominant interference scenario in a wireless communication network
Techniques for combating high interference in a dominant interference scenario are described. A terminal may observe high interference from an interfering base station in a dominant interference scenario. In an aspect, high interference may be combated by reserving time intervals for a serving base station. The terminal may communicate with the serving base station in the reserved time intervals and may avoid high interference that may desensitize a receiver at the terminal. In one design, the terminal may measure received power of base stations and may report its interference condition. The serving base station may receive a report from the terminal, determine that the terminal is observing high interference, and send a reservation request to the interfering base station to reserve time intervals. The interfering base station may grant the request and return a response. The serving base station may thereafter communicate with the terminal in the reserved time intervals. |
| US08705505B2 |
Distributed medium access scheduling with implicit ordering
Provided is distributed medium access scheduling with implicit ordering (DSIO). The DISO includes the steps of: (a) when any terminal of a plurality of terminals included in a terminal group has data to transmit, promoting the terminal to a transmission data existence layer; (b) when any blue terminal of a plurality of blue terminals included in a blue terminal group has no data to transmit, degrading the blue terminal to a transmission data non-existence layer; and (c) when any red terminal of a plurality of red terminals included in a red terminal group succeeds in intruding between the blue terminals and recognizes whether or not to transmit data without a collision, promoting the red terminal to the blue terminal group. |
| US08705502B2 |
Using encapsulation to enable 802.1 bridging across 802.11 links
In an example embodiment, packet encapsulation is employed to facilitate bridging between bridge ports that do not reflect frames (such as 802.1 compatible bridge ports) and bridge ports that do reflect frames (such as 802.11 compatible clients). Packets from a wireless access point may be sent twice, once with a predefined multicast address for processing by 802.11 clients contained in bridges, and once with the original destination address. In particular embodiments, additional means may be employed to minimize the circumstances where packets are duplicated. |
| US08705500B1 |
Methods and apparatus for upgrading a switch fabric
A method includes installing an interface card having a first module of a switch fabric and a second module of the switch fabric, and an interface card having a third module of the switch fabric in a first chassis, within a first time period. The switch fabric is in a first configuration and is operable as a three-stage switch fabric after the first time period and before a second time period. The interface card having the third module is removed from the first chassis within the second time period. An interface card having a fourth module of the switch fabric and a fifth module of the switch fabric is installed in the first chassis within the second time period. The switch fabric is in a transitional configuration and is operable as a three-stage switch fabric after the second time period but before the third time period. The interface card having the third module is installed in a second chassis and the first chassis is operatively coupled with the second chassis within the third time period. The switch fabric is in a third configuration and is operable as a five-stage switch fabric after the third time period. |
| US08705499B2 |
Mobile wireless access router for separately controlling traffic signal and control signal
A wireless access router for separately controlling a traffic signal and a control signal is provided. In a mobile communication access network structure, in order to optimally support a mobile communication terminal, a control signal and a traffic signal of a base station are divided, and a router is controlled by mobile communication system functions such as a mobility management function, a QoS management function, a session control of the terminal, a mobility control, and a QoS control function that are effectively processed. With a wireless access router having the divided control signal and traffic signal, it is expected the traffic concentration and a packet transmission delay can be prevented. |
| US08705498B2 |
Theme based advertising
Various embodiments of the present disclosure are related to leveraging mobility management techniques implemented in mobile networks to distribute advertisements to mobile devices. In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, advertisements can be transmitted on a broadcast control channel of a base station and in at least one embodiment the advertisements can be relevant to the area the base station services. Mobile devices that detect the broadcast control channel can store the advertisements. If for example, a user is interested in the service, e.g., a product or service, that is offered in the advertisement they can initiate a purchase procedure. |
| US08705495B2 |
Communication method using time-division multiplexing
The invention relates to a communication method using time-division multiplexing, which enables permanent communication between user terminals. One of the terminals is a master terminal, while the others are slave terminals. The transmission channel is divided into consecutive cycles, and each cycle is divided into timeslots. Each slave terminal identifies, in a listening mode, a free timeslot in the current cycle (6) and, in a transmission mode, transmits data in the identified timeslot during at least one subsequent cycle (7). As soon as the slave terminal stops transmitting, the identified slot becomes free again. |
| US08705494B2 |
WiMAX scheduling algorithm for co-located WiFi and WiMAX central points
After receiving an indication that a co-located central point is receiving co-location interference, a scheduling algorithm may be initiated. The scheduling may include allocating equal number of central points within each WiMAX frame. Each central point is allocated into a minimum number of frames subject to WiMAX capacity constraints. |
| US08705493B2 |
Method and apparatus for service identification in a wireless communication system
Methods, apparatuses, and systems for announcing services available in a macro-diversity region of a data frame broadcast by a plurality of base stations in a single frequency network to a plurality of subscriber stations, includes a data frame with at least a data region and a macro-diversity region. A media access control (MAC) management message is generated which identifies content and characteristics of the content in the macro-diversity region. Then the MAC management message is transmitted in the data region of the data frame, wherein the MAC management message is decoded by a client station to determine if there is content of interest to the client station in the macro-diversity region of the data frame. |
| US08705492B2 |
MIMO receiving apparatus and receiving method
A MIMO receiving apparatus that can demodulate a spatially multiplexed signal without using any division operation requiring a large quantity of operation resources. In the MIMO receiving apparatus, stream separation section (105) separates a spatially multiplexed signal into a plurality of streams based on numerator submatrix A. Numerator submatrix A is determined according to channel matrix H and a canceller scheme and corresponds to a numerator of stream separation matrix S that equalizes the phase and amplitude of the spatially multiplexed signal. Denominator part calculation section (108) calculates a denominator (denominator coefficient) of stream separation matrix S and correction section (117) corrects a threshold determined according to a modulation scheme of the spatially multiplexed signal using the denominator (denominator coefficient) of stream separation matrix S. Demapping sections (109-1 to 109-3) calculate likelihoods of the plurality of streams through a threshold decision using the corrected threshold. |
| US08705490B2 |
Handing over a user device from one technology to another
A server device may identify that a user device is connected to a first radio access network (“RAN”), via a first technology. The server device may identify that the user device is capable of accessing a second RAN, via a second technology, where the second RAN is different from the first RAN, and where the second technology is different from the first technology. The server device may also receive an indication that the first RAN is congested. The server device may further determine, based on the indication that first RAN is congested, and further based on identifying that the user device is capable of accessing the second RAN via the second technology, that the user device should be handed over to the second RAN. Additionally, the server device may instruct the user device to connect to the second RAN via the second technology. |
| US08705489B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling a handover between utra R6 cells and R7 cells
A method and apparatus for controlling an optimization of handover procedures between universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA) release 6 (R6) cells and UTRA release 7 (R7) cells are disclosed. When a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) is moving between an R6 cell and an R7 cell, or between R7 cells, a handover is initiated from a source Node-B to a target Node-B. In the R7 cell, the enhanced medium access control (MAC) functionality including flexible radio link control (RLC) protocol data unit (PDU) size and high speed MAC (MAC-hs) segmentation and multiplexing of different priority queues are supported. After the handover, a MAC layer and/or an RLC layer are reconfigured or reset based on functionality supported by the target Node-B. |
| US08705486B2 |
Methods and apparatus for scheduling peer to peer traffic in cellular networks
A wireless terminal receives peer to peer resource control information from a base station. The peer to peer resource control information is used by the wireless terminal in a peer to peer network to control transmission scheduling and/or resource utilization. The base station sends the control signals at a first rate which is slower than the rate at which wireless terminals make transmission decisions for traffic slots. During the intervals between receipt of the base station control signals, wireless terminals make transmission decisions with regard to multiple traffic segments. The decisions are also influenced based on peer to peer signaling occurring between the wireless terminals in the network for each traffic slot. Resource utilization feedback information is provided from the wireless terminal to the base station. Based on the feedback information the base station updates the resource utilization control information and sends updated resource utilization control signals to the wireless terminals. |
| US08705484B2 |
Method for varying transmit power patterns in a multi-cell environment
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for varying transmit power patterns in a multi-cell wireless transmission environment. In one embodiment, the method comprises varying transmit power coordination patterns for base stations in the wireless communication system to jointly vary base station power over a set of virtual channels over base stations within a cluster and across clusters of base stations; and jointly transmitting by groups of the base stations to one or more user terminals in their respective clusters based on the transmit power coordination patterns. |
| US08705483B2 |
Downlink baseband signal generating method, relevant device and system
The downlink baseband signal generating method includes: performing channel coding and modulation on a downlink data stream of a user in a cell, and obtaining a downlink coded and modulated user signal of the cell; generating a downlink control channel signal according to physical-layer control information; and forwarding the reference signal, synchronization signal, broadcast channel signal, downlink coded and modulated user signal, and downlink control channel signal to the corresponding RRU, so that the corresponding RRU performs MIMO precoding on the downlink coded and modulated user signal, maps the MIMO-precoded signal, the downlink control channel signal, reference signal, synchronization signal, and broadcast channel signal to their respective subcarriers, performs IFFT transformation to obtain a downlink baseband signal, and sends the signal out. The embodiments of the present invention can reduce the signal transmission bandwidth between the C-RAN node and the RRU. |
| US08705478B2 |
Method for communicating with data through component carriers in mobile communication system to which carrier aggregation method is applied and apparatus therefor
The present invention relates to a method for enabling a terminal to communicate with data by modifying a connective relationship among component carriers in a mobile communication system to which a carrier aggregation method is applied and a terminal apparatus therefor. The method for enabling the terminal to communicate with the data by modifying the connective relationship among the component carriers in the mobile communication system to which the carrier aggregation method is applied, in connection with one embodiment of the present invention comprises the steps of: receiving a message including identifier information for modifying a connective relationship among at least one downlink component carrier and at least one uplink component carrier from a base station; receiving predetermined data through at least one downlink component carrier from the base station; and transmitting feedback data to the base station for data received through the uplink component carrier modified according to the identifier information. |
| US08705477B2 |
Simultaneous reporting of ACK/NACK and channel-state information using PUCCH format 3 resources
A new uplink control channel capability is introduced to enable a mobile terminal (1500, 1600) to simultaneously report multiple packet receipt status bits and channel-condition bits. In an example embodiment, an encoding circuit (1100) encodes the hybrid-ARQ ACK/NACK bits using a first encoder (1110) and separately encodes the channel-state information bits using a second encoder (1120). The encoded hybrid-ARQ ACK/NACK bits and the encoded channel-state information bits are interleaved, and the interleaved, encoded bits are transmitted in physical control channel resources of a first uplink subframe, on a single carrier. In some embodiments, the interleaved, encoded bits are transmitted in two slots of the first uplink subframe, the two slots having different subcarrier frequencies. In these embodiments, each slot carries a plurality of the encoded hybrid-ARQ ACK/NACK bits and a plurality of the encoded channel-state information bits. |
| US08705476B2 |
Base station apparatus, mobile station apparatus, method for mapping a response signal, and method for determining a response signal resouce
Provided is a radio communication base station device which can obtain a maximum frequency diversity effect of a downstream line control channel. The device includes: an RB allocation unit (101) which allocates upstream line resource blocks continuous on the frequency axis for respective radio communication mobile stations by the frequency scheduling and generates allocation information indicating which upstream line resource block has been allocated to which radio communication mobile station device; and an arrangement unit (109) which arranges a response signal to the radio communication mobile station device in the downstream line control channels distributed/arranged on the frequency axis while being correlated to the continuous upstream line resource blocks according to the allocation information. |
| US08705475B2 |
Scheduling apparatus considering quality of service (QOS)
Disclosed is an efficient scheduling apparatus and method for multi-cell transmission in evolved node bases (eNBs). An eNB scheduling for a multi-cell transmission service may allocate wireless resources based on a priority level, a minimum guaranteed bit rate, and a maximum bit rate. That is, a subframe may be efficiently used by minimizing the number of subframes allocated to a single session while satisfying a quality of service (QoS). |
| US08705472B2 |
Communication control method, mobile station apparatus, and base station apparatus
In order to reduce the amount of feedback information for specifying a precoding weight, the mobile station apparatus generates a control signal for specifying the precoding weight using bits representing a rank indicator (RI) and bits representing a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) from a bit space, including a plurality of bits representing the RI and a plurality of bits representing the PMI, in which the same bits representing the RI are allocated to a plurality of ranks equal to or higher than a predetermined rank. The control signal is transmitted in uplink using the antennas. |
| US08705471B2 |
Method and system for implementing ID/locator mapping
A method and a system for implementing an ID-Locator (ID/LOC) mapping are disclosed. The method includes: after allocating a new IP address to User Equipment (UE), the network side sending an ID/LOC mapping request to an ID-LOC-split Mapping Functional Entity (ILM-FE); and the ILM-FE returning a response with mapping information to the network side according to the received ID/LOC mapping request. The method initiates the ID/LOC mapping based on a network in an ID/locator separation in NGN (IPSPLIT) network, which improves the efficiency of the ID/LOC mapping. |
| US08705469B2 |
Method of sending a data signal via a plurality of transmitter entities
A method of sending a data signal having a series of symbols to a receiver includes generating multiple OFDM signals, which are transmitted by multiple transmitter entities. A succession of pairs of symbols is also generated. The method may also include generating at least one pair of symbols orthogonal to a current pair of symbols of the succession of pairs of symbols, generating at least one duplicated pair of symbols by duplicating the current pair of symbols, and allocating at least one current pair of symbols, at least one orthogonal pair of symbols, and at least one duplicated pair of symbols to the transmitter entities of the plurality of transmitter entities. Generating at least one orthogonal pair, generating a duplicated pair, and the allocating step may be repeated for all the pairs of symbols of the series of symbols. |
| US08705467B2 |
Cross-carrier preamble responses
Methods, apparatus, and program products are disclosed that perform the following: sending an offset to a user equipment; sending an assignment on a control channel, the assignment corresponding to a random access request by the user equipment, wherein the assignment is addressed to the user equipment by using a value determined using the offset; and sending a random access response for the user equipment on resources of a shared channel, the resources corresponding to the assignment. Methods, apparatus, and program products are disclosed that perform the following: receiving at a user equipment an offset; receiving an assignment on a control channel, the assignment corresponding to a random access request, wherein the assignment is addressed to the user equipment by using a value determined using the offset; and receiving a random access response for the user equipment on resources of a shared channel, the resources corresponding to the assignment. |
| US08705464B2 |
Packet scheduling method and communication apparatus using the same
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure provide several packet scheduling methods and communication apparatuses using the same. The packet scheduling method is different from the conventional packet scheduling method, since it does not schedule the sleep interval of the mobile subscriber station based upon the connections as the conventional packet scheduling method. Instead, the packet scheduling method considers the quality of service, and aggregates the data bursts to the frame corresponding to the frame index to which the data bursts are shifted based upon the individual packet, such that a total time length of the sleep intervals of the mobile subscriber station is maximized, and the maximum power saving efficiency is obtained correspondingly. |
| US08705457B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting control channel for frequency resource allocation in a wireless communication system
A method is provided for transmitting a control channel for resource allocation to a terminal by a base station in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) wireless communication system. An additional resource allocation indicator is set indicating whether the number of consecutive resource block sets allocated to a terminal is greater than one. A reference control channel is generated including reference resource allocation information for a first consecutive resource block set and the set additional resource allocation indicator. An additional control channel using additional resource allocation information is generated, when there are one or more additional consecutive resource block sets. At least one of the generated reference control channel and the generated additional control channels is encoded before transmission. |
| US08705454B2 |
Mutual broadcast period and contention access period operating system and method for load control
A method and a system for operating a Mutual Broadcast Period (MBP) and Contention Access Period (CAP) for load control are provided. The proposed system and method is suitable for a short-range communication environment such as communication environment in or around the human body, and is for a mesh network communication environment in which one piconet is formed around the human body or a plurality of devices are connected. When signals carrying biometric information are periodically received from a plurality of sensor devices for medical purposes, the system and method may achieve efficient resource access by performing load control in a distributed manner, contributing to a reduction in access delay and power consumption and enabling appropriate QoS control. |
| US08705451B2 |
Apparatus and method for switching MIMO modes in a wireless communication system
Disclosed is an apparatus for switching MIMO modes, which can efficiently switch an MIMO mode of a mobile station. The apparatus for switching MIMO modes includes an MIMO mode determining unit, a staying time determining unit, and an MIMO mode switching unit. The MIMO mode determining unit determines a current MIMO mode of a mobile station. The staying time determining unit determines a first staying time in a first MIMO mode of the mobile station when the MIMO mode determining unit determines the current MIMO mode of the mobile station as the first MIMO mode for transmitting the same data through a plurality of antennas, and determines a second staying time in a second MIMO mode of the mobile station when the MIMO mode determining unit determines the current MIMO mode of the mobile station as the second MIMO mode for transmitting different data by antenna. The MIMO mode switching unit switches the MIMO mode of the mobile station to the second MIMO mode when the first staying time is greater than or equal to a first threshold staying time. |
| US08705450B2 |
Method for discovering paths with sufficient medium time in wireless mesh networks
A method (200) for discovering paths between source nodes and destination nodes in mesh wireless media (WiMedia) based networks. Each of the discovered paths has sufficient medium time to enable efficient data transfers over the path. The method comprises, upon receiving a route request (RREQ), computing a number of available medium access slots (MAS) of a wireless link between a node receiving the RREQ and a node transmitting the RREQ (S210); computing a number of required MAS to deliver data over the wireless link in an upstream direction (S220); updating a local neighbor link (LNL) list when the number of required MASs is not above the number of available MASs (S240); computing an upper bound value and a lower bound value of a sufficient medium time coefficient (CSMT) (S250); and selecting the path based on at least the upper and lower bound CSMT values (S280). |
| US08705448B2 |
Voice and data connection control in a mobile device
Controlling non-simultaneous voice and data connections between a mobile wireless device and a wireless network is described. Following a voice connection origination failure between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network, the mobile wireless device sends a voice connection redial request only after closing an existing data connection between the mobile wireless device and the wireless network. The mobile wireless device tunes a wireless transceiver to a second voice connection channel radio frequency that differs from a first data connection channel radio frequency and establishes a voice connection with the wireless network on the second voice connection channel radio frequency. |
| US08705444B2 |
Wireless communication method and apparatus for decoding enhanced dedicated channel absolute grant channel transmissions
A method of decoding enhanced uplink absolute grant channel (E-AGCH) transmissions in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU). E-AGCH data is received, the E-AGCH data including a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) part and a data part, the CRC part having been masked with a WTRU identity (ID). The CRC part and the data part are demultiplexed and the CRC part is demasked with a first WTRU ID. A first CRC is performed with the data part and the CRC part demasked with the first WTRU ID. The data part is decoded on a condition that the first CRC passes. |
| US08705439B2 |
Delegation based mobility management
A method of handling mobility-related signaling in a communications system comprising a mobile node, a mobile router, and a peer node. The method comprises providing the mobile router with a delegation certificate that is cryptographically signed by or on behalf of the mobile node. At the mobile router, a mobility-related signaling exchange is initiated with the peer node on behalf of the mobile node, the mobile router providing to the peer node within this exchange, said delegation certificate or an identification of the certificate, and a sequence number associated with the certificate. At the peer node, the received sequence number is compared with a sequence number maintained by the peer node in respect of the delegation certificate, and the exchange authorized in dependence upon the result of the comparison. |
| US08705438B2 |
Methods and apparatus for selecting and/or using a communications band for peer to peer signaling
Methods and apparatus for supporting peer to peer communications are described. A plurality of wide area network communications bands in a wireless communications system are also available for use to communicate peer to peer signals. At different times it may be advantageous for a mobile peer to peer communications device to use a different communications band in order to efficiently share air link resources. A peer to peer communications device receives a signal transmitted by a WAN device, e.g., a base station or WAN wireless terminal, and selects a WAN communications band to use as a function of the received signal, e.g., a corresponding band. In some embodiments, the received signal strength measurements from WAN devices are used in the selection process. In other embodiments, recovered decoded information conveyed in a received WAN device signal is used in the selection process. |
| US08705434B2 |
Methods and arrangements in a wireless communications system
The present invention relates to methods and arrangements that make it possible to control the delay for the UEs to access the EUL resources in the Enhanced Uplink in CELL_FACH state procedure, independently from the delay for the UEs to access 5 ordinary UL resources in the RACH procedure. This is achieved by a solution where the timing of entering (or re-entering) a transmission procedure for Enhanced Uplink in CELL-FACH state is controlled with the help of a transmission control parameter defined specifically for this transmission procedure, instead of using the same parameter as for the RACH procedure. |
| US08705433B2 |
Base station, communication terminal and communication system
A base station (10B) includes a wireless communication unit (11) for performing wireless communication with a communication terminal (30A), a radio resource allocation unit (131) for allocating an individual channel in a resource of the wireless communication, a transmission/reception timing determination unit (132) for determining a transmission/reception timing at which transmission and reception with the communication terminal (30A) through the individual channel is performed, a communication state identification unit (134) for identifying whether the communication with the communication terminal (30A) is indirect communication with interposition of a relay device (50) or direct communication without interposition of the relay device 50, and a reception timing adjustment unit (133) for adjusting a timing at which the individual channel for upstream communication is used in accordance with a result of the identification made by the communication state identification unit (134). |
| US08705431B2 |
Method and system for providing autonomous retransmissions in a wireless communication system
A transmitter that may have marginal power availability is enabled to autonomously retransmit previously transmitted frames containing the same data. The transmitter sends an initial frame to a base transceiver station (BTS) and immediately retransmits the same frame without regard to any ACK/NAK transmission from the BTS. The retransmissions are accumulated in the receiver and decoded after a sufficient quantity of the frame is transmitted. After receiving the last retransmitted frame the BTS sends an ACK/NAK to the transmitter that is accepted. |
| US08705421B2 |
Methods and apparatus for timing synchronization for peer to peer devices operating in WWAN spectrum
A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product are provided in which a clock timing is determined for utilizing resources including peer-to-peer resources based on a WWAN downlink receive timing and a WWAN uplink transmit timing. In addition, the clock timing is utilized for peer-to-peer communication with the peer-to-peer resources. |
| US08705420B2 |
Mobile station and radio base station
A mobile station (UE) according to the present invention includes: a CP length determiner unit (15) configured to determine a length of a CP to be inserted in an uplink signal; and a CP adder unit (14) configured to generate the uplink signal by adding a CP to any one of an inputted signal modulated by DFT-Spread OFDM (Single Carrier FDMA) scheme and an inputted signal modulated OFDM scheme, the CP having the length determined by the CP length determiner unit (15), wherein the cyclic prefix length determiner unit (15) is configured to be capable of setting the length of the CP to be inserted in the uplink signal independently of a length of a CP inserted in a downlink signal. |
| US08705419B2 |
Subframe staggering for relay communication
Techniques for supporting relay communication with subframe staggering are described. For subframe staggering, subframes of different relays are staggered from one another, which can increase the number of potential backhaul subframes. In one design, a first relay determines its access subframes and backhaul subframes, which correspond to different non-overlapping subsets of the subframes of the first relay. The first relay communicates with at least one UE during the access subframes and communicates with a base station during the backhaul subframes. The subframes of the first relay are offset from the subframes of a second relay communicating with the base station. In one design, the access subframes of the first relay includes all subframes with either even or odd indices, which can support data transmission with HARQ. In one design, at least one access subframe corresponds to at least one reserved subframe having reduced transmit power from the base station. |
| US08705414B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving data in wireless communication system
The present invention relates to a method for transmitting and receiving data in a wireless communication system. The method of transmitting data in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention supports time division duplex (TDD), and a base station transmits data to a terminal through a first sub-frame of a first frame and receives a confirmatory response to the data through a second sub-frame of a second frame. The second frame is determined according to hybrid automatic retransmit request (HARQ) processing latency which is the minimal required time from the reception of the data to the transmission of the confirmatory response by the first frame and the terminal. The second sub-frame is determined according to both the first sub-frame and the numbers of the downlink and uplink sub-frames of the first frame, wherein the downlink and uplink sub-frames are respectively used in the HARQ operation. |
| US08705413B2 |
Apparatus and method for transmitting ACK/NACK in TDD system
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for transmitting an ACK/NACK in a TDD system. A component carrier (CC) configuration for a user equipment (UE) and a transmission mode of each CC are received. An ACK/NACK feedback mode is selected based on an overhead status for feedback in an uplink. An ACK/NACK is processed according to the selected feedback mode. And the ACK/NACK is transmitted in the uplink. The method provided by the present invention can avoid excessive overhead for feedback in uplink in various extreme circumstances while ensuring satisfying performances of downlinks under many configurations. |
| US08705412B2 |
Apparatus and method for protecting receive circuits in TDD wireless communication system
An apparatus and a method for protecting receive circuits in a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) wireless communication system are provided. The receive circuit protecting apparatus includes a TDD controller for controlling transmission and reception modes according to transmission and reception intervals, a transmitter for power-amplifying and outputting a Radio Frequency (RF) signal in the transmission mode under control of the TDD controller, and a Transmit/Receive Antenna Switch (TRAS) for, in the transmission mode, forwarding a signal of the transmitter to an antenna feed line under the control of the TDD controller and for absorbing an output signal of the transmitter flowing to the receive circuits using a reflection structure positioned in a reception path, and, in the reception mode, for forwarding a signal fed from the antenna feed line to the receive circuits under the control of the TDD controller. |
| US08705410B2 |
Global conference roster for distributed bridges
When a conference bridge establishes a link line with another conference bridge to provide a global conference, a global conference application executing at the conference bridge establishes a SIP dialout with one or more remote conference bridges. The global conference application uses the XCON standard and/or the CCMP draft standard to subscribe for event notifications for that conference from the remote conference bridge. The received event notifications can be made available for use by the source conference bridge when constructing the roster information for applications executing at the source conference bridge. The received event notifications can be displayed and provide the proper diagram for the distributed conference complete with media, mode, and other information displayed. Further, the system allows the use of intelligent endpoint user interfaces to control mute, lecture mode, sidebars, breaking the bridge into sub-groups, and the like during the conference. |
| US08705408B2 |
Identifying a wireless network device across factory resets
Techniques are presented for discovering a previously configured network device. In one embodiment, a basic service set identification (BSSID) that uniquely identifies a network device (i.e., a router) is saved when the network device or a client device is configured. The stored BSSID indicates that the network device has previously been configured. After the network device is reset—i.e., one or more user-configurable settings return to their default settings—a client device may execute a setup application to reconfigure the network device. The setup application may compare the BSSID being broadcasted by the network device with the BSSID stored in the memory. If the BSSIDs match, the setup application may automatically select the network device without user input. Because the network device was previously configured, the setup application assumes that the user is attempting to reconfigure the network device after it has been reset. |
| US08705406B2 |
Wireless communication method and apparatus for supporting reconfiguration of radio link control parameters
A variety of wireless communication methods and apparatus for supporting reconfiguration of radio link control (RLC) parameters are disclosed. A radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message is generated that indicates that an RLC unit in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) or a universal terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) should be reconfigured from supporting flexible size RLC protocol data units (PDUs) to supporting fixed size RLC PDUs. If an information element (IE) “one sided RLC re-establishment” is present in the RRC reconfiguration message, only a receiving side subassembly in the RLC unit is re-established. Otherwise, both the receiving side subassembly and a transmitting side subassembly in the RLC unit are re-established. Flexible size RLC PDUs may be discarded and a message indicating the discarded flexible size RLC PDUs may be transmitted. The flexible size RLC PDUs may be modified such that they correspond to a set of pre-defined sizes. |
| US08705404B2 |
Method for transmitting and receiving signals using collaborative MIMO scheme
A method for reducing inter-cell interference and a method for transmitting a signal by a collaborative MIMO scheme, in a communication system having a multi-cell environment are disclosed. An example of a method for transmitting, by a mobile station, precoding information in a collaborative MIMO communication system includes determining a precoding matrix set including precoding matrices of one more base stations including a serving base station, based on signal strength of the serving base station, and transmitting information about the precoding matrix set to the serving base station. A mobile station in an edge of a cell performs a collaborative MIMO mode or inter-cell interference mitigation mode using the information about the precoding matrix set collaboratively with neighboring base stations. |
| US08705403B2 |
Load balancing multicast traffic
In certain embodiments, routing multicast traffic includes generating a multicast distribution tree for each mapping of a plurality of mappings. A mapping associates a source with a multicast group. Each multicast group has at least two multicast distribution trees. A frame destined for a first multicast group is received. The first multicast group has a first multicast distribution tree and a second multicast distribution tree. The first multicast distribution tree, but not the second multicast distribution tree, is selected for the frame. The frame is sent over a path designated by the selected multicast distribution tree. |
| US08705401B1 |
Method and apparatus for validating commands for VOIP network components
The invention comprises a method and apparatus for validating at least one command. Specifically, the method comprises receiving the at least one command, wherein the at least one command is associated with at least one command source, processing the at least one command for determining at least one network component for which the at least one command is destined, and validating the at least one command according to at least one attribute, wherein the at least one attribute is associated with at least one of the at least one network component, the at least one command source, and the at least one command. |
| US08705399B2 |
Transmission of synchronization and control signals in a broadband wireless system
In a broadband wireless communication system, a primary control signal may be relocated within the operation band for transmission while avoiding interference. For example, if the primary control signal employs P contiguous sub carriers, the primary control signal can be placed in any section of the band that has P contiguous subcarriers. If a narrow-band interferer appears at one end of the band, the primary control signals can be placed at the other end. If the interferer appears in the middle, the primary can be relocated to either end of the band. The placement of primary control signals can be changed as the interference environment changes. |
| US08705395B2 |
Method for time aware inline remote mirroring
A method of monitoring packet traffic is provided. The method includes: at a first access point, capturing portions of traffic packets passing therethrough separated by time intervals; encapsulating the portions of traffic packets thereby forming encapsulated packets and adding timestamps to the encapsulated packets so as to preserve the portions of traffic packets and information related to the time intervals; transmitting the encapsulated packets over a network; decapsulating the encapsulated packets so as to obtain replay packets and the capture timestamps, wherein the replay packets include the portions of the traffic packets; and, transmitting the replay packets separated by the time intervals, wherein the timestamps are used to reproduce the time intervals so as to imitate the traffic packets passing through the first access point. |
| US08705394B2 |
BGP slow peer detection
In one embodiment, a router selects a particular peer from an original update group used with an Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). The original update group includes a plurality of peers of the router that share a same outbound policy and that receive common update messages, from the router, of routing table information. The router determines that the particular peer is a potential slow peer based on a first type of indicia, wherein a slow peer is a peer that cannot keep up with a rate at which the router generates update messages over a prolonged period of time. The router confirms that one or more second types of indicia are consistent with the particular peer being a slow peer. In response to the confirmation, the router determines that the particular peer is a slow peer. |
| US08705393B2 |
Apparatus and method for communicating data using sequential response protocol
Provided is a data communication method and apparatus based on a sequential response protocol that is applicable to a multiple user multiple input and multiple output (MU-MIMO) system. The data communication apparatus may include response indexes (RIs) with respect to multiple terminals in at least one spatio-temporal stream to be transmitted to the multiple terminals, and the response indexes may be information associated with a transmission sequence of data to be transmitted by the multiple terminals. |
| US08705392B2 |
MU-MIMO-OFDMA multi-rank CQI and precoder signaling schemes
Methods and systems for determining attributes of communication channels of MU-MIMO users in an (OFDMA) system are disclosed. One method includes receiving from a base station, for at least one sub-band of contiguous sub-carriers, an indication of an estimate of or an upper-bound on a total number of streams that are co-scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band. The method further includes determining one or more signal quality measures for the at least one sub-band based on the estimate of or the upper-bound on the total number of streams that are scheduled by the base station on the at least one sub-band in accordance with at least one of single-user scheduling rules or multi-user scheduling rules. In addition, the method includes transmitting to the base station an indication of the one or more signal quality measures and at least one tag identifying each signal quality measure as being determined in accordance with the single-user scheduling rules or the multi-user scheduling rules. |
| US08705390B2 |
Techniques for monitoring the quality of short-range wireless links
A method for monitoring of a wireless link quality comprises measuring the link quality of a wireless link (120-XY) between a beacon device (110-X) transmitting a beacon and a beacon device (110-Y) receiving the beacon, wherein the measuring is performed by the receiving device (S320); saving link quality measures in a local neighborhood link quality (LNLQ) table (400) maintained by the receiving device (110-Y) (S330); and advertising the link quality measures of wireless links by transmitting the measures in beacons (S340). |
| US08705387B2 |
Time synchronization of a plurality of different wireless networks with data sensors
The invention relates to a method for time synchronization of a plurality of different wireless networks A, B, each wireless network (A, B) comprising at least one data sensor (A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, B.1, B.2, B.3, B.4) for measuring data and a gateway (A.0, B.0) to which the measured data is sent, wherein a common time master (TM) is used which broadcasts time synchronization messages to all networks (A, B) involved. This way, a possibility of time synchronization of a plurality of different wireless networks (A, B) in an easy, efficient and reliable manner is achieved. |
| US08705384B2 |
Remote control of transmitter-side rate adaptation
In general, this disclosure is directed to techniques for remotely controlling a transmitter-side rate adaptation algorithm. According to one aspect, a method includes detecting, with a receiver device, that a packet received from a transmitter is corrupted. The method further includes sending, with the receiver device, a positive acknowledgement for the packet to the transmitter in response to at least detecting that the packet is corrupted. According to another aspect, a method includes determining, with a receiver device, a targeted outcome for a rate adaptation algorithm performed by a transmitter. The method further includes using, with the receiver device, positive acknowledgements to remotely control the rate adaptation algorithm performed by the transmitter based on at least the targeted outcome. |
| US08705382B2 |
Method of communication between devices operating within a wireless communication system
A subscriber station (SS) utilizes uplink resources that have been assigned to it for communicating with an infrastructure station to exchange data with a neighboring SS while maintaining its link to the infrastructure station. This is accomplished by the SS receiving an uplink allocation from the infrastructure station, transmitting a subscriber-to-infrastructure station header and trailer to the infrastructure station using the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) assigned by the infrastructure station and also transmitting a subscriber-to-subscriber (S2S) message payload, optionally using a second MCS level appropriate for the link between itself and the receiving SS. The subscriber to infrastructure station message is composed so that it occupies the first m codewords and contains a header that describes the length of the subscriber to infrastructure station message. The subscriber to infrastructure station message, then, is followed by the S2S message, composed to occupy the remaining symbols of the allocation. |
| US08705381B2 |
Communication embodiments and low latency path selection in a multi-topology network
In one embodiment, a source device (e.g., a VOIP phone) establishes a call connection with a remote device depending on which of multiple network paths provides an acceptable latency (e.g., a lower latency). For example, in response to receiving a request to establish a connection with a remote destination device over a network, the source device (e.g., a caller's phone) obtains multiple service code values. The source device encodes each of multiple data packets to include a unique service code value for transmission of the messages over different network topologies to a remote destination. Thus, when transmitted, each of the multiple messages follows a different logical network topology of a network as specified by a respective service code value. Based on feedback from a remote device that receives the multiple messages, the source learns a preferred logical network topology of the network for establishing the call connection. |
| US08705375B2 |
Power save protocol interoperability detection
The present invention provides a method and apparatus featuring performing detection functionality to determine if a wirelessly connected node, point or terminal in a wireless network configured to operate according a predefined power saving scheme operates incorrectly; and adjusting the predefined power saving scheme when wirelessly connected with the particular node, point or terminal if an incorrect power saving operation is detected. The detection functionality may include probing types of power saving protocol tests and using lower and higher-layer protocol information to detect if the mobile device might be missing some data. The adjusting may include: 1) disabling the predefined power saving scheme, or 2) switching entering into the predefined power savings scheme only after a predefined inactivity period, wherein the predefined inactivity is substantially longer than in “normal” operation. |
| US08705374B1 |
Method and apparatus for isolating label-switched path impairments
A method and apparatus for diagnosing and isolating label-switched-path impairments in a network are disclosed. For example, the present method receives an impairment notification indicating a potential impairment for at least one label switched path between a source device and a destination device. The method then identifies all routers along each of the at least one label switched path. The method then determines automatically whether each of the routers along each of the at least one label switched path is enabled for exchanging label mapping information. Finally, the method identifies at least one of the at least one label switched path as being impaired if at least one of the routers on the switched path is deemed not enabled for exchanging label mapping information. |
| US08705370B2 |
RF channel switching in broadcast OFDM systems
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate monitoring RF channels in a wireless communication environment to determine whether one or more channels comprise a forward-link-only (FLO) signal. A receiver can receive a first RF channel with a FLO signal and can monitor other RF channels for FLO signals. Upon a determination that a monitored RF channel comprises a FLO signal, the receiver can switch between the first RF channel and the monitored RF channel to facilitate providing seamless reception of the FLO signal, which can be superframe synchronized between RF channels. FLO signal detection can be performed using one or more of a wide-area identification channel energy detection protocol and a wide-area overhead information symbol decoding error detection protocol. |
| US08705367B2 |
TCP extension and variants for handling heterogeneous applications
An extension to TCP is generally provided that allows TCP to handle heterogeneous applications, especially those with delay and smoothness-sensitive contents, and wireless transmission media having noisy, fading radio channels. The TCP extension decouples reliability control from rate control, sacrificing reliability for delay control (transmission rate and retransmission decision) that may be suitable for delay and smoothness-sensitive contents. Furthermore, the TCP extension may select TCP variants and modifications to the TCP variants based on one or more of application needs, channel conditions, or local observables such as loss and delay to better adapt to different types of applications and physical layers. |
| US08705363B2 |
Packet scheduling method and apparatus
Improved packet scheduling methods and apparatuses for use in, among other things, a network interface of a router (or other network element) are described herein. In one such improved method, packets buffered in a network interface are segmented for transmission on a communications link into multiple scheduling domains each being represented by a scheduling tree, each scheduling tree is assigned to a separate virtual port scheduling engine, and a top level scheduling engine is employed to schedule between the outputs of the virtual port scheduling engines to make the final choice of which buffered packet to transmit on the communications link (e.g., to move to the transmit queue of the network interface). By having the virtual port scheduling engines operate in parallel and substantially independently of each other, the rate at which packet can be moved into the transmit queue may increase greatly, thereby increasing the bandwidth of the network interface of the router. |
| US08705362B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus for detecting a pattern within a data packet
Systems, devices, and methods for finding a captured data packet including a data pattern of interest are herein provided. The captured data packet may be included in the traffic flow of data packets received at a network captured traffic distribution device and may be found by scanning the payload portions of data packets included in the traffic flow to find a data packet including a data content pattern of interest. An egress port of the network captured traffic distribution device associated with a found data packet may be determined based upon the data pattern of interest detected in the payload portion of the found data packet and the found data packet may then be transmitted to its assigned egress port. |
| US08705360B2 |
Stream control in a MIMO-enabled mesh network
In a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) enabled mesh network, streams for transmitting data from a node to a destination node are controlled based on next hop latency and available stream capacity at neighboring, next hop nodes. Routing information maintained and dynamically updated at each node includes latency information associated with each next hop for transmission from the node to a given destination node and current available stream capacity for such next hop nodes. A controller at the node utilizes that information to select one or more next hop nodes to which the data is forwarded as well as to determine a number of streams that may be initiated with each selected next hop node. |
| US08705357B2 |
Method and system for controlling TCP traffic with random early detection and window size adjustments
A method for controlling data traffic with random early detection and window size adjustments including performing random early detection on incoming data packets, calculating a simple moving average of packet dropping probabilities for the data packets as calculated when performing random early detection, decreasing an advertised window size if the simple moving average is greater than a probability target plus a tolerance factor, increasing the advertised window size if the simple moving average is less than the probability target minus a tolerance factor, and not adjusting the window size if the simple moving average is not greater than a probability target plus a tolerance factor and not less than a probability target minus a tolerance factor. |
| US08705356B2 |
Transparent network traffic inspection
Methods and systems are disclosed for providing parties with levels of transparency into filtering functionality of network traffic inspection implementations. Embodiments include receiving a filter change request from a subscriber over a network that defines a modification to a set of filter criteria for filtering network traffic, the filter criteria being stored in association with the subscriber in a filter criteria data store; updating the set of filter criteria in the filter criteria data store as a function of the filter change request; receiving a content dataset relating to the network traffic; identifying the content dataset as being associated with the subscriber; retrieving the set of filter criteria associated with the subscriber from the data store; and filtering the network traffic as a function of the set of filter criteria. Embodiments further provide layers of access for different entities to the filtered traffic. |
| US08705355B1 |
Network switch and method for asserting flow control of frames transmitted to the network switch
A first network switch includes a first queue that stores first frames transmitted to the first network switch from a second network switch, and stores second frames transmitted to the first network switch from a third network switch. A first port receives the first and second frames from the first queue, and transmits the first and second frames from the first network switch. A second port receives third frames transmitted to the first network switch from the third network switch, and transmits the third frames from the first network switch. A first control module, based on whether the first queue is filled above a threshold, sends a first message to the third network switch to assert flow control for the second frames and not for the third frames including adjusting a transmission rate of the second frames from the third network switch to the first network switch. |
| US08705351B1 |
Method and system for load balancing in networks
Method and system is provided for handling both network traffic and storage traffic to and from a plurality of nodes. The system includes a converged switch module that includes a plurality of ports configured to operate as a part of a group that is managed by a controller and each of the plurality of ports are configurable to process network traffic, storage traffic or a combination of both network traffic and storage traffic to and from a virtual port. The controller selects one of the plurality of ports to operate as a primary port for responding to a solicitation message from one of a plurality of nodes addressed to any of the ports within the group. |
| US08705350B2 |
Methods and systems for maintaining quality of service (QoS) levels for data transmissions
A system is provided for maintaining Quality of Service (“QoS”) parameters of data transmissions. A packet-switched network framework is provided. The network framework includes at least one router for routing the data transmissions over the network framework. The network framework also includes multiple links, including a first link and a second link. The first link forms at least part of a first path over the network framework, and the second link forms at least part of an alternate, second path over the network framework. A link utilization monitor is configured to monitor a link utilization rate of the first link and to determine whether the rate has exceeded a predetermined maximum utilization threshold. The router is configured to reroute data transmissions over the second link when the rate is determined to have exceeded the predetermined maximum utilization threshold. |
| US08705348B2 |
Use of metadata for time based anti-replay
A system and method for facilitating anti-replay protection with multi-sender traffic is disclosed. The system employs time-based anti-replay protection wherein a sender transmits a data packet with a pseudo-timestamp encapsulated in a metadata payload. At the receiving end, the receiver compares the pseudo-timestamp information received with its own pseudo-time, determines if a packet is valid, and rejects a replay packet. The pseudo-time information is transmitted through the metadata payload and new fields need not be added to the IPSec (IP Security) Protocol, thus the existing hardware can be employed without any changes or modifications. |
| US08705344B2 |
Graceful failover of a principal link in a fiber-channel fabric
In one embodiment, detecting a failure mode of a first communication link on a first port, selecting a second communication link on a second port associated with the first port, and transmitting a profile information associated with the second port are provided. |
| US08705342B2 |
Co-scheduling of network resource provisioning and host-to-host bandwidth reservation on high-performance network and storage systems
A cross-domain network resource reservation scheduler configured to schedule a path from at least one end-site includes a management plane device configured to monitor and provide information representing at least one of functionality, performance, faults, and fault recovery associated with a network resource; a control plane device configured to at least one of schedule the network resource, provision local area network quality of service, provision local area network bandwidth, and provision wide area network bandwidth; and a service plane device configured to interface with the control plane device to reserve the network resource based on a reservation request and the information from the management plane device. Corresponding methods and computer-readable medium are also disclosed. |
| US08705336B2 |
Delayed data feeding for increased media access control processing time
A system and method are provided that are operable for network communications that promote network devices to receive a transmit request, transmit a first part of a frame by a physical layer without a second part of the frame from a medium access control layer, and request the second part of the frame by the physical layer from the medium access control layer. These systems and methods also allow, in some embodiments, for the transmitting of the second part of the frame by the physical layer with data from the medium access control layer. |
| US08705334B2 |
Replica disk for data storage
Data storage replica disks having a surface relief pattern with replica lands and replica grooves are provided. |
| US08705330B1 |
Method and system for fault protection using a linear feedback shift register
A method, system and apparatus for fault protection using a linear feedback shift register are presented. The system comprises a protected register containing a first portion for holding a value for a sequence of numbers and a second portion for other parameters. The system also comprises a linear feedback shift register circuit configured to write the sequence of numbers to the first portion of the protected register. If the written sequence of numbers of the protected register matches a reference sequence of numbers, a rewrite circuit is configured to write the second portion of the protected register. |
| US08705329B2 |
Manufacturing method for optical disc, optical disc, playback method for optical disc, playback apparatus for optical disc, recording apparatus for optical disc
Address information that has been error correction encoded is recorded on a second version of a recording medium after being transformed such that such that the address decoding cannot be performed by a playback device that is not compatible with the second version of the recording medium. The address decoding for the second version of the recording medium cannot be performed by the incompatible playback device (for example, a playback device that was manufactured to be compatible only with a first version of the recording medium). In other words, in the playback device that is not compatible with the second version of the recording medium, a state is created in which address errors cannot be corrected, so access is impossible (recording and playback are impossible). |
| US08705328B2 |
Read signal evaluation method, information recording and reading method, and information recording and reading apparatus
A read signal evaluating means for ensuring compatibility in an optical phase multilevel recording and reading system is provided. In addition, a decoding means not large in circuit scale is provided. An optical phase is modulated based on user data, and phase information thus obtained is recorded in a recording medium. Then, the phase information recorded in the recording medium is optically read, and is converted into an electric signal. The signal is subjected to adaptive equalization and to partial response most-likely decoding. A shift in a time axis direction from a target wave of a predetermined pattern is detected from the read phase information and a statistical average is calculated. Meanwhile, a value of the phase read from the predetermined pattern is extracted from the read phase information and a statistical average is calculated. |
| US08705325B2 |
Thermal-assisted magnetic recording head capable of supressing the temperature rise of scatterer
The present invention suppresses temperature rise of an optical near-field generator while increasing optical near-field intensity in a thermally assisted magnetic recording head using a conductive scatterer as the optical near-field generator. The present invention uses a conductive scatterer having a cross-sectional shape in which its width is gradually reduced toward an apex where an optical near-field is generated, and also has a shape in which its width is reduced gradually or in a stepwise fashion toward the apex where the optical near-field is generated in a traveling direction of incident light. |
| US08705321B2 |
Electronic timepiece and time adjustment method for an electronic timepiece
An electronic timepiece includes a reception unit that receives satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquires time information and positioning information, a time zone information storage unit that stores region data dividing geographical information containing time difference information into a plurality of regions, and time difference information contained in each region, a time difference information acquisition unit that extracts the region containing the positioning information acquired by the reception unit from the region data, and acquires the time difference information contained in that region, and a time calculation unit that calculates the current time based on the time difference information acquired by the time difference information acquisition unit and the time information acquired by the reception unit. The region data stored in the time zone information storage unit including region data dividing the geographical information into a plurality of regions, and region data further dividing each region that contains a plurality of time difference values into a plurality of regions. |
| US08705315B2 |
Simultaneous wavelet extraction and deconvolution in the time domain
Blind wavelet extraction and de-convolution is performed on seismic data to enable its practical usage in seismic processing and to provide quality control of data obtained in areas where data from wells are not available. The wavelet extraction and deconvolution are realized in the time domain by iteration, producing a mixed phase wavelet with minimal prior knowledge of the actual nature of the wavelet. As a result of the processing, the de-convolved seismic reflectivity is obtained simultaneously. |
| US08705314B2 |
Method for deployment of ocean bottom seismometers
A deployment and retrieval method for ocean bottom seismic receivers, the method employs a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) having a carrier attached thereto to carry a plurality of receivers. The receivers are individually placed on the ocean bottom floor by utilizing a conveyor to move the receivers along a linear path to remove the receivers from the carrier. In one embodiment, multiple linear conveyors may be operated independently to alter the relative positions of the receivers on the respective conveyors to adjust the weight distribution of the receivers within the carrier. |
| US08705312B2 |
Clock signal generation apparatus for use in semiconductor memory device and its method
A clock signal generation apparatus for generating a reference clock signal for outputting data in synchronization with an external clock signal from a semiconductor memory device, including: a clock signal generation unit for receiving an internal clock signal to generate the reference clock signal according to a control signal; and a control unit for generating the control signal based on a read command, a write command and an external address. |
| US08705311B2 |
Forming multiprocessor systems using dual processors
In one embodiment, link logic of a multi-chip processor (MCP) formed using multiple processors may interface with a first point-to-point (PtP) link coupled between the MCP and an off-package agent and another PtP link coupled between first and second processors of the MCP, where the on-package PtP link operates at a greater bandwidth than the first PtP link. Other embodiments are described and claimed. |
| US08705310B2 |
Access methods and circuits for memory devices having multiple banks
A method can include storing bank addresses, if received, on at least rising and falling edges of a same clock cycle; and if addresses stored on the rising and falling edges of the same clock cycle correspond to different banks of a memory device, starting accesses to both banks after the falling edge of the clock cycle; wherein any of the banks can be accessed in response to an address stored on a rising edge of a next clock cycle. Devices and additional methods are also disclosed. |
| US08705307B2 |
Memory system with dynamic refreshing
An embodiment provided is a memory system with dynamic refreshing that includes a memory device with memory cells. The system also includes a refresh module in communication with the memory device and with a memory controller, the refresh module configured for receiving a refresh command from the memory controller and for refreshing a number of the memory cells in the memory device in response to receiving the refresh command. The number of memory cells refreshed in response to receiving the refresh command is responsive to at least one of a desired bandwidth characteristic and a desired latency characteristic. |
| US08705306B2 |
Method for using a bit specific reference level to read a phase change memory
A voltage derived from accessing a selected bit using one read current may be utilized to read a selected bit of an untriggered phase change memory after the read current is changed. As a result, different reference voltages may be used to sense the state of more resistive versus a less resistive selected cells. The resulting read window or margin may be improved in some embodiments. |
| US08705304B2 |
Current mode sense amplifier with passive load
Memories, current mode sense amplifiers, and methods for operating the same are disclosed, including a current mode sense amplifier including cross-coupled p-channel transistors and a load circuit coupled to the cross-coupled p-channel transistors. The load circuit is configured to provide a resistance to control at least in part the loop gain of the current mode sense amplifier, the load circuit including at least passive resistance. |
| US08705297B2 |
Semiconductor memory devices and semiconductor memory systems
A semiconductor memory device includes at least one memory cell block and at least one connection unit. The at least one memory cell block has a first region including at least one first memory cell connected to a first bit line, and a second region including at least one second memory cell connected to a second bit line. The at least one connection unit is configured to selectively connect the first bit line to a corresponding bit line sense amplifier based on a first control signal, and configured to selectively connect the second bit line to the corresponding bit line sense amplifier via a corresponding global bit line based on a second control signal. |
| US08705296B2 |
Memory controller and control method
A memory controller includes: a first write circuit configured to write a first dummy pattern including a plurality of consecutive first dummy values at a first address of a memory; a second write circuit configured to write a first pattern including a plurality of types of consecutive values at a second address of the memory after a write operation of the first dummy pattern by the first write circuit; a third write circuit configured to write a second dummy pattern including a plurality of consecutive second dummy values at a third address of the memory after a write operation of the first pattern by the second write circuit; a read circuit configured to read the written first pattern based on the second address of the memory; and a timing adjustment circuit configured to adjust a timing at which data is written into the memory based on a read first pattern. |
| US08705295B2 |
Semiconductor memory system and method for driving the same
A method for driving a semiconductor memory device includes controlling a plurality of erase voltages for a plurality of memory blocks, respectively, comparing the plurality of controlled erase voltages, and determining whether or not to enable the plurality of memory blocks for a subsequent write operation in response to a result of the comparison. |
| US08705294B2 |
Nonvolatile memory and method of controlling thereof
A memory system includes a nonvolatile memory and a controller. The nonvolatile memory includes a memory cell array storing setup data and reference data, and first and second latch units respectively configured to store the setup data and the reference data sensed from the memory cell array upon a power-up of the memory system. The controller is configured to control a sensing operation of the nonvolatile memory. An operating environment of the nonvolatile memory is determined by the setup data stored in the first latch unit, and the controller controls the nonvolatile memory to re-store the setup data of the memory cell array in the first latch unit when the reference data of the second latch unit is changed. |
| US08705293B2 |
Compact sense amplifier for non-volatile memory suitable for quick pass write
A compact and versatile sense amp is presented. Among its other features this sense amp arrangement provides a way to pre-charge bit lines while doing data scanning. Another feature is that the sense amp circuit can provide a way to set three different bit line levels used in the quick pass write (QPW) technique using dynamic latch, where quick pass write is a technique where cells along a given word line selected for programming can be enabled, inhibited, or partially inhibited for programming. Also, it can provide a convenient way to measure the cell current. |
| US08705292B2 |
Nonvolatile memory circuit with an oxide semiconductor transistor for reducing power consumption and electronic device
To provide a nonvolatile memory circuit having a novel structure. A first memory circuit, a second memory circuit, a first switch, a second switch, and a phase inverter circuit are included. The first memory circuit includes a first transistor formed using an oxide semiconductor film, a second transistor, a third transistor, and a capacitor. The first transistor formed using an oxide semiconductor film and the capacitor are used to form the nonvolatile memory circuit. Reductions in number of power supply lines and signal lines which are connected to the memory circuit and transistors used in the memory circuit allow a reduction in circuit scale of the nonvolatile memory circuit. |
| US08705288B2 |
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory with a source line potential level detection circuit
According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory includes a source line connected to first and second cell units, a cell-source driver setting the source line on a fixed potential in a programming, a data latch circuit temporary storing program data, a hookup circuit connecting one of the first and second bit lines to the data latch circuit, and connecting the other one of the first and second bit lines to the source line, in the programming, a level detection circuit detecting a potential level of the source line, and a control circuit determining a completion of a charge of the first and second bit lines when the potential level of the source line is larger than a threshold value, and making a charge time of the first and second bit lines variable, in the programming. |
| US08705283B2 |
Erase techniques and circuits therefor for non-volatile memory devices
Disclosed herein is a method that comprises applying a first voltage to a memory cell, applying again the first voltage to the memory cell when the memory cell have not been shifted to an erased condition, and applying a second voltage to the memory cell when the memory cell have not still been shifted to an erased condition, the second voltage being higher than the first voltage. |
| US08705277B2 |
Non-volatile memory programming
Some embodiments include a memory device and a method of programming memory cells of the memory device. One such method includes applying different voltages to data lines associated with different memory cells based on threshold voltages of the memory cells in an erased state. Other embodiments including additional memory devices and methods are described. |
| US08705276B2 |
Semiconductor memory device, reading method thereof, and data storage device having the same
A reading method of a semiconductor memory device having a multi-level memory cell includes the steps of: reading flag data indicating whether the most significant bit (MSB) of data programmed in the multi-level memory cell is programmed or not; storing the read flag data; reading the least significant bit (LSB) of the data programmed in the multi-level memory cell, based on the read flag data; and reading the MSB of the data programmed in the multi-level memory cell based on the stored flag data. |
| US08705274B2 |
Three-dimensional multi-bit non-volatile memory and method for manufacturing the same
The present disclosure relates to the field of microelectronics manufacture and memories. A three-dimensional multi-bit non-volatile memory and a method for manufacturing the same are disclosed. The memory comprises a plurality of memory cells constituting a memory array. The memory array may comprise: a gate stack structure; periodically and alternately arranged gate stack regions and channel region spaces; gate dielectric layers for discrete charge storage; periodically arranged channel regions; source doping regions and drain doping regions symmetrically arranged to each other; bit lines led from the source doping regions and the drain doping regions; and word lines led from the gate stack regions. The gate dielectric layers for discrete charge storage can provide physical storage spots to achieve single-bit or multi-bit operations, so as to achieve a high storage density. According to the present disclosure, the localized charge storage characteristic of the charge trapping layer and characteristics such as a longer effective channel length and a higher density of a vertical memory structure are utilized, to provide multiple storage spots in a single memory cell. Therefore, the storage density is improved while good performances such as high speed are ensured. |
| US08705273B2 |
Negative voltage generator, decoder, nonvolatile memory device and memory system using negative voltage
A negative voltage generator includes a direct current voltage generator configured to generate a direct current voltage, a reference voltage generator configured to generate a reference voltage, an oscillator configured to generate an oscillation clock, a charge pump configured to generate a negative voltage in response to a pump clock, and a voltage detector. The voltage detector is configured to detect the negative voltage by comparing a division voltage, obtained by voltage dividing the direct current voltage, with the reference voltage, and to generate the pump clock corresponding to the detected negative voltage based on the oscillation clock. |
| US08705271B2 |
Semiconductor device
The performance of a semiconductor device including a nonvolatile memory is enhanced. Each of nonvolatile memory cells arranged over a silicon substrate includes: a first n-well; a second n-well formed in a place different from the place thereof; a selection transistor formed in the first n-well; and an electric charge storage portion having a floating gate electrode and a storage portion p-well. The floating gate electrode is so placed that it overlaps with part of the first n-well and the second n-well. The storage portion p-well is placed in the first n-well so that it partly overlaps with the floating gate electrode. In this nonvolatile memory cell, memory information is erased by applying positive voltage to the second n-well to discharge electrons in the floating gate electrode to the second n-well. |
| US08705267B2 |
Integrated circuit, method for driving the same, and semiconductor device
An integrated circuit which can be switched to a resting state and can be returned from the resting state rapidly is provided. An integrated circuit whose power consumption can be reduced without the decrease in operation speed is provided. A method for driving the integrated circuit is provided. The integrated circuit includes a first flip-flop and a second flip-flop including a nonvolatile memory circuit. In an operating state in which power is supplied, the first flip-flop retains data. In a resting state in which supply of power is stopped, the second flip-flop retains data. On transition from the operating state into the resting state, the data is transferred from the first flip-flop to the second flip-flop. On return from the resting state to the operating state, the data is transferred from the second flip-flop to the first flip-flop. |
| US08705261B2 |
Semiconductor device having dummy bit lines wider than bit lines
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a plurality of dummy line patterns arranged at a first pitch on an underlying region, forming first mask patterns having predetermined mask portions formed on long sides of the dummy line patterns, each of the first mask patterns having a closed-loop shape and surrounding each of the dummy line patterns, removing the dummy line patterns, forming a second mask pattern having a first pattern portion which covers end portions of the first mask patterns and inter-end portions each located between adjacent ones of the end portions, etching the underlying region using the first mask patterns and the second mask pattern as a mask to form trenches each located between adjacent ones of the predetermined mask portions, and filling the trenches with a predetermined material. |
| US08705255B2 |
Method for measuring an alternating current which is generated using inverters, and arrangement for carrying out the method
There is described a method for measuring an alternating current which is generated using inverters and is fed into an AC power system, wherein a zero crossing signal of the AC power system is predefined, and wherein, triggered by the zero crossing signal, the measured alternating current is periodically adjusted in such a manner that an adjustment value which is assigned to the zero crossing signal is predefined, a measured value which is assigned to the zero crossing signal being adapted to said adjustment value. This method makes it possible for the measurement signal detected by a measuring circuit to be periodically adjusted using an adjustment value even during operation. |
| US08705254B2 |
Single-phase and three-phase dual buck-boost/buck power factor correction circuits and controlling method thereof
The configurations of a single-phase dual buck-boost/buck power factor correction (PFC) circuit and a controlling method thereof are provided in the present invention. The proposed circuit includes a single-phase three-level buck-boost PFC circuit receiving an input voltage and having a first output terminal, a neutral-point and a second output terminal for outputting a first and a second output voltages, a single-phase three-level buck PFC circuit receiving the input voltage and coupled to the first output terminal, the neutral-point and the second output terminal, a first output capacitor coupled to the first output terminal and the neutral-point, a second output capacitor coupled to the neutral-point and the second output terminal, and a neutral line coupled to the neutral-point. |
| US08705253B2 |
Isolated SEPIC power converter for light emitting diodes and other applications
A system includes a load and a single-ended primary-inductance converter (SEPIC) power converter configured to provide power to the load. The SEPIC power converter includes a primary side and a secondary side that are electrically isolated by a transformer. The transformer includes a primary coil and a secondary coil. The primary side includes (i) a capacitor coupled to a first end of the primary coil and (ii) an inductor and a switch coupled to a second end of the primary coil. The primary side of the SEPIC power converter could also include a diode coupled between the inductor and the switch, where the diode is coupled to the second end of the primary coil. The capacitor could be configured to transfer energy to the secondary side of the SEPIC power converter through the transformer during valleys associated with a rectified input voltage. |
| US08705252B2 |
Off line resonant converter with merged line rectification and power factor correction
An off line resonant converter includes a boost storage inductance circuit coupled to a switcher circuit that includes stacked first and second passive switching devices coupled to the boost storage inductance circuit and stacked first and second active bidirectional switching devices coupled to the stacked first and second passive switching devices. The stacked first and second active bidirectional switching devices generate a square wave signal and alternately store energy in and receive energy from the boost storage inductance circuit such that a pulsating current is conducted between the boost storage inductance circuit and the switcher circuit. The pulsating current is bidirectional and flows in a direction responsive to a polarity of the ac input line voltage. A resonant circuit is coupled to an output of the switcher circuit to receive the square wave signal from the switcher circuit to generate an output of the resonant converter. |
| US08705251B2 |
Bidirectional DC/DC converter and power conditioner
A bidirectional DC/DC converter includes a bidirectional DC/AC conversion circuit including a push-pull circuit connected between voltage terminals and a winding and having a switching element and a switching element coupled to opposing ends of the winding respectively, and an up-conversion circuit coupled to the push-pull circuit and the voltage terminals, and the up-conversion circuit includes an inductor for allowing passage of a current through the winding, the switching element in an ON state and the switching element in an ON state owing to stored magnetic energy, and a switching element forming a current path going through the voltage terminal, the inductor and the voltage terminal but not through the switching element and the switching element as it is turned on. |
| US08705247B2 |
Circuit board and mother laminated body
A circuit board includes a laminated body including insulation layers made of a flexible material that are stacked on one another. External electrodes are provided on a bottom surface of the laminated body. Ground conductors are provided in the laminated body and that are harder than the insulation layers. The laminated body includes a flexible region and a rigid region that is adjacent to the flexible region when viewed in plan from a z-axis direction. The rigid region is defined by the ground conductors when viewed in plan from the z-axis direction. The external electrodes are provided within the flexible region when viewed in plan from the z-axis direction. |
| US08705244B2 |
Projector and unit for projector
A projector includes: a mounting unit for mounting optional unit (2) having an extension function section, connection substrate (7), and cable (6) for electrically connecting the extension function section and connection substrate (7); mother substrate (31) having connector (31a) to which terminal (7a) is electrically connected; Z-shaped guide metal fitting (40) located on the mounting unit and configured to movably guide terminal (7a) to connector (31a); and a case having mother substrate (31) located therein. One side face of the case has an opening for inserting/removing optional unit (2) into/from the case, and a side panel for covering the opening being removably located in the opening. When optional unit (2) is inserted into the case from the opening, connection substrate (7) is guided by Z-shaped guide metal filling (40), and optional unit (2) functions when terminal (7a) is electrically connected to connector (31a). |
| US08705243B2 |
External storage device
Described are external storage devices including a substrate, a controller electrically coupled to the substrate, at least one memory die stack electrically coupled to the substrate, a plurality of connection fingers electrically coupled to the substrate, and a mounting bar electrically coupled to the substrate. The mounting bar may include a plurality of springs. In other examples, the external storage device may include a substrate, a controller electrically coupled to the substrate, at least one memory die stack electrically coupled to the substrate, a plurality of connection fingers electrically coupled to the substrate, and a contact bar electrically coupled to the substrate. The contact bar may include a plurality of extensions. One or more memory die stacks may be coupled to one or more surfaces of the substrate and may include a plurality of dies in each memory die stack. |
| US08705241B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes a casing and a battery module removably locked to the casing. The casing includes a connecting wall, two inner side walls connected to opposite ends of the connecting wall and having pillars protruding therefrom, and a first magnetic member disposed at the connecting wall. The battery module includes a first side wall to abut against the connecting wall, and two second side walls connected to two opposite ends of the first sidewall. A second magnetic member is disposed at the first side wall and has a magnetic attraction force with the first magnetic member. Each second side wall is formed with a guiding groove extending along an insertion direction of the battery module for engaging a corresponding pillar. |
| US08705237B2 |
Thermally conductive and electrically insulative card guide
A card guide may include an aluminum substrate and a hard anodized coating formed on the aluminum substrate. In some examples, the hard anodized coating may have an electrical resistance of greater than about 100,000,000 ohms. Additionally or alternatively, the hard anodized coating may have a thickness of greater than about 38.1 μm (0.015 inch). |
| US08705236B2 |
Loop heat pipe and electronic apparatus
A loop heat pipe includes: an evaporator to convert liquid phase working fluid into vapor phase working fluid; a condenser to convert vapor phase working fluid into liquid phase working fluid; a first vapor line and a first liquid line to allow the evaporator to communicate with the condenser and form a circular main loop; and a second vapor line and a second liquid line to allow the evaporator to communicate with the condenser and form a circular auxiliary loop; wherein the evaporator includes a reservoir that temporarily stores the liquid phase working fluid, a first vapor collector that communicates with the first vapor line, a second vapor collector that communicates with the second vapor line, first wick disposed between the reservoir and the first vapor collector, and second wick disposed between the reservoir and the second vapor collector. |
| US08705232B2 |
Heat sink system and heat sinking method having auto switching function
A heat sink system and a heat sinking method having auto switching function are disclosed. The heat sink receives a control command sent by an external device. An internal heat sink device is controlled according to content of the control command to control power ON or power OFF of a thermoelectric cooler of the heat sink device or to control power ON, power OFF, or change rotation speed setting of a heat sink fan in the heat sink device. Thus, the heat sink auto switches operations of the heat sink device correspondingly according to temperature changes of the external device. |
| US08705228B2 |
Pivoting apparatus
A pivoting apparatus includes first and second pivoting elements, and first and second waterproof structures. The first pivoting element is fixed to a base, and has a first internal space and an opening exposing the first internal space. The second pivoting element is pivoted on the first pivoting element and fixed to an electronic device. A second internal space and a gap exposing the second internal space are formed between the first and second pivoting elements. The second internal space communicates with the first internal space through the opening. The first waterproof structure is fixed to the first pivoting element and surrounds at least a portion of the opening to block liquid from entering the first internal space through the opening. The second waterproof structure is fixed to the second pivoting element and shields the gap to block liquid from entering the second internal space through the gap. |
| US08705226B2 |
Capacitor having a characterized electrode and method for manufacturing same
A capacitor includes a film previously provided on both sides or one side of a collector by anodizing or the like, further a conductive layer provided on the film, and a polarizable electrode layer as an electrode portion on the conductive layer. Thus, the capacitor suppresses the reaction between a driving electrolyte and the collector after a long time of use because the reactivity between the film previously provided on both sides or one side of the collector and the driving electrolyte is low. Furthermore, since the conductive layer is provided, it is possible to reduce an initial contact resistance on the surface of the collector, and to enhance an effect of suppressing performance deterioration by the film. |
| US08705225B2 |
Electric double layer capacitor with non-equal areas of the active material layers of the positive electrode and the negative electrode
An electric double layer capacitor comprising a plurality of electrode bodies comprising a positive electrode and a negative electrode laminated via a separator and being impregnated with an electrolyte solution, wherein the plurality of electrode bodies are electrically connected in series, the positive electrode and the negative electrode comprise an active material having pores, the electrolyte solution comprises an electrolyte having a cation and a counteranion of the cation, a ratio of an average pore diameter of the active material of the positive electrode to an ion diameter of the counteranion is in the range of 2.5 to 2.8, and a ratio of an average pore diameter of the active material of the negative electrode to an ion diameter of the cation is in the range of 1.65 to 1.85. |
| US08705218B2 |
Input buffer protection
Apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed that operate to boost an electrical potential of a control terminal of a transistor from a signal on an input terminal of the transistor to render a channel in the transistor more conductive. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed. |
| US08705217B2 |
Electrostatic discharge protection circuit
An integrated circuit includes an electrostatic discharge (ESD) detection circuit which detects an ESD event and generates an event signal. In response to that event signal, a control circuit controls the operation of a buffer circuit to function in an additional mode wherein the normal differential operation of the buffer circuit is disabled and the buffer circuit is instead configured to form a conduction path between supply rails to discharge the ESD event. Preferably, a plurality of buffer circuits are driven in parallel by the control circuit to function in the additional mode to form parallel discharge paths for the ESD event. Multiple ESD detection circuits may be provided, and any one of those detection circuits can trigger the control circuitry to place all of the buffer circuits in the additional mode. |
| US08705216B2 |
High sensitivity leakage current detection interrupter
A high sensitivity leakage current detection interrupter (LCDI) includes a shielded wire, a current leakage detection unit, and a tripping mechanism. A live core and a neutral core of the shielded wire are respectively wrapped in two conductive shell wires. The current leakage detection unit includes a pair of rectifying diodes reversely connected in series between a live line and a neutral line of a power supply, a voltage dropping resistor, thyristors, and resistor-capacitor (RC) voltage dropping filter circuits. The tripping mechanism includes control units with on/off respectively controlled by the thyristors. When either of the thyristors is turned on, the corresponding control unit is turned on, and the tripping mechanism is actuated to switch off the power supply. |
| US08705213B2 |
Magnetic field detecting device with shielding layer at least partially surrounding magnetoresistive stack
A disclosed device having a principle axis and including a magnetoresistive stack, the magnetoresistive stack having first and second opposing surfaces, the magnetoresistive stack including a free layer, a spacer layer, and a reference layer, wherein the spacer layer is positioned between the first and reference layer, the free layer includes magnetic material having a free magnetic orientation in a first plane; the spacer layer includes nonmagnetic material; and the reference layer includes magnetic material having a pinned magnetic orientation in a second plane, wherein the second plane is perpendicular to the first plane and parallel to the principle axis of the device; an insulating layer at least a portion of the outer surface of the magnetoresistive stack; a shielding layer surrounding at least a portion of the insulating layer; and a conducting layer, wherein the conducting layer provides electrical connection between the magnetoresistive stack and the shielding layer. |
| US08705209B2 |
Suspension clamp for clamping a disk drive suspension to an actuator arm
A suspension clamp is disclosed for clamping a disk drive suspension to an actuator arm. The suspension clamp comprises a housing including a spring operable to bias a latching member, wherein the latching member is rotatable about a pivot. After compressing the spring and rotating the latching member in a first direction, the latching member is operable to clamp the suspension to the actuator arm by decompressing the spring. |
| US08705205B1 |
Magnetic recording head having a dual sidewall angle
A magnetic transducer having an air-bearing surface (ABS) is described. The magnetic transducer includes a pole and at least one coil for energizing the pole. The pole has a pole tip proximate to the ABS, a yoke distal from the ABS, and a bottom surface including a bottom bevel. At least the yoke includes at least one sidewall having a first angle and a second angle. The first angle is between the bottom surface and the at least one sidewall. The second angle is a constant distance along the at least one sidewall from the first angle. |
| US08705202B2 |
Reduce leakage of low-density gas during low-density gas injection into a disk drive
Embodiments of the present invention help to prevent leakage of low-density gas during low-density gas injection into a disk drive device and to perform low-density gas injection efficiently. In a hard disk drive (HDD) according to one embodiment of the present invention, an injection hole filter with a valve function is attached to a helium injection hole in order to inject helium gas in an enclosure. The injection hole filter has a valve member configured to operate in an open state or closed state. The open state is a state while the helium gas is being injected and the closed state is a state after the helium gas has been finished to be injected. The valve member is in the open state if the outside pressure is higher than the inside pressure and is in the closed state if the inside pressure is higher than the outside pressure. |
| US08705199B2 |
Methods, systems and apparatus for reducing the effects of tape dimensional stability
A method, system, apparatus, and computer readable medium storing instructions for recording data tracks and a method and system for reading data tracks. For recording data tracks, virtual boundary of a first data track recorded on the storage medium is determined. The recording element is positioned based on the determined virtual boundary of the first track and a second data track is recorded by the positioned recording element. For reading data tracks, a first virtual boundary of a first data track and a second virtual boundary of the first data track are determined and a reading element is positioned at a center of the first data track based on the determined virtual boundaries. In the system of reading recorded data tracks, a number of forward reading elements and backward reading elements are provided. The forward reading elements have different pitches. |
| US08705198B1 |
Write position compensation
An implementation of a system disclosed herein provides a method of compensating for a change in write position of a recording head due to a change in an operating condition of the recording head. |
| US08705197B2 |
Information processing apparatus, protection method and medium storing protection program
Disclosed is an information processing apparatus comprising a housing (4), a magnetic disk drive unit (6), a sensor (8) and a control unit (10). The sensor (8), which is installed between the housing and the magnetic disk drive unit, detects an external force acting on the housing or a distortion caused in the housing by dint of the external force. The control unit (10) retreats a magnetic head (14) of the magnetic disk drive unit to a retreat area when the external force or the distortion, detected by the sensor, exceeds a predetermined level. |
| US08705195B2 |
Synchronized gaming and programming
To encourage viewer participation, games, contests and social interactions are able to be synchronized with programming such as television shows or commercials utilizing a second screen such as a cell phone, iPad® or laptop computer. The programming is able to be television programming, Internet programming (e.g. a video displayed on a webpage or mobile device) or any other programming. The gaming is able to be any game such as a game of skill or chance, for example, a scavenger hunt or a treasure hunt. |
| US08705188B2 |
Lens barrel, imaging device and manufacturing method thereof
A lens barrel and imaging device with a low likelihood of optical characteristics being degraded by an impact from a fall or the like may be provided. A lens barrel including: a retention member that retains an optical system; and a first guide shaft that guides the retention member to be movable along an optical axis of the optical system, wherein the retention member includes, a first engaging portion that engages with the first guide shaft, and an abutting portion disposed at the opposite side of the optical axis from the side thereof at which the first engaging portion is disposed, at a position that is offset in the optical axis direction from the engaging portion, the abutting portion being abuttable against an abutted portion when a force in the optical axis direction is applied at least to the retention member. |
| US08705186B2 |
Barrel driving system and backlash correction method thereof
The patent discloses a lens barrel driving system and a backlash correction method thereof. In such system, a zoom photo-interrupter (PI) is used to detect the movement of a zooming barrel and generate a first count value. The movement of a focusing barrel corresponds to the movement of the zooming barrel, so that when the zooming barrel is driven to move from an initial position to a first zooming position or from the first zoom position to a second zoom position, the focusing barrel moves correspondingly and its movement triggers a home PI to generate a second count value. Upon the generation of the second count value, a predetermined value is used to replace the first count value so as to correct the error caused by backlash of lens barrels. |
| US08705184B2 |
Multi-path, multi-magnification, non-confocal fluorescence emission endoscopy apparatus and methods
An optical scanner, scanner apparatus, or scanner assembly, which may be particularly advantageous for use in a multiphoton microscope, includes a first drivable bending component, a second drivable bending component mounted perpendicularly to the first component, and at least one optical waveguide coupled one or both of the first and second bending components, wherein the at least one optical waveguide provides both a propagation path for a multiphoton excitation radiation delivery between a light source and a target and a multiphoton-induced emission radiation delivery between the target and a detector. A GRIN relay lens. A multiphoton microscope incorporating the scanner and the GRIN relay lens. |
| US08705183B2 |
Focusing and sensing apparatus, methods, and systems
Apparatus, methods, and systems provide focusing, focus-adjusting, and sensing. In some approaches the focus-adjusting includes providing an extended depth of focus greater than a nominal depth of focus. In some approaches the focus-adjusting includes focus-adjusting with a transformation medium, where the transformation medium may include an artificially-structured material such as a metamaterial. |
| US08705180B2 |
Zoom lens, imaging device and information device
A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side in an optical axis a first lens group having a positive refractive power, a second lens group having a negative refractive power; a third lens group having a negative refractive power, a fourth lens group having a positive refractive power, a fifth lens group having a positive refractive power, and an aperture stop arranged between the third lens group and the fourth lens group, an interval between the first lens group and the second lens group being increased, an interval between the second lens group and the third lens group being varied, an interval between the third lens group and the fourth lens group being decreased, and an interval between the fourth lens group and the fifth lens group being decreased when changing a magnification from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end. |
| US08705177B1 |
Integrated near-to-eye display module
A head mounted display (“HMD”) includes a frame assembly for wearing on a head of a user and an integrated display module mounted to the frame assembly within a peripheral viewing region of an eye of the user when the HMD is worn by the user. The integrated display module includes a display source for outputting a computer generated image (“CGI”), a lens system optically aligned with the display source to focus the CGI emitted from the integrated display module towards the eye, and an actuator coupled to adjust a focal distance of the lens system for changing an image depth of the CGI displayed to the user. |
| US08705172B2 |
Microscopy method and microscope with enhanced resolution
Method for enhancing the resolution of a microscope during the detection of an illuminated specimen and a microscope for carrying out the method, wherein in a first position, an illumination pattern is generated on the specimen, the resolution of which is preferably within the range of the attainable optical resolution of the microscope or higher, wherein a relative movement, preferably perpendicular to the direction of illumination, from a first into at least one second position of the illumination pattern on the specimen is generated at least once between the detection and the illumination pattern with a step width smaller than the resolution limit of the microscope and detection and storage of the detection signals take place both in the first and in the second position. |
| US08705167B2 |
System and method for compensating for polarization dependent loss
In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure a system for compensating for polarization dependent loss experienced by an optical signal comprises an optical amplifier configured to amplify an optical signal and having a polarization dependent gain (PDG). The system also comprises a polarization rotator coupled to the amplifier and configured to rotate the polarization of the optical signal before the signal enters the amplifier. The system also comprises a polarization dependent loss (PDL) controller coupled to the amplifier and the rotator. The PDL controller may be configured to determine a post-amplifier PDL of the optical signal as the signal leaves the optical amplifier. The PDL controller may also be configured to control the rotator to rotate the polarization of the optical signal based on the post-amplifier PDL, such that the PDG of the amplifier compensates for the PDL experienced by the optical signal. |
| US08705162B2 |
Controlling transitions in optically switchable devices
This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for controlling transitions in an optically switchable device. In one aspect, a controller for a tintable window may include a processor, an input for receiving output signals from sensors, and instructions for causing the processor to determine a level of tint of the tintable window, and an output for controlling the level of tint in the tintable window. The instructions may include a relationship between the received output signals and the level of tint, with the relationship employing output signals from an exterior photosensor, an interior photosensor, an occupancy sensor, an exterior temperature sensor, and a transmissivity sensor. In some instances, the controller may receive output signals over a network and/or be interfaced with a network, and in some instances, the controller may be a standalone controller that is not interfaced with a network. |
| US08705160B2 |
Photochromic compounds
A photochromic compound is provided, which may be a pyran, an oxazine, or a fulgide. The photochromic compound has at least one substituent Q attached thereto, each Q independently being —N3, —CN, —COOR′, —CCR′, —C(R′)C(R′)R′, —OCOR′, —OCOOR′, —SR′, —OSO2R′″, and/or —CON(R′)R′, wherein each R′ is hydrogen, an unsubstituted or substituted alkyl group having from 1 to 18 carbon atoms; an unsubstituted or substituted aryl group, an unsubstituted or substituted alkene or alkyne group having from 2 to 18 carbon atoms, wherein the substituents are halo or hydroxyl and R″′ is —CF3 or a perfluorinated alkyl group having from 2 to 18 carbon atoms. The number, locations and nature of the constituents Q are dependent upon the structure of the photochromic compound. |
| US08705157B2 |
Optical scanning device
An optical scanning device is provided, which includes a casing including a supporting wall supporting a deflector, a first reflecting mirror supporting portion and a second reflecting mirror supporting portion that are opposed to each other across the deflector and extend from the supporting wall and a reinforcing wall configured to extend from the supporting wall, between the deflector and first and second light source units, so as to connect the first reflecting mirror supporting portion with the second reflecting mirror supporting portion, the reinforcing wall including a first through-hole configured such that a first laser beam emitted by the first light source unit toward the deflector and the second laser beam emitted by the second light source unit toward the deflector pass therethrough. |
| US08705154B2 |
Spectral colorimetric apparatus and image forming apparatus using the same
A spectral colorimetric apparatus for detecting a color of an image of a subject, including: an illumination optical system illuminating the subject on a detection surface; a spectral optical system including a spectral element spectrally separating the beam diffused by the subject and a light receiving element array detecting a spectral intensity distribution; and a guiding optical system for guiding a beam diffused by the subject, wherein: the detection surface is parallel to a spectral plane including a principal ray of a beam entering the spectral optical system and a principal ray of a beam spectrally separated; the principal ray of the beam enters the spectral optical system within the spectral plane obliquely to a line joining a center of the light receiving element array with a surface vertex of the spectral element; and a light receiving surface of the light receiving element array is orthogonal to the spectral plane. |
| US08705151B2 |
Imaging device calibration methods, imaging device calibration instruments, imaging devices, and articles of manufacture
Imaging device calibration methods, imaging device calibration instruments, imaging devices, and articles of manufacture are described. According to one embodiment, an imaging device calibration method includes emitting light for use in calibration of an imaging device, providing an emission characteristic of the light, sensing the light using an image sensor of the imaging device, generating sensor data indicative of the sensing using the image sensor, and determining at least one optical characteristic of the imaging device using the generated sensor data and the emission characteristic for use in calibration of the imaging device, and wherein the at least one optical characteristic corresponds to the image device used to sense the light. |
| US08705149B2 |
Image reading apparatus
An image reading apparatus configured to reduce a force required for moving a document cover to an open position is provided. The image reading apparatus includes a document table having a top surface and a reading area and a document cover that is configured to pivot, around an axis extending in a first direction, between a closed position and an open position. The document cover includes a sheet. The top surface has a marginal area which is located outside of a reading area on a side opposite to the axis. The marginal area includes a contact area and a non-contact area which are arranged in the first direction. When the document cover is in the closed position, the top surface in the contact area contacts the sheet, and the top surface in the non-contact area does not contact the sheet. |
| US08705146B2 |
System for illuminating an original using additional colors and capturing an image thereof
An imaging device including a base and an enclosed chamber positioned on the base. The enclosed chamber has a scanning surface inclined with respect to the base, a reflecting member positioned opposite to the scanning surface and an imaging member adjacent the scanning surface and oriented towards the reflecting member. The imaging member is illuminated with a red, a green, a blue, and an additional color LED. In one embodiment the additional color is a color other than red, green, and blue. In an alternate embodiment the additional color is Ultraviolet (UV) or Infra-Red (IR). |
| US08705145B2 |
Systems and methods for resuming capture of a base image of an object by a mobile scanner
Systems and methods resume capture of a base image from an object by a mobile scanner operated by a user. An indication of an overlap area on a base image displayed within a computer display is received. A scan image is received from the mobile scanner positioned on the object at a location corresponding to the overlap area. A match between a segment of the scan image and a corresponding segment of the base image is determined, where the match defines a location and orientation of the mobile scanner relative to the base image. An indication that the scan has resumed is made to the user when the match is found, and images that are subsequently received from the mobile scanner are stitched to the base image based upon the determined location and orientation. The partially formed base image and the scanner image are concurrently displayed to the user. |
| US08705143B2 |
Image-forming device
In an image-forming device, an image-reading unit reads an image formed on an original document. A data-reading unit reads data stored in a storing member of the original document. A duplication-performing unit performs a plurality of duplication processes including at least an image/data-duplication process in which the duplication-performing unit forms the read image on a first recording medium having a storing member and writes the read data to the storing member of the first recording medium, and a data-duplication process in which the duplication-performing unit writes the read data to the storing member of the first recording medium without forming the read image on the first recording medium. A receiving unit receives an image/data-duplication instruction and a data-duplication instruction. The duplication-performing unit performs the image/data-duplication process if the receiving unit receives the image/data-duplication instruction, and performs the data-duplication process if the receiving unit receives the data-duplication instruction. |
| US08705142B2 |
Tint block image generation program, tint block image generation device, and tint block image generation method
A computer readable storage medium stores a tint block image generation program for generating tint block image data for forming, on a print medium, a tint block image including a latent image portion which is reproduced by copying, and a background portion of which copy output density drops. The program has a latent image portion generation step of generating data of a plurality of first dots in the latent image portion based on a dot clustered screen; and a background portion generation step of generating data of a plurality of second dots and data of a plurality of third dots dispersed among the second dots and having a size smaller than the second dots. And the first dots in the latent image portion and the second dots in the background portion are arranged at positions on common displacement vectors in an area of the tint block image. |
| US08705138B2 |
Image forming apparatus including an image calibration system
There is provided an image forming apparatus including a print head adapted to form an image on a recording medium, a transport path for the recording medium, the transport path being provided on at least one of a feed side and a discharge side of the recording medium with respect to the print head, an image reading device provided on the transport path, the image reading device being adapted to read an image formed by the print head, a correction chart provided opposite the image reading device with the transport path interposed in between, the correction chart being read by the image reading device in order to correct a reading result of the image reading device, based on information obtained from reading the correction chart, and a distance adjustment device adapted to increase or decrease the distance between the correction chart and the image reading device. |
| US08705136B2 |
Method, computer program and print system for trapping print data
In a method or system for trapping print data with a plurality of respective objects, the objects being individually transferred into a bit map pixel file, at least one overfill is determined for the respective object relative to color regions bordering the respective object in the pixel file according to predetermined trapping rules. The object and the at least one overfill are inserted into the pixel file, wherein the object and the overfill are rastered in the pixel file upon insertion. |
| US08705129B2 |
Printing system that performs a color conversion process, printing method, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium stored with printing program
A printing system of the present invention includes: a generating unit which performs a rasterizing process to print data while performing a color conversion process by applying a multi-dimensional lookup table for calibration, which is for matching a color of the image to be printed by a printing unit by combining base colors to a target color and for keeping the color of the image consistent, to generate image data; a storage unit which stores the image data; a calibration unit which applies a first one-dimensional lookup table for calibration to calibrate the color information of the image data at a first round of printing the image, and applies a second one-dimensional lookup table for calibration newer than the first one-dimensional lookup table for calibration to calibrate the color information of the image data at a second round of newly printing the image. |
| US08705127B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and computer readable medium storing program
An image processing apparatus includes a setting unit and a correcting unit. The setting unit sets a gloss level of an image to be formed by forming plural toner images using a transparent toner and plural color toners having different colors and by fixing the plural toner images onto a recording medium in such a manner that the plural toner images are placed on top of one another on the recording medium. The correcting unit corrects image data defining density values per pixel of the toner images formed using the plural color toners of the respective colors so that a total density value that is a sum of a density value per pixel of the toner image formed using the transparent toner and density values per pixel of the toner images formed using the plural color toners of the respective colors may not exceed a predetermined threshold. |
| US08705123B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and program
An image forming apparatus including an attribute-value-information holding unit that holds an attribute-value table showing correspondence between a type of gradation processing and a fixing-temperature control attribute value; an image-formation-attribute processing unit that determines a type of gradation processing and a corresponding fixing-temperature control attribute value on the basis of contents of a print instruction and the attribute-value table; a gradation processing unit that performs gradation processing in accordance with the type of gradation processing determined by the image-formation-attribute processing unit; and a fixing-temperature control unit that controls fixing temperature in formation of a print image according to the fixing-temperature control attribute value determined by the image-formation-attribute processing unit. |
| US08705121B2 |
Testing printer calibration
The systems and methods presented herein provide for the testing of calibration processing within a print controller. In one embodiment, a method provides for testing a printer calibration module. The method includes simulating an optical density response of the printer to generate a plurality of optical density curves for the printer and determining spectral reflectance values for corresponding optical density values in the optical density curves. The method also includes processing the spectral reflectance values via the printer calibration module to generate a calibration output. The method also includes analyzing the calibration output to determine accuracy of the printer calibration module. |
| US08705117B1 |
Hand-held printing device and method for tuning ink jet color for printing on colored paper
A hand-held printer is disclosed. The hand-held printer includes an image sensor configured to determine a color having plurality of color components associated with a print medium, an image processing module configured to process image data into a plurality of color layers; and a print module configured to receive information related to the plurality of color components from the image sensor and information related to the plurality of color layers from the image processing module. The print module being configured to enhance at least one of the plurality of color layers based on at least one of the corresponding plurality of color components associated with the print medium. |
| US08705115B1 |
Generation of inverse transfer function for image rendering device
An inverse transfer function is computed from a forward transfer function of an image rendering device. During the computation, device-dependent values are extrapolated for border nodes. The extrapolated values are out-of-gamut. |
| US08705111B2 |
Inkjet printing apparatus and print data generating method
An ink jet printing apparatus comprises a distributing unit configured to distribute print data for printing dot into data used for printing by first printing elements provided in a print head and data used for printing by second printing elements provided in the same print head, and a determining unit configured to, for the data used for printing by the respective parts of the printing element arrays of each of first and second print heads which have the overlapped print regions, determine a ratio between amount of the data used for printing by a combination of the first and second printing element arrays in the first print head and a combination of the first and second printing element arrays in the second print head. |
| US08705110B2 |
Method of generating a smooth image from point cloud data
A method is explained for processing an array of pixels in a point cloud. Local error bars are calculated for each pixel distance value. A difference is calculated between distance values of the pixel being processed and neighboring pixels with distance values within the error bars. If the difference is outside the error bars, the distance value of the pixel being processed is changed by a small fraction while remaining inside the error bars; if the difference is within the error bars, the pixel value is replaced by a weighted average. The neighboring pixels with distance values within the error bars of the pixel are counted and if a predetermined threshold is met, the counted values are averaged and replace the pixel value, but if not met, the pixel value is unchanged. If loop exit criteria have been met, the loop is terminated and if not, looping begins again. |
| US08705109B2 |
Image forming apparatus and image forming method for controlling object rendering order
An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method by which image data are prepared for performing image processing at high speed and while saving memory. Vector data are generated from data scanned by a scanning unit. In this process, a printing direction is determined from a content input from an operating unit or information on an outputting device. If the printing direction and the scanning direction differ, control of an order of the data is performed to prepare a document after rotation. |
| US08705103B2 |
Image processing system, image processing server, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and recording medium
An image processing system includes an image forming apparatus and first and second image processing servers connected to the image forming apparatus via a network, the first image processing server includes: a first image processor which performs a first image processing operation on target image data received from the image forming apparatus; and a protected area calculator which calculates a protected area to be prohibited from being processed next, which is related to the area processed by the first image processor, and generates image protection information including information of the protected area, and the second image processing server includes a second image processor which performs a second image processing operation on the areas excluding the protected area whose information is included in the image protection information generated by the protected area calculator. |
| US08705100B2 |
Image processing apparatus that displays screen on display unit using browser, control method therefor, and storage medium
An image processing apparatus that is capable of, even in a case where browser screens are forcefully changed when the image processing apparatus changes in status during operation by a user, continuing operation through a screen displayed until just before the change of the browser screens when the image processing apparatus is restored. The status of the image processing apparatus is detected, and a screen is created according to the detected status of the image processing apparatus. The screen is displayed as a new tab when the image processing apparatus changes in status. |
| US08705089B2 |
Printer driver, storage medium, and information processing apparatus
A printer driver includes a plurality of modules, an interface unit that accepts the addition of plug-in including one or more additional modules for realizing a predetermined function, and a storage unit that stores setting information that defines information related to a partial process for realizing the predetermined function of the plug-in. The plurality of modules performs a process that is the partial process for realizing the predetermined function and cannot be realized in the additional modules included in the plug-in in accordance with the setting information. |
| US08705086B2 |
Arrangement for extracting document from scan made with cover open
A scanner, an image forming apparatus including the same, an image processing method of the scanner and a printing method of the image forming apparatus. The image processing method includes acquiring an environment image, acquiring a main scan image by scanning a document on a flatbed, and extracting a document image from the main scan image using the environment image when the document is scanned with the cover in an open position. |
| US08705085B2 |
Printer with power saving module and method for printing
A printer includes a data receiving unit, a print mechanism, a print controlling module and a power management module. The data receiving unit is capable of receiving a file from a client. The print mechanism is used for printing out the file into hard copy. The print controlling module is connected to the print mechanism for processing the file. The power management module is capable of detecting activity of the data receiving unit and supplying power to the printing controlling module and the print mechanism. When no file is received by the data receiving unit for a predetermined time, the power management module is capable of cutting off the power to print management module and the print mechanism. |
| US08705081B2 |
System and method for including input method information on a printed document
There is provided a print medium processing system including an identification information generating unit that receives input method information which is referred to when image data is inputted to an application which processes the image data, and generates identification information for the received input method information, an information memory that stores the generated identification information in a manner associated with the input method information, a printing unit that adds the identification information of the input method information to image data to be printed, and prints the image data, a reading unit that reads image data printed in a print medium, an extracting unit that extracts the identification information from the image data, an obtaining unit that obtains the input method information specified by the identification information extracted from the information memory, and a transferring unit that transfers the image data to an application specified from the input method information. |
| US08705076B2 |
Printing system and method thereof
A printing system includes a host which includes a storage having one or more folders, establishes one of the folders as a target folder, and generates path information of the target folder, and an image forming apparatus to acquire a list of image files stored in the target folder based on the path information, to request thumbnail images corresponding to the image files on the list from the host, and to display the thumbnail images on a predetermined display unit by downloading the thumbnail images from the host. The host converts the image files stored in the target folder into the thumbnail images and transmits the thumbnail images to the image forming apparatus, and the image forming apparatus selects at least one among the thumbnail images and prints an image file corresponding to the selected thumbnail image by downloading the image file from the host. |
| US08705073B2 |
Density detection apparatus and method and image forming apparatus
A density detection apparatus includes the following elements. A storage unit stores therein image information. A measuring unit measures amounts of light components reflected by an image carrier or density detection images represented by the image information. A light amount obtaining unit obtains a variation in amounts of light components reflected by each region in which the associated density detection image is formed, and obtains, as a reference value, a representative value of the amounts of light components. An image correcting unit corrects the image information by changing an arrangement order of the density detection images. An image forming unit forms the density detection images on the image carrier on the basis of the corrected image information. A density obtaining unit obtains density levels of density detection images corresponding to their area ratios by using the amounts of light components reflected by the density detection images and the reference values. |
| US08705072B2 |
Server system and control method thereof, and computer-readable medium
A server system comprises acquisition unit that acquires print data from a document management server based on information for acquiring the print data using received first authorization information without executing the authentication processing based on authentication information; transmission unit that issues second authorization information which permits an access to a cooperation server by executing authentication processing based on the authentication information transmitted from the printer management server, and transmits the second authorization information to the printer management server; and providing unit that provides, to the printer, the print data acquired by the acquisition unit or another print data generated based on the acquired print data without executing the authentication processing based on the authentication information in response to reception of a print data acquisition request from the printer which receives the second authorization information. |
| US08705064B2 |
Broadcast secure printing system
A secure printing method includes providing a user terminal with a user interface. The user terminal and interface enable a user to select a secure printing mode for printing a document. In the secure printing mode, a secure print job stored in the user terminal is released through execution of a secure release procedure. In this way, the document can be printed at a selected one of a plurality of designated printers. When a user selects the secure printing mode, page description language data for the secure print job is generated in a format, or multiple formats, compatible with the designated printers. The page description language data is stored at the user terminal and a request is communicated to each of the designated printers. The request identifies the secure print job, but the job itself is not transmitted with the request. When the predefined secure release procedure is executed, the secure print job is released to a selected printer. |
| US08705062B2 |
Quotas in distributed scan management systems
A method and apparatus is provided for processing acquired document data, using distributed scan management protocols, according to a quota limiting amounts of data that may be stored at DSM system destinations. A scanning device includes a distributed scan management service that implements a distributed scan device protocol and a distributed scan processing protocol. The distributed scan management service is configured, responsive to a quota handler service (included at the scanning device) designating a verification success for scan data, to send the scan data and information for post scan processing instructions to a scan server. The quota handler service is configured to determine whether a size of the scan data exceeds a limit on an amount of data that may be sent to a particular destination, and, responsive to determining that the size of the scan data does not exceed the limit, designate a verification success for the scan data. |
| US08705059B2 |
Image processing apparatus
Disclosed is an image processing apparatus that can implement a job by effectively employing the charged electric power, generated and stored by the locally-equipped power generator, and can cope with such a job whose urgency level is specifically high. The apparatus includes a job implementing section to implement a job in regard to image data; an electric generator section; an electrical accumulator section; and a controlling section to change a job implementation mode between a first job implementation mode, in which the job is implemented by employing the electrical accumulator section after the electrical accumulator section is sufficiently charged by an electric power generated by the electric generator section, and a second job implementation mode, in which the job is instantaneously implemented by employing an external electric power source, when an amount of electric power charge, stored in the electrical accumulator section, is in short supply for implementing the job. |
| US08705057B2 |
Image processing apparatus, method for displaying interface screen, and computer-readable storage medium for computer program
An image processing apparatus having a plurality of functions includes a scroll display portion that displays a row of markers and a slider for specifying one or more markers sequentially by moving along the row, an image display portion that displays functional images for representing functions corresponding to the markers specified by the slider, a setting portion that receives setting item details for a function specified by one of the functional images selected, and an extraction portion that extracts a function having the setting item details received by the setting portion different from an initial value. The image display portion displays a functional image for a longer time when the functional image represents the function extracted by the extraction portion than when the functional image does not represent the function extracted by the extraction portion. |
| US08705050B2 |
Providing thermal compensation for topographic measurement at an elevated temperature using a non-contact vibration transducer
A mechanism for providing thermal compensation when measuring surface topography at an elevated temperature using a non-contact vibration transducer, such as a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). Thermal compensation is provided to a detector output signal to correct for thermal diffraction of a reflected portion of a beam of radiant energy directed at a surface of a test object. The thermal compensation is based on a calculated deviation between the detector output signal r2 at an elevated temperature and the detector output signal r1 at approximately room temperature. In one embodiment, the thermal compensation mechanism calculates a stationary signal r3(t) which represents the detector output signal without noise and corrected for thermal diffraction at the elevated temperature according to the following equation: r 3 ( t ) = lim T → ∞ 1 / T ∫ - t / 2 + t / 2 r 2 * ( t ) * r 2 * ( t + Δ t ) ⅆ t , wherein T represents the total number of spectrums measured at the elevated temperature at multiple times upon which the compensation is based, and wherein r2*=r2−r2(baseline). |
| US08705049B2 |
Three-dimensional shape measuring apparatus, three-dimensional shape measuring method, and three-dimensional shape measuring program
A three-dimensional shape measuring apparatus measures by analyzing an optical pattern projected to the measurement target, and luminance of the optical pattern. The apparatus includes a mounting stage having a reference plane of a height of the measurement target, a measurement head that projects the optical pattern, to the measurement target and reference plane, to capture images of the optical patterns, and a displacement portion displaces the measurement head in a height direction. A phase computing portion computes a phase of the optical pattern in a certain pixel included in the captured image. A height computing portion computes a height of the measurement target based on the phase, and a feed amount computing portion computes a displacement amount based on the height. The height computing portion computes the height based on the phase and corrects the height based on the displacement amount, thereby computing the height of the measurement target. |
| US08705048B2 |
Spectral domain optical coherence tomography system
An optical coherence tomography device is disclosed for improved imaging. Reduced levels of speckle in the images generated by the device are obtained by forming a B-scan from a plurality of A-scans, wherein each resolution cell of the B-scan is generated through compounding of a subset of the A-scans and wherein at least some of the subset of A-scans are separated by at least half the diameter of a speckle cell both tangent to and orthogonal to the B-scan at that cell. |
| US08705047B2 |
Optical coherence tomography imaging system and method
An optical imaging system includes an optical radiation source, a frequency clock module outputting frequency clock signals, an optical interferometer, a data acquisition (DAQ) device triggered by the frequency clock signals, and a computer to perform multi-dimensional optical imaging of the samples. The frequency clock signals are processed by software or hardware to produce a record containing frequency-time relationship of the optical radiation source to externally clock the sampling process of the DAQ device. The system may employ over-sampling and various digital signal processing methods to improve image quality. The system further includes multiple stages of routers connecting the light source with a plurality of interferometers and a DAQ system externally clocked by frequency clock signals to perform high-speed multi-channel optical imaging of samples. |
| US08705043B2 |
Height measurement by correlating intensity with position of scanning object along optical axis of a structured illumination microscope
A method for imaging an object using a microscope includes obtaining axial response data, the axial response data representative of a relationship between a separation between a top surface of the object and an objective lens of the microscope and an intensity of light reflected by the top surface of the object; positioning the object at a distance from the objective lens that is within a linear region of the axial response data; sequentially illuminating the object with a plurality of periodic patterns; obtaining a plurality of images of the object, each image resulting from the illumination of the object with a corresponding one of the plurality of periodic patterns; determining a reconstructed image of the object based on the plurality of images of the object; and, based on variations in the intensity of the reconstructed image, determining a topographic profile of the top surface of the object. |
| US08705042B2 |
Microscopy system, microscopy method and method of treating an aneurysm
A microscopy system and a microscopy method are provided for observing a fluorescent substance accumulated in a tissue. The microscopy system comprises a filter allowing to observe the tissue at a same time both with visible light and with fluorescent light. It is possible to observe a series of previously recorded fluorescent light images in superposition with the visible light images. An end of the series of images may be automatically determined. A thermal protective filter may be inserted into a beam path of an illuminating system at such automatically determined end of the series. |
| US08705039B2 |
Surface plasmon resonance sensor using vertical illuminating focused-beam ellipsometer
Provided is a multi-channel surface plasmon resonance sensor using beam profile ellipsometry; and, more particularly, to a high sensitive measuring technology, which is coupled with a vertical illumination type focused-beam ellipsometer using a multi-incident angle measurement method, and a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing part deposited with a metal thin film. The multi-channel surface plasmon resonance sensor includes a vertical illumination type focused-beam ellipsometer, in which light is polarized; a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing part which is provided at the objective lens part of the focused-beam ellipsometer so as to generate SPR according to an angle change of the polarized light; and a flow unit which supplies a buffer solution containing a bio material binding to or dissociation from the metal thin film generating surface plasmon, wherein the SPR and the ellipsometric phase change by change in an angle and a wavelength are simultaneously detected. |
| US08705037B2 |
Liquid densitometer
A liquid component concentration meter measures the concentration of a liquid in a liquid supply tube from outside the liquid supply tube. The concentration meter includes a liquid supply tube; a light transmission unit; a light emission unit for irradiating light to the light transmission unit; a light reception unit for receiving light passed through the light transmission unit; a support member that movably supports the light emission unit and the light reception unit such that a measurement position is moved along the light transmission unit; a measurement-position moving mechanism for moving the support member such that the measurement position is moved within a predetermined area in the light transmission unit; and a data processing unit for calculating the concentration of the liquid in the liquid supply tube based on intensities of light received by the light reception unit at different measurement positions. |
| US08705036B2 |
Method and device for determining the static and/or dynamic scattering of light
The invention relates to a method and device for determining the static and/or dynamic scattering of light. In the method, a plurality of different zones within a sample vessel (6) is illuminated during various time periods, wherein light is scattered on the sample. The scattered light is detected by means of a plurality of detectors (11, 12, 13, 14), wherein during the implementation of the method each detector captures scattered light from a plurality of different zones, and during a time period each detector detects scattered light from one zone and generates a signal. Said signals are transmitted to an electronic evaluation unit and are processed by said unit, wherein in each case those signals which are generated by the same detector and result from the detection of scattered light from the same zone are processed together. |
| US08705035B2 |
Target generation device
A device for determining a target generation condition for a target generator which is driven by a pulse voltage to generate a droplet of a target material may include a detector configured to detect a target generated by the target generator and output a detection signal of the target, and a controller configured to control a pulse duration of the pulse voltage for driving the target generator. The controller can determine whether or not a target is generated by the target generator based on the detection signal, and determine whether or not the generated target includes a plurality of droplets based on the detection signal. |
| US08705029B2 |
System and method for detection of analytes in exhaled breath
A device, system, and methods are disclosed for detecting the presence or determining a quantitative amount of at least one drug substance from exhaled breath of a subject in-situ. A collecting surface has a Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)-active layer that comprises at least one SERS-active material. The collecting surface is arranged as an outer surface of a waveguide for contact with exhaled breath, such that at least traces of said at least one drug substance in said exhaled breath can contact said SERS-active layer for read-out of a Raman shift spectrum that is detected in-situ for said detecting the presence or determining the quantitative amount of said at least one drug substance from said exhaled breath. |
| US08705028B2 |
Containerized systems
Containerized systems are provided. In one embodiment, a containerized system includes a moveable three-dimensional container, a first generator, a second generator, and a scanner. The first generator is located within the container, and the second generator is located outside of the container. The scanner is mechanically supported by the container and transmits waves received from the first and the second generators. The containerized system optionally includes one or more rails connected to the outside of the container, and the scanner moves along the one or more rails. The containerized system may also include a multi-axes arm that positions the scanner and that is mechanically supported by the container. Furthermore, the containerized system may include an interferometer, an electronics rack, and/or an air conditioning unit. |
| US08705023B2 |
Testing apparatus and method for testing light emitting diode lamp
Disclosed is an apparatus for testing an LED lamp which includes: a secured seat on which the LED lamp is seated; an up and down shifter which, when the LED lamp is seated on the secured seat, shifts from an initial position spaced upward from the LED lamp to a measurement position in which the up and down shifter contacts with a socket of the LED lamp, and which supplies electric power to the LED lamp when the up and down shifter is placed in the measurement position, and a sensor sensing that the up and down shifter is placed in the measurement position; and a quality determining means determining a quality of the LED lamp based on light emitted from the LED lamp, and comprising an illuminometer or a luminance meter. |
| US08705022B2 |
Navigation system using both GPS and laser reference
A machine control system uses a laser system and global navigation satellite system to determine the position of the machine. The laser system has a laser detector positioned in a known and fixed relationship with the nominal phase center of a global navigation satellite antenna. The laser detector receives laser light transmitted from a laser transmitter. The outputs of the laser system and the global navigation satellite system are used together to determine the position of the transmitter prior to being used to determine the position of the machine. |
| US08705021B2 |
Inspecting device, inspecting method, and method for manufacturing optical fiber
A detector sequentially detects intensity distribution of transmitted light which is transmitted through a center portion of a preform. A determining section determines at least one of a position of a through hole and a size thereof on the basis of a time series of a feature value in the intensity distribution. |
| US08705015B2 |
Integrated ambient light sensor and distance sensor
An integrated proximity and light sensor includes a first light-emitting device, a second light-emitting device, and a light sensing circuit configured as a single package. The light sensing circuit is configured to control the first light-emitting device and the second light-emitting device to emit light therefrom. Further, the light sensing circuit is configured to detect an ambient light level and to detect a reflection of the light emitted by the first light-emitting device from a surface for proximity detection. The light sensing circuit is also configured to control the second light-emitting device to stop emitting light therefrom for one or more of the ambient light level detection and the proximity detection. |
| US08705014B2 |
Radiation sensor for detecting the position and intensity of a radiation source
A radiation sensor is provided for detecting the position and intensity of a radiation source. The radiation sensor includes at least one photodetector having a radiation-sensitive surface. Furthermore, the radiation sensor includes a reflector that reflects the radiation emitted by a radiation source from specific directions at least partly in the direction of the radiation-sensitive surface of the photodetector. The reflector is arranged on that side of the radiation sensor that is remote from the radiation source. |
| US08705013B2 |
Diffractive optical element, distance measuring apparatus and distance measuring method
The present invention provides a small diffractive optical element that emits twisted beam, a small distance measuring apparatus and a distance measuring method using a small diffractive optical element. A diffractive optical element includes a first diffractive grating that twists, in a coordinate space defined by an x-axis, a y-axis and a z-axis, parallel light forming a flat plane parallel to the x-axis and going advance in the z-axis direction so that an angle of the flat plane relative to the x-axis becomes a predetermined angle at a location where the parallel light traveling in the z-axis by a predetermined distance reaches. |
| US08705007B2 |
Inspection apparatus, lithographic apparatus, lithographic processing cell and inspection method
For angular resolved spectrometry a radiation beam is used having an illumination profile having four quadrants is used. The first and third quadrants are illuminated whereas the second and fourth quadrants aren't illuminated. The resulting pupil plane is thus also divided into four quadrants with only the zeroth order diffraction pattern appearing in the first and third quadrants and only the first order diffraction pattern appearing in the second and third quadrants. |
| US08705006B2 |
Method and device for connecting an optical element to a frame
A method and a device for the material-fit connection of an optical element to a frame are disclosed. |
| US08704993B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display includes a first insulation substrate, a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines disposed on the first insulation substrate, a plurality of thin film transistors connected to the plurality of gate lines and the plurality of data lines, a plurality of pixel electrodes connected to the plurality of thin film transistors, a second insulation substrate disposed substantially opposite to the first insulation substrate; a plurality of column spacers disposed between the first and second insulation substrates and which supports the first and second insulation substrates, a light blocking member disposed on the first insulation substrate and including a sheet portion which includes an opening, a height controlling member disposed at the opening of the sheet portion of the light blocking member, where the plurality of column spacers is disposed on the height controlling member or the light blocking member. |
| US08704991B2 |
Liquid crystal display device capable of compensatng for a resistance variation in a link unit
Provided is an LCD capable of compensating for a resistance variation in a link unit. The resistance variations in the gate lines, data lines and common lines are reduced to minimize the signal distortion in the LCD. Accordingly, it is possible to enhance the image quality characteristics of the LCD. The resistance variation can be reduced by adjusting the number or the size of contact holes in the link unit. |
| US08704989B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is provided including: a display section including a plurality of pixels, a first substrate and a second substrate which are disposed opposite to each other with liquid crystal therebetween in the display section, pixel electrodes which are provided over one of the first substrate and the second substrate on a pixel basis and which each do not have a slit or opening in plan view, and a common electrode which is formed over the pixel electrodes, with an organic interlayer film composed of an organic film therebetween, and which has a plurality of slits. |
| US08704988B2 |
In-plane field type liquid crystal display device comprising liquid crystal molecules with more than two kinds of reorientation directions
A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a pixel electrode and a counter electrode, an insulation film, and a first orientation film formed over the pixel electrode and the counter electrode on the first substrate, the first orientation film being responsive to a radiated polarized light to obtain an initial orientation direction. A second substrate is opposed to the first substrate, a second orientation film is formed over the second substrate, and a liquid crystal is sealed between the first and second substrates. The first and second orientation films are made of polyimide, the liquid crystal has negative dielectric anisotropy, and the liquid crystal display device is normally in a black mode. An angle formed between the electric field and the initial orientation direction of the first orientation film is in a range of greater than 0° to 45°. |
| US08704987B2 |
Graded index birefringent component and manufacturing method thereof
A graded index birefringent component is described and shown with at least one liquid crystal layer having a plurality of lens segments, wherein the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules varies across each lens segment of the liquid crystal layer. |
| US08704984B2 |
Method of preparing composite optical retarder
A method of preparing a composite optical retarder is provided. A first and a second liquid crystal coating materials are respectively disposed on opposite surfaces of a photoalignment film to respectively form a first and a second optical retarders. The composite optical retarder having the photoalignment film sandwiched by the first and the second optical retarders is thus obtained. |
| US08704981B2 |
Method of producing light-reflective film
Provided is a method of producing a light-reflective film that can prevent the blocking of a liquid crystal layer and a support without lowering transparency of the film.The method includes a step of coating a curable liquid crystal composition that contains a curable cholesteric liquid crystal compound onto one surface of a support of which a surface roughness Ra of the other surface thereof is 4.5 nm to 25 nm; a step of aligning the curable cholesteric liquid crystal compound to make a state of a cholesteric liquid crystal phase aligned by heating the coated curable liquid crystal composition; a step of irradiating in which a light-reflecting layer where the cholesteric liquid crystal phase has been fixed is formed by advancing a curing reaction of the curable liquid crystal composition; and a step of charging the support and the light-reflecting layer with the same polarity. |
| US08704975B2 |
Electroluminescent displays
An electroluminescent display comprising a mask defining the information to be displayed and an electroluminescent (EL) backlight. The mask compress a layer (13) of physically-stabilized liquid crystal switchable to define the information to be displayed mounted in front of an EL layer (16) of the backlight. At least one pair of electrodes (12, 20) are arranged to generate, in use, an electric field across both the EL layer (16) and the LC layer (13). A barrier layer (15) is provided between the LC layer (13) and the EL layer (16) that restricts migration of liquid crystal from the LC layer (13) to the EL layer (16). |
| US08704968B2 |
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes an outer cover, a backlight module, a liquid crystal panel, and a bezel. The backlight module includes a reflection sheet, a light guide plate (LGP), an edge reflector, and a light source. The reflection sheet is disposed on the outer cover and faces the outer cover. There is an interval between the outer cover and the reflection sheet. The LGP is stacked on the reflection sheet and the edge reflector is disposed on the outer cover, wherein a containing space is defined by the outer cover and the edge reflector. The light source is disposed in the containing space. The liquid crystal panel is stacked on the LGP. The bezel is assembled to the outer cover. The outer cover and the bezel enclose the backlight module and the liquid crystal panel and the bezel exposes the liquid crystal panel. |
| US08704966B2 |
Pixel array, active device array substrate and flat display panel
A pixel array including a pixel electrode and an active device is provided. The active device includes a gate, a channel layer, a source, a drain, a connection electrode, a first branch portion and a second branch portion. The gate is electrically connected with a scan line. The channel layer located at a side of the gate is electrically isolated from the gate. The source, the drain and the connection electrode are disposed on a part region of the channel layer. The first branch portion disposed on a part region of the channel layer is connected with an end of the connection electrode. The first branch portion surrounds the source located on the channel layer. The second branch portion disposed on a part region of the channel layer is connected with the other end of the connection electrode. The second branch portion surrounds the drain located on the channel layer. |
| US08704958B2 |
Image display device and operation method thereof
An image display device and method may be provided for pairing with a remote control device for transmitting a command to the image display device. Upon power-on, the image display device may be paired with the remote control device. When the image display device is power-on, a guide screen may be displayed to indicate how to pair the image display device with the remote control device. A user may easily pair the remote control device with the image display device through the pairing guide screen. |
| US08704954B2 |
Signal output device and signal output method
A signal output device includes a signal output unit to output a video signal based on input image data, a storage unit to store the image data, a detection unit to detect whether or not the number of frames included in one set of image data stored in the storage unit satisfies a predetermined number, and a data creating unit to add, if the number of the frames included in the one set of image data does not satisfy the predetermined number, a new frame to the one set of image data so that the number of the frames included in the one set of image data satisfies the predetermined number, and to input, to the signal output unit, the one set of image data to which the new frame has been added. |
| US08704951B1 |
Efficient 2D adaptive noise thresholding for video processing
Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide techniques for performing video denoising (VDN). An adaptive noise threshold is dynamically determined and used to distinguish between frame to frame differences in pixel values that relate to image motion from those differences that relate to noise. The disclosed techniques enable the noise threshold to be continuously updated, for example as frequently as once per frame, so that the noise threshold may closely track to varying levels of noise in the input video data. The techniques may be implemented in, for example, a video format conversion apparatus. Advantageously, the techniques may be incorporated in programmable logic devices (PLD's) or Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA's) configurable to perform video format conversion, while adding only modest additional computational demands on the apparatus. |
| US08704950B2 |
Method of and apparatus for maintaining smooth video transition between distinct applications
A method and apparatus for maintaining smooth video transition between distinct applications includes a processor, a secondary memory and a system memory. In providing a smooth transition between applications, the apparatus and method provides synchronization of the video and graphics components while transitioning from a first application to a second application. If there is no video component in either application, no action is needed to provide a smooth transition between applications, and when only the first application includes a video component, the video component need only be turned off for smooth transition between the applications to occur. When both the first application and the second application include video components, smooth transition between the applications is dependent upon the display window size of the first application in comparison to the second application. A process is triggered according to the size of the display windows of the first and second applications. |
| US08704948B2 |
Apparatus, systems and methods for presenting text identified in a video image
Systems and methods are operable to present text identified in a presented video image of a media content event. An exemplary embodiment receives a complete video frame that is associated with a presented video image of a video content event, wherein the presented video image includes a region of text; finds the text in the complete video frame; uses an optical character recognition (OCR) algorithm to translate the found text; and presents the translated text. The translated text may be presented on a display concurrently with the video image that is presented on the display. Alternatively, or additionally, the translated text may be presented as audible speech emitted from at least one speaker. |
| US08704944B1 |
Handheld modular digital photography system
A handheld modular digital photography system is provided. A lens assembly includes a plurality of lens elements aligned on an optical axis to form an optical image on a plane of a digital image sensor. Both the lens elements and image sensor are fixedly mounted within a lens barrel. The image sensor is electrically-interfaced to a controller with a wireless transceiver. A modular chassis includes a structural frame, lens mount, and shutter control. The structural frame includes a cradle shaped to securely hold a handheld mobile device and an electrical coupler configured to electronically interface with the mobile device. The lens mount is on an outer surface of the modular chassis. The shutter control is provided to electrically signal the mobile device. The mobile device wirelessly sends the signal to the controller, which triggers image capture by the image sensor and wireless relay of the captured image to the mobile device. |
| US08704940B2 |
Imaging device and focusing control method
An imaging device includes an image pick-up device including phase difference detection pixel pairs, each formed from a pair of phase difference detection pixels respectively having their openings eccentrically formed on opposite sides of a main axis of an imaging lens, and imaging pixel pairs; a reading section that reads out signals from the pixels arrayed in the image pick-up device using a rolling shutter method; a first correlation computation section that performs correlation computation on the signals from the phase difference detection pixel pairs; a second correlation computation section that performs correlation computation on the signals from the imaging pixel pairs; a correction section that corrects a result from the first correlation computation section using a result from the second correlation computation section; and a focusing section that performs focus control using the corrected result. |
| US08704934B2 |
Solid-state imaging device having pixels arranged in a honeycomb structure
A solid-state imaging device includes: a light-receiving element making a photoelectric conversion and being disposed in each of a plurality of pixels, wherein a honeycomb structure in which a predetermined pixel is surrounded with six pixels neighboring the predetermined pixel out of the plurality of pixels or a structure in which one to three pixels out of the six neighboring pixels are omitted from the honeycomb structure is used as a basic unit. |
| US08704930B2 |
Image display apparatus, imaging apparatus, image display method, and program
This image display apparatus includes a display unit that displays at least an image, an operation input unit that is divided into a plurality of areas, predetermined operations being assigned to the respective areas, and a control unit that displays an operation manual screen on the display unit for a predetermined time when a full-screen display process starts, that presents content of the operations assigned to the respective areas of the operation input unit by the screen, and that performs control to perform, when one of the areas is pressed, the operation assigned to the area. |
| US08704925B2 |
Image sensing apparatus including a single-plate image sensor having five or more brands
Solid-state image sensing elements p and q arranged on an image sensor at a higher density than other solid-state image sensing elements are configured so that the focus error amount due to the axial chromatic aberration of an imaging lens between the solid-state image sensing elements p and q is equal to or larger than an amount corresponding to the depth of focus in a maximum aperture. Also, the imaging lens has a f-number which allows the focus error amount to fall within the range between the two ends of the depth of focus. |
| US08704923B2 |
Solid-state imager and signal processing system
A solid-state imager includes a pixel unit for converting incident light into an electrical signal, a substrate bearing the pixel unit formed thereon, an analog-to-digital converter, formed on the substrate, for converting a signal read from the pixel unit into a digital signal, an optical communication unit, arranged on the bottom surface of the substrate opposite the surface of the substrate bearing opposite the top surface of the substrate bearing the pixel unit receiving the incident light, for converting the digital signal converted by the analog-to-digital converter into a light signal and outputting the light signal, and a signal line for transferring the digital signal, converted by the analog-to-digital converter, to the optical communication unit arranged on the bottom surface of the substrate. |
| US08704921B2 |
Solid-state imaging device, manufacturing method thereof, and camera with grouped on-chip lens formation
A solid-state imaging device includes: photodiodes formed for pixels arranged on a light sensing surface of a semiconductor substrate; a signal reading unit formed on the semiconductor substrate to read a signal charge or a voltage; an insulating film formed on the semiconductor substrate and including optical waveguides; color filters formed on the insulating film; and on-chip lenses formed on the color filters. The first and second pixel combinations are alternately arranged both in the horizontal and vertical directions, the first pixel combination having a layout in which two green pixels are arranged both in the horizontal and vertical directions and a total of four pixels are arranged, the second pixel combination having a layout in which two pixels are arranged both in the horizontal and vertical directions, a total of four pixels are arranged, and two red pixels and two blue pixels are arranged cater cornered. |
| US08704920B2 |
Color filter array
The present invention relates to a color filter array. The color filter array includes a plurality of pixel arrays, which has four color filters arranged in an array. The color of the neighboring color filters is distinct to each other. Moreover, the pattern of the color filter array has enlarged color filters or extended edges in corners of the pattern. These enlarged color filters or extended edges increase the contact area between the pattern and a substrate that the pattern formed on. Therefore, the adhesion strength between the pattern and the substrate can be augmented to prevent peeling from the substrate. According to the invention, the yield of the product will be raised substantially. |
| US08704913B2 |
Image recording apparatus, image recording method, and storage medium storing program, for use in recording shot images
A map range determination unit determines a map range that includes all of the shooting locations of the image data items selected by the image selection unit. A map image creation unit creates a map image of a map range determined by the map range determination unit based on the map information. A superimposition unit superimposes symbols representing the shooting locations of the image data items selected by the image selection unit on a map image created by the map image creation unit. A index page insertion unit inserts a map image on which symbols have been superimposed by the superimposition unit into the electronic photo album in the form of an index page of the electronic photo album. |
| US08704906B2 |
Mobile phone terminal with camera function and control method thereof for fast image capturing
A mobile phone terminal with a camera function includes a camera hardware section having an image sensor and a camera lens, an instruction input section for inputting an instruction to start image capturing, an illumination sensor which is arranged on an outer surface of a housing and detects an ambient illumination value while a mobile phone function is activated, and an image capturing start control section. The image capturing start control section sets camera driver software into a standby state after starting it while the mobile phone function is activated. When an instruction to start image capturing is inputted from the instruction input section, the image capturing start control section determines an exposure value used for image capturing by using the detected illumination value, restores the camera driver software, and causes the camera hardware section to perform image capturing using the exposure value. |
| US08704894B2 |
Display device, television receiver, and method for starting up display device
Disclosed is a display device provided with a circuit board applicable to various models, wherein the operations of a system microcomputer on the circuit board can be switched without using a physical connector. The display device is provided with: a main board applicable to various models; and a TV microcomputer, which is provided on the main board and stores the set value data of each of the models. The main board is provided with: an external memory I/F which has external memory said external memory storing the model identifying information of the display device stored. The TV microcomputer specifies the set value data of the display device on the basis of the model identifying information of the display device, said model identifying information having been read out from the external memory, and the TV microcomputer switches the operation on the basis of the specified set value data. |
| US08704893B2 |
Ambient presentation of surveillance data
A system and method for presentation of surveillance data includes a first environment including one or more sensors configured to monitor the first environment wherein data is collected by the one or more sensors. A second environment includes one or more information presentation devices configured to convey an event or state occurring in the first environment by altering an ambient sensory condition in the second environment, such that the ambient sensory condition is modified in accordance with a type and/or level of the event or state. |
| US08704892B2 |
Electronic mirror
An electronic mirror includes a first display section, a second display sections and a half mirror disposed between the display sections. The first display section displays a surrounding image captured by an imaging device in a display region. The second display section displays a frame image that has a shape taken along an outer periphery of the display region. A distance between the first display section and a point of the half mirror is greater than a distance between the second display section and the point the half mirror so that the frame image is offset relative to the outer periphery of the surrounding image when viewed in the half mirror. |
| US08704889B2 |
Method and apparatus for acquiring images of car license plates
Apparatus and method for acquiring images of car license plates, the apparatus is configured to be part of an LPR (License Plate Recognition) system. The apparatus includes a camera, a multi band-pass filter, LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) and an illumination control board. The camera is configured for acquiring the images, having a focus shift corrected lens. The multi band-pass filter is coupled to the focus shift corrected lens, being configured for allowing only wavelengths of multiple predetermined spectrum ranges to reach the lens. Each one of said LEDs is configured for emitting light in at least one of the multiple predetermined spectrum ranges for the purpose of illuminating the car license plates and their vicinity. The illumination control board is coupled to the LEDs and to the camera, for controlling operation thereof. |
| US08704887B2 |
Multi-object appearance-enhanced fusion of camera and range sensor data
A transportation vehicle configured to track an object external to the vehicle. The vehicle includes a camera, a range sensor, and an on-board computer. The on-board computer includes a processor and a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform select steps. The steps include determining that new-object data corresponding to the object is available based on input received from the sensor sub-system of the vehicle. The steps also include registering the new-object data and estimating an expected location and an expected appearance for the object according to a prediction algorithm to generate a predicted track corresponding to the object. The steps also include analyzing motion for the object including comparing the predicted track with any existing track associated with the object and stored in a database of the on-board computer. |
| US08704886B2 |
Methods and apparatus to form a wavelet representation of a pathology slide having glass and tissue regions
Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to form a wavelet representation of a pathology slide having glass and tissue regions are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes capturing a digital image of a pathology slide, identifying a portion of the digital image that represents a glass portion of the slide, and storing a value representing that the wavelet coefficients for the identified glass portion of the slide are unused without computing a wavelet transform for the identified glass portion. |
| US08704882B2 |
Simulated head mounted display system and method
To overcome problems with vergence, a binocular head mounted display (HMD) is used in a simulator in which an out-the-window scene is displayed in real time on a screen arrangement. Imagery for the left and right eyes of the HMD is derived by generating a starting HMD image for a Cyclops viewpoint between the user's eves, and then rendering respective views for each eve from the position of the eye in a virtual 3D model of the screen arrangement, wherein the starting HMD image is frustum projected against the screen arrangement of the 3D model. |
| US08704879B1 |
Eye tracking enabling 3D viewing on conventional 2D display
The exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein enables 3D viewing on conventional 2D displays such as home television sets by tracking a person's viewpoint. Detecting a player's viewpoint movement to change the viewing of the displayed object gives the illusion that the object is physically present in three-dimensional space. Viewpoint movement detection can provide collision-related game logic benefits such as allowing a player to dodge projectiles, giving a game character an ability to “see” the player when not behind line-of-sight obstacles, and other advantages. |
| US08704875B2 |
Apparatus for generating real-time stereoscopic image and method thereof
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for generating a real-time stereoscopic image from depth map. According to the depth information of the image, a depth-image-based rendering (DIBR) algorithm is used to shift (or move) the position of the object in the image to generate the stereoscopic image with parallax. When the object is shifted (or moved) away from its original position, a hole will occur in the original position. Therefore an image inpainting algorithm is developed to fill the hole. In order to achieve the real-time application, a hardware architecture and method have been developed to accomplish the DIBR and image inpainting algorithm. |
| US08704873B2 |
Receiving stream data which may be used to implement both two-dimensional display and three-dimensional display
There is provided a stream receiving device including an information receiving unit for receiving stream control information for a 3D stream to be distributed from an exterior over a network, the stream control information being described using metadata, a stream securing unit for executing a process related to securing of the 3D stream to be distributed using the stream control information received by the information receiving unit before the 3D stream is distributed, and reserving the stream, and a stream receiving unit for receiving the 3D stream distributed over the network based on the result of reservation in the stream securing unit. |
| US08704872B2 |
Method and device for switching video pictures
A method and device for switching video pictures are disclosed in the invention, which belong to video conference field. Said method includes: obtaining correspondence relations between participants and venues; finding, when a participant is called, a venue corresponding to the called participant according to the correspondence relations; and switching the video pictures to the venue corresponding to the called participant. According to the invention, it is possible to find the venue corresponding to the called participant according to the correspondence relations, and automatically switch the video to the venue or request to an MCU for switching the video to the venue, without a manual intervention of the participant or waiting for a response from the participant, so that continuity of the video conference is ensured, the video pictures can be switched in time, and “face to face” communion experience of the participants in the video conference is improved. |
| US08704870B2 |
Multiway telepresence without a hardware MCU
System and method for performing a videoconference. The videoconference may be established between at least three videoconferencing locations. Each videoconferencing location may include respective pluralities of displays, video inputs, and videoconferencing units. A first videoconferencing unit at a first videoconferencing location may receive an indication that there is an active talker at the first videoconferencing location. An indication that there is an active talker at the first videoconferencing location may also be provided to a second videoconferencing unit at the first videoconferencing location. The first and second videoconferencing units may provide signals to corresponding videoconferencing units at second and third videoconferencing locations indicating that videoconferencing signals from the first videoconferencing location should be displayed. The second and third videoconferencing locations may switch to display videoconferencing signals from the first videoconferencing location based on the signals which indicate that videoconferencing signals from the first videoconferencing location should be displayed. |
| US08704867B2 |
Method and system for optimal balance and spatial consistency
A method for assigning video signals includes receiving a plurality of video signals from a plurality of cameras located at one or more remote sites, the plurality of video signals for display on a plurality of monitors at a local site. The method includes determining an optimal monitor for displaying a first video signal associated with a first camera based on the location and alignment of the first camera in relation to one or more of the plurality of cameras. The method includes calculating a respective difference between a number of video signals assigned to the optimal monitor and a respective number of video signals assigned to each respective monitor of the plurality of monitors. The method further includes assigning the first video signal to the optimal monitor if the respective difference is not greater than a threshold value with respect to each of the plurality of monitors. |
| US08704862B2 |
Semiconductor composite device, method of manufacturing the same, optical print head and image forming apparatus
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor composite device, including steps of: preparing a substrate comprising circuit elements, which are part of a driving circuit; attaching an array of driven elements onto the substrate via a passivation layer, the array being formed of a semiconductor thin film having a crystal structure wherein the driven elements are arrayed to be driven by the driving circuit; and forming a metal wire by a photo-lithography method such that the circuit elements are electrically connected with the metal wire to form the driving circuit and the driving circuit is electrically connected to the driven elements with the metal wire. |
| US08704859B2 |
Dynamic display adjustment based on ambient conditions
The techniques disclosed herein use a display device, in conjunction with various optical sensors, e.g., an ambient light sensor or image sensors, to collect information about the ambient conditions in the environment of a viewer of the display device. Use of these optical sensors, in conjunction with knowledge regarding characteristics of the display device, can provide more detailed information about the effects the ambient conditions in the viewer's environment may have on the viewing experience. A processor in communication with the display device may create an ambient model based at least in part on the predicted effects of the ambient environmental conditions on the viewing experience. The ambient model may be used to adjust the gamma, black point, white point, or a combination thereof, of the display device's tone response curve, such that the viewer's perception remains relatively independent of the ambient conditions in which the display is being viewed. |
| US08704857B2 |
Three-dimensional display device, mobile terminal and three-dimensional display tracking method
A three-dimensional display device is provided in the present disclosure. The three-dimensional display device includes an image displaying device, an optical control element, a direction sensor and a control unit. The optical control element is positioned on a surface of the image displaying device, the direction sensor measures and inclination angle of the display panel, and the control unit adjusts images displayed by the image displaying device according to the inclination angle. The three-dimensional display device of the present disclosure has the advantages of fast tracking speed, high tracking precision and low cost. A mobile terminal and a three-dimensional display tracking method are also provided in the present disclosure. |
| US08704855B1 |
Force measurement system having a displaceable force measurement assembly
A force measurement system having a displaceable force measurement assembly includes: a force measurement assembly with a surface configured to receive a subject, and having at least one force transducer; at least one actuator operatively coupled to the force measurement assembly, the at least one actuator configured to displace the force measurement assembly; at least one visual display device having an output screen, the at least one visual display device configured to display one or more virtual reality scenes on the output screen so as to create a simulated environment for the subject; and one or more data processing devices operatively coupled to the force measurement assembly, the at least one actuator, and the at least one visual display device. In one or more embodiments, a method for testing a subject disposed on a displaceable force measurement assembly is further disclosed. |
| US08704850B2 |
Two-dimensional object packing
Various embodiments enable visual elements or objects, such as two-dimensional raster images, to be packed into a bounding region, such as a rectangular bounding region, in a manner that reduces wasted space. In at least some embodiments, a two-dimensional object packing component attempts to fit individual objects into the bounding region. The two-dimensional object packing component utilizes a span list to keep track of available space by tracking spans within the bounding region. Spans can occur laterally-adjacent placed objects and/or adjacent a placed object's bottom edge. In one or more embodiments, the span list is sorted left-to-right, top-to-bottom. |
| US08704848B2 |
Calibration system and method thereof for calibrating display
A transform model is established by the calibration system for color transformation between a first color space and a second color space. Three first target curves are defined and transformed by the transform model so as to establish three look-up tables. The display is calibrated according to the three look-up tables such that the color temperature of the display may be substantially constant for every gray-level. |
| US08704846B2 |
Information processing device and method, program, and information processing system
An information processing device, configured to perform color gamut conversion for compressing or enlarging the color gamut of image data, includes: a selecting unit configured to select a plurality of coordinate movement directions to be synthesized for determining the coordinate movement destination of a pixel to be processed during the color gamut conversion; a coordinate moving unit configured to move the coordinates of the pixel to be processed in each of the selected plurality of directions; and a synthesizing unit configured to synthesize coordinate movement in the selected plurality of directions. |
| US08704844B2 |
Power saving field sequential color
In embodiments of power saving field sequential color (FSC), an illumination source illuminates pixels of a displayable image by sequentially generating RGB (red, green, blue) components of a pixel in a timed sequence of field sequential color. The pixels of a displayable image may also include a white component derived from the RGB components. An illumination reduction algorithm is implemented to determine the highest RGB (or RGBW) components from any of the pixels of the displayable image. The highest RGB (or RGBW) components can be determined from any combination of the same or different pixels of the displayable image. The illumination reduction algorithm then divides each of the highest RGB (or RGBW) components by a maximum brightness value to generate respective RGB (or RGBW) component factors. A display controller then processes each pixel of the displayable image for display according to the RGB (or RGBW) component factors. |
| US08704843B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image processing method
An image processing apparatus according to the present invention, comprises: a motion detection unit that detects a motion vector from an input image; a determination unit that determines whether an image is moving in each pixel in use of the detected motion vector, and determines whether a motion pixel, about which determination has been made that the image is moving therein, exists in a predetermined range from a still pixel about which determination has been made that the image is not moving therein; and a correction unit that performs correction processing to decrease at least one of high frequency components, contrast, and luminance for the still pixel about which determination has been made that a motion pixel exists in the predetermined range. |
| US08704841B2 |
Method and apparatus for the digital creation of fur effects
A system and method to generate digital representations of hair or animal fur on surfaces. In one embodiment the system and method includes methods to automatically place hairs on surfaces, comb the placed hairs, adjust the hairs on surface boundaries to ensure continuity across surface patches, selectively break hairs along fur tracks, and selectively clump hairs to provide wet fur looks. Rendering techniques are applied to the hairs to produce realistic two-dimensional images. |
| US08704837B2 |
High-level program interface for graphics operations
Disclosed is a system for producing images including an application program interface. The system includes an API and techniques for creating images by defining relationships between filters and images, such relationships programmatically assembled in an object by a cooperative session between a requesting application and a graphics services resource. The system also includes aspects regarding optimization of the programmatically assembled object and techniques for rendering in multi-processor environment. |
| US08704831B2 |
Irradiance rigs
Techniques are disclosed for using a local lighting representation to explicitly model spatial variation of a character in a graphics scene as well as for using error driven criteria to determine whether to evaluate a given light source analytically or in a lighting rig. For near light sources, the error driven criteria may be used to determine when a spherical light source should be evaluated in the lighting rig verses analytically. For large characters, local irradiance models may be used to provide a limited form of spatial variation. |
| US08704829B2 |
Avatar eye control in a multi-user animation environment
In a multi-participant modeled virtual reality environment, avatars are modeled beings that include moveable eyes creating the impression of an apparent gaze direction. Control of eye movement may be performed autonomously using software to select and prioritize targets in a visual field. Sequence and duration of apparent gaze may then be controlled using automatically determined priorities. Optionally, user preferences for object characteristics may be factored into determining priority of apparent gaze. Resulting modeled avatars are rendered on client displays to provide more lifelike and interesting avatar depictions with shifting gaze directions. |
| US08704826B1 |
Primitive re-ordering between world-space and screen-space pipelines with buffer limited processing
One embodiment of the present invention includes approaches for processing graphics primitives associated with cache tiles when rendering an image. A set of graphics primitives associated with a first render target configuration is received from a first portion of a graphics processing pipeline, and the set of graphics primitives is stored in a memory. A condition is detected indicating that the set of graphics primitives is ready for processing, and a cache tile is selected that intersects at least one graphics primitive in the set of graphics primitives. At least one graphics primitive in the set of graphics primitives that intersects the cache tile is transmitted to a second portion of the graphics processing pipeline for processing. One advantage of the disclosed embodiments is that graphics primitives and associated data are more likely to remain stored on-chip during cache tile rendering, thereby reducing power consumption and improving rendering performance. |
| US08704820B2 |
Image display method and image display device
The present invention discloses a method for displaying a picture comprising: calculating a static quality score S of a picture to be displayed based on static parameters of the picture and static parameters of a display module displaying the picture; calculating a dynamic quality score D of the picture based on dynamic parameters of the picture; calculating a quality score Score of the picture based on the static quality score S of the picture and the dynamic quality score D of the picture; calculating a display time T for displaying the picture based on the quality score Score of the picture; and the display module displaying the picture according to the display time T. The present invention further discloses a device for displaying a picture. |
| US08704815B2 |
Display device capable of switching gate high voltage
A display device including a first voltage generator, a second voltage generator, a timing controller, a level shifter and a display panel is provided. The first voltage generator is configured to generate a gate high voltage. During a first period, the gate high voltage is a first voltage. After the first period, the gate high voltage is a second voltage. The first voltage is higher than the second voltage. The second voltage generator is configured to generate a gate low voltage. According to the gate high voltage and the gate low voltage, the level shifter shifts the voltage levels of the start signal, the clock signal and the inverse signal produced by the timing controller for driving a plurality of shift registers disposed on a substrate of the display panel. The shift registers is configured to output scanning signals in sequence. |
| US08704813B2 |
Integrated circuit device and electronic apparatus
An integrated circuit device generates drive waveforms which can be adapted to a plurality of panels by a function of setting a repetition period, the function setting which of periods in a drive waveform pattern is to be repeated, and a function of setting the number of times, the function setting what number of times the set period is to be repeated. |
| US08704810B2 |
Semiconductor device and data driver of display apparatus using the same
There is provided a decoder in which a matrix of transistors, a plurality of reference voltage signal lines arranged on a first interconnect layer and extended in a row direction, being separated to one another over the matrix, and a plurality of reference voltage signal lines arranged on a second interconnect layer and extended in the row direction, being separated to one another over the matrix. The reference voltage signal lines on the mutually different layers are respectively connected to impurity diffusion layers of the transistors that are adjacent in the row direction. The reference voltage signal lines on the mutually different layers are respectively connected to the impurity diffusion layers of the transistors that are adjacent in a column direction. |
| US08704799B2 |
Touch screen sensor having varying sheet resistance
A touch screen sensor includes a visible light transparent substrate and an electrically conductive micropattern disposed on or in the visible light transparent substrate. The micropattern includes a first region micropattern within a touch sensing area and a second region micropattern. The first region micropattern has a first sheet resistance value in a first direction, is visible light transparent, and has at least 90% open area. The second region micropattern has a second sheet resistance value in the first direction. The first sheet resistance value is different from the second sheet resistance value. |
| US08704797B2 |
Capacitive touch pad configured for proximity detection
The present disclosure relates to a method for controlling a touch pad, comprising an object locate mode for locating an object on the touch pad comprising steps of: determining a measurement of capacitance of each of the pairs of electrodes of the touch pad, each pair comprising a row electrode and a column electrode transverse to the row electrode, comparing each measurement with a first detection threshold, and if the comparison of at least one measurement with the first threshold reveals the presence of an object on the touch pad, locating the object on the touch pad according to the capacitance measurements, the method comprising a proximity detection mode comprising steps of: determining a measurement representative of the capacitance between one or two electrodes and one or two other electrodes of the touch pad, and comparing a measurement obtained with a second detection threshold different from the first threshold. |
| US08704792B1 |
Density-based filtering of gesture events associated with a user interface of a computing device
In one example, a computing device may receive an indication of a user input entered at a location of a presence-sensitive screen and defines a group of gesture events based at least in part on the indication. The computing device may determine a density of a portion of the group of gesture events. The density may indicate, for example, a quantity of gesture events associated with a region of the presence-sensitive screen over a time duration. In response to determining that the density satisfies a threshold, the computing device may modify the group of gesture events based at least in part on the density. |
| US08704791B2 |
Augmented I/O for limited form factor user-interfaces
The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can enhance and/or simplify tactile-based I/O transactions in connection with a user-interface (UI) of limited form factor. In particular, the architecture can monitor a position of a selector object such as an operator's finger relative to a UI display as the selector object hovers or moves above the UI display. Based upon this position, an analogous coordinate in the UI display can be determined, and a portion of the UI display substantially centered at the coordinate can be modified. As one example, the UI display can be modified to increase the magnification scale (e.g., a virtual magnifying glass) of the portion of the display indicated by the selector object. |
| US08704784B2 |
Liquid crystal display having a built-in touch screen using capacitance and optical information for detecting a touch position
A liquid crystal display (LCD) with a built-in touch screen includes: a first substrate including a pixel area having a plurality of pixels and a sensor area having a plurality of photosensors; a second substrate positioned over the first substrate, and including a color filter, a light receiving portion, a transparent electrode layer, and a front polarizing plate; an LCD panel including a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first and second substrates; and a touch screen driver circuit to sense a capacitance variation provided through a first sensing line connected to the transparent electrode layer when an object is in contact with the LCD panel, and to output position information of the object, sensed by using optical information sensed through a second sensing line connected the plurality of photosensors when the capacitance variation is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value. |
| US08704775B2 |
Biometric adjustments for touchscreens
In some embodiments, a touchscreen may display a graphical user interface with one or more input options and may detect which input options are selected by a user by detecting a user's contact on the touchscreen. The system may determine a new graphical user interface configuration to increase the size and/or spacing of the input options. In some embodiments, one or more of the input options may be removed to increase the space available to increase the size of the other input options. In some embodiments, the system may maintain a history of input option use to determine which input options to remove. In some embodiments, the new graphical user interface configuration may include smaller (and/or additional) input options (e.g., if the contact areas are detected as consistently within the displayed input options). |
| US08704773B2 |
Input method and input apparatus
There are provided with a detection sensor 110 for detecting an approach and a contact of a living body or a material body in a predetermined detection region, a control means which outputs a drive signal in a case when an approach is detected by a detection sensor and which performs an input process for accepting an input of a predetermined function in a case when a contact is detected on a predetermined condition, and an actuator 120 being vibrated temporarily by the drive signal outputted by the control means. By doing like this, in a case when, for example, a finger, a pen or the like is approached to the detection region of the sensor while the equipment is held in a hand, the equipment vibrates temporarily by detecting the approach in the sensor 110 and the vibration transmits to the hand holding the equipment such that it becomes possible to comprehend that an input will be carried out by touching the position. |
| US08704769B2 |
Ambidextrous mouse
An ambidextrous mouse is disclosed. The ambidextrous mouse is configured for both left and right handed use. The mouse may include right handed buttons on the front side of the mouse and left handed buttons on the back side of the mouse. The user may change the handedness of the mouse by rotating the mouse about a vertical axis of the mouse such that the left hand can use the left hand buttons and the right hand can use the right hand buttons. The mouse may include a handedness selection system for configuring the mouse for right handed or left handed use even though the mouse has the capability for both right and left hands. |
| US08704768B2 |
Image processing apparatus and method
An image processing apparatus provided with a display unit for displaying an operation picture, showing control indicia (e.g., icons) corresponding to multiple image processing functions, is operated to display the operation picture on an external display device. The operator selects one of the indicia shown on the external display device by operating an input device, such as touch screen of the apparatus or a remote control, to indicate the position of the desired one of the indicia. The operator can thereby quickly and reliably select an image processing function to be executed, without any need to view an operation picture on the display unit when making the selection. |
| US08704767B2 |
Environmental gesture recognition
A data-holding subsystem. The data-holding subsystem includes instructions stored thereon that when executed by a logic subsystem in communication with the data-holding subsystem: receive one or more signals, determine a sensor type for each signal of the one or more signals, identify a sensor type specific pattern corresponding to a motion gesture in at least one of the signals, and generate a gesture message based on the motion gesture. The gesture message may be usable by an operating system of a computing device that includes the data-holding subsystem to provide a system-wide function usable by one or more application programs of the computing device to provide an application specific function. |
| US08704761B2 |
Input method editor
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, in which an input method editor receives input in a first writing system and presents input candidates in the first writing system or a second writing system. In one implementation, a method is provided. The method includes receiving input in a first writing system; presenting the input in the first writing system in a first interface element of an interface as content input; automatically identifying one or more candidates in a second writing system based on the input in the first writing system; and presenting the one or more candidates in the second writing system in a second interface element that is separate from the first interface element. |
| US08704758B1 |
Resistive loop excitation and readout for touch point detection and generation of corresponding control signals
A means and method for enabling contact or touch point location detection to be implemented on a particular garment. This means and method simplifies the design of the garment by reducing the number of conductors required to interconnect the various touch points and signal processing circuitry; it provides a way to dynamically reposition or resize the effective touch point target regions; and it provides for new control capabilities by optionally allowing continuously variable user input control. |
| US08704757B2 |
Input system and input apparatus
An input system executes an input to an information processing apparatus depending on the hand motion. Plural myoelectric sensors are provided on an area between a wrist of the person and bases of a second finger to a fifth finger, and detect myoelectric signals depending on the hand motion. A setting portion outputs at least one command to make the person execute at least one particular motion in a state where the myoelectric sensors are worn on the hand, and associates the detected myoelectric signals after the output of the command with the particular motion corresponding to the command. An input portion identifies the hand motion from myoelectric signals detected based on the hand motion after the termination of the association and the association result of the setting portion, and executes the input to the information processing apparatus depending on the identified hand motion. |
| US08704756B2 |
Color display architecture and driving methods
A method for driving a display cell filled with an electrophoretic fluid comprising two types of pigment particles carrying opposite charge polarities and of two contrast colors wherein said two types of pigment particles are dispersed in a solvent of a color, which method comprises driving said display cell to a color state which color is the color of the solvent by applying a driving voltage which is about 1 to about 20% of the full driving voltage. |
| US08704751B2 |
Redundant power/control system for liquid crystal displays
A system for powering and controlling an LED-backlit liquid crystal display (LCD) where redundancy is used to provide two independent paths from a pair of power supplies to the LED backlight. Further, two independent paths are also used from a pair of power supplies to the LCD. If any one of the paths were to fail or begin to degrade in performance, the system contains monitoring circuits which can direct another path to be used by the system. Two separate control circuits for the LCD may be used so that either one may be used to control the LCD if one were to fail. Two separate temperature sensors and luminance sensors may also be used to increase the durability of the system. |
| US08704750B2 |
Control apparatus used in three-dimensional display apparatus and associated three-dimensional glasses
A control apparatus for controlling a three-dimensional (3D) display apparatus includes: an image processing unit to receive an image source signal and convert the image source signal to an interval signal. The interval signal is defined as a first timing interval and a second timing interval. A backlight control device, coupled to the image processing unit, receives the interval signal and generates a plurality of backlight control signals according to the interval signal. A backlight device, coupled to the backlight control device, receives the plurality of backlight control signals and provides a lighting source to a display device during the first timing interval and/or the second timing interval according to the plurality of backlight control signals. |
| US08704745B2 |
Driving device and driving method for liquid crystal display
A driving device and a driving method for a liquid crystal display are provided. The driving device includes a memory unit, a comparator, a compensation unit, and a selector. The memory unit provides a storage image and a previous comparison result. The comparator compares a present image with the storage image and outputs a present comparison result. The compensation unit processes the present image according to the storage image to generate a plurality of processed present images. The selector selects and outputs one of the present image and the processed present images according to the previous comparison result and the present comparison result. Thereby, the space required in the memory unit is reduced and the image display quality is improved. |
| US08704742B2 |
Liquid crystal display device
When each of R, G, and B pixels continuously display identical gray scales (1023 gray scale) in a liquid crystal display device in which the thicknesses of the liquid crystal layers are of R pixel>G pixel>B pixel, the R pixel is alternately supplied with a positive signal potential (SHR1023) and a negative signal potential (SLR1023), the G pixel is alternately supplied with a positive signal potential (SHG1023) and a negative signal potential (SLG1023), and the B pixel is alternately supplied with a positive signal potential (SHB1023) and a negative signal potential (SLB1023). A first middle value (SMR1023) that between SHR1023 and SLR1023 is set higher than a second middle value (SMG1023) that is between SHG1023 and SLG1023, and second middle value (SMG1023) is set higher than a third middle value (SMB1023) that is between SHB1023 and SLB1023. |
| US08704741B2 |
Liquid crystal display, control method thereof and electronic device for minimizing flicker
A liquid crystal display, applying to the first electrode, a voltage higher and a voltage lower at different timings, detecting a current flowing through the second electrode, designating, as a reference value, the current flowing through the second electrode when the voltage maintained in the liquid crystal element is reset, specifying a first current which is obtained by excluding a charging current due to application of a related higher voltage from currents flowing through the second electrode after the higher voltage is applied to the first electrode, and a second current which is obtained by excluding a charging current due to application of a related lower voltage from currents flowing through the second electrode after the lower voltage is applied to the first electrode, and comparing the first current with the second current, and controlling the first current and the second current based on the comparison result. |
| US08704736B2 |
Light emitting device, method of driving a light emitting device, element substrate, and electronic equipment
A display device capable of obtaining a constant luminance without being influenced by temperature change is provided as well as a method of driving the display device. A current mirror circuit composed of a first transistor and a second transistor is provided in each pixel. The first transistor and second transistor of the current mirror circuit are connected such that their drain currents are kept almost equal irrespective of the level of load resistance. By controlling the OLED drive current using the current mirror circuit, a change in OLED drive current due to fluctuation in characteristics between transistors is avoided and a constant luminance is obtained without being influenced by temperature change. |
| US08704734B2 |
Digit display
Various embodiments of a digit display are provided. In one aspect, a digit display comprises at least one display unit. The at least one digit unit comprises twenty-eight character segments that are arranged in a manner including a quadrilateral, a cross, and four X-shaped arrangements. The quadrilateral is formed by eight of the twenty-eight character segments with two character segments on each of four sides of the quadrilateral. The cross is formed by four of the twenty-eight character segments and dividing the quadrilateral into four quadrants. Each of the four X-shaped arrangements is disposed in a respective one of the four quadrants and formed by respective four of the twenty-eight character segments. |
| US08704733B2 |
Enhanced ZScreen modulator techniques
A method and system for use in conjunction with a push-pull liquid crystal modulator system for creating circularly polarized light of alternating handedness is provided. The method and system comprise a pair of surface mode liquid crystal cells and a driver electrically coupled to the cells. The driver is configured to move an electrical charge using a quenching pulse comprising a relatively brief voltage spike at a beginning of a waveform period. Multiple additional improvements are provided, including reducing the thickness of the LC gap (the distance between cell electrode plates), creating a charge connection or wiring connection to the cell electrodes, employing anti-reflection coating technology, thinner ITO and ITO index matched to the LC material, bonding all possible air to material surfaces, using superior glass, employing more efficient polarizers, and reducing projector blanking time. |
| US08704732B2 |
Image synchronization for multiple displays
This disclosure describes techniques for controlling a plurality of displays to present an image split across the displays. For example, a host controller is described herein. The host controller receives, from a first display, a first display status that indicates a status of presentation of a first portion of an image by the first display and, from a second display a second display status that indicates a status of presentation of a second portion of the image by the second display. The host controller may compare the first and second display status and, in response to the comparison, communicate to at least one of the first and second displays a display adjustment configured to cause the respective display to adjust presentation of at least one of the first or second portion of the image. |
| US08704728B2 |
Compact single-aperture antenna and direction-finding navigation system
A radio-based navigation system uses a small multi-mode direction-finding antenna and a direction-finding receiver to determine platform position, velocity, attitude and time while simultaneously providing protection against narrowband and broadband sources of interference. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals such as those from a Global Positioning System (GPS) provide attitude measurements with a compact multi-mode direction-finding antenna (e.g., a small two-arm spiral with improved angle-of-arrival performance over the entire hemisphere enhanced through use of a conductive vertical extension of the antenna ground plane about the antenna perimeter and/or conductive posts placed evenly around the antenna perimeter) that provides protection against jammers. The multi-mode spiral may be treated as an array of rotationally-symmetric antenna elements. The GPS receiver architecture may be modified for direction-finding and thereby attitude determination by increasing the number of input signals from one to at least two while minimizing the required number of correlators and mixers. |
| US08704724B2 |
Method and arrangement for a low radar cross section antenna
A low-radar cross section antenna structure for an active electrically scanned antenna including an active electrically scanned antenna enclosure and at least two antenna elements. The antenna elements are arranged to be mounted on a front surface of the active electrically scanned antenna enclosure and embedded in a lightweight structure. The front surface and side surfaces of the active electrically scanned antenna enclosure and the antenna elements are arranged to be covered with the lightweight structure. A thin laminate is arranged to cover an outer top surface and an outer side surface of the lightweight structure. Parts of the lightweight structure are arranged to be doped with a lossy material having dielectric, magnetic and/or resistive losses, thus making these parts of the lightweight structure absorbing for electromagnetic radiation. |
| US08704722B2 |
Monofrequency antenna integrated with coaxial feed cable
A monofrequency antenna integrated with a coaxial feed cable comprises a first conductor, a second conductor and a feed cable. The feed cable includes a coating layer, an outer conductor, an insulating layer and a central conductor. The coating layer is formed on the outmost surface of the feed cable. The outer conductor is formed on the inner surface of the coating layer, extends in two opposite directions, and connects with the second conductor. The insulating layer is formed on the inner surface of the outer conductor and extends in two opposite directions. The first conductor is formed on the inner surface of the insulating layer and extends along one direction. The central conductor is formed on the inner surface of the insulating layer and extends along a direction opposite to the direction along which the first conductor extends. The present invention simplifies antenna structure and promotes transmission efficiency. |
| US08704721B2 |
Multi-axial resonant ferrite core antenna
An antenna system for use with very low frequency or low frequency RF tags include a plurality of ferrite core coils disposed at an angle with respect to each other. The antenna system further includes a secondary coil disposed around at least one of the primary coils. The antenna system can provide a multi-axis antenna including two, three, or more than three antenna elements. The antenna system can be disposed in a gang box for a less aesthetically intrusive installation. |
| US08704716B2 |
Antenna device and mobile communication terminal
An antenna device includes a feeding member including a coil pattern and an emitting member to emit a transmit signal supplied from the feeding member and to receive a receive signal and supplying it to the feeding member. The emitting member includes an opening portion and a slit portion communicating with the opening portion. When seen in plan view from the direction of the winding axis of the coil pattern, the opening portion of the emitting member and the inner region of the coil pattern overlap each other, and the emitting member and the coil pattern overlap each other at least partially. |
| US08704715B2 |
Dual band antenna
A dual band antenna with improved radiation characteristic, comprising: a ground plane, formed at the bottom thereof; two impedance matching elements formed respectively at the two arms thereof while connecting to the ground plane so as to form a first joint and a second joint at the connections in respective; a first radiation unit, connected to the first joint, being formed like an arc connected to the first joint that is disposed concave to the bottom ground plane while extending from the first joint toward the second joint, and then turning vertically upward from the end of the arc for enabling the end of the vertical portion to connect to a second radiation unit; and the second radiation unit, being formed like an arc that is disposed concave to the bottom ground plane while extending from the joint with the first radiation unit toward the first joint. |
| US08704710B2 |
Location watching
Techniques for watching a location of a device with respect to a destination target include obtaining a current location of a device from a localization operation, calculating an interval, and performing a next localization operation after the interval has expired. The interval may be calculated based on a velocity and a distance from the current location to a destination target. The techniques may also include calculating a displacement distance from the current location and adjusting the interval based on the displacement distance to thereby adjust a time for performing the next localization operation. The techniques may include performing state detection to determine a motion state of the device and performing the next localization operation based on the determined motion state. |
| US08704708B2 |
GNSS signal processing methods and apparatus with scaling of quality measure
A filter estimates a float value for each float ambiguity of a state vector determined from GNSS signals. Integer values are assigned to at least a subgroup of the estimated float values to define integer ambiguity candidate sets. A quality measure is determined for each of the candidate sets. An expectation value of the candidate set having the best quality measure is determined. An error measure as a ratio of the best quality measure to the expectation value is determined. The quality measures of the candidate sets is adapted as a function of the error measure. A weighted average of a subgroup of the candidate sets on the basis of the adapted quality measures is formed. Ambiguities of the weighted average can be used in subsequent operations to aid in determining a position of the receiver. |
| US08704705B2 |
Radar apparatus calibration via individual radar components
A method, system and computer program product for calibrating and operating a radar apparatus provides for obtaining calibration response data from, for example, a radar cylinder and a plurality of radar columns, prior to assembling the radar cylinder and plurality of radar columns into an assembled radar apparatus. The calibration response data for the exemplary radar cylinder and the plurality of radar columns is evaluated to provide a simulated response of the assembled radar apparatus. Actual measured responses from the assembled radar apparatus may then be correlated with the simulated response through use of a look-up table. The particular method, system and program product for calibrating and operating the radar apparatus provides for avoidance of field calibration of the assembled radar apparatus, which is generally neither desirable nor feasible under hostile conditions. |
| US08704703B2 |
Pseudosynchronizer for an unsynchronized bistatic radar system
Methods and systems for post processing synchronization of bistatic radar data are disclosed. A transmitter is configured to transmit pulses at a first rate controlled by a first local oscillator. A receiver is configured to receive pulses at a second rate controlled by a second oscillator. A processing device is configured to synchronize, with respect to the first rate, in-phase quadrature data received from the receiver using a keystone formatting technique. |
| US08704700B2 |
Passive bird-strike avoidance systems and methods
Systems and methods for providing passive bird-strike avoidance. A passive L-band receiver system is located on an aircraft. The system includes a processor and an antenna having an array of four or more elements. The antenna configured to receive L-band signals. The processor receives the L-band signals from the antenna, determines if the received L-band signals indicate a target, determines distance, direction of travel and speed of any determined targets, determines if the target is a flock of birds based on the determined speed and determines if a hazard condition exists based on the distance, direction and speed. |
| US08704698B2 |
Universal remote control apparatus, system for controlling universal remote control, and method for the same based on batch instruction
Disclosed are a universal remote control apparatus, a system for controlling a universal remote control, and a method for the same based on a batch instruction, in which at least one device is selected using a pointing scheme performed by a user, and a standard control command is acquired from the selected device, thereby automatically generating the batch instruction. The universal remote control apparatus, which includes a device selection unit for receiving, from a user, a selection input with respect to a first device and a second device; a pointer providing unit for providing a pointer for selecting the first device and the second device; and a batch instruction-generation unit for generating a batch instruction for controlling the first device and the second device based on device information with respect to the first device and the second device. |
| US08704694B2 |
A/D converter
An A/D converter 101 comprises a first cyclic A/D converter circuit 103 and an A/D converter circuit 105. The A/D converter 101 includes a record circuit 107 for storing conversion results from the A/D converter circuits 103, 105. The record circuit 107 includes an upper-bit record circuit 107a and a lower-bit circuit 107b. The cyclic A/D converter circuit 103 receives an analog value SA and generates a first digital value SD1 indicating the analog value SA and a residue value RD. The A/D converter circuit 105 receives the residue value RD and generates a second digital value SD2 having lower M bits indicating the residue value RD. The conversion accuracy in the A/D converter circuit 105 can be lowered to ½L that in the A/D converter circuit 103. |
| US08704692B2 |
Digital to analog converter
N upper-side resistors and N lower-side resistors are severally associated with respective bits of a digital input code. Each resistance value is weighted in an essentially binary manner according to the corresponding bit. N upper-side switches are each arranged in parallel with a corresponding upper-side resistor, and each is configured such that its on/off state is controlled according to the corresponding bit. N lower-side switches are each arranged in parallel with a corresponding lower-side resistor, and each is configured such that its on/off state is controlled according to logical inversion of the corresponding bit. |
| US08704691B2 |
Track-and-hold circuit for analog-to-digital converter with switched capacitor coupling of amplifier stage
A track-and-hold circuit comprises at least first and second amplifier stages, and switched capacitor circuitry coupled between the first and second amplifier stages. In a track mode of operation of the track-and-hold circuit, the switched capacitor circuitry is configured to decouple inputs of the second amplifier stage from respective outputs of the first amplifier stage and to couple the inputs of the second amplifier stage to a common mode voltage via respective first and second capacitors. In a hold mode of operation of the track-and-hold circuit, the switched capacitor circuitry is configured to couple the inputs of the second amplifier stage to the respective outputs of the first amplifier stage via the respective first and second capacitors. Multiple instances of the track-and-hold circuit may be implemented in parallel in a time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter. |
| US08704690B2 |
Method and system for minimizing the accumulated offset error for an analog to digital converter
A method and system utilized with an analog to digital converter is disclosed. The method and system comprise providing a first conversion on an input signal. In the first conversion, an offset error is added to the input signal to provide a first result. The method and system further includes providing a second conversion on the input signal. In the second conversion, an offset error is subtracted from the input signal to provide a second result. The first and second results are then combined to substantially remove the offset error. A system and method in accordance with the present invention compensates for the accumulated offset error over many samples, thereby achieving much higher accuracy in the offset error compensation. |
| US08704684B2 |
Hybrid-coding for improving transient switch response in a multi-cell programmable apparatus
Hybrid-coding, multi-cell architecture and operating techniques for step devices provide advantages over binary-coded and thermometer-coded step devices by minimizing or avoiding glitches common in the transient response of binary-coded step devices and by minimizing or avoiding significant increases or degradation in one or more of area, package dimensions, pin counts, power consumption, insertion loss and parasitic capacitance common to thermometer-coded step devices having equivalent range and resolution. |
| US08704682B1 |
Object detection to determine road priority
Embodiments relate to road priority and driving directions. In one embodiment, a system includes an object detector module configured: (i) to detect objects of a type in photographic images associated with first and second tracks, and (ii) to determine a first number of times objects of the type appear in photographic images geocoded along the first track, and a second number of times objects of the type appear in photographic images geocoded along the second track. The system also includes a priority score module configured: (i) to generate a first priority score associated with the first track based at least on the first number, and (ii) to generate a second priority score associated with the second track based at least on the second number. The system further includes a driving direction module configured: (i) to select a driving route that includes the track associated with a greater priority score. |
| US08704680B1 |
Large-area parking-monitoring system
The present invention discloses an improved large-area parking-monitoring system. It comprises first and second parking-monitoring devices. The first parking-monitoring device transmits its parking occupancy data to the second parking-monitoring device via WiFi signals. The second parking-monitoring device transmits the collected parking occupancy data to a base station via cellular signals. This parking-monitoring system has a reduced cellular usage. |
| US08704674B2 |
Device for detecting wrong position of a container in a container handling machine
Device (10) for detecting wrong position of a container (2) in a container handling machine (1), comprising a movable contact element (11) provided with a trigger (34) coupled to an alarm sensor (33), said contact element (11) having a rest position wherein the trigger (34) blocks said alarm sensor (33), and a tilted position wherein the trigger (34) actuates the alarm sensor (33) to stop movement of the container (2). |
| US08704670B2 |
Target based smoke detection system
A smoke detector includes processing circuitry coupled to a camera. The field-of-view of the camera contains one or more targets, each having spatial indicia thereon. At least a portion of one of the targets is coated, at least in part, by an infra-red absorbing dye. The dye produces visually discernable dark areas on the coated target(s). |
| US08704669B2 |
Vehicle system reaction to medical conditions
A computer-implemented method includes registering at least one medical condition associated with a vehicle occupant. The method also includes monitoring environmental conditions for the onset of a trigger likely to cause complications with regards to the medical condition. The method further includes warning the vehicle occupant about the onset of the trigger. The method also includes adjusting a vehicle component or system, via the VCS, in response to the onset of the trigger. |
| US08704668B1 |
System for monitoring and alerting based on animal behavior in designated environments
A system for monitoring and alerting based on animal behavior includes an apparatus to observe one or more animals using a sensor network, a processor to capture tracking information and to interpret animal state based on sensor observations, and a communication device to communicate alerts based on animal state. |
| US08704667B1 |
System and method for receiving data, analyzing data, and initiating outputs based upon the analyzed data
A system and method for receiving user data, analyzing the user data, and generating outputs based upon the analysis of user input data in conjunction with various other data. Specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic “nanny” system to analyze personal appointment data for meetings or appointments attended by individuals and generate outputs to various emergency contacts for the purpose of notifying the emergency contacts that a user of the system has not checked back with the electronic “nanny” system and may therefore be in trouble or in a dangerous situation. |
| US08704662B2 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring a structure
A system and method for monitoring a structure and for distinguishing between an alarm condition, and a nuisance event such as rain. An optical fibre sensor (20,22) produces a signal indicative of a disturbance and level crossing rates are determined to distinguish between noise in the signal (nuisance event) and a required event. A FFT technique is also disclosed as well as classification of an event by extracting predetermined features from the signal. |
| US08704659B2 |
Interaction analyzer
A method of analyzing participant activity includes providing an identification unit to a participant, receiving signals from the identification unit, determining location of the participant based on the received signals, storing the location information and the associated timestamp and analyzing the stored information. |
| US08704658B2 |
Satellite aided location tracking with user interface
A satellite aided location tracking and data services with user interface. A graphical user interface is provided that enables users to monitor the status of movable assets. Detailed information in a position history enables the user to obtain status information (e.g., starts and stops) at each position report. This status information promotes visibility into the journey of each movable asset. |
| US08704654B1 |
Circuit for communication over DC power line using high temperature electronics
A high temperature communications circuit includes a power conductor for concurrently conducting electrical energy for powering circuit components and transmitting a modulated data signal, and a demodulator for demodulating the data signal and generating a serial bit stream based on the data signal. The demodulator includes an absolute value amplifier for conditionally inverting or conditionally passing a signal applied to the absolute value amplifier. The absolute value amplifier utilizes no diodes to control the conditional inversion or passing of the signal applied to the absolute value amplifier. |
| US08704644B2 |
Remote control system, remote control apparatus and remote control method
Provided is a remote operation system capable of coordinating the operations of a plurality of devices without harming the familiar, intuitive behavior style of remote control operation. The remote operation system is provided with: a remote operation device which captures images of each of a plurality of devices connected to a network and specifies the devices to be operated, and which transmits operation scenario information on the coordinated operations performed among the plurality of devices to be operated, the coordinated operations being determined by the combination of the types of the specified devices to be operated; and a network control unit which outputs operation commands for executing operations specified by the operation scenario information received, to the devices specified by the operation scenario information received, when the network accommodating the plurality of devices is constructed and the operation scenario information is transmitted from the remote operation device. |
| US08704643B2 |
Convenient and easy to use button layout for a remote control
A remote control includes a screen configured to display a plurality of soft buttons in a first order. The remote control further includes a memory configured to store use information for the plurality of soft buttons. The use information includes a number of button presses for each of the plurality of soft buttons. The remote control further includes a processor configured to determine whether one of the plurality of soft buttons is pressed a great number of times than a second of the plurality of soft buttons, and to change the display of the plurality of soft buttons to a second order where the one of the plurality of soft buttons is displayed in the second order at a higher position than in the first order. |
| US08704642B2 |
RFID-based intelligent storage cabinet and the management method thereof
The present invention relates to an RFID-based intelligent storage cabinet and its management method, while utilizing the shielding effect enabled by each partitions for allowing any electromagnetic wave in one compartment to transmit only inside the confinement of such compartment without interfering another compartment. Each stock keeping unit (SKU) that is to be stored in the RFID-based intelligent storage cabinet is attached with at least one RFID tag, and different SKUs of different usages are sorted so as to be stored in different compartments. Moreover, each RFID reader can be designed to function according to the command of a control device for scanning the corresponding compartment in a periodic manner or non-periodic manner, by that any SKU that is stored in the corresponding compartment can be detected and identified as each RFID reader is also connected to an inventory database, a database of item list, or a memory database. |
| US08704635B2 |
Secure web accessed box
A web accessed security box includes a web server that can communicate with a web browser to control access and account for asset events that occur when the box is used. A personal identifier must be satisfied to open a drawer of the box. A latching system uses both an access solenoid for normal opening and closing in response to the personal identifier, and an emergency release solenoid having a separate power supply to open the box when the access solenoid is disabled. Several features make the box secure against weather and tampering. |
| US08704633B2 |
Fraud prevention
A method of preventing fraud at a self-service terminal is described. The method comprises: receiving a signal from an electromagnetic sensor located in the vicinity of an electromagnetic signal transmitter; monitoring a drive signal being delivered to the electromagnetic signal transmitter; and comparing the drive signal with the electromagnetic sensor signal. The method then ascertains if a state of the electromagnetic sensor signal is inconsistent with a state of the drive signal; and triggers an alarm when the state of the electromagnetic sensor signal is inconsistent with a state of the drive signal. |
| US08704632B2 |
In-vehicle system, in-vehicle device, and execution control method of command of the in-vehicle device
In an in-vehicle system, a portable terminal interprets a command intended by operation data operated by an occupant via a touch panel of a DA, and determines whether the interpreted command is a prohibition command, that is, whether execution of the command in an own device is prohibited. When the command is not a prohibition command, the portable terminal is caused to execute the command, and when it is a prohibition command, the DA is caused to execute the command. |
| US08704631B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling key lock in portable terminal
An apparatus and method for controlling a key lock in a portable terminal are provided. The apparatus includes a keypad, a key buffer, and an input controller. The keypad has a plurality of key buttons and detects at least one key input. The key buffer temporarily stores input key information. The input controller stores the at least one key input, which is detected by the keypad, in the key buffer in a key lock state and determines if a combination of key inputs stored in the key buffer includes an unlock key combination. |
| US08704619B2 |
Bandpass filter and radio communication module and radio communication device using the same
Provided are a bandpass filter and a radio communication module and a radio communication device using the same. The bandpass filter includes: a first and a second grounding electrode arranged on the upper and the lower surface of a layered body; first resonance electrodes and second resonance electrodes arranged to orthogonally intersect the first resonance electrodes; a first input coupling electrode opposing to the first resonance electrode of the input stage and a second input coupling electrode connected thereto and opposing to the second resonance electrode of the input stage; a first output coupling electrode opposing to the first resonance electrode of the output stage and a second output coupling electrode connected thereto and opposing to the second resonance electrode of the output stage. |
| US08704616B2 |
Contour-mode piezoelectric micromechanical resonators
A contour mode micromechanical piezoelectric resonator. The resonator has a bottom electrode; a top electrode; and a piezoelectric layer disposed between the bottom electrode and the top electrode. The piezoelectric resonator has a planar surface with a cantilevered periphery, dimensioned to undergo in-plane lateral displacement at the periphery. The resonator also includes means for applying an alternating electric field across the thickness of the piezoelectric resonator. The electric field is configured to cause the resonator to have a contour mode in-plane lateral displacement that is substantially in the plane of the planar surface of the resonator, wherein the fundamental frequency for the displacement of the piezoelectric resonator is set in part lithographically by the planar dimension of the bottom electrode, the top electrode or the piezoelectric layer. |
| US08704615B2 |
Integrated channel filter and method of operation
A system includes a filter and a tuner formed on an integrated circuit. The filter receives an input signal comprising a first number of channels and communicates an intermediate output signal comprising a second number of channels less than the first number of channels. The tuner is coupled to the filter and receives the intermediate output signal and communicates an output signal comprising a third number of channels less than the second number of channels. |
| US08704613B2 |
Cavity filter having feedback arrangement
A cavity filter having two series of resonance chambers bilaterally connected between an antenna port and two opposing signal input/output ports, each series of resonance chambers having the last resonance chamber thereof connected to the antenna port and the first resonance chamber thereof connected between the respective signal input/output port and the associating last resonance chamber to perform cross-coupling feedback, improving the quality of the signal received by the signal receiver using the cavity filter and enhancing signal transmission performance. |
| US08704611B2 |
Planar constant-resistance hybrid filter
A hybrid filter may include sum, low-pass, high-pass, and intermediate nodes. A terminating impedance may couple the intermediate node to a circuit ground. A first low-pass network may couple the sum node to the low-pass node, and a first high-pass network may couple the sum node to the high-pass node. A second low-pass network may couple the high-pass node to the intermediate node. A second high-pass network may couple the low-pass node to the intermediate node. The second high-pass network may include the series connection of a first capacitor, a coupling network, and a second capacitor. The coupling network may include two coupling sections each with planar broadside-coupled first, second, and third conductor elements separated by dielectric layers. The first and third conductor elements in each section may be connected electrically in parallel. |
| US08704608B1 |
Integrated circulator for phased arrays
A circulator/isolator assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a first magnetic substrate having first surface and a second surface and a first ground plane formed on the first surface. A dielectric layer is disposed adjacent first magnetic substrate. The dielectric layer includes a multi-port junction circuit coupled to transmission traces. One of the traces forms an input port and another forms an output port. A first magnet is disposed proximate the multi-port junction circuit of the dielectric layer. The first magnet excites a circular, unidirectional magnetic flux field in the first magnetic substrate that limits electromagnetic wave propagation to a single direction. |
| US08704607B2 |
Pulse modulated RF power control method and pulse modulated RF power supply device
The pulse modulated RF power control method includes an output amplitude control step for controlling amplitude of a pulse output, and a duty control step for controlling a duty ratio of the pulse output. The output amplitude control step performs a constant amplitude control to control an amplitude value of the pulse output so that the amplitude value becomes equal to a set amplitude value. The constant amplitude control according to the output amplitude control, for instance, gives a feedback of the amplitude value of the pulse output outputted by the power control, obtains a difference value between the feedback value and the set amplitude value, and controls the amplitude value of the pulse output so that the difference value becomes zero. |
| US08704604B2 |
Oscillators having arbitrary frequencies and related systems and methods
Systems and methods for operating with oscillators configured to produce an oscillating signal having an arbitrary frequency are described. The frequency of the oscillating signal may be shifted to remove its arbitrary nature by application of multiple tuning signals or values to the oscillator. Alternatively, the arbitrary frequency may be accommodated by adjusting operation one or more components of a circuit receiving the oscillating signal. |
| US08704602B2 |
Two-point modulation device using voltage controlled oscillator, and calibration method
A modulation section including a feedback circuit configured to conduct feedback control of an output signal from a voltage controlled oscillator based on an inputted modulation signal, and a feed-forward circuit configured to calibrate the modulation signal and outputting the calibrated modulation signal to the voltage controlled oscillator; a signal output section configured to output, to the modulation section, a predetermined reference signal instead of the modulation signal when a calibration is conducted; and a gain correction section configured to, in a state where the feedback circuit is forming an open loop, calculate a frequency transition amount of the reference signal outputted by the voltage controlled oscillator, and correct a gain used for calibrating the modulation signal at the feed-forward circuit based on the calculated frequency transition amount. |
| US08704597B2 |
Amplifiers and related receiver systems
Apparatus are provided for amplifier circuits and related receiver systems. An amplifier circuit includes a first common-source amplification stage and a second common-source amplification stage. The input of the second common-source amplification stage is coupled to the output of the first common-source amplification stage such that the first common-source amplification stage generates a first amplified signal, and the second common-source amplification stage generates a second amplified signal based on the first amplified signal. The first common-source amplification stage is coupled to a first node and the second common-source amplification stage is coupled to a second node, wherein the common-source amplification stages are configured such that a current between the first node and the second node flows in series through the common-source amplification stages. |
| US08704596B2 |
Difference amplifier arrangement with transconductance amplifier based current compensation
An amplifier arrangement constituted of: a first input lead; a second input lead; a difference amplifier; a first buffer, the input of the first buffer coupled to the first input lead, the output of the first buffer coupled to a first input of the difference amplifier; a second buffer, the input of the second buffer coupled to the second input lead, the output of the second buffer coupled to a second input of the difference amplifier; and a transconductance amplifier, the non-inverting input and the non-inverted output of the transconductance amplifier coupled to the first input of the difference amplifier, the inverting input and the inverted output of the transconductance amplifier coupled to the second input of the difference amplifier. The input signals are thus buffered and the offset of the buffers are compensated for. |
| US08704591B1 |
High-voltage tolerant biasing arrangement using low-voltage devices
A reference circuit includes an NMOS transistor, a PMOS transistor and a bias circuit. The NMOS transistor includes a source connected with a first voltage supply and a gate adapted to receive a first bias signal. The PMOS transistor includes a source connected with a second voltage supply, a gate adapted to receive a second bias signal, and a drain connected with a drain of the NMOS transistor at an output of the reference circuit. The bias circuit generates the first and second bias signals. Magnitudes the first and second bias signals are configured to control a reference signal generated by the reference circuit such that when the reference signal is near a quiescent value of the reference signal, a current in the reference circuit is below a first level, and when the reference signal is outside of the prescribed limits, the current in the reference circuit increases nonlinearly. |
| US08704590B2 |
Control circuit for power converter and method thereof
A control circuit for a power converter includes a shared pin, a driving circuit, a current source, a sampling circuit, and a signal processing circuit. The shared pin is coupled with an output end of the power converter through a resistor. The driving circuit conducts a switch of the power converter. The current source provides a current to the resistor through the shared pin. The sampling circuit samples the signal on the shared pin for generating a first sampling value and a second sampling value. The signal processing circuit calculates a first difference between the first sampling value and a first reference value, and a second difference between the second sampling value and a second reference value. When the difference between the first difference and the second difference is less than a predetermined value, the signal processing circuit may therefore configure the conduction time or frequency of the switch. |
| US08704589B2 |
Reference voltage circuits
A reference voltage circuit corrects for bandgap voltage shifts induced during fabrication. The reference voltage circuit generates a reference voltage using first and second base-emitter pairs. The reference voltage circuit sums the voltage across the first base-emitter pair with a difference voltage. During a first time period, the difference voltage is the voltage across the first base-emitter pair minus the voltage across the second base-emitter pair, and during a second time period, the difference voltage is the voltage across the second base-emitter pair minus the voltage across the first base-emitter pair. |
| US08704585B2 |
Method for forming an electric signal representing a sound and a device therefor
A method for driving a field effect transistor for shaping an electrical signal, representing a sound, to an output signal is disclosed. The method comprises modifying the input signal to an intermediate signal, and output of the intermediate signal to the field effect transistor for shaping the output signal. The method comprises the steps of adjusting the quiescent point of the field effect transistor such that the same is placed in the quadratic region of the transfer characteristics of the field effect transistors, and adjusting the amplitude of the intermediate signal, such that the same causes the potential swing between the gate terminal and the source terminal to at least partly be in the quadratic region of the transfer characteristics of the field effect transistor. |
| US08704583B2 |
Capacitive level-shifting circuits and methods for adding DC offsets to output of current-integrating amplifier
Capacitive level-shifting circuits and methods are provided for adding DC offsets to the output of a current-integrating amplifier. For example, a current-integrating amplifier includes an input amplifier stage and an output offset circuit. The input amplifier stage includes an input node, a first output node, and a first switch connected between the first output node and a power supply node. The output offset circuit is connected to the first output node of the input amplifier stage and to a second output node of the current-integrating amplifier. The output offset circuit includes a first series capacitor coupled between the first output node of the input amplifier stage and the second output node of the current-integrating amplifier. The output offset circuit switchably connects a bias voltage to the second output node and charges the first series capacitor to add a DC offset to the second output node of the current-integrating amplifier. |
| US08704582B2 |
High linearity mixer using a 33% duty cycle clock for unwanted harmonic suppression
A mixer circuit is disclosed. The mixer circuit comprises a plurality of mixer elements, wherein there are non-overlapping clock signals provided to the plurality of mixer elements which have a duty cycle of 33⅓ percent. Outputs signals of the mixer elements do not contain third order harmonic content of the non-overlapping clock signals. The third-order harmonic of the mixer is eliminated by using mixer which uses voltage sampling on non-overlapping clocks and thereby achieves high linearity. The mixer circuit is further expanded to remove the I-Q image and even order harmonics. |
| US08704580B2 |
Circuit sharing time delay integrator
The present invention discloses a circuit sharing time delay integrator structure. The major composing elements of this circuit sharing time delay integrator structure are: a sharing circuit, a first control block, a plurality of second control blocks and a timing set generated by a timing generator circuit. The sharing circuit can be an OP-AMP, an active load, or any of a variety of combinations used in signal accumulation applications. With the implementation of the present invention to applications of signal accumulations, the necessity of an adder circuitry is eliminated, the overall circuitry and hence the total amount of transistors required when producing the integrated circuit is massively reduced, and thus a great cost reduction and better timing and power efficiency can all be thereof achieved. |
| US08704579B2 |
Level shifting circuit and semiconductor device using the same
A level shifting circuit includes a first circuit, a second circuit and an output voltage controlling circuit. The first circuit is coupled to an input node, an output node and a first supply voltage node and configured to pull an output voltage at the output node toward the first supply voltage in accordance with an input voltage applied to the input node. The second circuit is coupled to the first circuit, the output node and the second supply voltage node and configured to pull the output voltage toward the second supply voltage in accordance with the input voltage from the first circuit. The output voltage controlling circuit is coupled to the output node and configured to control the output voltage within a range narrower than a range from the first voltage to the second voltage. |
| US08704576B1 |
Variable resistance switch for wide bandwidth resonant global clock distribution
A wide bandwidth resonant clock distribution comprises a clock grid configured to distribute a clock signal to a plurality of components of an integrated circuit, at least one inductor, at least one tunable resistance switch, and a capacitor network. The inductor, tunable resistance switch, and capacitor network are connected between the clock grid and a reference voltage. The at least one tunable resistance switch is programmable to dynamically switch the at least one inductor in or out of the clock distribution to effect at least one resonant mode of operation or a non-resonant mode of operation based on a frequency of the clock signal. |
| US08704575B2 |
Tunable active directional couplers
Active directional couplers are provided. In accordance with certain embodiments of the invention, the subject active directional couplers are tunable. The tuning is accomplished via varactors connected to the lines of the active directional couplers. Active directional elements are provided between different lines of the subject active directional couplers to control a signal path between ports of the different lines. The active directional elements are selected from diodes, transistors, inverting amplifiers, non-inverting amplifiers, differential amplifiers, and active baluns. The lines include a phase shift element between the two ports of each line. The phase shift element is selected from a transmission line, a delay line, and a phase shifter. Advantageously, the subject lines do not have to be designed for ideal phase shifting and can be designed at near 90° or near λ/4 values. |
| US08704569B2 |
Delay locked loop circuit and method
A delay locked loop includes initialization circuitry that ensures that a DLL is initialized to an operating point that is not to close to either end of a delay vs. control voltage characteristic. The initialization circuitry forces the DLL to initially search for a lock point starting from an initial delay, the delay is varied in one direction, forcing the DLL to skip the first lock point. The initialization circuitry only allows the DLL to vary the delay of the voltage controlled delay loop in the one direction from the initial delay until the operating point is reached. |
| US08704564B2 |
PLL circuit
A PLL circuit includes a low-pass filter configured to generate a control voltage according to an output current from a charge pump. The low-pass filter includes a preceding stage circuit portion configured to store electric charges according to the output current from the charge pump, and a succeeding stage circuit portion configured to generate the control voltage by receiving the electric charges stored in and transferred from the preceding stage circuit portion. Also, the preceding stage circuit portion includes plural charge storage circuits each including a capacitor, a first switch connected between the capacitor and the charge pump and configured to be driven by a first switch control signal, and a second switch connected between the capacitor and the succeeding stage circuit portion and configured to be driven by a second switch control signal. |
| US08704562B2 |
Ultra low phase noise signal source
An apparatus and method for providing an output signal. The apparatus comprises an input for receiving a reference signal, an oscillator for providing an output signal, and an offset signal generator for frequency multiplying the reference signal to generate an offset signal that has a plurality of frequency products in a plurality of frequency bands. The apparatus further includes a mixer for mixing the offset signal with the output signal to produce a combined signal, an offset frequency selector for controllably selecting a frequency band of the offset signal, and a difference detector for detecting a difference between the reference signal and the combined signal and for providing a control signal to the oscillator based on the detected difference. |
| US08704560B2 |
Multi-phase signal generator and method
A multi-phase signal generators and methods for generating multi-phase signals are described. In one embodiment, a clock generator generates quadrature signals including those having 90, 180, 270 and 360 degrees phase difference with a first signal. The rising edge of an intermediate signal is compared with the rising edges of two of the other signals to generate an UP and DN pulse signal, respectively. The UP and DN signals are used to adjust the delay of a delay line producing the signals to synchronize the signals. In some embodiments, a reset signal generator is used to truncate the UP or DN signal pulse. |
| US08704557B2 |
High-speed non-integer frequency divider circuit
The invention relates to a high-speed non-integer frequency divider circuit for use in generating frequencies in a communication device, comprising: at least four bi-stable memory devices each having an input terminal, a clock terminal and an output terminal for outputting an output signal. The high-speed non-integer frequency divider circuit is characterized in that the at least four bi-stable memory devices are arranged in a cascaded chain such that each bi-stable memory device following the first bi-stable memory device receives the output signal of a previous bi-stable memory device in the cascaded chain at its input terminal and such that at least one of the output signals of the last bi-stable memory device is used to control the input terminal of the first bi-stable memory device, and in that the frequency divider circuit further comprises a clocking arrangement adapted to provide an in-phase clock signal, a quadrature clock signal, an inverse of the in-phase clock signal and an inverse of the quadrature clock signal to the clock terminals of each of the at least four bi-stable memory devices such that a combination of output signals from the at least bi-stable memory devices produces a frequency divided output signal of the frequency divider circuit having a frequency division ratio of fourths of the frequency of the in-phase clock signal. The invention also relates to a frequency synthesizer and a communication device. |
| US08704555B2 |
Integrated circuit comprising reference voltage generation circuitry and electronic device
An integrated circuit comprises reference voltage generation circuitry for providing a reference voltage for use within a transmission of electrical signals. The reference voltage generation circuitry comprises a reference voltage node operably coupled via a plurality of resistance elements to a plurality of signal nodes such that the reference voltage node assumes as the reference voltage an average of the voltage values of the signal nodes to which it is coupled. |
| US08704551B2 |
Semiconductor device and a display device
A standard cell used for the logic synthesis and the routing of layout is configured by a logic circuit on an output side and a logic circuit on an input side, and a driving capacity of the logic circuit on the output side is made large while gate input capacitance of the logic circuit on the input side is made small. |
| US08704549B1 |
Programmable integrated circuits with decoupling capacitor circuitry
Programmable integrated circuits with configurable logic circuitry and routing resources are provided. Portions of the routing resources on a programmable integrated circuit may be used in implementing a desired user-specified custom logic function, whereas other portions of the routing resources on the programmable integrated circuit may be unused. The unused routing resources may include adjacent pairs of routing paths. These paths may be coupled to control circuitry configured to drive the routing paths to desired voltage levels to provide an optimal amount of decoupling capacitance. In one suitable arrangement, two adjacent routing paths may both be driven to a positive power supply voltage level. In another suitable arrangement, the two adjacent routing paths may be driven to the positive power supply voltage level and a ground power supply voltage level, respectively. |
| US08704544B2 |
Method and apparatus for multi-planar edge-extended wafer translator
An apparatus, suitable for coupling a pads of integrated circuits on wafer to the pogo pins of a pogo tower in a test system without the need of a probe card, includes a body having a first surface and a second surface, the body having a substantially circular central portion, and a plurality of bendable arms extending outwardly from the central portion, each bendable arm having a connector tab disposed at the distal end thereof; a first plurality of contact terminals disposed on the second surface of the central portion of the body, the first plurality of contact terminals arranged in pattern to match the layout of pads on a wafer to be contacted; at least one contact terminal disposed on the first surface of the plurality of connector tabs; and a plurality of electrically conductive pathways disposed in the body such that each of the first plurality of contact terminals is electrically connected to a corresponding one of the contact terminals on the first surface of the connector tabs. |
| US08704537B2 |
Integrated capacitance bridge for high-resolution wide-temperature-range capacitance measurement
The present approach is based on the use of an integrated capacitance bridge circuit to measure the capacitance of a device under test. A significant feature of this approach is that the operating point is not the null point of the bridge circuit. Instead, the operating point of the bridge circuit is tuned to be away from the null point. By moving away from the null point, the output signal from the bridge circuit is increased. Preferably, this output signal is substantially larger than the input noise floor of an amplifier connected to the bridge circuit output, while being substantially less than GνDUT, where G is the gain provided by the bridge circuit transistor and νDUT is the AC signal applied to the device under test. Experiments on graphene devices and on carbon nanotube FETs demonstrate about 10 aF resolution (graphene) and about 13 aF resolution (carbon nanotube FET) at room temperature. |
| US08704534B2 |
Method and apparatus of tracking of resonant impedance in resonance power transfer system
A resonance power transfer system and a method for tracking resonant impedance in the resonance power transfer system are provided. An apparatus for tracking resonant impedance in a resonance power transfer system may include: a load sensor configured to detect the impedance of a load connected to a target device that receives resonance power; a target reflection signal detector configured to detect a reflection signal corresponding to the resonance power; a target impedance tracking unit configured to track the resonant impedance by adjusting a determination factor of a resonant frequency; and a target control unit configured to control the tracking of the resonant impedance based on whether there is a change of the impedance of the load, the reflection signal is detected, or both. |
| US08704531B2 |
Loop element and noise analyzer
There is provided a shield-structured loop element which can suppress noise via a silicon substrate and can be manufactured by a semiconductor process. The loop element includes: a first well of a first polarity that is formed on a substrate; a deep well of a second polarity that is formed below the first well; a ring-shaped second well of a second polarity that is formed on the deep well along an outer periphery of the deep well; a third well of the first polarity that is formed in an island area surrounded by the deep well and the second well; a looped conductor that is formed in a layer above the third well and has smaller outer dimensions than those of the third well; and a first path that connects the second well to a bias power supply. The second well and the deep well are electrically connected to each other. |
| US08704523B2 |
Measuring casing attenuation coefficient for electro-magnetics measurements
Methods and related systems are described for making an electromagnetic induction survey of a formation surrounding a cased section of a borehole. An electromagnetic transmitter and/or receiver are deployed into the cased section of the borehole. One or more additional devices are used to measure the properties of a conductive casing relating to conductivity, thickness and magnetic permeability. A casing coefficient is then calculated that can then be used for the processing of the deep-sensing induction measurements. |
| US08704520B2 |
Radio frequency coil and apparatus
A radio frequency (RF) coil for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system includes a first end ring, a second end ring, and a plurality of rungs electrically coupled between the first and second end rings, each rung including a first rung portion formed from a plurality of conductors and a second rung portion formed from a single solid conductor. A resonance assembly for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system and an MRI imaging system are also described herein. |
| US08704518B2 |
System and method of high signal-to-noise ratio magnetic resonance imaging screening
An MRI apparatus is disclosed, the MRI apparatus comprising a computer programmed to apply a fluid suppression technique prior to an imaging pulse-gradient sequence, wherein the fluid suppression technique is configured to suppress signals from fluids having long longitudinal relaxation times, and apply a fat suppression technique after the fluid suppression technique and prior to the imaging pulse-gradient sequence, wherein the fat suppression technique is configured to suppress fat signals. The computer is further programmed to apply a flow suppression preparation sequence after the fat suppression technique and prior to the imaging pulse-gradient sequence, wherein the flow suppression preparation sequence is configured to suppress moving tissue signals. The computer is also programmed to apply the imaging pulse-gradient sequence, cause the RF transceiver system to acquire MR signals during the imaging pulse-gradient sequence, and reconstruct an image from the acquired MR signals. |
| US08704517B2 |
NMR device for detection of analytes
This invention relates generally to detection devices having one or more small wells each surrounded by, or in close proximity to, an NMR micro coil, each well containing a liquid sample with magnetic nanoparticles that self-assemble or disperse in the presence of a target analyte, thereby altering the measured NMR properties of the liquid sample. The device may be used, for example, as a portable unit for point of care diagnosis and/or field use, or the device may be implanted for continuous or intermittent monitoring of one or more biological species of interest in a patient. |
| US08704515B2 |
Magnetic resonance specimen evaluation using multiple pulsed field gradient sequences with a wavenumber magnitude local minimum and restricted compartment estimation
Using pulsed-field-gradient (PFG) sequences, the sizes of the pores in ordered porous media can be estimated from the “diffraction” pattern that the signal attenuation curves exhibit. A different diffraction pattern is observed when the experiment is extended to a larger number (N) of diffusion gradient pulse pairs. Differences in the characteristics of attenuation curves also permit distinguishing different pore shapes and distributions using the N-PFG technique. Using an even number of PFG pairs, an approximation to the average pore size can be obtained even when the sample contains pores with a broad distribution of sizes. Multi-PFG sequences can also be used to differentiate free and multi-compartment diffusion, and to estimate compartment sizes and orientations, and to distinguish microscopic and ensemble anisotropy. |
| US08704512B2 |
Nondestructive testing system for steel workpiece
A nondestructive testing system for testing the strength of a gear (15) that has been subjected to vacuum carburization is disclosed. A detection coil (33) embedded in a resin member (32) having a wedge-shaped cross section is placed in proximity to a bottom land (44) of the gear, and the carburized depth of the bottom land is measured to test the strength of the gear. |
| US08704501B2 |
Driver, current regulating circuit thereof, and method of current regulation, with alternating voltages therein
A current regulating circuit includes a transistor and an operational amplifier. The transistor receives a load current and generates a feedback voltage corresponding to the load current. The operational amplifier receives a reference voltage and the feedback voltage to control the transistor. The operational amplifier further includes an input stage and an output stage. The input stage includes amplifier inputs each for alternately receiving the reference voltage and the feedback voltage so that the input stage generates operating voltages corresponding to the reference voltage and the feedback voltage. The output stage receives the operating voltages alternately to control the transistor. A driver and a method of current regulation are also disclosed herein. |
| US08704499B2 |
Method and arrangement for tracking the maximum power point of a photovoltaic module
A method and apparatus of tracking the maximum power point of a photovoltaic module. The method includes measuring an output voltage of the photovoltaic module, determining an output voltage of the inverter connected to the photovoltaic module, and measuring output current of the inverter connected to the photovoltaic module. A variable relating to energy of the capacitor is defined using the measured PV module output voltage, and a second harmonic component is extracted from the defined variable. A second harmonic component of the module output power is estimated using the defined variable, measured output current of the inverter, and the determined output voltage of the inverter. The estimated and extracted second harmonic components are multiplied, and a DC component is extracted from the product. A control signal for controlling the inverter connected to the photovoltaic module is formed by using the extracted DC component in a PI algorithm. |
| US08704496B2 |
Charge control system
A charge control system (10) includes an electric power storage device (102), a variation suppression coefficient setting section (214) which sets a variation suppression coefficient, a variation suppression operation processing section which operates a charged state estimation operation value, and a charged state estimation section which estimates a charged state of the electric power storage device. The variation suppression coefficient setting section (214), when the charged state estimation operation value drops within a predetermined period during charging of the electric power storage device (102), changes the variation suppression coefficient such that, of the voltage across the electric power storage device detected by a voltage sensor (105) and a charged state estimation operation value which is obtained by the previous operation, a ratio of the voltage across the electric power storage device which is detected by the voltage detection section is smaller, for operating the charged state estimation operation value after the predetermined period. |
| US08704488B2 |
Battery pack and method of controlling the same
A battery pack and a method of controlling the same is disclosed. The battery pack determines a cell deviation after the battery pack is fully charged or over-discharged, and thus the battery pack can reduce the cell deviation by performing cell balancing. |
| US08704487B2 |
Electronic device having a battery pack to support a display
A power supply support system comprises a battery pack comprising a variably positionable support arm configured to support an electronic device in a plurality of different viewing orientations. |
| US08704486B2 |
Electricity storage system
An electricity storage system has secondary battery housing system racks in which secondary batteries and circuit blocks are respectively housed, and a power converter housing rack in which a power converter is housed, and which is orderly disposed together with the plurality of secondary battery housing system racks. The secondary battery housing system rack having a positive-electrode-side terminal directly connected to a positive-electrode-side terminal of the power converter by a positive-electrode bus and the secondary battery housing system rack having a negative-electrode-side terminal directly connected to a negative-electrode-side terminal of the power converter by a negative-electrode bus, are different from each other. |
| US08704485B1 |
Battery pack system
A battery pack system is disclosed. The battery pack system includes a plurality of battery pack modules that are each configured to be concurrently and removably attached to a base. Each battery pack module includes batteries arranged in a plurality of parallel groups that are connected in series. Each parallel group includes a plurality of batteries connected in parallel. Additionally or alternately, the base has electronics that connect the battery pack modules in a plurality of system parallel groups that are connected in series. Each system parallel group includes a plurality of battery pack modules connected in parallel. |
| US08704482B2 |
Power conversion device
A power conversion device includes a converter-inverter controller for controlling a converter and an inverter. The power conversion device further includes a DC capacitor connected between the converter and the inverter and a DC capacitor voltage detector for detecting a DC capacitor voltage Efc between the connection ends of the DC capacitor. The converter-inverter controller provides variable control on the DC capacitor voltage Efc to the converter on the basis of the motor frequency of an AC motor, the DC capacitor voltage Efc, and a pulse mode. Within a predetermined range of motor frequencies, the converter-inverter controller fixes the PWM modulation factor of the inverter to a value m0 and provides operation control to the inverter, where the value m0 being to reduce a harmonic of a predetermined order included in the output voltage from the inverter. |
| US08704478B2 |
Motor drive circuit
A motor-drive circuit includes: a filter circuit to attenuate a frequency band including a resonance frequency of an actuator in a target-current signal, which is a digital signal indicating a target value of a driving current to be supplied to a voice-coil motor that drives the actuator; a digital-analog converter to convert an output signal of the filter circuit into an analog signal, to be outputted as a current-control signal; and a driving circuit to supply the driving current to the motor in accordance with the current-control signal, the filter circuit including: a digital-notch filter to attenuate a frequency band around the resonance frequency in the target-current signal; and a digital-low-pass filter to attenuate a frequency band greater than or equal to a predetermined frequency in the output signal of the digital-notch filter, the digital-low-pass filter having a sampling frequency higher than a sampling frequency of the digital-notch filter. |
| US08704476B2 |
Method and device for detecting an entrapment situation
To detect an entrapment situation when a driven component is adjusted using a mechanical adjustment system which has an electric motor (2), a value (Fakt) relating to the force acting upon the driven component is compared with a threshold value (FTh) relating to a reference value (FRef). The reference value (FRef), and thus the threshold value (FTh), are continuously matched, for the purpose of force tracking, with the force value which changes during the movement of adjustment depending on the mechanical system. |
| US08704475B2 |
Current source inverter device
Disclosed is a current source inverter device which controls the power factor in an arbitrarily configurable manner without a magnetic pole position detector. The device is provided with a current source inverter; a motor supplied with alternating current power from the current source inverter; and a control means which detects the terminal voltage of the motor, calculates the motor's internal induced voltage and the motor current that flows in the motor based on the detected terminal voltage, and controls the current source inverter. The control means calculates the phase difference (θc) between the terminal voltage and the motor current, the phase difference (θx) between the motor current and the internal induced voltage, and the phase difference (θv) between the terminal voltage and the internal induced voltage. An adjustment angle (θα), which is the error in the phase difference between the motor current and the internal induced voltage when the set value of the phase difference (θx) is θy, is obtained from the conditional equation θα=θv−θy−θc. |
| US08704474B2 |
Motor control method and system and digital signal processor thereof
A digital signal processor (DSP) is operable to receive a single-phase back electromotive force signal (back-EMF) fed back from a motor and control an inverter for driving the motor based on the single-phase back-EMF signal. The DSP includes an electrical angle building module, a rotation speed control module, and a pulse width modulation control module. In addition, the DSP further includes a field-weakening compensation module. The field-weakening compensation module is operable to automatically regulate an electrical angle based on a rotation speed of the motor and a set of predetermined compensation parameters so that the DSP can be operable to achieve an adaptive control. Furthermore, a motor control system and method are disclosed herein. |
| US08704473B2 |
Motor for a synchronous electric machine and method for routing power
A motor for a synchronous electric machine includes a first inverter configured to provide alternating current power at a first plurality of phases. Also included is a second inverter configured to provide alternating current power at a second plurality of phases. Further included is a first stator winding and a second stator winding each in operable communication with the first inverter and the second inverter and configured to operate synchronously at a first phase, a second phase and a third phase. Yet further included is a first interphase transformer for receiving one of the first plurality of phases and one of the second plurality of phases for communicating a pair of simultaneous, matching voltage outputs to the first stator winding and the second stator winding for reducing a stress imposed on a rotor. |
| US08704472B2 |
Brushless electric motor provided with rotor having intermediate magnetic pole
An AC electric motor includes an annular A-phase winding WA wound in the circumferential direction of a stator, a stator pole group SPGA configured to generate magnetic flux φA to interlink with the A-phase winding WA, an annular B-phase winding WB wound in the circumferential direction, and a stator pole group SPGB configured to generate magnetic flux φB to interlink with the B-phase winding WB. The motor additionally includes a third stator pole group SPGC, N and S magnetic poles of the rotor, and X magnetic poles, which serve as third rotor poles, showing magnetic characteristics between the N and S magnetic poles of the rotor. DC currents are supplied to the A-phase and B-phase windings WA and WB to generate rotational torque. |
| US08704471B2 |
Motor control device
A zero-cross detection unit monitors an AC voltage detected by a voltage sensor, generates a zero-cross point signal when the voltage crosses 0V, and supplies the signal to a controller. A rotation number setting unit sets a rotation number command to serve as a target of a synchronous motor. A rotation number correction coefficient data table stores correction coefficient data for a target rotation number. A correction coefficient data extraction unit extracts correction coefficient data in accordance with an elapsed time of the zero-cross point signal generated by the zero-cross detection unit from a rotation number correction coefficient data table, and outputs the data to a corrected rotation number creation unit. The corrected rotation number creation unit corrects the rotation number set by the rotation number setting unit in accordance with the extracted correction coefficient data, and outputs the corrected rotation number to a sine wave data creation unit. |
| US08704470B2 |
Motor driving circuit
A first calculation unit subtracts third digital data which indicates the minimum value of the duty ratio from first digital data which indicates the duty ratio of the PWM driving operation. A slope calculation unit generates slope data which is dependent on the temperature based upon second digital data which indicates the temperature. A second calculation unit multiplies the slope data by the output data of the first calculation unit. A third calculation unit sums the output data of the second calculation unit and the third digital data. A selector receives the output data of the third calculation unit and the third digital data, selects one data that corresponds to the sign of the output data of the first calculation unit, and outputs the data thus selected as a duty ratio control signal. |
| US08704464B2 |
Charged particle trajectory control apparatus, charged particle accelerator, charged particle storage ring, and deflection electromagnet
A charged particle orbit control device (100) is used in a ring-shaped charged particle accelerator or a charged particle storage ring. The charged particle orbit control device (100) is configured to enable the orbit of a charged particle to return to the original orbit in multiple cycles. The charged particle orbit control device (100) includes multiple bending magnets (1) that bend the charged particle (3). In the charged particle orbit control device (100), the bending angle and relative position of each bending magnet (1) are prescribed such that every time the charged particle (3) passes through, the orbit of the charged particle (3) in each bending magnet (1) alternately switches between two orbits. |
| US08704461B2 |
Vehicle lighting device
A vehicle lighting device according to the present invention is configured in such a manner that a current that is supplied to a light emitting element that serves as a light source can be controlled with low power consumption in accordance with either of a voltage change in input power supply and a change in ambient temperature. This vehicle lighting device is configured in such a manner as to take out a reference voltage that is input to a switching controller 5 from a voltage dividing resistor R2 that is connected between a constant voltage source Vcc and a ground terminal GND. A current control circuit 10C for voltage change is provided to between an input power supply Vin and the ground terminal GND. Further, a current control circuit 10A for temperature change is provided to between the constant voltage source Vcc and the ground terminal GND. |
| US08704459B2 |
Two-wire dimmer circuit for a screw-in compact fluorescent lamp
A dimmer switch for controlling the intensity of a dimmable screw-in compact fluorescent lamp provides smooth dimming of the fluorescent lamp and prevents flickering of the lamp due to multiple re-strikes. The dimmer switch prevents multiple re-strikes by avoiding multiple firings of a controllably conductive switching device of the dimmer circuit by limiting the high-end light intensity of the fluorescent lamp. Specifically, the dimmer switch limits the length of a conduction interval of the controllably conductive switching device to less than approximately 75% of each half-cycle. The dimmer switch may include a user-accessible adjustment actuator for changing the dimmer switch between an incandescent operating mode and a screw-in compact fluorescent mode. The dimmer switch may also be operable to automatically change the dimmer switch between the incandescent operating mode and the screw-in compact fluorescent mode by detecting the occurrence of the multiple firings of the controllably conductive switching device. |
| US08704456B2 |
Regulation of wavelength shift and perceived color of solid state lighting with intensity variation
Representative embodiments of the invention provide a system, apparatus, and method of controlling an intensity and spectrum of light emitted from a solid state lighting system. The solid state lighting system has a first emitted spectrum at a full intensity level and at a selected temperature, with a first electrical biasing for the solid state lighting system producing a first wavelength shift, and a second electrical biasing for the solid state lighting system producing a second, opposing wavelength shift. Representative embodiments provide for receiving information designating a selected intensity level or a selected temperature; and providing a combined first electrical biasing and second electrical biasing to the solid state lighting system to generate emitted light having the selected intensity level and having a second emitted spectrum within a predetermined variance of the first emitted spectrum over a predetermined range of temperatures. |
| US08704454B2 |
Integrated driver system architecture for light emitting diodes (LEDs)
A method includes forming one or more capacitors over a substrate. The method also includes forming a transformer at least partially over the substrate. The transformer is adjacent to at least one of the one or more capacitors. At least a portion of the transformer is formed at a same level over the substrate as the one or more capacitors. The method further includes coupling the one or more capacitors and the transformer to at least one embedded integrated circuit die. The one or more capacitors, the transformer, and the at least one embedded integrated circuit die form at least part of a light emitting diode (LED) driver. |
| US08704449B2 |
LED backlight driving circuit, liquid crystal display device and driving circuit
The invention discloses an LED backlight driving circuit, an LCD device and a driving circuit. The LED backlight driving circuit includes a power supply module, an LED lightbar coupled with an output terminal of the power supply module, a dimming module coupled with the output terminal of the LED lightbar, and the LED backlight driving circuit further includes a transfer switch. A first input terminal of the transfer switch is coupled to the output terminal of the LED lightbar, and a second input terminal of the transfer switch is coupled to a feedback voltage. The output terminal of the transfer switch is coupled to the power supply module. The transfer switch is switched to the first input terminal when the dimming module is ON, and the transfer switch is switched to the second input terminal when the dimming module is OFF. Therefore, the LEDs of the invention can operate normally within the short dimming cycle. The invention only adds one transfer switch, the circuit is simple and does not increase the circuit area, and the cost is low. |
| US08704448B2 |
Wiring boards for array-based electronic devices
In accordance with certain embodiments, lighting systems include one or more lightsheets each including a plurality of strings of light-emitting elements, control elements, and power conductors for supplying power to the light-emitting elements and control elements. |
| US08704447B2 |
Light source device
In a light source device for combining light waves with at least three wavelengths and outputting thus combined light waves, an optical system element and an electrical system element are formed on a semiconductor substrate, thereby eliminating the necessity of optical members such as an optical connector, and saving space to place the optical members as well as reducing arrangement spacing. In addition, the space necessary for wiring in an electrical circuit is reduced. Therefore, an integration degree of each of the elements, the optical system element and the electrical system element, is enhanced. The optical system element and the electrical system element are formed in layers on the same conductor substrate, thereby reducing the area that is required in configuring a parallel establishment of the optical system element and the electrical system element. |
| US08704445B2 |
Method for improving uniformity of high-frequency plasma discharge by means of frequency modulation
A method for improving the uniformity of high-frequency discharge plasma by means of frequency modulation is disclosed. In a plasma discharge chamber, there is a pair of parallel electrodes. A high-frequency power supply is adopted to feed the electrodes. The frequency range of the electromagnetic field is 13.56 MHz˜160 MHz. Discharge gas is input to form plasma. The frequency of the fed-in high-frequency electromagnetic field is under automatic tuning control, and keeps changing cyclically without stop in the course of plasma discharge. The range of the frequency change may fall into either a portion of or the entire range of 13.56 MHz˜160 MHz and makes the locations with higher plasma density on the plane in parallel with the electrodes and in the plasma discharge space changed cyclically. In a time slot longer than one frequency change cycle, the average plasma density between the parallel electrodes is uniform. |
| US08704443B2 |
Organic EL device
An organic EL device includes a first substrate including a cathode layer and a smoothing layer, an organic layer formed on the cathode layer, an anode layer formed on the organic layer, and a second substrate joined to the anode layer. In a region of a peripheral portion of the first substrate, the organic layer is not formed. The anode layer is provided on the cathode layer through an insulating layer in a portion of the region so as to extend to an outer peripheral side, the extended anode layer is folded back to a side opposite to the second substrate to constitute an anode taking-out portion, and a portion of the cathode layer of the first substrate is folded back to constitute a cathode taking-out portion. |
| US08704442B2 |
Method of light dispersion and preferential scattering of certain wavelengths of light for light-emitting diodes and bulbs constructed therefrom
A light emitting diode (LED) bulb configured to scatter certain wavelengths of light. The LED bulb includes a base having threads, a bulb shell, at least one LED, and a plurality of particles disposed within the bulb shell. The plurality of particles has a first and second set of particles. The first set of particles is configured to scatter short wavelength components of light emitted from the at least one LED and has particles with an effective diameter that is a fraction of the dominant wavelength of the light emitted from the at least one LED. The second set of particles is configured to scatter light emitted from the at least one LED, and has particles with an effective diameter equal to or greater than the dominant wavelength of the light emitted from the at least one LED. |
| US08704437B2 |
Phosphor mixture for a discharge lamp and a discharge lamp
A phosphor mixture for a discharge lamp, which includes a first phosphor compound and a second phosphor compound, wherein the first phosphor compound has an emission spectrum in the green and/or yellow spectral range and absorbs the UV radiation emitted by an Hg source and the radiation in the blue spectral range emitted by the Hg source, characterized in that the first phosphor compound of the phosphor mixture comprises (Ba,Sr,Ca)2SiO4:Eu and/or (Srl-x-yBaxCay)Si2O2N2:Eu(SrSiON), as a constituent, and the second phosphor compound of the phosphor mixture comprises Y2O3:Eu, as a constituent; and the phosphor mixture has a color temperature of less than 2500 K. |
| US08704436B1 |
High-pressure discharge lamp and projector having the high-pressure lamp
A high-pressure discharge lamp having an electrode including an electrode rod, a melted part and a coil part, and satisfying 0 < La L < 0.3 , where La denotes an average value of a length in units of mm of an exposed portion of the coil part in an axial direction of the electrode rod, the exposed portion being not covered with the melted part, and L denotes a maximum value of a length in units of mm between a tip of a head of the electrode rod and an opposite edge of the coil part to the melted part, measured in the axial direction. |