| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08818920B2 |
Incremental effect modeling by area index maximization
How much is the net benefit of treating an individual: cost-effective, very small, or even negative? To address this question, a methodology for developing an incremental effect model based on randomized test data is provided. The concept of an incremental effect area index is introduced for measuring the model's quality. A new variable screening technique is proposed to identify variables that are decision relevant and preferably time invariant. A piecewise linear function is created for each continuous variable to approximate the relationship between the incremental effect and the variable, based on a binning technique. Finally, a score is created as the weighted sum of a set of functions, with each function being the empirical prediction of the incremental effect based on a variable, wherein weights are chosen to maximize the incremental effect area index. The methodology creates an improved incremental effect model, leading to more cost-effective strategies in business practice. |
| US08818918B2 |
Determining the importance of data items and their characteristics using centrality measures
Computer-implemented methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for determining the importance of a data item. A method includes: (a) receiving a node graph; (b) approximating a number of neighbor nodes of a node; and (c) calculating a average shortest path length of the node to the remaining nodes using the approximation step, where this calculation demonstrates the importance of a data item represented by the node. Another method includes: (a) receiving a node graph; (b) building a decomposed line graph of the node graph; (c) calculating stationary probabilities of incident edges of a node graph node in the decomposed line graph, and (d) calculating a summation of the stationary probabilities of the incident edges associated with the node, where the summation demonstrates the importance of a data item represented by the node. Both methods have at least one step carried out using a computer device. |
| US08818914B2 |
System and method for redirecting mail
A method for temporarily redirecting a customer's mail from a current mailing address to a temporary mailing address, includes: receiving a request to temporarily redirect the customer's mail; determining a first date to begin mail redirection and a second date to cancel mail redirection; redirecting a first type of mail to a temporary mailing address; instructing a delivery service provider to provide a package to the customer after the customer arrives at the temporary mailing address; instructing the delivery service provider to hold a second type of mail for a time period calculated based on the request; receiving a notification that the customer has arrived at the temporary mailing address; and informing at least one contact specified by the customer that the customer has arrived at the temporary mailing address. |
| US08818909B2 |
Location aware deals
In one embodiment, a computer system, in response to a first user's request, creates a location-triggered gift for a second user and for a particular vendor location, determines the second user's location, and transmits information for redeeming the location-triggered gift at the particular vendor location to the second user if the second user is at the particular vendor location. |
| US08818908B2 |
Providing recycling fees
A system for providing a fee associated with a location for an ordered object. In response to receiving an order for an object from a customer that includes a location for where to ship the object, it is determined whether the location requires a fee for the object. The fee for the object for the location is requested from a fee service in response to determining that the location does require the fee for the object. The fee for the object for the location is received from the fee service. The fee for the object for the location is added to a customer price and a first customer response. Then, the first customer response that includes the fee for the object for the location is sent to the customer. |
| US08818907B2 |
Limiting access to account information during a radio frequency transaction
The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating a RF transaction using a secondary transaction number that is associated with a user's primary transponder account. The user provides the secondary transaction number, often with limited-use conditions associated therewith, to a merchant to facilitate a more secure and confident transaction. |
| US08818904B2 |
Generation systems and methods for transaction identifiers having biometric keys associated therewith
A system for generating transaction settlement identifiers includes an arrangement configured to receive a biometric sample from a customer and an arrangement configured to use the biometric sample to select the transaction settlement identifier from a pool of predetermined transaction settlements. A mapping arrangement configured to map the selected financial transaction settlement identifier to an identifier of the customer also may be included. |
| US08818902B2 |
Digital storage media dispensing device
Methods and techniques are described to dynamically provide preloaded movies on digital storage devices that may be purchased or leased by a consumer on a self-service media content dispensing device, such as a kiosk. A media content dispensing device stores various media content obtained physically or via a network on a server at a dispensing device. When a request is received from a user to purchase or lease a particular title, the user may provide a blank storage device and exchange the blank storage device to receive the media content preloaded on a storage device provided by the dispensing device. The dispensing device will then store the title, or a different title, on the blank storage device provided by the user for purchase or lease by another to maintain inventory. The dispensing device may also change an existing preloaded storage device to a different title to maintain inventory. |
| US08818895B2 |
Vehicle device, ad hoc network and method for a road toll system
A vehicle device for a road toll system including: a satellite navigation receiver for continuously generating location data for a processing and transmitting/receiving unit of the vehicle device; and a trusted-element processor configured to log a time segment of the generated location data and to cryptographically signing said time segment. The trusted-element processor is further configured to start said logging upon detection of a predefined time or a predefined location of the vehicle device and to carry out said logging for a predefined time segment. |
| US08818893B2 |
Dynamic payment generator
Apparatus and methods for providing a dynamic payment generator are provided. A customer of a financial institution may desire to conduct a transaction involving a transferor or transferee financial institution without prior knowledge regarding unique and specific information required by the transferor or transferee institution. In some embodiments, apparatus and methods may detect information entered by the customer and dynamically prompt the customer for additional information required by the transferor or transferee institution. Apparatus and methods may pre-fill fields on a form displayed to the customer with information required by the transferor or transferee institution. |
| US08818892B1 |
Prioritizing data clusters with customizable scoring strategies
Techniques are disclosed for prioritizing a plurality of clusters. Prioritizing clusters may generally include identifying a scoring strategy for prioritizing the plurality of clusters. Each cluster is generated from a seed and stores a collection of data retrieved using the seed. For each cluster, elements of the collection of data stored by the cluster are evaluated according to the scoring strategy and a score is assigned to the cluster based on the evaluation. The clusters may be ranked according to the respective scores assigned to the plurality of clusters. The collection of data stored by each cluster may include financial data evaluated by the scoring strategy for a risk of fraud. The score assigned to each cluster may correspond to an amount at risk. |
| US08818891B1 |
Electronically negotiated asset securitization
An electronic negotiation auction platform derives final market pricing for and assembles the investor pool to fund a borrower's loan request or to sell an existing debt instrument. The platform conducts the auction in two phases. The first phase involves junior lienholders, whereas the second phase involves senior lien holders. Phase I comprises establishment of a purchase price by junior lienholders (B) tranche given minimum return information. Phase II comprises subscription of the (A) tranche which, now has a defined value and full range of information to consider the safest of the investment vehicles for this asset. Competition among investors desiring to participate in the (A) tranche results in a lower yield for the (A) tranche and a higher yield for the junior lienholders if the (A) tranche is oversubscribed. This extra yield is passed on to junior lienholders, serving as incentive to participate in the junior tranche. |
| US08818889B2 |
Technique for aggregating an energy service
Embodiments of a system, a method, and a computer-program product (e.g., software) for aggregating an energy service from a number of participants for use by a power-system operator is described. This aggregation may be performed by an aggregator, which is between the participants and the power-system operator. In particular, the aggregator may use an embedded economic mechanism to calculate a price that matches supply (or cutback) of power and/or load from the participants with a desired supply of the power-system operator. Because the aggregator typically does not know the participants' exact propensity to respond as a function of price (supply function), the aggregator calculates the purchase price using one or more iterations in which an initial probe price is provided to the participants, and the participants respond with supply-function approximations that are valid in proximity to the current probe price. |
| US08818888B1 |
Application clusters
One or more application providers supply primary data and user interface rendering information to a computing system. The computing system comprises modules that mange the received data and generate a user interface using the received rendering information. Data may be managed by resolving conflicts in the primary data as between the one or more application providers. Data may also be managed through the creation of derived data based at least in part on the received primary data. A user interface may be generated that has several applications displayed in an application cluster. The applications may be generated based on the rendering information. A user may interact with the user interface and may be able to edit the primary data. If the primary data is modified, the computing system communicates the modifications to the one or more application providers that supplied the original, primary data. |
| US08818885B2 |
Self checkout kiosk and retail security system
A self-checkout kiosk enables a patron to purchase product displayed in a vending area and carrying a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. The customer exits the vending area through a security portal. The kiosk, a bill acceptor, and a computer monitor, either adjacent the portal or separated there from, enables the patron to complete a purchase transaction prior to exiting the vending area through the portal. The portal includes RFID reading antennas for detecting product being transferred through the portal. A security system responds to transfer of product through the portal without a patron completing a purchase transaction using the self-checkout station. The security system itself is also usable in conventional retail environments when an attendant is present. |
| US08818883B2 |
Personalized shopping avatar
This is directed to a personalized avatar providing a true representation of the user's body, such that the avatar provides a substantially accurate graphical representation of the user's body. The avatar can be defined using any suitable approach, including by providing measurements of the user's body or extracting measurements from photographs of the user. The user can direct an electronic device to apply selected articles of clothing, accessories, or other items to the user's avatar to preview the appearance of the items on the user. In some embodiments, an electronic device can recommend different clothing items or other objects based on the user's body type. |
| US08818880B1 |
Systems and methods for source identification in item sourcing
A source identification service is described that identifies sources for items of interest that are provided by a network-based service and may benefit from additional sources. The source identification service may identify sources for an item of interest in response to receipt a request. In one aspect, the source identification service may conduct a search of a network-based information resource using keywords pertaining to the item of interest to obtain a listing of sources capable of providing the item of interest. A source score may be generated for respective sources and compared to a selected value to identify potential sources for further consideration. The potential sources may also be filtered based upon selected criteria to refine the list of potential sources. An offer may be provided by the source identification service inviting the source to provide the item of interest on the network-based service. |
| US08818878B2 |
Determining taxes in an electronic commerce system
An electronic commerce system includes a broker that enables customers to purchase items from multiple different merchants. A customer anonymously interacts with the merchants to identify items to purchase, and the merchants provide virtual shopping carts including the item and tax information to the broker. The tax information describes tax rates for the item in multiple jurisdictions. The broker determines the jurisdiction applicable to the customer by, for example, determining a shipping address for the customer. The broker uses the tax information and jurisdiction to calculate the taxes to collect for the item. The broker determines the total cost for the transaction, and conducts an electronic commerce transaction for the item with the customer. |
| US08818875B2 |
Point of sale system with item image capture and deferred invoicing capability
A novel and useful mechanism and method for processing transactions on a point of sale system comprising of a conveyor system which continuously moves when one ore more items or items are resting on the conveyor system, and a sensing system to capture the information necessary to identify the items on the conveyor. When all items are correctly recognized by the sensing devices, the customer is charged for the items and an invoice is printed. In the event all the items are not correctly recognized the captured information is forwarded to a remote location for automated recognition processing and manual identification, if necessary. Once all the items are successfully identified, the customer is charged for the purchase and an invoice is processed and sent to the customer. |
| US08818865B2 |
Method and system for generating bursting-messages
A method for generating Bursting-messages on the window of a user's Web-terminal while browsing a Web-site. Indication related to the connection of the user to the Web-site is provided. Data that is required for generating a Burst-message on the Web-terminal is sent to the Web-terminal of the identified user and a Burst-message is generated on the Web-terminal using the data. Interaction means are provided to the user in the Burst-message, for the interaction of the user with the Burst-message and/or with the Web-site. The Burst-message may be generated by dynamically writing an HTML layer and/or JavaScript and/or VBScript. |
| US08818862B2 |
System and method for purchasing advertisements associated with words and phrases
Disclosed is a system and method for enhancing value for advertisers by helping them select and initiate the purchase of an advertisement associated with an advertising (ad) words or phrases that have strong semantic relationships to a given context, but which are not necessarily the most popular ad words or phrases with the highest costs. Advertisements associated with ad words or phrases that have strong semantic relationships to a given context, and yet are still cost effective in that their calculated value exceeds the costs of purchasing the ad keywords, are bid for and bought. In an embodiment, the system and method may be adapted to automatically purchase advertisements associated with ad words or phrases when the ad words or phrases fall within a desired price range based on their calculated value. By automatically purchasing such advertisements, the return on investment (ROI) for an advertiser may be improved. |
| US08818860B2 |
Prioritized distribution of offer information
A computerized method is disclosed that includes automatically distributing first offer information to at least one first priority contact in a prioritized list of contacts. The first offer information is distributed in response to receiving a request to distribute an offer. The method also includes automatically distributing second offer information to at least one second priority contact in the prioritized list of contacts when a first time period expires. |
| US08818859B1 |
System and method of managing advertisements and payment of content
A system and method for managing video sequences and the payment of content online, including an application programming interface (API). The API allows creators of advertisements, sponsors of advertisements, providers of content, and viewers of the advertisements and the content to interact. The system facilitates interaction of the parties to allow users to access content from a content provider in exchange for the user viewing an advertisement that is created by an ad-creator and sponsored by an ad-sponsor. The method receives a request for payment of content, transmits a list that includes a plurality of links to advertisements, transmits an advertisement of interest to the user, and then authorizes payment of the content to the content provider. The system also allows advertisers to reach an ideal audience as users select the advertisements having a particular product or service with which the user is interested. |
| US08818852B2 |
Promotion system supporting emailed promotions and at seller premises transaction completion
An online sales/automatic rebate and coupon redemption system provides online customers automatic retrieval and redemption of all applicable rebates and coupons during purchase. Purchase orders from customers are selectively fulfilled and products are shipped to the customers either by the system for online sales with automatic rebate and coupon redemption or by other merchant or manufacturer environments. The system purchases from merchants using applicable coupons and rebates and then sells the products to the customers, passing the savings to them. The system makes it possible to automatically retrieve coupons and rebates for items in a shopping cart during the activity of an online purchase at an electronic mall or an online merchant site. The system provides coupons to potential customers via email, based on customer profile, geographical information, etc. Manufacturers and merchants can update coupon value and content based on ongoing sales and volume of customer activity. |
| US08818851B2 |
Integrated payment method using near field communication and mobile terminal using the same
Disclosed herein is a method for performing an integrated payment using Near Field Communication (NFC). The method is performed using a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal receives Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag information from a payment system in an NFC scheme. The mobile terminal analyzes the received RFID tag information, and then extracts an integrated payment application which corresponds to the RFID tag information. The mobile terminal drives the integrated payment application and transmits discount benefit information to the payment system. |
| US08818846B2 |
Gaming incentives based on measured effect of user web activity
A gaming system includes at least one gaming server having at least one processor and at least one memory device storing instructions. The instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one gaming server to assign one or more unique identifiers to a registrant, monitor for web activity associated with the one or more unique identifiers and initiated by the registrant, measure an effect of the web activity, and convert the measured effect into a gaming incentive. |
| US08818844B2 |
Incenting viewers to remain with their current digital media content
A system, method, and computer program by which a content provider can display an incentive for a user to remain with their current channel or program. When the user attempts to leave the current program, a pop-up window containing an incentive to remain with the current program is displayed. The user must respond to the pop-up window in order to proceed, whether the user chooses to leave or remain with the current program. |
| US08818842B2 |
Method and apparatus for defining, distributing and redeeming SMS and MMS coupons
A method and apparatus is disclosed that allows advertisers to define and distribute Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) coupons to consumers, and for consumers to redeem the received coupons, where such SMS and MMS coupons are used by businesses to promote their products and services to consumers. |
| US08818840B2 |
Capacity management index system and method
A system and method is provided that generates an index, providing predictive and actionable intelligence to ensure that a Technology Infrastructure Group (TIG) makes tactical and strategic decisions in support of needs of customers. The invention measures overall health of an infrastructure, specifically with respect to how efficiently various services meet demand placed upon capacity by various Lines of Business. The invention provides an overall assessment of infrastructure capacity management and drills down to various services, components, subcomponents, etc. The invention provides a forecasting tool in which estimates made are not based only upon business forecasts provided by each Line of Business, but also upon forecasts developed by correlating external indicators with historical business volumes. Historical forecasts are compared to actual values to derive a confidence factor used for weighting future Line of Business forecasts. The combined, weighted forecasts obtained are more robust than any individual forecasts on their own. |
| US08818835B2 |
Method and system for integrating calendar, budget and cash flow of a project
Generating budgeting information for a project is disclosed. An indication of a project phase and a time period associated with the project phase are received. Financial data associated with the project phase is received. Budgeting information is automatically generated based at least in part on the time period and the financial data. |
| US08818833B2 |
Method and system for managing service requests across multiple systems
This present invention provides an efficient method and system to manage service requests across multiple service request systems. This management method involves merging all service requests from multiple systems into standard system, sorting the request according to some standard and presenting a display list of all of the requests having a common characteristic to a technician or requester. Service requests are gathered from many different backend-ticketing systems and presented to the technicians in a single logical view. Service requests gathered from each backend ticketing system are packaged in an XML document format. The efficient use of a common XML format is an efficient way to manage all service requests from all backend-ticketing systems. These service requests can be sorted by ticket open or close date/time, status, severity of problem, etc. in ascending or descending order and be presented to the technicians in a single logical view. These requests are presented in a display as a single logical view of service requests from different backend systems. |
| US08818827B2 |
Systems and methods for providing context-based movie information
Systems and methods are provided for generating context-based movie information. For example, a movie application on an electronic device can obtain show times of a movie from multiple movie theaters. In some embodiments, the movie application can combine one or more show times into a single time slot in order to condense the number of show times that are displayed. Furthermore, the movie application can provide slot labels corresponding to each time slot based on one or more context-sensitive factors (e.g., current time of day, current location, one or more upcoming calendar events, and the like). As a result, the movie application can provide a user with a condensed view of the most accessible show times based on current context. |
| US08818825B1 |
Patient authentication fraud prevention system and method
A patient authentication fraud prevention system as described herein includes a searchable data archive database, a correlation subsystem, and a feedback subsystem. An alternative preferred patient authentication fraud prevention system preferably includes a searchable data archive database, a collection subprogram, a substantiation subprogram, a correlation subprogram, and a feedback subprogram. Also described herein is a computer-implemented patient authentication fraud prevention method. |
| US08818823B2 |
Online patient and health care provider communication
A graphical user interface provides clinical information in the form of a first health feed and patient-generated information in the form of a second health feed. The graphical user interface may provide improved access to patient-generated information to the provider and improved access to clinical information to the patient or caretaker for the patient. Additional health feeds may include data from peripheral devices, third-party sponsored applications, or other forms of health feedback. |
| US08818820B1 |
System to verify identity of patient receiving medication and monitoring the dispensing of medication to the patient including monitoring the development of the medication form where the seeds are obtained, how the plant was cultivated, where the medical portion of the plant was harvested and converted into the medication to be dispensed to a patient
A computer system to monitor and authenticate the creation of a medicinal herb including information on where seeds used to grow a plant containing a medicinal herb buds were obtained from, information on how and where the seeds were grown to cultivate the plant, information on when the buds were harvested from the plant and converted into a medicinal herb full chain a custody of all personnel involved from obtaining the seeds, cultivating the seeds into a plant, harvesting growth from the plant and converting it into a medicinal herb and transportation of the medicinal herb to a dispensing facility and how the medicinal herb was dispensed to a patient. |
| US08818817B2 |
Network/peer assisted speech coding
A communications network is used to transfer user attribute information about participants in a communication session to their respective communication terminals for storage and use thereon to configure a speech codec to operate in a speaker-dependent manner, thereby improving speech coding efficiency. In a network-assisted model, the user attribute information is stored on the communications network and selectively transmitted to the communication terminals while in a peer-assisted model, the user attribute information is derived by and transferred between communication terminals. |
| US08818816B2 |
Voice recognition device
A voice recognition device includes a voice input unit 11 for inputting a voice of an uttered button name to convert the voice into an electric signal, a voice recognition processing unit 12 for performing a voice recognition process according to a sound signal sent thereto, as the electric signal, from the voice input unit, a button candidate detecting unit 13 for detecting, as a button candidate, a button having a button name which partially matches a voice recognition result acquired by the voice recognition processing unit, a display control unit 15 for, when a plurality of candidate buttons are detected by the button candidate detecting unit, producing a screen showing a state in which at least one of the plurality of button candidates is selected, and a display unit 16 for displaying the screen produced by the display control unit. |
| US08818814B2 |
Accelerometer-based control of wearable audio-reporting watches
Accelerometer-based detection for controlling audio-reporting watches, resulting in button-free operation. A wristwatch can use an accelerometer to detect the orientation and/or movement of a user's wrist and subsequently activate audio time reporting, without requiring the user to find and lush a small button. For example, a talking wristwatch can use this method to automatically report the time whenever a user moves or orients his or her wrist to a natural position for listening. A position such as that in close proximity to the ear can additionally facilitate private listening without disturbing others. Furthermore, the wristwatch can report time using personalized audio time components that the user has previously recorded, so that reporting is in a custom voice or language. In such applications, accelerometer-based control of audio-reporting watches offers significant advantages over conventional means of control, particularly in terms of ease of use and durability. |
| US08818810B2 |
Speaker verification in a health monitoring system
A method for verifying that a person is registered to use a telemedical device includes identifying an unprompted trigger phrase in words spoken by a person and received by the telemedical device. The telemedical device prompts the person to state a name of a registered user and optionally prompts the person to state health tips for the person. The telemedical device verifies that the person is the registered user using utterance data generated from the unprompted trigger phrase, name of the registered user, and health tips. |
| US08818807B1 |
Large vocabulary binary speech recognition
This invention describes methods for implementing human speech recognition. The methods described here are of using sub-events that are sounds between spaces (typically a fully spoken word) that is then compared with a library of sub-events. All sub-events are packaged with it's own speech recognition function as individual units. This invention illustrates how this model can be used as a Large Vocabulary Speech Recognition System. |
| US08818803B2 |
Character-based automated text summarization
Methods, devices, systems and tools are presented that allow the summarization of text, audio, and audiovisual presentations, such as movies, into less lengthy forms. High-content media files are shortened in a manner that preserves important details, by splitting the files into segments, rating the segments, and reassembling preferred segments into a final abridged piece. Summarization of media can be customized by user selection of criteria, and opens new possibilities for delivering entertainment, news, and information in the form of dense, information-rich content that can be viewed by means of broadcast or cable distribution, “on-demand” distribution, internet and cell phone digital video streaming, or can be downloaded onto an iPod™ and other portable video playback devices. |
| US08818800B2 |
Off-axis audio suppressions in an automobile cabin
The suppression of off-axis audio in an audio environment is provided. Off-axis audio may be considered audio that does not originate from a region of interest. The off-axis audio is suppressed by comparing a phase difference between signals from two microphones to a target slope of the phase difference between signals originating from the region of interest. The target slope can be adapted to allow the region of interest to move with the location of a human speaker such as a driver. |
| US08818797B2 |
Dual-band speech encoding
This document describes various techniques for dual-band speech encoding. In some embodiments, a first type of speech feature is received from a remote entity, an estimate of a second type of speech feature is determined based on the first type of speech feature, the estimate of the second type of speech feature is provided to a speech recognizer, speech-recognition results based on the estimate of the second type of speech feature are received from the speech recognizer, and the speech-recognition results are transmitted to the remote entity. |
| US08818794B2 |
Environment sensitive predictive text entry
Environmental factors may be used in a predictive text system provided in a device. The device may receive one or more characters entered by a user and determine, based on the one or more characters, words that are predicted to be words being entered by the user of the device, where the words are determined using grammar-based predictive techniques. The device may determine confidence scores, corresponding to the words. The device may refine the scores based on environmental data that includes data that describes an environment associated with the user of the device. The device may select, based on the refined plurality of scores, a subset of the plurality of words and output the subset of the plurality of words. |
| US08818792B2 |
Apparatus and method for constructing verbal phrase translation pattern using bilingual parallel corpus
An apparatus and a method for constructing a verb phrase translation pattern using a bilingual parallel corpus. Each of the apparatus or method recognizes a predicate and an argument using a syntax analysis result and a word alignment result of a source sentence from a plurality of bilingual parallel corpus, extracts a translation pattern candidate and an occurrence frequency using the recognized predicate and argument, and then generates a basic verb phrase translation pattern by verifying the translation pattern candidate, and generalizes the generated basic verb phrase translation pattern to generate a general verb phrase pattern so as to be applied to various language pairs and minimize an error in the verb phrase translation pattern and determine an appropriate generalization level using a co-occurrence frequency of a predicate and an argument of the verb phrase translation pattern and a translation probability of the predicate. |
| US08818790B2 |
Syntactic analysis and hierarchical phrase model based machine translation system and method
A syntactic analysis and hierarchical phrase model based machine translation system and method are provided. The machine translation system includes a word alignment module, a phrase extraction module, a gender syntactic annotation module, a syntactic based noncontiguous phrase abstract module, a noncontiguous phrase based translation module and an evaluation module. The machine translation system and method performs syntactic analysis based on a common contiguous phrase based machine translation model, and extracts a syntactic based noncontiguous phrase rule set from a bilingual aligned text, so as to address and issue of noncontiguous fixed custom in context of a whole sentence, and to comply with syntactic features of a language, translation is performed based on the noncontiguous phrase rule set and the phrase aligned table, and the translation results are evaluated based on the evaluation model, thereby improving the translation result. |
| US08818786B1 |
Network tearing for circuit simulation
A circuit is simulated by using system or network tearing to obtain a real solution. The circuit may be an entire integrated circuit, portion of an integrated circuit, or a circuit block. A circuit simulation technique of the invention generates a system graph, finds a tree, and partitions the tree into two or more subtrees. The technique identifies global links and local links in the graph. Each subtree may be solved individually using distributed, parallel computing. Using the results for the subtrees, the technique obtains a real solution, branch voltages and currents, for the circuit. |
| US08818782B2 |
System for developing patient specific therapies based on dynamic modeling of patient physiology and method thereof
A system for developing patient-specific therapies based on dynamic modeling of patient-specific physiology and method thereof are disclosed. The system includes software modules configured to provide access via a computer to one or more data collection protocols defining at least a type of patient-specific data to be collected and a manner in which the patient-specific data is to be collected, and to information from which one or more patient-specific models, configured to simulate one or more aspects of the patient's physiology, is developed. Another software module of the system is configured to provide access via the computer to one or more software tools that apply patient-specific data, collected according to the one or more data collection protocols, to the one or more patient specific models to determine therefrom one or more patient-specific therapies. |
| US08818779B2 |
System and methods for real-time wellbore stability service
Apparatus and method of conducting a drilling operation are provided. One embodiment of the method includes drilling a borehole, predicting a value of a first parameter relating to the drilling of the borehole using a geomechanical model, estimating a value of a second parameter from measurements taken by a sensor, updating the geomechanical model based at least in part on the estimated value of the second parameter, predicting a second value of the first parameter using the updated geomechanical model, and altering a drilling parameter for drilling the borehole based on the predicted second value of the first parameter. |
| US08818778B2 |
Method for creating a 3D rock representation using petrophysical data
The present invention enables the use of a global optimization method for performing joint-inversion of multiple petrophysical data sets, using forward models based on first principle of physics, to generate a 3D rock representation of a subsurface rock structure. The resulting 3D rock representation captures the internal structure, and honors the measured petrophysical properties, of the subsurface rock structure. The 3D rock representation can then be used to predict additional properties not considered in the inversion, to further characterize the subsurface rock structure. |
| US08818777B2 |
System and method for performing oilfield simulation operations
The invention relates to a system for modeling an oilfield, which has process facilities and wellsite operatively connected, each wellsite having a wellbore penetrating a subterranean formation for extracting fluid from an underground reservoir. The system includes multiple wellsite simulators, each modeling a portion of the wellsite, at least one non-wellsite simulator, each modeling a portion of a non-wellsite region of the oilfield; and at least one coupling positioned among the wellsite simulators and the non-wellsite simulator. The coupling selectively links the wellsite simulators and the non-wellsite simulator according to a pre-defined configuration for selective communication. |
| US08818768B1 |
Modeling three-dimensional interiors from photographic images, and applications thereof
Embodiments relate to modeling three-dimensional interiors from photographic images. In a first embodiment, a computer-implemented method creates a three-dimensional model of an interior of a building from a photographic image. Input data is received from a user specifying a floor plan of the interior of the building. A first constraint input by a user indicating that a position on the floor plan corresponds to a position on the three-dimensional model is received. A second constraint input by a user indicating that a position on a photographic image of the interior corresponds to a position on the three-dimensional model is received. Finally, the three-dimensional model and camera parameters representing a camera that took the photographic image of the interior are altered based on the first and second constraints. |
| US08818766B2 |
Systems and methods providing smart nodes for three-dimensional models
Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for creating physical and virtual design models. Embodiments of the invention provide methods for creating physical design models and rendering the physical design models as virtual models in design programs. Virtual indicia (smart nodes) provided by embodiments of the invention provide customizable virtual representations of modeled physical design elements of tangible models and can have metadata associated therewith, allowing attribution of any of a wide variety of design characteristics to the smart nodes. |
| US08818762B2 |
Method and apparatus for the spatially resolved measurement of a physical variable
A device for spatially resolved measuring of a physical variable has a device for generating a first electrical signal with a first frequency and a device for generating a second electrical signal with a second frequency. The second frequency differs from the first frequency by a difference frequency. An optical radiation source generates an optical signal modulated by the first frequency. The optical signal can interact with a test object and be modified in the process. A mixer can mix an electrical signal emerging from the optical signal with the second signal. A device, particularly embodied as a DDS system, generates a third electrical signal with a third frequency that corresponds to the difference frequency or a multiple of the difference frequency. A digital/analog converter digitizes the at least one mixed signal by sampling the mixed signal at the third frequency in order to digitize it. |
| US08818760B2 |
Modular re-configurable profiling core for multiprocessor systems-on-chip
A modular dynamically re-configurable profiling core may be used to provide both operating systems and applications with detailed information about run time performance bottlenecks and may enable them to address these bottlenecks via scheduling or dynamic compilation. As a result, application software may be able to better leverage the intrinsic nature of the multi-core hardware platform, be it homogeneous or heterogeneous. The profiling functionality may be desirably isolated on a discrete, separate and modular profiling core, which may be referred to as a configurable profiler (CP). The modular configurable profiling core may facilitate inclusion of rich profiling functionality into new processors via modular reuse of the inventive CP. The modular configurable profiling core may improve a customer's experience and productivity when used in conjunction with commercial multi-core processors. |
| US08818757B2 |
Modular object and host matching
An object can be used in an industrial control configuration in relation to performing a function or task. Matching can occur such that an object with operational requirements can bind with a host that has capabilities that meet those operational requirements—matching can occur automatically as well as through user operation. Once matched, different functionality can be presented to a user pertaining to the object. To assist the user, the object can include external references, logic, local or private data, as well as others in addition to resources. To facilitate operation, capabilities and resources can be published in a directory that can be accessed by different entities—sometimes with security constraints in order to protect configuration integrity. Likewise, a subscription system can be employed such that when a change to a related entity is made, a notice can transfer to related entities and operation can alter based upon the change. |
| US08818754B2 |
Thin films and surface topography measurement using reduced library
The properties of a surface of an object in presence of thin transparent films are determined by generating a library of model signals and processing a measurement signal via searching the library to evaluate films properties and topography. The library may be reduced with principal component analysis to enhance computation speed. Computation enhancement may also be achieved by removal of the height contributions from the signal leaving only the film contribution in the signal. The film measurement signal is compared to a library of film signals to determine the film parameters of the sample. The library of film signals is produced by processing each full signal in a library to similarly remove the height contributions leaving only the film contributions. Additionally, a post-analysis process may be applied to properly evaluate local topography. |
| US08818752B2 |
Biological information acquiring system and biological information acquiring method
It is an object of the present invention to provide a biological information acquiring system and a biological information acquiring method capable of enhancing the calculation accuracy to more accurately calculate the exercise effect information, and capable of enhancing the satisfaction level of the user.In a biological information acquiring system, a body composition meter is configured to acquire pre-exercise body composition data measured before start of exercise and post-exercise body composition data measured after end of exercise. A pedometer is configured to acquire vibration data during exercise. The consumed calorie of the user can be more accurately calculated by arranging consumed calorie correction coefficient acquiring unit for acquiring a consumed calorie correction coefficient α based on the pre-exercise body composition data, the post-exercise body composition data, and the vibration data; and a consumed calorie calculation unit for calculating the consumed calorie using the consumed calorie correction coefficient α. |
| US08818745B2 |
Monitoring and analysis of power system components
Various methods and systems are provided for monitoring and analysis of electrical components. In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining raw radio frequency (RF) component data associated with an electrical component, cross-correlating the raw RF component data with a synchronized pseudo-random sequence (PRS) signal injected into the electrical component to determine a correlated impulse response, and determining a condition of the electrical component based at least in part upon the correlated impulse response. In another embodiment, a system includes a signal injection system coupled to an electrical component. The signal injection system injects a synchronized PRS signal into the electrical component. A data capture device obtains raw RF component data synchronized with the PRS signal through a RF antenna. A data analysis device cross-correlates the raw RF component data with the PRS signal to determine characteristics associated with the electrical component. |
| US08818742B2 |
Systems, methods, and apparatus for detecting theft and status of electrical power
Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for detecting theft and status of electrical power. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for detecting theft and status of electrical power. The method can include monitoring switch state of a main circuit breaker, monitoring load-side voltage, monitoring load current, determining one or more conditions associated with power usage based at least in part on one or more of the monitored switch state, the monitored load-side voltage, or the monitored load current and transmitting information representing the one or more determined conditions. |
| US08818741B2 |
Method of detecting changes in integrated circuits using thermally imaged test patterns
A method of testing an electrical circuit includes applying test vectors to a circuit, detecting thermal changes in portions of the circuit during application of the test vectors, and identifying unexpected activity corresponding to the thermal changes. The method supplements standard testing techniques to provide a new method of assessing operation of fabricated integrated circuits and programmed field programmable gate arrays. |
| US08818736B2 |
Allocating oil production from geochemical fingerprints
Example embodiments include one or more of a method, computing device, computer-readable medium and system for allocating oil production from geochemical fingerprints. In an example embodiment, a method may include providing a known mixture comprising known proportions of a plurality of end-members; providing an unknown mixture comprising unknown proportions of the end-members; performing a chromatographic analysis of each of the known mixture, the end-members, and the unknown mixture; determining a plurality of peak ratios, and prior peak ratio qualities related to the peak ratios, using the chromatographic analysis; and estimating an estimate of the unknown proportions of the end-members using the peak ratios, the prior peak ratio qualities, and the known proportion of the end-members. |
| US08818735B2 |
Methods for generating databases and databases for identifying polymorphic genetic markers
Processes and methods for creating a database of genomic samples from healthy human donors, methods that use the database to identify and correlate polymorphic genetic markers and other markers with diseases and conditions are provided. |
| US08818732B2 |
Molecular network analysis support method and apparatus
A molecular network analysis support method includes receiving designation of a biological phenomenon, extracting an interaction from a molecular network, and calculating a relation strength between the designated biological phenomenon and the extracted interaction. |
| US08818731B2 |
Apparatus and method for interfacing time-variant signals
An improved apparatus and method for interfacing a time variant waveform between two hardware environments. In one aspect, the invention comprises a circuit for accurately simulating the output of one or more types of sensing device (e.g., passive bridge pressure transducer) for use with a plurality of different monitoring and/or analysis devices, thereby obviating the need for specialized interface circuitry adapted to each different monitor/analyzer. In one exemplary embodiment, the sensing device comprises a non-invasive blood pressure monitor (NIBPM), which universally interfaces with prior art patient monitors via the interface circuit of the invention. In a second aspect of the invention, an improved NIBPM device incorporating the interface circuit is disclosed. An improved disconnect circuit adapted to sense the status of the electrical connection between the sensing device and monitor is also described. |
| US08818730B2 |
Unique composite relatively adjusted pulse
The invention relates to acquiring seismic data in either land or marine environments, but typically marine environments where a pulse-type source is fired in a distinctive composite pulse like a distinctive rumble. In a preferred embodiment, a number of pulse-type seismic sources, sometimes called an array, are fired in a distinctive composite pulse to be able to identify within the returning wavefield the energy resulting from the composite pulse. Firing the pulse-type sources creates an identifiable signature so that two or more marine seismic acquisition systems with source arrays can be acquiring seismic data concurrently and the peak energy delivered into the water will be less, which will reduce the irritation of seismic data acquisition to marine life. |
| US08818728B2 |
Method and system for transmitting borehole image data
A method of transmitting borehole image data from a borehole location to a remote location includes obtaining a set of image data describing formation surrounding a borehole using a logging tool at a selected depth or range of depths in the borehole, extracting one or more image features from the set of image data downhole, and transmitting a representation of the extracted image features to the surface. |
| US08818727B2 |
Method of assisting a user of a personal navigation device with parking nearby a destination location and related personal navigation device
A method of assisting a user of a personal navigation device with parking nearby a destination location includes receiving instructions from the user to create navigation instructions to the destination location, determining that the destination location is in an urban area, querying whether the user requires parking, and presenting a plurality of nearby parking areas to the user when the user requests parking, receiving the user's choice of a selected parking area from the plurality of nearby parking areas presented to the user, and planning a route to the destination location using the selected parking area as an intermediate destination. |
| US08818726B1 |
Method, system, and computer program product for visualizing trip progress
Systems, methods, computer programs, and user interfaces are provided to identify a route extending from a route start location to a route end location and including a plurality of route segments, determine a route type for each the plurality of route segments, and provide for display of a trip progress bar for the route. The trip progress bar including one more bar segments corresponding to one or more of the route segments, and each of the bar segments of the trip progress bar having a display characteristic indicative of the route type for the corresponding route segment such that a user can graphically identify a route segment type corresponding to each of the displayed bar segments of the trip progress bar. |
| US08818720B2 |
Method and apparatus of GNSS receiver heading determination
The present invention relates to processing information generated by GNSS receivers received signals such as GPS, GLONASS, etc. GNSS receivers can determine their position in space. The receivers are capable of determining both coordinates and velocity of their spatial movement. When a receiver is used in any machine control systems, velocity vector heading (in other words, velocity vector orientation) should be determined along with velocity vector's absolute value. Angle, determining velocity vector orientation, is calculated based on velocity vector projections which are computed in navigation receivers. The accuracy of velocity vector orientation calculated based on velocity vector projections strongly enough depends on velocity vector's absolute value. To enhance the accuracy, a method of smoothing primary estimates of velocity vector orientation angles using a modified Kalman filter has been proposed. The bandwidth of this filter is varied depending on current estimates of velocity vector's absolute value which were calculated based on the same velocity vector projections. |
| US08818718B2 |
PND repositioning detector for better navigation accuracy in a car
An apparatus and method for a personal navigation apparatus comprising a personal navigation device (PND) for providing navigational guidance information. The PND may include a single-dimensional magnetic detector for sensing magnetic flux amplitudes of a magnetic field generated by a magnet. Alternatively, the PND may include a three-dimensional magnetic detector and a magnetic calibration module for determining an ambient magnetic field calibration value representing immediate surroundings of the PND. |
| US08818715B2 |
Systems and methods to suggest travel itineraries based on users' current location
Data relating to points-of-interest for a geographical area are retrieved from, for example, a travel site. Geo-tagged data relating to the points-of-interest are retrieved, for example, images from an image sharing service. Travel times between the points-of-interest are determined, for example, using a mapping service. The data relating to the points of interest, the geo-tagged data and the travel times are used to create a travel graph for the geographical area, such that the geo-tagged data is used to determine time users spend at specific points of interest. If a user requests a travel itinerary for a beginning and ending location within the geographical area, the travel graph is used to create a travel itinerary that maximizes a prize score for the itinerary within a time constraint. The prize score can reflect the popularity, number of users and time spent by users at the points-of-interest in the itinerary. |
| US08818706B1 |
Indoor localization and mapping
An indoor area may be localized to provide end users with a mobile-accessible map to guide the end user in navigating the indoor area. A preliminary version of a map of the indoor area to be localized is processed to identify different navigable routes within the indoor area. A user may access the processed map and collect sensory data using the mobile device while moving along any of the navigable routes. The different sensory data that is collected at the same moment in time may be associated based on the location of the mobile device when the data is collected. The localized map is then generated with visual indications of the locations of the corresponding sensory data. The end user may then access the localized map on a mobile device to navigate the indoor area and to locate specific points of interest corresponding to the sensory data. |
| US08818703B2 |
Object recognition device and object recognition method
Provided is an object recognition device and an object recognition method that can estimate the size of an object detected by a radar, through a simple configuration. The object recognition device includes: a detection section for radiating an electromagnetic wave to an object in a forward direction of the vehicle and for detecting the object by receiving a reflected wave reflected by the object; a target information calculation section for calculating information containing a moving direction of the detected object as target information, by using a signal received by the detection section; a vehicle information calculation section for calculating information containing a moving direction of the vehicle as vehicle information, by using information obtained from the vehicle; and a processing section for estimating, based on the information indicating the moving direction of the object contained in the target information and the information indicating the moving direction of the vehicle contained in the vehicle information, from which portion of the object detected by the detection section the electromagnetic wave was reflected, and for calculating a presence area in which the object is present relative to the vehicle, in accordance with a result of the estimation. |
| US08818701B2 |
Locating sensor nodes through correlations
A method is provided for estimating distances between sensor nodes. The method includes receiving a temporal sequence of measurements of a selected local environmental condition from each of the sensor nodes. The method includes determining an amount of correlation between the measurements of the selected local environmental condition that were received from two or more of the sensor nodes. The method also includes estimating distances between the two or more of the sensor nodes based on the determined amount of correlation. |
| US08818699B2 |
Weight-based stability detection system
A stability detection system is provided for detecting the stability of an articulated vehicle. The stability detection system may include a weigh system configured to measure the weight distribution of the vehicle. A controller may provide a warning when the detected weight distribution exceeds a threshold. |
| US08818698B2 |
Systems and methods for tracking data associated with operation of a power take-off device
Exemplary embodiments are directed to systems and methods for tracking data during operation of a power transfer device. A system may include an electrical relay and a switch. The switch may be coupled to each of the electrical relay and a power transfer device and may be configured to couple the electrical relay to a reference voltage upon engagement of the power transfer device. The system may further include a processing unit configured to receive a signal from the electrical relay while the power transfer device is engaged. |
| US08818692B2 |
Control apparatus of hybrid vehicle
A hybrid vehicle 1 includes as drive sources an internal combustion engine 20, to which fuel stored in a fuel tank 21 is supplied, and a second M/G 32, to which electricity stored in a battery 40 is supplied. The vehicle 1 also includes a battery charger 70 for charging the battery 40 from the outside of the vehicle 1. For each of a plurality of refuelings to the fuel tank 21, the history of the time of refueling and the amount of refueling are stored. Based on the history, the degree of deterioration of fuel in the fuel tank 21 is calculated. |
| US08818690B2 |
Air-fuel ratio control apparatus for internal combustion engine
An air-fuel ratio control apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes an air-fuel ratio sensor having an output characteristic which is nonlinear with respect to the air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas. An output deviation converter is configured to convert an output deviation to a first predetermined value if an output value of the air-fuel ratio sensor is on a richer side of a predetermined target value and to a second predetermined value if the output value is on a leaner side of the target value. A control input calculator is configured to calculate a control input to feedback-control the output value of the air-fuel ratio sensor such that the output deviation converted by the output deviation converter is to be zero. An air-fuel ratio controller is configured to control the air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas using the control input calculated by the control input calculator. |
| US08818689B2 |
Cylinder intake air amount calculating apparatus for internal combustion engine
A cylinder intake air amount calculating apparatus for an internal combustion engine that calculates a cylinder intake air amount, which is an amount of fresh air sucked in a cylinder of the engine using an intake air pipe model equation which is obtained by modeling an intake pipe of the engine, is provided. An intake air flow rate is obtained. The cylinder intake air amount is calculated by applying the intake air flow rate and a preceding value of the cylinder intake air amount to the intake pipe model equation. A predicted intake air flow rate which is a predicted value of the intake air flow rate is calculated. A predicted cylinder intake air amount which is a predicted value of the cylinder intake air amount is calculated by applying the predicted intake air flow rate and the cylinder intake air amount to the intake pipe model equation. |
| US08818680B2 |
Vehicle behavior control device
A vehicle behavior control device for controlling acceleration/deceleration includes: a velocity acquisition device; a current position acquisition device; a preceding vehicle determination device; a following distance detection device; a preceding vehicle information acquisition device; a relative velocity calculation device of a preceding vehicle; a first evaluation index calculation device of a first evaluation index indicating an approaching/separating state to the preceding vehicle in view of the preceding vehicle velocity; a first deceleration target determination device for determining whether the first evaluation index exceeds a first deceleration threshold; and a following deceleration calculation device for calculating a first required deceleration when the first evaluation index exceeds the first deceleration threshold. The first required deceleration provides to match an actual relative velocity with a first target relative velocity, which is determined based on the first evaluation index and the following distance. |
| US08818678B2 |
Method for preventing activation of resume function in a cruise control system
A method to selectively prevent a vehicle from resuming a vehicle set speed stored in memory of a cruise control system includes monitoring a vehicle speed, determining that the vehicle speed indicates operation in a low speed range, determining a threshold slow zone maneuver based upon the vehicle speed substantially remaining in the low speed range through a predetermined duration, and inhibiting resumption of the vehicle set speed based upon the threshold slow zone maneuver. |
| US08818674B2 |
Vehicle behavior controller
Provided is a vehicle behavior controller capable of stabilizing a behavior of a vehicle with a high response when an unstable state of the vehicle is judged. The vehicle behavior controller includes: a running state detecting unit for detecting a running state of the vehicle; an unstable state judging unit for judging the unstable state of the vehicle based on the running state; a motor generator connected to an engine of the vehicle, the motor generator operating as a power generator for using an output of a prime mover to generate power and an electric motor for assisting the output of the prime mover; and a control unit for controlling an operation of the motor generator based on r.p.m. of the motor generator, in which the control unit controls the operation of the motor generator to generate braking torque when the unstable state is judged. |
| US08818673B1 |
Method to detect marginally large air gaps on heavy vehicle wheel speed sensor installations
When detecting unacceptably large airgaps between wheel speed sensors and their exciter rings on wheel ends of a vehicle, wheel speed sensor output is filtered and monitored to detect signal amplitudes that correspond to the airgaps. When signal peak amplitude below a predetermined threshold is detected, the airgap is too large. Wheel ends having unacceptably large air gaps are indicated to the driver or technician via blink sequences (e.g., on an electronic stability program (ESP) indicator light or other suitable indicator), wherein each wheel end is associated with a unique blink sequence. |
| US08818672B2 |
Brake control apparatus
A controller sets a target hydraulic pressure of a master cylinder based on the operation amount of a brake pedal, and controls the action of an electric motor so that a master cylinder hydraulic pressure attains the target hydraulic pressure. A brake characteristic representing a relationship between a motor rotation position detected by a resolver and the master cylinder hydraulic pressure as detected by the hydraulic pressure sensor is stored and updated. When the hydraulic pressure sensor is abnormal, a target motor rotation position corresponding to the target hydraulic pressure is set using the updated brake characteristic, and the action of the electric motor is controlled. The electric motor is controlled based on the updated brake characteristic, and hence fluctuations in the vehicle deceleration with respect to the brake operation can be suppressed and a sense of discomfort for the driver can be alleviated. |
| US08818664B2 |
Method and apparatus for selecting an engine operating state for a multi-mode powertrain system
A powertrain system includes a multi-mode transmission configured to transfer torque among an engine, torque machines, and a driveline. A method for controlling operation of the powertrain system includes determining a bias engine speed based upon an engine speed. A search is executed including determining a respective candidate power cost for operating the powertrain system in response to an output torque request, and determining a respective candidate driveability cost for the candidate engine speed based upon the bias engine speed. The search also selects one of the candidate engine speeds and candidate engine torques that achieves a minimum of a combination of the respective candidate driveability cost and the respective candidate power cost as a preferred engine speed and preferred engine torque. Operation of the powertrain system is controlled based upon the preferred engine speed and preferred engine torque. |
| US08818660B2 |
Method for managing lash in a driveline
A hybrid powertrain system includes a transmission device operative to transfer power between an input member, a torque machine and an output member, the output member coupled to a driveline coupled to a wheel to transfer tractive torque therebetween. A method for controlling the hybrid powertrain system includes monitoring an operator torque request, determining an operating range state of the transmission device, determining a net output torque to the output member based upon the operator torque request, determining a lash state of the driveline, and determining a command for transferring output torque to the output member based upon the operating range state of the transmission device, the net output torque, and the lash state of the driveline. |
| US08818658B2 |
Active damping during clutch engagement for engine start
An active damping system provides a torque adjustment command that is combined with the raw motor torque command of a vehicle to compensate for oscillations and vibrations in the driveline of a hybrid vehicle. Active damping may be provided by a derivative controller or by a lead-lag compensation between initiation of clutch engagement and full clutch engagement. Active damping is terminated upon full clutch engagement. |
| US08818655B1 |
Split electronic transmission range selection systems and methods
An electronic transmission range selection system of a vehicle includes first and second input devices and first and second modules. The first input device is user actuatable to request operation of a transmission in reverse, neutral, and drive. The first module generates first signals based on a first position of the first input device. The second input device is different than the first input device and is user actuatable to request operation of the transmission in park. The second module generates second signals based on a second position of the second input device. |
| US08818653B2 |
Transmission shifting with speed dither and torque dither
A system and method of dithering speed and/or torque for shifting a transmission of a vehicle having an engine, a reversible, variable displacement hydraulic motor/pump which can be driven by the engine, a hydraulic accumulator supplied by said motor/pump, and at least one reversible hydraulic driving motor for propelling the vehicle supplied with fluid by the hydraulic accumulator and/or by said motor/pump operating as a pump. A transmission unit connects the engine with the variable displacement hydraulic motor/pump during a first mode of operation (city mode) and connects the engine to a vehicle drive wheel during a second mode of operation. The system utilizes stored hydraulic energy to dither the output of the driving motor in order to achieve quick and smooth shifts between city and highway mode, or between various ranges within the city mode. |
| US08818651B2 |
Flow control system for a hydraulic pump of construction machinery
A flow control system for a hydraulic pump of a construction machine that can variably control a discharge flow rate of the hydraulic pump in accordance with load pressure generated by a hydraulic actuator. According to the system, the discharge pressure of the hydraulic pump and the operation rate of the operation lever for the hydraulic actuators is detected, and standard load pressures of the respective hydraulic actuators are set. If the discharge pressure of the hydraulic pump is higher than preset load pressures of the hydraulic actuators, the discharge flow rate of the hydraulic pump is reduced in proportion to the operation rate in accordance with degrees of loads generated by the hydraulic actuators. If the discharge pressure of the hydraulic pump is lower than the standard load pressures of the hydraulic actuators, the discharge flow rate of the hydraulic pump is controlled in proportion to the operation rate. |
| US08818650B2 |
Operational parameter determination systems and methods with gear shifting compensation
An operational parameter determination system is disclosed. The operational parameter determination system may include an operational parameter predictor configured to calculate an a priori estimated operational parameter of the machine based on a previously estimated operational parameter. The operational parameter determination system may also include a gear shifting compensator configured to determine whether a gear shifting is in progress, and when the gear shifting is in progress, to output the a priori estimated operational parameter as a determined operational parameter. The operational parameter determination system may further include an operational parameter updater configured to, when the gear shifting is not in progress, receive a measured operational parameter of the machine, determine an a posteriori estimated operational parameter of the machine based on the a priori estimated operational parameter and the measured operational parameter, and output the a posteriori estimated operational parameter as the determined operational parameter. |
| US08818647B2 |
Vehicular heads-up display system
Heads-up display arrangements for vehicles including a seat in which an occupant sits, a system for forming an image of text and/or graphics in a field of view of the occupant, a determination arrangement for determining a position of the occupant (or a part thereof) and an adjustment system for adjusting the seat based on the occupant's determined position to thereby change the orientation of the occupant relative to the image. Change of the orientation of the occupant relative to the image may entail adjusting the seat and/or adjusting the image forming system, which is often a heads-up display system. Adjustment of the seat may involve moving the seat forward or backward and/or up or down, or any other direction or way possible given the construction of the seat. |
| US08818643B2 |
Seatbelt device
In this seatbelt device, when a lock release determining device determines that a lock has been released, and a command for driving a motor is output while a wind-up operation is performed by the motor to release the lock, and a priority of the command is equal to or higher than a predetermined level, a control device controls the motor so as to apply tension to a webbing. |
| US08818642B2 |
Control of active vehicle devices during cornering
A method of triggering an active device of a vehicle at a pre-determined threshold comprises generating a steering wheel signal from steering angle rate of change of steering angle of the vehicle, the signal representing an advance in time in comparison to the steering wheel position and/or speed, and determining a conditioned vehicle lateral acceleration in dependence on the steering wheel signal and a measured vehicle lateral acceleration, the conditioned vehicle lateral acceleration being advanced in time in comparison with the measured vehicle lateral acceleration. An active device of the vehicle is triggered if the conditioned vehicle lateral acceleration exceeds a threshold lateral acceleration. |
| US08818641B2 |
Method of intersection estimation for a vehicle safety system
A method of estimating an intersection location for a vehicle safety system is disclosed. The method includes steps of calculating a stopping distance according to operating parameters of the motor vehicle. The method also includes a step of determining a location for an intersection using the stopping distance and the location of the vehicle. The method further includes steps of determining a distance between a remote vehicle and the intersection. A vehicle safety system is controlled according to the distance between the motor vehicle and the intersection and the distance between the remote vehicle and the intersection. |
| US08818637B2 |
Occupant classification system
An occupant classification system classifies occupants on a vehicle seat and is capable of separating child seats from adults during wet seat cases. In the system, the seat structure is grounded. The classification system includes a measurement circuit, an identifying circuit, and a controller. The measurement circuit is configured to measure in-phase and quadrature components of a current sent out to the sensing element. The identifying circuit is configured to identify if a seat pan and a seat back frame of the vehicle seat are grounded to a circuit ground. The controller is configured to use measurements of the measurement circuit to classify the occupant. The sensing element can be located in a sensing mat that further includes a heating element. |
| US08818636B2 |
Electric power steering apparatus, control method thereof and computer readable medium
The electric power steering apparatus is provided with: a steering torque detector that detects steering torque of a steering wheel; an electric motor that applies steering assist force to the steering wheel; a current detector that detects an actual current actually supplied to the electric motor; a target current setting unit that sets a target current to be supplied to the electric motor, on the basis of the steering torque detected by the steering torque detector; a feedback controller that performs feedback control so that the target current and the actual current coincide with each other; and a feedforward controller that performs feedforward control for increasing the actual current detected by the current detector if the target current increases, the feedforward controller including a frequency compensator that provides a smaller amount of increase in the actual current as a frequency of a variation in the target current is lower. |
| US08818633B2 |
Steering apparatus, and kickback determination apparatus
There is provided a steering apparatus that includes a steering member that is provided in a vehicle and that is capable of being turned so as to steer the vehicle; and a determination device configured to determine that a kickback state is present if an operation point determined according to the steering angle of the steering member and the steering torque that acts on the steering member is outside a criterion region that is determined beforehand. The steering apparatus and the kickback determination device are able to properly cope with the kickback. |
| US08818624B2 |
Adaptive soft buttons for a vehicle user interface
A system and a method are provided for configuring the touch-sensitive area and/or the tap duration associated with a plurality of touch-sensitive soft buttons of a vehicle user interface in response to varying vehicle conditions. In particular, as a monitored vehicle condition deteriorates, the system controller coupled to the vehicle user interface expands the touch-sensitive region and/or increases the tap duration of the touch-sensitive soft buttons, thereby improving the user's ability to successfully interact with the interface. Vehicle conditions that may be monitored and used to configure the touch-sensitive area and/or tap duration include passenger cabin vibration levels, vehicle speed, turn radius, lateral force levels, precipitation levels and external ambient temperature. |
| US08818623B2 |
Method and system for providing image information
A system for providing image information while interworking with a plurality of photographing apparatuses converts each of at least one image transmitted from the plurality of photographing apparatuses into a frame, and inserts the coordinates of the intersection into the converted frame. Next, the system determines whether a vehicle enters the intersection based on the frame into which the coordinates of the intersection are inserted, the current travelling direction of the vehicle, and the current position coordinates of the vehicle. The system extracts image information of the road intersecting at the frame corresponding to each of at least one image, when the vehicle enters the vehicle, and provides the extracted image information to the user through a terminal in the vehicle. |
| US08818622B2 |
Vehicle system comprising an assistance functionality
The vehicle system, controlled by control inputs, provides functionalities in the motor vehicle (1) and has an interface (9) for acquiring the control inputs and outputting data as well as a control device (5) for controlling the functionalities in accordance with the acquired control inputs. A storage medium (7) on which instructions explaining the functionalities and/or operation are stored is linked to the control device (5). The control device (5) is designed to retrieve instructions from the storage medium (7) and output the same as part of the instructions via the interface (9). The vehicle system (3, 3′) can be operated in an assistance mode in which the user inputs are interpreted and evaluated as control inputs for the functionalities while instructions explaining the respective activated functionality and/or other operational options are additionally output at the same time. |
| US08818621B2 |
In-vehicle device
In an in-vehicle device which is carried on an automotive vehicle, an operation unit causes the vehicle to execute a predetermined operation in response to a remote control request from a user. A detection unit detects existence of a moving object in a passenger compartment of the vehicle or in areas surrounding the vehicle. An operation inhibition unit inhibits execution of the predetermined operation by the operation unit when existence of the moving object is detected by the detection unit. |
| US08818618B2 |
System and method for providing a user interface for vehicle monitoring system users and insurers
System and method for providing a website, portal and/or user interface adding, reviewing and editing street mapping data and speed-by-street information. The website, portal and/or user interface allows users to add, review and editing all or selected matters of safety data and street information in a street mapping database. The website, portal and/or user interface also allows the user to select any geographical area and/or any group of vehicles and adjust the system response for any reason, such as weather, traffic, road conditions, etc. The present invention also provides a website, portal and/or user interface that allows a user to register their vehicle and/or vehicle monitoring system hardware so that driver profile information and performance data may be stored on the site and viewed by insurance companies. The insurance companies may bid on drivers they wanted to insure. |
| US08818615B2 |
Method for processing data in an influencing device
A method is provided for processing data in an influencing device, whereby the influencing device is connected to a vehicle control unit and to a data processing unit. The vehicle control unit and the influencing device are disposed in a motor vehicle or, for example, on a test bench in a laboratory. A first program runs in the vehicle control unit. Data are exchanged according to an XCP protocol and/or a CCP protocol between the data processing unit and the influencing device. The influencing device has a second execution unit, which executes predetermined data processing steps more rapidly than the first execution unit. The data exchanged by the XCP protocol or the CCP protocol are checked for a predetermined criterion and, based on the result of the check, the data are processed either in the first execution unit or in the second execution unit. |
| US08818614B1 |
Personal event data recorder
A personal event data recorder (PEDR) is provided. The PEDR may be integrated within a mobile communications device or may be provided as a separate add-on device operatively linked to the mobile communications device. The PEDR is configured to activate a number of sensors based upon an event trigger and monitor and record event data from the sensors. The PEDR is further configured to store the recorded event data in one of a memory and a network database. The PEDR may also be utilized with a secondary sensor system such as, but not limited to, a vehicle sensor system or a security sensor system. |
| US08818612B2 |
On-board diagnostic connector module and vehicle diagnostic system
A diagnostic connector module for a vehicle includes an electronic communication module and a housing enclosing the electronic communication module. The housing has integrated connectors electrically connected to the electronic communication module. The integrated connectors include a diagnostic service connector for connection with an external diagnostic scan tool and a vehicle bus connector connectable to a vehicle bus. The diagnostic service connector has a plurality of female pin-receptors electrically connected to the electronic communication module, and the vehicle bus connector has a plurality of terminals electrically connected to the electronic communication module. A vehicle diagnostic system including the diagnostic connector module is also provided. |
| US08818608B2 |
Engaging and disengaging for autonomous driving
Aspects of the present disclosure relate switching between autonomous and manual driving modes. In order to do so, the vehicle's computer may conduct a series of environmental, system, and driver checks to identify certain conditions. The computer may correct some of these conditions and also provide a driver with a checklist of tasks for completion. Once the tasks have been completed and the conditions are changed, the computer may allow the driver to switch from the manual to the autonomous driving mode. The computer may also make a determination, under certain conditions, that it would be detrimental to the driver's safety or comfort to make a switch from the autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode. |
| US08818605B2 |
Device and method for providing navigation information
A navigation information providing device recognizes traveling status information of a vehicle senses a behavioral state or physiological state of a driver to recognize the driver's situation information and sets a rule including a form and a time for navigation information to be provided to the driver per traveling status information and driver's situation information. The navigation information providing device searches navigation information that corresponds to the driver's situation information and the vehicle's traveling status information, determines the form and time of navigation information to satisfy the rule, and provides navigation information to the driver according to the determined form and time. |
| US08818602B2 |
Unmanned autonomous operating system
In an unmanned autonomous operating system having a station provided with a signal generator for supplying an area signal in electric pulse current to an area wire that defines an operating area, and an unmanned autonomous vehicle having magnetic sensors for detecting a magnetic field generated by the area wire and a microcomputer programmed to recognize the operating area from the detected magnetic field, a selection mechanism is installed at the station that outputs one of area signals from the signal generator in response to a selection of a user, one of the area signals generated from the signal generator is registered, and the operating area is recognized based on the registered area signal. |
| US08818598B2 |
Vehicle control device and vehicle control method
ECU executes a program including a step of executing first charging control when a charging plug and a charging device are connected, a step of terminating the first charging control when CCV is more than or equal to a threshold value OCV, a step of executing second charging control, and a step of terminating the second charging control when charging is completed. |
| US08818597B2 |
Vehicle control device
When predetermined conditions in a vehicle are met, the control means of the disclosed vehicle control device prohibits control of the state of power-source supply to vehicle-mounted equipment or the operating state of a drive source resulting from a pressing operation of a push switch. When it is detected that an abnormal state has arisen in the vehicle, the control means allows control by the pressing operation of the push switch even if the aforementioned predetermined conditions are met. |
| US08818595B2 |
Controller for hybrid vehicle
There is provided a controller for a hybrid vehicle which can improve fuel consumption performance and driveability. A controller for a hybrid vehicle which can run in an EV drive mode in which an electric motor 101 is driven by electric power of a battery 113 only and a series drive mode in which the electric motor 101 is driven by electric power generated by a generator 107 using power of an engine 109 includes a demanded driving force calculation unit, a demanded electric power calculation unit, an available uppermost outputting value setting unit, and an engine starting determination unit. The engine starting determination unit starts the engine 109 so that the vehicle runs in the series drive mode when the demanded electric power demanded of the electric motor 101 exceeds the available uppermost outputting value. |
| US08818593B2 |
Trolley driven machine record and playback automation
A system and method for automatically guiding an off-highway truck having a pantograph over a route having at least one trolley-powered section. While the off-highway truck is operated over the route by a human operator, its position and the state of the pantograph at each position are recorded to produce a recorded sequence. The recorded sequence is retrieved and the off-highway truck is automatically controlled to sequentially match each position and each pantograph state at the associated position. |
| US08818592B2 |
Method of controlling an energy storage unit in a vehicle micro-hybrid system
A method of controlling a supercapacitor energy storage unit (12), included in a motor vehicle micro-hybrid system, is disclosed. The storage unit is suitable for performing the functions of an alternator, starter and automatic stop-restart of the vehicle heat engine, regenerative braking and torque assistance. The energy storage unit (12) is a plurality of supercapacitor elementary cells connected in series (C1 to C10) and capable of delivering information (Vmax, Temp and DeltaV) on its internal status. The method includes various stages of: comparing a temperature (Temp) with at least one temperature threshold (ST1=55° C., ST2=65° C. and ST3=70° C.); and, deciding on limitations of the availability of functions of the unit when the (Temp) information reaches the temperature threshold (ST1=55° C., ST2=65° C. and ST3=70° C.). |
| US08818589B2 |
System and method for controlling a vehicle
Location information may be used to adjust the engine start/stop characteristics of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) in order to increase the amount of electric vehicle (EV) mode driving, particularly near a destination in which an ignition-off event may occur. Common ignition-off locations may be learned and stored in a database along with the number of ignition-off occurrences associated with each learned location. The vehicle may calculate current distance to a nearest ignition-off location stored in the database using positioning system coordinates and may determine whether to adjust one or more engine pull-ups based at least in part on the distance and the corresponding number of ignition-off occurrences. |
| US08818586B2 |
Protection system for ship loading
Protection system for ship loading provided with a cover device comprising a universal adaptable cover, a coupling and operation device comprising a ring structure that houses the elements necessary for operation of the protection system, such as the fixing device, tractor assembly responsible for handling, lowering and collapsing the protection cover and its system of monitoring of the load, which, together, allow a new approach in the protection of loading of ships. |
| US08818583B2 |
Train crew support device including a door opening-closing device
A train classification information interface receives train classification information, an ATS interface obtains ATS control information transmitted by an ATS system, a memory unit stores therein the train classification information, an operation determining unit determines the door opening-closing side based on a door opening information table stored in the memory unit, and door opening-closing-signal outputting units output a door opening-closing signal to door opening-closing devices, respectively, based on a door opening-closing operation performed by a crew member and based on a signal output by the operation determining unit. |
| US08818575B2 |
Multi-axis, multi-path fly-by-wire flight control system
A multi-axis serially redundant, single channel, multi-path fly-by-wire control system comprising: serially redundant flight control computers in a single channel where only one “primary” flight control computer is active and controlling at any given time; a matrix of parallel flight control surface controllers including stabilizer motor control units (SMCU) and actuator electronics control modules (AECM) define multiple control paths within the single channel, each implemented with dissimilar hardware and which each control the movement of a distributed set of flight control surfaces on the aircraft in response to flight control surface commands of the primary flight control computer; and a set of (pilot and co-pilot) controls and aircraft surface/reference/navigation sensors and systems which provide input to a primary flight control computer and are used to generate the flight control surface commands to control the aircraft in flight in accordance with the control law algorithms implemented in the flight control computers. |
| US08818570B2 |
Electronic control unit limiter with coded release
An electronic control unit (“ECU”) limiter is disclosed. The ECU can include a vehicle-mounted component configured to measure and interact with components of the vehicle such as the engine, the transmission, etc, and a remote component configured to communicate with the vehicle-mounted component and vice versa. The vehicle-mounted component can be programmed to permit the vehicle to operate substantially without limitation until a certain parameter threshold is met, such as the engine usage reaching a certain predetermined quantity. The vehicle-mounted component can limit the engine in a variety of ways when the parameter threshold is met. The remote component can receive information from the vehicle-mounted component regarding the monitored parameters and the limitations caused by the vehicle-mounted component. |
| US08818568B2 |
Satellite-based automatic steering system
Methods, systems, and machine-interpretable coding for causing a processor of a vehicle controller installed in a vehicle such as a rubber-tired gantry (RTG) to generate, using known position associated with a base station and signals received from a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver located at the base station, a satellite observation error estimate; generate, using the satellite observation error estimate and a position of vehicle determined using signals received from a GNSS receiver mounted on the vehicle, at least one control signal representing a navigation command executable by at least one control device of the vehicle; and to output the control signal for execution by the control device. Generation of control signals can include use of synchronous and asynchronous processing, ambiguity resolution processes, and as fuzzy logic and PID and other control feedback loops. |
| US08818567B2 |
High integrity perception for machine localization and safeguarding
The illustrative embodiments provide a method for processing sensor data and controlling the movement of a vehicle. An operating environment around the vehicle is identified and sensor data is selected from a set of sensors. A dynamic condition is identified using a plurality of different types of sensors on the vehicle. In response to the dynamic condition being identified, the movement of the vehicle is controlled. Sensor data for a plurality of vehicles is managed by receiving sensor data at the plurality of vehicles, each with a plurality of sensors. In response to a selected vehicle within the plurality of vehicles being unable to obtain needed sensor data, collected sensor data from a number of other vehicles in the plurality of vehicles can be obtained to form alternate sensor data used to control the vehicle. |
| US08818565B2 |
Systems and methods for performing islanding operations
Systems and methods for performing islanding operations are usable to monitor and collect plant loads and turbine loads of a power plant. Such monitoring and collecting can be used to preemptively determine islanding configurations. According to one embodiment of the invention, a system can be provided. The system can be operable to receive power generation unit information, receive power plant information of the power plant, determine an islanding configuration for the power plant, transmit the islanding configuration to the at least one power generation unit of the power plant, receive breaker status information of at least one breaker coupled to the at least one power generation unit of the power plant and for all breakers connecting power plant to an external grid, and control at least one power generation unit of the power plant. |
| US08818564B2 |
Pneumatic pressure output control by drive valve duty cycle calibration
In various embodiments, a surgical console may include a pneumatic valve to drive a pneumatic tool coupled to the surgical console. The console may further include a controller operable to control and adjust the valve open/close cycle times according to a valve duty cycle. The valve may switch between ports (valve open time for a first port and valve close time for a second port) such that a total valve time may approximately equal the valve open time plus the valve close time. The valve duty cycle may indicate a percentage of the total valve time for the controller to signal the valve to open and may include an adjustment that corresponds to a signal timing of the open and/or closed valve positions that will result in open and closed operating pressures above a predetermined threshold. |
| US08818562B2 |
Simulated fermentation process
A method of modeling a fermentation process comprises providing a first principles model of a fermentation process; determining the concentration of at least one substrate in a fermentation composition at a first time; and predicting the concentration of at least one component of the fermentation composition at a second time using the first principles model, wherein the second time is after the first time. |
| US08818555B2 |
Path planning apparatus of robot and method and computer-readable medium thereof
An apparatus, method and computer-readable medium planning a path of a robot by planning an optimal path while satisfying a dynamic constraint. In a process of searching for a motion path from a start point to a goal point while extending a tree from a start point of a configuration space to generate a path, along which a manipulator of the robot is moved in order to perform a task, an optimal path is generated responsive to the dynamic constraint of the manipulator of the robot to generate stable motion satisfying momentum and Zero Moment Position (ZMP) constraint. Accordingly, path planning performance is improved and a path satisfying a kinematic constraint and a dynamic constraint is rapidly obtained. |
| US08818552B2 |
Point-of-care medication dispensing
A medication dispenser is provided, comprising a securable container configured to store one or more doses of one or more medications and an access device configured to selectably permit access to the one or more doses. The medication dispenser further comprises an electronic interface configured to acquire user input from a user, and a processor configured to compare the user input to a database, to select, responsive to the comparing, an appropriate dose from the one or more doses, and to permit access through the access device to the appropriate dose. A method for dispensing medication is provided, comprising the steps of locating a medication dispenser at a point-of-care, acquiring user input from a user at the point-of-care, comparing the user input to a database, selecting, responsive to the comparing, an appropriate dose from the one or more doses, and permitting access through the access device to the appropriate dose. |
| US08818548B2 |
Work apparatus with safety equipment
In a brush cutter (100), when it is determined based on acceleration information including frequency components, supplied from an acceleration sensor (24) included in the brush cutter (100) that the acceleration shows a peak in a range of frequencies lower than 100 Hz, the flow moves to step S5 to amplify the acceleration peak. In next step S6, the acceleration peak is compared with a threshold. When the result of comparison shows that the acceleration peak is higher than the threshold, the flow moves to step S7 to produce a safety signal. The safety signal is output from the controller (26) to a high voltage generation circuit (30) to stop generation of a high voltage in the high voltage generating circuit (30). In this manner, the acceleration sensor (24) is used to detect any unexpected, sudden danger, while diminishing influence of the acceleration caused by vibration inherent to the own nature of the work apparatus, its intended regular operation and its posture change in regular operation. |
| US08818545B2 |
Semiconductor fabrication apparatus and temperature adjustment method
A semiconductor fabrication apparatus includes a semiconductor wafer mounting table having a cavity therein; and a nozzle which jets a liquefied temperature adjustment medium having a temperature equal to or less than a targeted temperature to an inner wall of the cavity in order to adjust a temperature of the semiconductor wafer mounting table to the targeted temperature. The semiconductor fabrication apparatus further includes a pressure detecting unit for detecting an internal pressure of the cavity; and a vacuum pump which discharges gas within the cavity such that a pressure detected by the pressure detecting unit becomes equal to or more than a saturated vapor pressure related to the temperature of the temperature adjustment medium jetted from the nozzle and equal to or less than a saturated vapor pressure related to the targeted temperature. |
| US08818543B2 |
Computerized method and system for selecting technology used in vehicle production
Various embodiments may include a computerized system and method for determining a selection of technologies or processes for use in part production. A dataset of technologies or processes may be considered and standardized. Generic CAD models may be generated from the standardized dataset. Optimization metrics for each generic CAD model may be received. Data from a sourcing, a manufacturing and a design data source may also be received. An optimization algorithm may be used for each generic CAD model based on the optimization metrics and the data from the data sources. One or more optimized CAD models may be generated and one or more optimized technologies or processes for use in part manufacturing may be obtained. The optimized technologies or processes may be based on the one or more optimized CAD models. The optimized technologies or processes may be transmitted for selection and use in producing manufactured parts. |
| US08818541B2 |
Cross product enhanced harmonic transposition
The present invention relates to audio coding systems which make use of a harmonic transposition method for high frequency reconstruction (HFR). A system and a method for generating a high frequency component of a signal from a low frequency component of the signal is described. The system comprises an analysis filter bank providing a plurality of analysis subband signals of the low frequency component of the signal. It also comprises a non-linear processing unit to generate a synthesis subband signal with a synthesis frequency by modifying the phase of a first and a second of the plurality of analysis subband signals and by combining the phase-modified analysis subband signals. Finally, it comprises a synthesis filter bank for generating the high frequency component of the signal from the synthesis subband signal. |
| US08818540B2 |
Sound processing apparatus
A sound processing apparatus that communicates with a terminal apparatus through a communication network, includes: a main storage device; an auxiliary storage device that stores a management program and a sound processing program; a management element being implemented by making the management program resident in the main storage device, the management element that receives audio data transmitted from the terminal apparatus by a streaming method and that stores the received audio data in the main storage device, the management element that acquires, from the main storage device, processed data generated by performing sound processing on the audio data and that transmits the processed data to the terminal apparatus by a streaming method; and a sound processing element being implemented by making the sound processing program resident in the main storage device, the sound processing element that performs the sound processing on the audio data to generate the processed data when the management element stores the audio data in the main storage device and that stores the generated processed data in the main storage device. |
| US08818538B2 |
Playback apparatus, playback method, and recording medium
Audio data are played back by a personal computer a relationship with a playback process recognized easily. Displays showing the contents of play lists are arranged and displayed so that the contents become continuous in sequence in a playback sequence from content that is currently being played back from a display of an operation element that causes an image of a playback process to appear or from a display showing the content which is currently being played back. When the playback of one piece of content of one play list from among a plurality of play lists is terminated and one piece of content of an other play list is played back, at least the content that is currently being played back and content to be subsequently played back are displayed so that the contents can be distinguished. |
| US08818535B2 |
Updating thermostat weekly schedule over the air
Provided is a method and system for updating of schedules to a device controlled by an energy management system. |
| US08818532B1 |
System and method for selectively controlling and monitoring receptacles and fixtures connected to a power circuit in a building
A system for adding controls to an area circuit within a building. The system enables specific outlets and fixture switches in the area circuit to be automatically and individually controlled. Smart outlets and smart fixtures switches are used. Each has a receptacle, an internal on/off switch, and a selectively changeable address code. An electrical power cable extends throughout the area circuit. A control unit is coupled to the electrical power cable and generates an addressed control signal within the electrical power cable. The addressed control signal selectively controls the internal on/off switches in the smart outlets and the smart fixture switches. However, the addressed control signal generated by the control unit must be properly addressed to a smart outlet or a smart fixture switch. |
| US08818530B2 |
LED light controller system and method
Embodiments of the disclosure provide a system for selecting a color show generated by LED landscape, pool, and/or spa lights. The system can include a faceplate indicating the color shows available to select from. The faceplate includes a selector positioned to select one of the color shows. The system includes a microcontroller in communication with the selector and a triac circuit in communication with the microcontroller. The microcontroller controls the LED landscape, pool, and/or spa lights using the triac circuit in response to the position of the selector. |
| US08818527B2 |
Systems and methods for making and using enhanced electrodes for electrical stimulation systems
A lead assembly for providing electrical stimulation of patient tissue includes at least one elongated lead body, each of the at least one lead bodies having a distal end and a proximal end. A plurality of electrodes are disposed at the distal end of the at least one lead body, each of the electrodes having an outer surface. A plurality of dimples are defined along the outer surface of at least one of the plurality of electrodes, the plurality of dimples configured and arranged to provide a larger surface area for the at least one dimpled electrode than that of a similarly-sized electrode with a flat outer surface. A plurality of terminal are disposed at the proximal end of the at least one lead body. A plurality of conductive wires couple each of the plurality of electrodes to at least one of the plurality of terminals. |
| US08818526B2 |
Systems and methods for altering one or more RF-response properties of electrical stimulation systems
An implantable lead includes a lead body and at least one safety element. The lead body has a distal end and a proximal end. The lead body defines at least one lumen extending along at least a portion of the lead body. The lead body includes a plurality of electrodes disposed on the distal end of the lead body, a plurality of terminals disposed on the proximal end of the lead body, and a plurality of conductors disposed in the lead body, each conductor electrically coupling at least one of the electrodes to at least one of the terminals. The at least one safety element is disposed along at least a portion of the lead body and is configured and arranged to reduce damage to patient tissue adjacent to the plurality of electrodes due to heating, induced electrical signals, or both when the lead is exposed to radio frequency irradiation. |
| US08818522B2 |
Wireless patient communicator for use in a life critical network
A portable housing supports a processor coupled to memory for storing medical firmware and wireless radio firmware, first and second radios, a processor, and a power source. Communications are effected between an implantable medical device and the first radio in accordance with program instructions of the medical firmware, and between the second radio and the wireless network in accordance with program instructions of the wireless radio firmware. The first and second radios are configured to operate cooperatively in a first testing configuration, by which the first radio operates as a transmitter and the second radio operates as a receiver, and cooperatively in a second testing configuration, by which the second radio operates as a transmitter and the first radio operates as a receiver. Functional testing of the first and second radios is implemented using one or both of the first and second testing configurations. |
| US08818521B2 |
Implantable medical device
Implantable medical device (10) having control unit (20) connected to bidirectional wireless interface (18) and magnetic interface (16). Bidirectional wireless interface configured for bidirectional wireless data transmission via alternating electric field between medical device and an external device and may assume at least one OFF and one ON state, whereby wireless data transmission is possible only in ON state and function interface requires little or no energy in OFF state. Magnetic interface configured to constantly receive control signals transmitted via an alternating magnetic field from the external device. Magnetic interface configured to receive/process a data transmission start signal, such that magnetic interface or control unit generates a wireless interface activation. The bidirectional wireless interface is at least indirectly connected to the magnetic interface and is configured to switch from OFF to ON state in response to the wireless interface activation signal. |
| US08818512B2 |
Urinary incontinence device and method
A method for treating urinary incontinence is provided. The method includes providing a device, the device including an expandable portion having an outer surface, and a first electrode and a second electrode, the first and second electrodes coupled to the outer surface of the expandable portion and configured to cause a contraction of a muscle in communication with the electrodes. The method further includes causing the expandable portion to expand such that the first and second electrodes contact vaginal walls, and causing a contraction of a muscle in communication with the first and second electrodes. |
| US08818511B2 |
Automatic selection of stimulation chamber for ventricular resynchronization therapy
A method and apparatus for selection of one or more ventricular chambers to stimulate for ventricular resynchronization therapy. Intrinsic intracardia electrograms that include QRS complexes, are recorded from a left and right ventricle. A timing relationship between the intrinsic intracardia electrograms recorded from the left and right ventricle is then determined. In one embodiment, the timing relationship is determined using a delay between a left ventricular and a right ventricular sensed intrinsic ventricular depolarizations and a duration interval of one or more QRS complexes. In one embodiment, the duration of QRS complexes is determined from either intracardiac electrograms or from surface ECG recordings. One or more ventricular chambers in which to provide pacing pulses are then selected based on the timing relationship between intrinsic intracardia electrograms recorded from the right and left ventricle, and the duration of one or more QRS complexes. |
| US08818505B2 |
Physiological perturbations for measuring heart failure
Techniques of inducing a physiological perturbation to monitor a heart failure status of a patient are described. An implantable medical device (IMD) may induce a physiological perturbation in the patient to monitor and determine how the patient responds to the physiological change. This response may be indicative of heart failure improvement or worsening. For example, the IMD may deliver electrical stimulation with parameters configured to perturb the patient (e.g., stimulation that deviates from stimulation therapy). The IMD may then detect at least one physiological parameter to monitor the patient's response to the perturbation. Based on the detected physiological parameter, the IMD may generate a heart failure status. The heart failure status may then be used for adjusting patient therapy, with or without the use of remote monitoring. |
| US08818493B2 |
Three-dimensional imaging of veins
An apparatus and method for creating a three dimensional imaging system is disclosed. There is a first source of laser light and a second source of laser light having a wavelength different from the wavelength of the laser light of the first source. The laser light from the first and second sources are combined, and the combined laser light is transmitted to a scanner. The scanner further transmits the combined light to a surface to be imaged. |
| US08818491B2 |
System for non-contrast enhanced MR anatomical imaging
A system for Non-Contrast Agent enhanced MR imaging, includes an MR image acquisition device that acquires first and second datasets representing first and second image slabs individually comprising multiple image slices acquired at fast and slow blood flow portions of a heart cycle and oriented substantially perpendicular in at least one axis to direction of vasculature blood flow, in response to a heart cycle synchronization signal. An image data processor processes imaging datasets representing the first and second image slabs to provide first and second volume datasets representing a 3D volume imaged at the fast blood flow portion and the slow blood flow portion respectively and for providing a difference dataset representing an image difference between the first and second volume datasets and enhancing arterial blood flow. A display processor provides data representing an image showing the enhanced arterial blood flow. |
| US08818481B2 |
Adherent device with multiple physiological sensors
An adherent device to monitor a patient for an extended period comprises a breathable tape. The breathable tape comprises a porous material with an adhesive coating to adhere the breathable tape to a skin of the patient. At least one electrode is affixed to the breathable tape and capable of electrically coupling to a skin of the patient. A printed circuit board is connected to the breathable tape to support the printed circuit board with the breathable tape when the tape is adhered to the patient. Electronic components electrically are connected to the printed circuit board and coupled to the at least one electrode to measure physiologic signals of the patient. A breathable cover and/or an electronics housing is disposed over the circuit board and electronic components and connected to at least one of the electronics components, the printed circuit board or the breathable tape. |
| US08818479B2 |
Biological information detection device
A biological information detection device has a main body portion, a biological signal detection portion formed integrally with the main body portion, a mounting portion for detachably mounting the main body portion and the biological signal detection portion to a human body, and an engagement portion for detachably mounting the main body portion to the mounting portion. The biological signal detection portion has electrodes configured to be brought into contact with a biological surface of the human body. The engagement portion includes first connecting members protruding from respective opposite sides of the main body portions at positions corresponding to the electrodes, and second connecting members extending from respective end portions of the mounting portion for detachable engagement with the respective first connecting members. |
| US08818477B2 |
Physical performance monitoring and monitors
Methods and systems are disclosed for determining an anaerobic threshold and/or an oxygen consumption rate in a human or animal subject. The methods include exposing a tissue of the subject to illumination radiation, collecting emitted radiation from the tissue, the emitted radiation including a portion of the illumination radiation reflected or transmitted from the tissue, processing the emitted radiation to form a spectrum of the tissue, and determining, based on the spectrum of the tissue, the anaerobic threshold and/or the oxygen consumption rate of the subject. |
| US08818475B2 |
Method for enhancing pulse oximetry calculations in the presence of correlated artifacts
Methods and systems for determining a physiological parameter in the presence of correlated artifact are provided. One method includes receiving two waveforms corresponding to two different wavelengths of light from a patient. Each of the two waveforms includes a correlated artifact. The method also includes combining the two waveforms to form a plurality of weighted difference waveforms, wherein the plurality of weighted difference waveforms vary from one another by a value of a multiplier. The method further includes identifying one of the weighted difference waveforms from the plurality of weighted difference waveforms using a characteristic of one or more of the plurality of weighted difference waveforms and determining a characteristic of the correlated artifact based at least in part on the identified weighted difference waveform. |
| US08818474B2 |
Sensor with signature of data relating to sensor
A sensor has codes useful for a monitor which can be authenticated as accurate. The sensor produces a signal corresponding to a measured physiological characteristic and provides codes which can be assured of being accurate and authentic when used by a monitor. A memory associated with the sensor stores both data relating to the sensor and a digital signature. The digital signature authenticates the quality of the code by ensuring it was generated by an entity having predetermined quality controls, and ensure the code is accurate. |
| US08818471B2 |
Superconducting coil apparatus
It is desired to perform assemble, disassemble, maintenance and the like, especially of a large site superconducting coil device, in a short time. The superconducting coil device includes a plurality of coil units arranged in a circle circumference to form a toroidal shape. Each of the plurality of coil units includes a cryostat and a superconducting coil stored in the cryostat, and has a first surface parallel with a radius of the circle circumference and a second surface parallel with the radius of the circle circumference and arranged in a first direction side of the circle circumference to the first surface. The first surface contacts with the second surface of a coil unit adjacent in one direction among the plurality of coil units. The second surface contacts with the first surface of a coil unit adjacent in other direction among the plurality of coil units. |
| US08818470B2 |
Mobile communication device
A mobile communication device including a system ground plane, an antenna, a signal distributor, a transceiver and a sensing controller is provided. The antenna converts an electromagnetic wave to a radio-frequency signal. Besides, the antenna and the system ground plane form a sensing capacitor to detect an object and generate a detecting signal accordingly. The signal distributor is electrically connected to the antenna through a first connection terminal and a second connection terminal and guides the radio-frequency signal and the detecting signal from the antenna to a third connection terminal and a fourth connection terminal. The transceiver is electrically connected to the third connection terminal and processes the radio-frequency signal. The sensing controller is electrically connected to the fourth connection terminal and determines whether the object exists around the antenna according to the sensing signal. |
| US08818468B2 |
Mobile terminal with relative slide housing positions determining operational modes
In order to facilitate an operation of locking or unlocking a touch panel, a mobile terminal includes a first housing, a second housing connected to the first housing in a slidable manner, a touch panel provided on the first housing, a style detecting portion (S01, S08, S09) for detecting one of a plurality of possible styles on the basis of the relative positions of the first and second housings, a signal accepting portion (S04) for accepting a signal output from the touch panel, and a mode switching portion (S05, S06) for switching an input mode between a lock mode and an unlock mode on the basis of the detected style and presence/absence of a signal output from the touch panel. |
| US08818467B2 |
Headset system with a headset unit and a detachable wearing device
A headset system (10) comprising a headset unit (1) and a detachable wearing device (4). The headset unit (1) comprises a microphone arm (3), which is movable between a compact position and an extended position. A proximity sensor (29; 33) in the headset unit (1) detects whether the microphone arm (3) is in the compact position or the extended position. The headset unit (1) and the wearing device (4) are adapted to be movably attached to each other, so that the headset unit (1) can be moved between a use position and a rest position. The proximity sensor (29; 33) detects, when the headset unit (1) is moved into the rest position. |
| US08818462B2 |
Methods, systems and key FOB apparatuses for facilitating hands free mobile communications from within an automotive vehicle
Methods, systems, and key fob apparatuses for facilitating hands free mobile communications from within an automotive vehicle are provided. The apparatus includes a key fob with a housing and a SIM associated with the housing. The SIM is operative to identify a subscriber to a mobile telephone network when interfaced with the mobile telephone network. The apparatus may further include a key integrated with the key fob and operatively associated with the SIM. The key is operative to initiate the start of an engine of the automotive vehicle and interface the SIM with a mobile telephone, such as a GSM phone, integrated with the automotive vehicle. Thus, when the key is inserted into an ignition switch operatively associated with a SIM reader, the SIM identifies a subscriber to the mobile telephone network. |
| US08818456B2 |
Time sharing subscriber identity modules
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, are provided for time sharing subscriber identity modules. In some example embodiments, there is provided a method. The method may include detecting, during a first call associated with a first subscriber identity module included in a user equipment, a page representative of a second call associated with a second subscriber identity module; receiving, during the first call associated with the first subscriber identity module included in the user equipment, an indication representative of the second call being detected for the second subscriber identity module; and initiating, based on at least the received indication at the user equipment, the second call by at least switching a subscriber identity module being used by the user equipment from the first subscriber identity module to the second subscriber identity module. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described. |
| US08818454B2 |
System and method for providing multi-screen service of mobile terminal
A method for providing a multi-screen service is provided. The method includes transmitting, by a remote control device, a control signal to a cradling stand, receiving, by a mobile phone, the control signal from the remote control device via the cradling stand, and in response to the control signal, transmitting screen information to an external display device via the cradling stand, wherein the mobile phone is to transmit call information to the external display device via the cradling stand if a call is received. |
| US08818452B2 |
Mobile phone having a non-telephone function and timing reset unit
The present invention is a mobile phone having a non-telephone function (e.g. a radio function) that is different from a telephone function, and comprising: a timer operable to count time; a camera unit operable to execute the camera function; a camera function stop unit operable, during execution of the camera function to automatically stop the execution of the camera function when the timer indicates an elapse of a predetermined time period; a telephone unit operable to execute the telephone function; and a reset unit operable, if the timer is being operated in response to the execution of the camera function, to reset the timer to an initial state when a predetermined operation relating to the telephone function is executed, wherein when the timer is reset to the initial state, the timer starts to measure the predetermined time period, and the camera function stop unit stops the execution of the camera function at the elapse of the predetermined time period from the execution of the predetermined operation relating to the telephone function. The present invention successfully reduces occurrences of unwanted auto power off during the time when the non-telephone function is in execution—for example, the auto power off of the radio function during the time when the user is listening to the radio. |
| US08818451B2 |
Image networks for mobile communication
A mobile communication system based on images, enabling communication between a plurality of mobile devices and servers, wherein the images have associated additional properties in the nature of voice, audio, data and other information. The system further enabling the formation of one or more image networks wherein the images are stored, organized, connected and linked to each other by one or more methods inclusive of one to one connection between images, a hierarchical connection between images and or other methods of connection between images to facilitate efficient image based communication between mobile devices, stationary devices and servers based on the mobile device identification, mobile device specific profiles and user specific profiles. The imaged base network system further having the ability to learn and form intelligent association between objects, people and other entities; between images and the associated data relating to both animate and inanimate entities for intelligent image based communication in a network. |
| US08818446B2 |
Multi-dimensional adaptive transmission technique
Method and apparatus for dynamically optimizing the transmission level of each remote terminal in a satellite-based communication network. Each remote terminal maintains quasi-error-free communication at the highest efficiency level available under changing link conditions and network configurations, without requiring the reservation of substantial power margins, which results in a much more efficient satellite network. |
| US08818444B2 |
Method and system for providing wireless base station radio with non-disruptive service power class switching
A system and method of implementing an on-demand change of the RF power class of multi-carrier power amplifiers at a base station radio with minimal disruption of user service is disclosed. The power amplifiers providing signal diversity at said cell site and being able to operate at various RF power class levels. A first multi-carrier power amplifier with multiple RF Power Classes provides a main RF beam transmission at one sector of said cell site. A second multi-carrier power amplifier with multiple RF Power Classes provides RF beam transmission diversity to the main RF beam transmission. A switch operates to disable either the first or second multi-carrier power amplifier when an RF Power class change is required. |
| US08818442B2 |
Method for controlling signal transmission power and device for same
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a signal transmission method in which a terminal transmits a signal in a wireless communication system, said method comprising the steps of: checking the maximum transmission power (P_CC_MAX) for each component carrier of a plurality of component carriers, as well as the maximum transmission power (P_UE_MAX) of the terminal; calculating the transmission power for each channel to be simultaneously transmitted to a base station through one or more component carriers; independently adjusting the transmission power for each of the channels so as not to exceed the maximum transmission power (P_CC_MAX) and the maximum transmission power (P_UE_MAX); and transmitting a signal to the base station through the plurality of channels for which the transmission power is adjusted. |
| US08818440B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling power in distributed multiple input multiple output wireless communication system
An apparatus is operable to control power of a base station in a distributed Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communication system. At least one beamforming matrix is used for processing transmission signals to terminals included in a terminal set for a multiple access is determined. Minimum power values required for satisfying a minimum transmission rate of the terminals are determined. Whether optimum power values exist is determined using the minimum power values, the beamforming matrix, and a limit transmission power of the base station. When the optimum power values exist, transmission power values for respective terminals are determined in a range meeting the limit transmission power of the base station. |
| US08818439B2 |
Systems, methods, and machine-readable media providing location-enabled group management
A computer-executed method for managing a group of entities includes receiving an indication from a first user indicating a desire to add members to the group based on proximity to a target, such as a point of interest (POI) or a location of a person. The method also includes sending an invitation to a prospective group member based on a location of the prospective group member during a time window associated with the target. In response to the invitation, an indication is received from the prospective group member as to whether the prospective group member desires to join the group. |
| US08818437B2 |
Narrowband interference avoidance for dynamic channel assignment
Techniques are provided to improve the performance of wireless devices that serve wireless client devices in a wireless network in the presence of narrowband interference. The wireless device that serves wireless client devices in the wireless network receives energy in a plurality of channels of a frequency band. The received energy is analyzed for occurrence and type of interference in each channel. A quality metric is generated for each channel incorporating the occurrence and type of interference detected in the channel. For each channel, a bias value against selection of the channel is assigned based on whether narrowband interference is present in the channel. The bias value for each channel is applied to the quality metric for the channel to produce an adjusted quality metric for each channel. A channel is selected based on the adjusted quality metric for each of the plurality of channels. |
| US08818426B2 |
Scalable transmission or device trigger requests
Systems and methods for scalable triggering of machine type communication (MTC) devices are disclosed. One method comprises receiving for a selected period of time, at an MTC inter working function (IWF) module, a plurality of device trigger messages that are sent from a plurality of MTC servers. The plurality of device trigger messages are aggregated at the MTC IWF. A mobility management entity (MME) or Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Node (SGSN) for each device trigger message is identified. The aggregated device trigger messages are then sent to the identified MME or SGSN associated with each device trigger message to enable the identified MME SGSN to send the device trigger messages to a radio access network for transmission to the MTC devices. |
| US08818424B2 |
Inter-AP distance estimation using crowd sourcing
Techniques are provided for utilizing one or more mobile devices to estimate distances between wireless access points (APs). Embodiments can, for example, enable mobile devices, wireless APs, and/or other systems to estimate a distance between two wireless APs using Round-Trip Time (RTT) measurements obtained by one or more mobile devices. The RTT measurements can be utilized based on whether one or more related Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) measurements exceed a threshold value. Embodiments can also utilize crowdsourcing to obtain distance estimation data (e.g., distance estimates, RTT and/or RSSI measurements, etc.) from one or more mobile devices and/or propagate a determined distance, based on the distance estimation data, to multiple devices. |
| US08818422B2 |
Tagging data utilizing nearby device information
Data is automatically tagged utilizing information associated with nearby individuals, among other things. Location-based technology is leveraged to enable identification of individuals and associated devices within a distance of a data capture device. User information is acquired from proximate devices directly or indirectly before, during or after data recording. This information can be utilized to tag captured environmental data (e.g., images, audio, video . . . ), amongst other types, to facilitate subsequent location, filtration and/or organization. |
| US08818420B2 |
Rotation-tolerant devices and schemes for pedestrian-dead-reckoning (PDR) location determination
Devices, systems, and methods are directed to the determination of current location information of a wireless communication device. Such devices, systems, and methods include a plurality of sensor elements configured to provide orientation parameter information, velocity and/or acceleration parameter information, and directional heading parameter information; a camera mechanism configured to capture images at predetermined intervals of a user's body as the user handles the wireless communication device; orientation logic configured to determine orientation change information attributable to the user's handling, based on the captured images, and provide orientation correction information; and location estimation logic configured to provide current location information based on previous location information, the velocity and/or acceleration parameter information, the directional heading parameter information and/or the orientation parameter information, and the orientation correction information. |
| US08818416B2 |
Communicating based on navigation destination
In general, this disclosure describes techniques for providing a user of a source computing device with the ability to communicate with a destination communication device, while using a navigation application that provides directions to a geographical location associated with the destination communication device. Specifically, the source computing device may provide within the navigation application a mechanism, such as a selectable item, that upon selection allows the user to communicate with the destination communication device without exiting the navigation application that is providing directions to the geographical locations associated with the destination communication device. |
| US08818415B2 |
Commercially subsidized mobile communication devices and services
Mobile communication devices, such as mobile phones, may be capable of recommending to a user various providers of one or more solicited services, e.g., by identifying a user location and identifying providers near the user location that provide the services, and by initiating a call between the user and a selected provider. However, the equipment and service costs of such devices may be prohibitive, particularly for mid-range mobile communication devices that may appeal to cost-conscious users. The prohibitive costs may be diminished by redirecting part or all of the cost of providing the recommendation service from the providers, e.g., by charging the provider a service cost upon initiating a call from the user to the provider, or upon representing the provider in a provider database. In one such embodiment, all service costs may be borne by providers, providing to the user a free recommendation service via the mobile communication device. |
| US08818409B1 |
Identification of frequent locations of a wireless communication device
A frequent location determination system to identify a location frequented by a wireless communication device comprises a processing system. The processing system is configured to process network usage data for the wireless communication device to identify a cell sector in a wireless communication network that is used by the wireless communication device more than a plurality of other cell sectors in the wireless communication network. The processing system is further configured to process user data transferred by the wireless communication device from the cell sector to identify Global Positioning System (GPS) data, and to process the GPS data to determine a subset of the GPS data that indicates locations in the cell sector. The processing system is further configured to process the subset of the GPS data that indicates the locations in the cell sector to determine a frequent location of the wireless communication device within the cell sector. |
| US08818408B2 |
Real-time network node location system and method
A system for determining a position of location of a tag includes, in an embodiment: a plurality of routers each including at least one antenna; and a location engine to: (a) determine for at least one router, from signals sent by the one router and at least part of which are received by the at least one antenna of each of at least one other of the routers, an average path loss of signal strength; (b) optimize, for at least the one router, multipath parameters in a radio-frequency signal propagation equation using the average path loss for each of the at least one other of the routers and known distance between the router and each of the at least one other of the routers; and (c) determine the position of location of the tag using at least the optimized multipath parameters. |
| US08818407B2 |
Personalized location information for mobile devices
Providing location information on a mobile device includes receiving signals from external devices. Each signal includes information that specifies a geographic location for the external device that has provided the signal. A geographic location for the mobile device is calculated by using the information contained in each of the received signals. A representation of the geographic location of the mobile device is generated. The representation of the geographic location is included within an electronic message that provides information describing a user of the mobile device to other users of an electronic communications system. The electronic message is transmitted to another device to provide an indication of the geographic location for the user to one of the other users of the electronic communications system. |
| US08818406B2 |
TDOA based positioning with calculation of correction factors for compensating the clock offsets of unsynchronized network stations
The present invention presents a method, arrangement and computer program product for clocking exploiting the relative behavior of clocks of individual receiving stations as well as a corresponding modeling to derive a time difference of arrival of a signal from a user device which can be used to correct the time difference of arrival based on the modeled clock behavior and leads to a correct clocking of received user signals without the need of synchronization of the clocks in the various receiving stations. This principle is applicable to a plurality of pairs of receiving stations and beacon signals transmitted amongst them and allows for a correct location estimation of a user device. |
| US08818405B2 |
Recognition system
According to various embodiments, a first electronic device may be configured to communicate wirelessly with a second electronic device. If the devices become separated, then various steps may be taken to avoid or to mitigate the loss of one of the devices. |
| US08818404B2 |
FEMTO cell visitation history for location based services
System(s) and method(s) are provided for collection and communication of data on handset attachment procedure, or visitation, to one or more femto cells to provide location information. A mobility component receives actual subscriber and femto access point (AP) attachment signaling and extracts visitation data that facilitates generation of real-time or historical visitation reports. Location information is conveyed through visitation reports which can include mobile device identifier(s), femto AP location, and a timestamp. Visitation reports also can include processed visitation data such as mobility matrices, historical mobility patterns or profiles, and predicted mobility events. Provision of location information occurs without the need for dedicated handset functionality, and associated hardware, or additional battery draw. |
| US08818398B1 |
Method and system for streamlined location determination with advanced communication of base station delay measurements
Disclosed herein is a method and system to help reduce latency in responding to a location based service request from a mobile station. According to the method, the mobile station will include base station delay measurements with the location based service request. That way, when a network entity (such as the location based service provider, or a proxy between the mobile station and the location based service provider) receives the mobile station's request for a location-based service, the entity may readily convey the provided base station delay measurements to the positioning system to enable the positioning system to triangulate the mobile station's location without the need to request the base station delay measurements from the mobile station. |
| US08818397B2 |
Intelligent heterogeneous, mobile, Ad-Hoc communication network
The present invention relates to a Mobile Ad Hoc Network that possesses sufficient intelligence to handle a collection of devices that differ in terms of features either inherent to the device or the environment in which they operate. The different features inherent to the device may consist of different hardware and software technologies (e.g., combination of RF for transmission ability, processing ability, power supply, and interfaces). The different features of the environment may consist of any telemetry data measuring the state of the environment, as well as information regarding the MANet such as the density of devices in the vicinity of a device. Various applications are considered. |
| US08818394B2 |
Mobile radio communication devices having a trusted processing environment and method for processing a computer program therein
In an embodiment, a mobile radio communication device is provided. The mobile radio communication device may include a mobile radio communication protocol circuit configured to provide a mobile radio base station function for a mobile radio communication with another mobile radio communication device, a network control interface circuit configured to receive communication control signals from a mobile radio network circuit being controlled by a mobile radio network operator to control the mobile radio communication protocol circuit, and a trusted processing circuit configured to process a computer program in a trusted processing environment to provide a trusted processing result, wherein the trusted processing circuit is outside of the mobile radio network operator's domain. |
| US08818391B2 |
Communication system with femtocells and an interference control method therefor
A wireless communication system with femtocells and a method for mitigating inter-cell interference in the wireless communication system are provided. The interference control method includes notifying a mobile station of entry to a home cell, when the mobile station enters a macrocell including a femto base station with which the mobile station is registered, transmitting, by the mobile station, a femtocell driving control message to the femto base station at a predetermined transmission power, when the mobile station enters a femtocell of the femto base station, and switching on, by the femto base station, a transmitter, when the femtocell driving control message is received. |
| US08818390B2 |
Radio base station and radio communication method
A radio base station includes: a communication quality detector (183) configured to detect communication quality in a subcarrier; a positional information acquisition unit (182) configured to acquire positional information indicating a position of a radio communication terminal at a time point when the communication quality is detected by the communication quality detector; subcarrier information table storage (185) configured to store a subcarrier information table including a subcarrier number, the communication quality, and the positional information, in association with one another; current positional information acquisition unit (180) configured to acquire current positional information indicating a current position of the radio communication terminal; and allocator (189) configured to allocate the communication channel to the radio communication terminal on the basis of the subcarrier information table and of the current positional information. |
| US08818388B2 |
Communication device, communication system, and restricting method
An object is to provide a communication device, a communication system, and a restricting method permitting a communication restriction for each service class. A user equipment 100 has a memory unit 102 which stores service class information showing correspondence between service classes indicative of available communication services, and service class codes to discriminate the service classes. A notice information transmitting unit 101 then receives a restriction message indicative of a service class number from an RNC 200. When the restriction message including the service class number is received, a restricting unit 104 specifies a service class corresponding to the service class number stored in the memory unit 102 and implements a communication restriction in the service class on a communication processing unit 105. |
| US08818386B2 |
Method and program for channel modification in a cell of a mobile radio access network
A method is provided for channel modification within a macro cell of a cellular mobile radio access network. The method includes the steps of: providing a first control channel signal transmitted by a first transmitter, wherein the macro cell comprises the first transmitter and the macro cell overlaps at least partly with a radio coverage area created by a second transmitter; and providing a second control channel signal transmitted by the second transmitter, wherein the second control channel signal is transmitted using a same physical layer configuration as the first control channel signal. The second control channel signal is synchronized to the first control channel signal. The second control channel signal includes a duplication of the first control channel signal. The second control channel signal differs from the first control channel signal in at least one information element carried by the first control channel signal. |
| US08818384B2 |
Base station, method and computer program product
A base station, a method and a computer program product are disclosed. The base station is operable, in concert with other base stations within a group, to support wireless communications with user equipment. The base station comprises: transmission logic operable to generate a cell having a coverage area supporting wireless communications with user equipment; reception logic operable to receive load information indicative of a user equipment communications load experienced by base stations within said group; and coverage area adjustment logic operable to determine changes required to said coverage area to change a user equipment communications load experienced by at least one base station within said group. In this way, it can be seen that each base station within the group may receive information about the user loading on other base stations within that group and is able to adjust its coverage area to cause that communications loading to be rebalanced to enable efficient use of resources and optimize the overall performance of each of the base stations within the group. The group of base stations with co-ordinated and optimized coverage can achieve higher end user data rates and improved quality of service than would otherwise be possible. |
| US08818382B2 |
Method for controlling interference in femto cell deployments
A method and system provide a plurality of femto cells that are deployed within a macro cell of cellular network. The femto cells improve cellular service inside structures, such as residential and commercial structures. Femto base stations convert signals between an airlink-interface and core network to enable data communication between the mobile terminal and an access network to occur through the Internet and a public switched telephone network. The femto base stations are independent of each other and the macro cell. The method and system provide the femto base stations with interference awareness and mitigation techniques to minimize interference with the cellular network. |
| US08818380B2 |
System and method for geographically locating a cellular phone
According to an embodiment of the invention, there is disclosed a method for geographically locating a cellular phone. The method comprises: determining an effective cell-area for each of a first cell and a second cell in a cellular network; and determining a handover area within which the cellular phone is likely to be located when control of the cellular phone is transferred from the first cell to the second cell; wherein the determination of the handover area and the effective cell-area for each of the first cell and the second cell are made based on a topological relationship between the first cell and the second cell. Further related apparatus embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08818378B2 |
Base station, mobile communication system, and system information transmission method
Provided is a base station that includes a cell that defines an area in which the base station can communicate with a mobile terminal by wireless. The cell is arranged adjacently to the other cell of another base station. The base station includes communication unit 70 that communicates with the other base station, and system information processing unit 40 that simultaneously broadcasts pieces of system information to the mobile terminal currently engaged in communication in the cell. Upon receiving, from the mobile terminal currently engaged in communication, information indicating that the mobile terminal is located in an adjacent area of the cell adjacent to the other cell, system information processing unit 40 acquires, from the other base station via communication unit 70, other system information currently broadcast in the other cell, and transmits the acquired other system information to the mobile terminal currently engaged in communication. |
| US08818371B2 |
Wireless communication system, neighbor cell list optimizing system, base station, neighbor cell list updating method, and program
A first mobile terminal group has a first measurement information transmitting means which measures radio quality of a second cell, and transmits measurement information to a first base station, a second mobile terminal group has a second measurement information transmitting means which measures radio quality of a first cell, and transmits measurement information to a second base station, and a neighbor cell list optimizing system has: a measurement information collecting means which collects the measurement information of the first and second cells; a reliability evaluating means which performs processing of evaluating reliability of the measurement information of the second cell; a priority calculating means which, when the reliability is a predetermined threshold or less, calculates a priority for registering the second cell in the neighbor cell list of the first cell based on the measurement information of the first cell; and a neighbor cell list updating means which performs control of determining a neighbor cell to be registered based on the priority, and updating the neighbor cell list. |
| US08818365B1 |
User-invoked re-routing of an incoming call via a stronger serving system
A method, device, and system for re-routing an incoming call via a stronger serving system. When a wireless communication device such as a cell phone is receiving an incoming call via a first serving system with which it is registered, the device may detect that a second serving system (possibly a competing carrier's system) would provide improved signal strength. In response, the device may prompt its user to request the call be re-routed to the device via the other serving system. If the user approves, the device may then signal to the network to cause the call to be re-routed to the device, and the device may register with the new serving system. That way, as the network sets up the call to the device again, the call will extend via the new (improved signal strength) serving system to the device, thus reducing the likelihood of a call drop. |
| US08818364B2 |
Method and apparatus for determining dedicate searching space in physical downlink control channel
A method for determining a dedicate searching space (DSS) in a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for a user equipment (UE) of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method includes steps of indicating the UE to monitor a semi-persistent scheduling cell radio network temporary identifier (SPS C-RNTI) in the PDCCH for receiving a semi-persistent scheduling grant, and determining the DSS utilized for monitoring the SPS C-RNTI according to a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) of the UE. |
| US08818363B2 |
Methods and apparatus for signal scanning and acquisition for multiple-air-interface devices
Methods and apparatus for signal scanning and acquisition for multiple-air-interface devices are discussed. In particular, scanning of a location for signals from one or more local service providers is carried out, wherein scanning is operable to detect signals based on at least a first air interface and a second air interface, such as CDMA and UMTS, respectively. A list of local service providers detected from the scanning is assembled to allow a user to select a connection to at a local service provider from the list. Thus, a user is afforded the ability to see all service provider signals in the location, for all bands and air-interfaces supported by the modem on a user's multiple-air-interface device. The user may therefore acquire connection more easily without having any prior knowledge about the area or its service providers, and regardless of the type of air interface originating the local signals. |
| US08818341B2 |
Wristwatch notification for late trains
Transit delay can be automated and pushed directly to a mobile device of a user based on a rank of usefulness within the mobile device interface. The closest transit station to a user's current position may be determined. An implementation may receive a current status of a transit delay in respect to the nearby transit station. A notification relating to the transit delay may be displayed on a mobile device of the user based on a relative priority of the notification, relative to other notifications available to be displayed on a mobile device of the user. |
| US08818338B2 |
Service platform for cellular telephony
A single platform for the provision of multiple services over a cellular telephone network, comprises a generic definition of a cellular service, which is designed to take specific service-defining parameters, and a parameter setting mechanism for inputting respective service defining parameters to the generic definition, thereby to implement a desired service through the generic definition. The platform thus provides an infrastructure to support numerous services, and reduces the development time for individual services since they can be added as plug-ins to the platform using the generic definition which is shared. |
| US08818331B2 |
Method for enabling a wireless device for geographically preferential services
Disclosed is system comprising: a server platform operative to communicate with a wireless communication network; and data storage coupled to the server platform to store a plurality of business rules, wherein the server platform is operative to: generate a first provision instruction to provision a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) with a first rule set associated with a first set of business rules for wireless usage incurred by a mobile terminal operating in the wireless communication network; generate a first billing instruction based on the first set of business rules and a first data type determined by a packet gateway that inspects packet data communicated to or from the mobile terminal. |
| US08818330B2 |
Prepaid short message services revenue capture
A prepaid messaging solution that utilizes a pre-delivery debit query to tariff a short message, coupled with an additional debit query performed once necessary billing information has been acquired. A short message is tariffed prior to message delivery via a pre-delivery debit query to a prepaid server. During message delivery, the prepaid server is queried a second time, following the HLR query performed by the Short Message Service Center (SMSC). This subsequent debit query bills a subscriber for any additional service fees discovered throughout message delivery, e.g., international/roaming fees, etc. If either the pre-delivery debit query or the subsequent debit query indicates that a subscriber has insufficient account balance to deliver a short message, the message is prevented from being delivered. If a message is dropped due to lack of account balance, any funds debited throughout the attempted message delivery may be credited back to the subscriber's prepaid account. |
| US08818327B2 |
Communicating a subscriber's status using an interface
A system may be provided that includes one or more servers to: set an availability status setting on an account, associated with a subscriber; receive a quota usage signal via a dedicated direct signaling interface, the quota usage signal indicating that a voice call minutes quota or a data usage quota is exhausted; and change the availability status setting on the account to unavailable for voice calls if the voice call minutes quota is exhausted; and/or change the availability status setting on the account to unavailable for data communications if the data usage quota is exhausted. |
| US08818326B2 |
Base station apparatus, mobile communication system and communication control method
To provide a base station apparatus, mobile communication system and communication control method for enabling appropriate time charging based on actual communication conditions to be performed, the base station apparatus is provided with a connection section that establishes connection with a user equipment (100n), timing sections (2084, 2085, 2011 and 20816) that measure time under charging such that the user equipment (100n) is in a state capable of communicating within a connection period during which the user equipment (100n) is in a connection state, and a charging section (2012) that determines a charging amount based on the time measured by the timing sections (2084, 2085, 2011 and 20816). |
| US08818321B2 |
Method and system for providing reply-controlled discontinuous reception
A method, receiving device, network element, system and computer program product for controlling discontinuous reception at a receiving device of a communication network are disclosed. A regular discontinuous reception cycle of a discontinuous reception scheme is set, and this regular discontinuous reception cycle is switched to a shorter temporary discontinuous reception cycle or is switched off, in response to an event which triggers a reply of the communication network to the receiving device. Thereby, delays of network replies can be shortened or controlled in case discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles are implemented at the receiving device. |
| US08818320B2 |
Receiver with detection signal correction unit
A receiver includes an antenna unit that is able to receive a transmission signal from a subject alternately at different reception levels. A wave detection unit wave-detects the transmission signal to generate a detection signal. The detection signal has a signal level that becomes fixed in accordance with the transmission signal when the antenna unit receives the transmission signal at a reception level greater than or equal to a reception limit, and the signal level of the detection signal becomes non-fixed when the antenna unit receives the transmission signal at a reception level that is less than the reception limit. A correction unit removes, when the detection signal includes a fixed value session and a non-fixed value session, the non-fixed value session and corrects the signal level of the non-fixed value session to a level equivalent to the signal level of a fixed value session. |
| US08818315B2 |
Method, system, and computer program product for optimizing signal quality of a composite received signal
Signal quality of a composite received signal in a radio communication network is optimized by adjusting a phase offset between received and/or transmitted signals based on signal quality parameters of the received and/or transmitted signals. The phase offset is adjusted by varying the phase offset between the received or transmitted signals such that that the composite signal is circularly, elliptically, or linearly polarized. The phase offset between the received or transmitted signals is continually adjusted based on the received signal quality parameters. |
| US08818314B2 |
Filtering interference detected at wireless receiver
A wireless receiver for UWB or other format receives a useful signal in a particular band of frequencies in spite of interference components. The wireless receiver has two or more different types of tunable band reject filter, involves detecting interference in the received signal, and selecting which of the different types of filter to use according to thresholds of parameters of the detected interference. The filter is then tuned according to the detected interference and the useful signal is then received with the interference suppressed using the selected BRF. As the different types of filters have different drawbacks and benefits, by having multiple types, and selecting which to use according to the detected interference, the filtering can be better matched to the detected interference, or the drawbacks can be reduced for example. |
| US08818313B2 |
Method and apparatus for auto gain control in radio receiver
The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies and discloses a method and an apparatus for auto gain control (AGC) in a radio receiver, which can ensure that a radio frequency device, an analog device, and various nodes in a digital domain are non-saturated and that useful signal power is adjusted to a certain power level. According to the present invention, total signal power on an air interface is subtracted from a preset first target power to obtain an analog auto gain control (AAGC) gain, and then a second target power is subtracted from an interference signal power in a digital baseband to obtain a digital auto gain control (DAGC) gain. |
| US08818308B2 |
Multi-tuner apparatus for receiving RF signals
A multi-tuner apparatus comprises a splitter (S) for received RF signals. The splitter has a splitter output (U) for connection to a plurality of tuners. To reduce signal degradation and dissipation the output impedance of the splitter output is substantially lower than the input impedance of each of the tuners. |
| US08818295B2 |
High and low speed serial interface multiplexing circuit
A high and low speed serial interface multiplexing circuit includes a low speed transceiver, a high speed transceiver, an inductor coupled to a communication interface port of the low speed transceiver, a capacitor coupled to a communication interface port of the high speed transceiver, and a transformer coupled to the communication interface port of the high speed transceiver. |
| US08818294B2 |
Method of transmission from multiple transmit chains based on a cost function for electromagnetic radiation
Embodiments of methods and apparatuses for transmission using a plurality of transmit chains based on a cost function for electromagnetic radiation are disclosed. One method is utilizing a plurality of chains, adjusting at least one of a phase or an amplitude of at least one of the transmit chains based on a cost function, wherein the cost function comprises a criterion for quality of reception at an intended receiver and a threshold for electromagnetic radiation. |
| US08818293B2 |
System and method for wireless local area network airtime fairness
A system and method for wireless local area network airtime fairness. Distribution of airtime amongst a plurality of associated mobile stations can be based on a determination of a total channel availability. The total channel available is based on a total channel utilization determined through detected energy on the channel and a mobile station utilization determined through monitored traffic between the wireless access point and the associated mobile stations. |
| US08818292B1 |
Bi-directional amplifier with a common signal detector
A system of detecting signal power may include a first interface port configured to receive a first signal. The system may also include a second interface port communicatively coupled to the first interface port and configured to receive a second signal. The second interface port may be communicatively coupled to the first interface port such that the first signal propagates from the first interface port to the second interface port and such that the second signal propagates from the second interface port to the first interface port. The system may further include a common signal detector communicatively coupled between the first interface port and the second interface port such that the common signal detector is configured to receive both the first and second signals and is configured to detect a first power level of the first signal and a second power level of the second signal. |
| US08818291B2 |
Method and device for antenna calibration
A method for antenna calibration is provided, which includes the following steps: obtaining an updated calibration period T_i after the last time of antenna calibration (S301), calculating a calibration sequence of each antenna channel in the calibration period T_i (S302); according to the calibration sequence of each antenna channel, calibrating each antenna based on the calibration period T_i, and calculating a calibration error parameter (S303); and according to the obtained calibration error parameter, updating the calibration period T_i, and using the updated calibration period T_i for the next time of antenna calibration (S304). The technical solutions provided in the present invention, can monitor difference variety of radio channels in real time by the calibration error parameter, and reflect the calibration precision in real time by the reported calibration error parameter. Moreover, the technical solutions provided in the present invention, can adjust the calibration period in real time according to the calibration error parameter, and timely execute rational antenna calibration according to the calibration precision status. |
| US08818289B2 |
Method and system for measuring mobile stations in communications networks with virtual antenna arrays
A measuring device for measuring a device under test comprises a first subscriber, a second subscriber, a first virtual antenna array and a processing device. The device under test in this context is a mobile station. The first virtual antenna array comprises at least two mobile stations. The first virtual antenna array contains the device under test. The first subscriber is arranged in such a manner that it transmits signals to the first virtual antenna array. The first virtual antenna array in this context is arranged in such a manner that it transmits signals at least indirectly to the second subscriber. The processing device is designed in such a manner that it compares signals transmitted to the device under test and transmitted from the device under test. |
| US08818285B2 |
Power decision pilot for a wireless communication system
Techniques for transmitting data with short-term interference mitigation in a wireless communication system are described. In one design, a first station (e.g., a base station or a terminal) may receive a message sent by a second station to request reduction of interference on at least one resource. In response to receiving the message, the first station may determine a first transmit power level to use for the at least one resource based on one or more factors such as a priority metric sent in the message, the buffer size at the first station, etc. The first station may send a power decision pilot on the at least one resource at a second transmit power level determined based on the first transmit power level. |
| US08818282B2 |
Clock sharing between cores on an integrated circuit
An integrated circuit is described. The integrated circuit includes a global positioning system core that generates a GPS clock signal using an inductor-capacitor voltage controlled oscillator. The integrated circuit also includes a transceiver core configured to use the GPS clock signal. The transceiver core may not include a voltage controlled oscillator. |
| US08818281B2 |
Data output apparatus, method of controlling same and output system
In an image output apparatus for outputting an image supplied from an image supply apparatus, the image supply apparatus and the image output apparatus are connected wirelessly and send and receive data. The state of the wireless connection is determined and the image to be output is changed in accordance with the determined state of the connection. |
| US08818279B2 |
Communication device and method for controlling communication device
A communication device including: a setting portion that sets the communication device as a main device when communication device is connected to another device and receives an electric power from an external power supply, and sets communication device as a client device when communication device is connected to another device and receives an electric power from another device; an update portion that transmits first and second identifiers to another device, receives from another device third and fourth identifiers, forms a network to which communication device and another device belong with second identifier when communication device is set as the main device, and updates second identifier with fourth identifier when communication device is set as the client device; and a wireless communication portion that, when another device is disconnected from communication device, communicates wirelessly with another device with first and third identifiers, and any one of second and fourth identifiers. |
| US08818278B2 |
Device, system and method of discovering wireless communication devices
Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of wireless communication discovery. For example, a first wireless communication device may include a wireless communication unit to discover a second wireless communication device according to an asymmetric discovery process, in which the wireless communication unit is to operate in only one first state selected from a searching state and a listening state, while the second wireless communication device is to operate in only one second state selected from the searching state and the listening state. |
| US08818275B2 |
Enhancing vehicle infotainment systems by adding remote sensors from a portable device
A vehicle display device is provided with a communications interface, which couples the vehicle display device to portable input devices inside the vehicle. The portable input devices are thus provided with the ability to control the display device and what is displayed thereon. The communications interface also enables the portable input device to control vehicle subsystems such as a climate control system, entertainment system and the like. Portable input devices equipped with sensors have sensor-generated information displayed on the vehicle display device. |
| US08818274B2 |
Automatic interfacing between a master device and object device
A master device images an object device and uses the image to identify the object device. The master device then automatically interfaces with the identified object device, for example, by pairing with the object device. The master device may receive broadcast data from the object device including information about the visual appearance of the object device and use the broadcast data in the identification of the object device. The master device may retrieve data related to the object device and display the related data, which may be display the data over the displayed image of the object device. The master device may provide an interface to control the object device or be used to pass data to the object device. |
| US08818272B2 |
System and method for remotely controlling bluetooth enabled electronic equipment
According to one exemplary embodiment, a system providing remote control of Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment comprises Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment for initiating a pairing mode to authorize a virtual remote controller transfer, a Bluetooth enabled wireless device for activating a setup mode so as to pair with the Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment and for downloading the virtual remote controller. The virtual remote controller may be described in an advanced markup language, for example. In one embodiment, a method for utilizing a Bluetooth enabled wireless device to remotely control a Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment comprises initiating a pairing mode of the Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment to authorize a virtual remote controller transfer, activating a setup mode of the Bluetooth enabled wireless device so as to pair with the Bluetooth enabled electronic equipment, and downloading the virtual remote controller to the Bluetooth enabled wireless device. |
| US08818266B2 |
Communication apparatus, control method, and storage medium
A communication apparatus includes a communication unit capable of establishing communication with and transmitting data to an external apparatus without being brought into physical contact with the external apparatus and determines whether the communication apparatus is in physical contact with the external apparatus. The communication apparatus allows data to be transmitted to the external apparatus using a first transmission method if communication with the external apparatus has been established and it is determined that the communication apparatus is in physical contact with the external apparatus. |
| US08818265B2 |
Interface for communication between voltage domains
One or more embodiments provide circuitry for isolation and communication of signals between circuits operating in different voltage domains using capacitive coupling. The embodiments utilize capacitive structures having increased breakdown voltage in comparison to previous parallel plate implementations. The capacitive isolation is provided by parallel plate capacitive structures, each implemented to have parallel plates of different horizontal sizes. Due to the difference in horizontal size, edges of the parallel plates, where electric fields are the strongest, are laterally offset from the region where the parallel plates overlap. As a result, breakdown voltage between the parallel plates is increased. |
| US08818264B2 |
Data transmitting method, data controlling module and mobile device using the same
A data transmitting method, a data controlling module and a mobile device using the same are disclosed for transmitting data from the mobile device to a destination on an internet. The mobile device includes a first communication module and a second communication module. First, a first internet connection between the first communication module and the internet is established. Next, a second internet connection between the second communication module and the internet is established. Then, a local area connection between the first and second communication modules is established. The data to be transmitted are divided into several packets. A first part of the packets is transmitted from the first communication module to the destination through the first internet connection, and a second part of the packets is transmitted from the first communication module to the destination through the local area connection and the second internet connection. |
| US08818261B1 |
Configuration of a network device
In one aspect, a wireless station includes a transmitter to wirelessly transmit discovery packets to a proximately located network device, a receiver to wirelessly receive an input from the proximately located network device, an engine to manage a configuration of the network device, and a power selector to control a power level output by the transmitter, enable transmission at a first power during configuration of the proximately located network device, and enable transmission at a second power after configuration of the proximately located network device, wherein the first power is different than the second power, and the first power helps prevent snooping during the configuration. |
| US08818260B2 |
Wireless relay module for remote monitoring systems
A wireless relay module for networked communications between a series of medical devices and a remote monitoring device. An interface circuit coupled to each medical device communicates with the wireless relay module via a wireless relay network. The relay module communicates with the remote monitoring device over an internet-accessible wireless communication network, and includes a receiver coupled to the wireless relay network, a first transmitter coupled to the wireless relay network, a second transmitter coupled to the internet-accessible wireless communications network; and a controller. The controller determines a status of the internet-accessible wireless communications network. When the status indicates that the internet-accessible wireless communications network is accessible, the second transmitter is selected for transmitting medical device data. When the internet-accessible wireless communications network is not accessible, the first transmitter is selected for transmitting the data to another wireless relay module. |
| US08818258B2 |
Geographically-based information distribution system
The present inventions pertain to the geographically based information distribution systems, including in particular systems configured to display advertisements and information about current status of public transit vehicles based on geographic position of the vehicle and/or the displays. |
| US08818256B2 |
Photocopier
A photocopier apparatus includes a scanning module configured to scan an original document; a printing module configured to print a copy of the original document using output from the scanning module; and a media feed path configured to transport the original document and the copy to a single output receptacle. |
| US08818254B2 |
Image heating apparatus
An image heating apparatus includes an endless belt having a heat generation layer; a driving rotatable member forming a nip; a pressing pad for pressing the endless belt toward the driving rotatable member; an electric energy supply device for supplying electric energy to the heat generation layer; and a shut-off element configured to break electric connection between the electric energy supply device and the heat generation layer when a temperature of the endless belt reaches a predetermined upper limit temperature, wherein the shut-off element is disposed contacted with the endless belt in a region, with respect to a widthwise direction of the endless belt, outside a passing region of a maximum width of the sheet usable with the apparatus and inside of a heat generating region of the heat generation layer. |
| US08818251B2 |
Method of producing cleaning web, image-forming device and fixing device
A cleaning web for cleaning the surface of articles to be cleaned, produced by impregnating a web for cleaning the surface of articles to be cleaned with an oil, wherein the web is a nonwoven fabric containing a melt-liquid-crystal-forming wholly aromatic polyester having a melt viscosity of 20 Pa·s or less at 310° C. as the principal component that is produced by melt-blown method. |
| US08818248B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image formation control section sets a secondary transfer section in the pressed state in the case of execution of a main scanning correction processing as color registration correction, and sets the secondary transfer section in the separated state in the case of execution of a sub-scanning correction processing, an entire lateral magnification correction processing, a partial lateral magnification correction processing, or a skew correction processing, which is the correction of the image position for components other than the main scanning direction as color registration correction so as to prevent the situation where the correction accuracy of the image position with respect to the main scanning direction decreases and to prevent a decrease in print quality due to a residual image of a registration correction processing. |
| US08818241B2 |
Universal part for use in an image recording apparatus
A universal OPC drum that allows a remanufacturer to stock a minimum number of OPC drum sleeves of various sizes and then add the appropriate gear for the desired cartridge at the time of cartridge remanufacture. A universal OPC drum may also include a universal hub and an electrical contact on each end to maintain universality without regard to whether the OEM contact is mounted on the drive or non-drive side of the OPC drum. |
| US08818237B2 |
Image forming apparatus and structure for installing consumables thereof
A structure for installing consumables of an image forming apparatus, the structure comprising: a frame; a plurality of consumables which comprises irregular installation preventing units in different locations; a plurality of irregular installation preventing keys which prevents an irregular installation of the plurality of consumables by an interaction with the irregular installation preventing units; and an installation guide member which is installed in the frame, comprising a key installation unit to guide the plurality of irregular installation preventing keys to be installed differently for each of the consumables and having the plurality of consumables installed therein. |
| US08818233B2 |
Image forming device having belt holder holding developer cartridges
An image-forming device includes: a main body; a plurality of developer cartridges; a belt; a holder; and a plurality of urging members. Each developer cartridge has a photosensitive drum. The belt is configured to contact the photosensitive drums of the developer cartridges. The holder is configured to move between a position inside the main body and a position outside the main body and to hold the developer cartridges such that the developer cartridges are arranged in a row along a first direction. The plurality of urging members are configured to urge the developer cartridges to cause the photosensitive drums to contact the belt when the holder is at the position inside the main body. |
| US08818230B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including an image forming unit to develop an electrostatic latent image formed on an image carrier with toner, an intake fan to draw air used for cooling the image forming unit into the image forming apparatus, an exhaust fan to exhaust the air from the image forming apparatus, and an exhaust duct to form an airflow path between the image forming unit and the exhaust fan. One end of the exhaust duct is disposed below the exhaust fan. |
| US08818224B2 |
Image forming apparatus having a fixing device using an induction heating method
A apparatus including a fixing device using an induction heating method includes an induction coil, a resonant capacitor connected to the induction coil, a switching element configured to supply electric power to the induction coil, a driving signal generation circuit configured to determine a frequency of a driving signal for driving the switching element according to electric power to be supplied to the coil and to generate the driving signal, and a setting unit configured to set a minimum frequency of the driving signal according to a temperature of a heating element so that a frequency of the driving signal does not become lower than a resonant frequency determined by an inductance of the induction coil and an inductance of the heating element and a capacitance of the resonant capacitor. |
| US08818219B2 |
Image forming apparatus and toner charge amount adjustment method of the image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a developer containing part, a developer mixer, a mixer drive motor, a magnetic sleeve, a sleeve drive motor, a mixer rotation speed determination part and a motor drive controller. The developer containing part contains a two-component developer including a toner and a carrier. The developer mixer is provided in the developer containing part, agitates the two-component developer, and charges the toner and the carrier. The mixer rotation speed determination part determines the mixer rotation speed of the mixer drive motor according to a supply amount of the toner supplied to the developer containing part from a toner cartridge by driving of a toner supply motor. The motor drive controller independently performs rotation control of the sleeve drive motor and the mixer drive motor, and rotates and controls the mixer drive motor at the mixer rotation speed determined by the mixer rotation speed determination part. |
| US08818216B2 |
Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and computer program product
A toner-image detecting sensor for detecting a toner image before being transferred onto a recording sheet and a fixed-image detecting sensor for detecting the toner image after being secondarily transferred and fixed on the recording sheet are arranged so that the positions of them in a main scanning corresponding direction are aligned. An image forming apparatus has a first image adjustment mode and a second image adjustment mode. In the first image adjustment mode, image adjustment is made on the basis of only a result of detection by the toner-image detecting sensor without transferring the test pattern onto the recording sheet. In the second image adjustment mode, the test pattern is transferred onto the recording sheet, and image adjustment is made on the basis of both a result of detection by the toner-image detecting sensor and a result of detection by the fixed-image detecting sensor. |
| US08818215B2 |
Image forming apparatus for outputting a signal corresponding to an amount of a developer
An image forming apparatus includes image forming portions provided along a movement direction of a recording material conveying member or an intermediary transfer member and including a first portion and a second portion provided downstream of the first portion with respect to the movement direction; a detecting portion for detecting information on a developer deterioration state at the first portion; a storing portion for storing a relationship between a detection result of the detecting portion and an amount of the developer to be back-transferred at the second portion; and an outputting device for outputting a signal relating to an amount of the developer accommodated in the accommodating portion at the second portion on the basis of the detection result of the detecting portion, the relationship stored in the storing portion, and information on the developer used for image formation at each of the first and second portions. |
| US08818214B2 |
Heating apparatus and image forming apparatus
The heating apparatus includes a first detection part which detects whether or not the power supplied to the heat generation member is in an overpower state by detecting a positive phase of a half wave in an alternating voltage of a commercial power supply applied to the first or the second current path of the heat generation member, a second detection part which detects whether the power supplied to the heat generation member is in an overpower state or not by detecting a negative phase of a half wave in an alternating voltage the commercial power supply applied to the first current path or the second current path of the heat generation member, and a control part which controls itself to stop supplying power from the commercial power supply to the heat generation member in a case where an overpower state is detected by the first or second detection part. |
| US08818212B2 |
Image forming apparatus
The image forming apparatus having a suction conveying portion, including a belt member arranged between a transfer portion and a fixing unit, for conveying sheet while suctioning at a conveying face of the belt member, a moving portion which moves the upstream side of a conveying face or downward, and a position controller which controls operation of the moving portion to move the upstream side of the conveying face to a position being close to the transfer portion from a receiving position after sheet fed from the transfer portion is received by the suction conveying portion which is located at the receiving position being apart from the transfer portion. |
| US08818209B1 |
System and apparatus for distributing a signal to the front end of a multipath analog to digital converter
A frequency decimation block for processing an analog input signal including a high-bandwidth data signal to generate a parallel set of parallel output signals, in which each output signal represents a respective portion of the high-bandwidth data signal. A preamplifier is provided for amplifying the input signal. A frequency domain divider divides the amplified input signal to generate a set of frequency band signals including a low frequency band signal, a mid-frequency band signal, and a high frequency band signal. Each frequency band signal is supplied to at least one signal path. A respective non-linear processor is connected in each of M signal paths processes the input signal using a respective branch signal to yield a corresponding composite signal. A respective Low-Pass Filter (LPF) is connected in each signal path, for low-pass filtering at least the composite signals to generate corresponding ones of the parallel output signals. |
| US08818208B2 |
Laser mux assembly for providing a selected wavelength
A laser mux assembly generally includes a back reflector selectively coupled to one of the input ports of an optical multiplexer, such as an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), and at least one laser emitter coupled to an output port. The laser emitter may include a gain region that emits light across a plurality of wavelengths including, for example, channel wavelengths in an optical communication system. The emitted light is coupled into the output port and the AWG or optical multiplexer filters the emitted light from the laser emitter at different channel wavelengths. The back reflector reflects the filtered light at the respective channel wavelength such that lasing occurs at the channel wavelength(s) of the reflected, filtered light. The laser mux assembly may be used, for example, in a tunable transmitter, to generate an optical signal at a selected channel wavelength. |
| US08818207B2 |
Optical transmitter
A clock signal from a single reference clock is frequency converted, and the frequency-converted signal is input to an equal-interval-optical-frequency-comb generator and a modulator of an optical modulator. By varying the electric frequency of the clock signal input to the equal-interval-optical-frequency-comb generator, frequency intervals of a frequency comb to be generated can be varied, while by selectively employing a particular optical frequency from among the continuous light beams of the generated frequency comb, a frequency comb having unequal intervals can be generated. It is also possible to vary the modulation rate by varying the clock frequency of a driving signal to be input to the optical modulator. By using a clock signal of a single reference clock, the frequency intervals of the frequency comb and the variation of the modulation rate synchronize with each other. |
| US08818206B2 |
Electrical domain suppression of linear crosstalk in optical communication systems
The present disclosure provides electrical domain suppression of linear crosstalk in optical communication systems using single-carrier implementations. This electrical domain suppression applies spectral shaping in the electronic radio frequency (RF) domain. Advantageously, spectral shaping in the electronic RF domain transfers system complexity from the bulk optical domain into the highly integrated CMOS (or equivalent) domain. The spectral shaping can include electronic circuitry including an electrical filtering block and a signal linearization block prior to optical modulation. The electrical filtering block suppresses coherent interference terms and can include an RF-domain low pass filter. The signal linearization block linearizes modulator response to compensate spectral regrowth due to nonlinear mixing in the modulator. |
| US08818203B2 |
Optical modulator with reduced size and optical transmitter including the same
An optical modulator includes a light input/output unit receiving an incident optical signal which has not been modulated, splitting the incident optical signal into a first optical signal and a second optical signal, and transmitting the first and second optical signals to a first path and a second path, respectively, of an optical waveguide. A phase shifter is positioned in at least one of the first and second paths and modulates a phase of at least one of the first and second optical signals, which have been received through the first and second paths, respectively, in response to an electrical signal. A phase-modulated signal is output. A reflective grating coupler reflects signals respectively received through the first and second paths back along the first and second paths respectively. |
| US08818202B2 |
Wavelength sensing lighting system and associated methods for national security application
A wavelength sensing lighting system may include a light source, a sensor and a controller. One or more light sources and sensors may be included in an array. The light source may emit an illuminating light and the sensor may sense an environmental light. The illuminating light may include data light. The lighting system may include a plurality of nodes connected in a network. The nodes may communicate by emitting and receiving the data light, which may be analyzed by the controller. The light source and the sensor may be provided by a light emitting semiconductor device that is capable of emitting illuminating light and receiving environmental light. A conversion material may convert the wavelength of a source light into a converted light. The conversion material may increase the wavelength range of light emittable and detectable by the lighting system. |
| US08818199B2 |
Correlation systems and methods with error compensation
A correlation system, such as a correlation optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) system, transmits a correlation sequence, such as an M-sequence, and measures the returns of the correlation sequence over time. The system correlates the transmitted sequence with the returns to provide correlation measurement values that respectively correspond to different distances from the point of transmission. A correlation error compensation element estimates a correlation error floor based on at least one correlation measurement value corresponding to a point along the fiber beyond a finite impulse response (FIR) length from the transmitter. The correlation error compensation element adjusts each correlation measurement value estimate in order to cancel the contribution of the correlation error floor from the measurements to provide compensated measurement values that are substantially free of the effects of the correlation error floor. |
| US08818197B2 |
Methods and systems for high bandwidth optical communication
Methods and systems are provided for extending the range that a laser can transmit data, particularly in environments with high attenuation or turbidity. Particularly, an energy storing laser that is capable of continuously converting electrical energy to optical energy and storing the optical energy or the electrical energy in the energy storing laser until the energy storing laser is instructed to transmit a laser transmission. In some embodiments, the energy storing laser uses a pulse train with a low duty cycle to increase the peak power of each laser pulse. Also, a pointing and tracking system is used to provide a communication link between stationary platforms or moving vehicles. |
| US08818195B2 |
Method of operating an optical transmission system and optical transmission system
The invention relates to a method of operating an optical transmission system (100), wherein an optical signal (s, s1) is transmitted (200) through at least one component (102) of said optical transmission system (100) which exhibits spectral phase ripple, and wherein a phase of at least one frequency component of said optical signal (s, s1) is altered (210) by phase influencing means (110) to at least partly compensate for said phase ripple of said at least one component (102), whereby a phase ripple compensated signal (s2) is obtained. |
| US08818194B2 |
Tunable optical demultiplexer
A tunable optical demultiplexer includes a control circuit and one or more heaters thermally coupled to waveguides of an optical demux. The control circuit is in signal communication with the one or more heaters and includes a processor coupled to a memory. The control circuit is configured to receive an optical channel group (OCG) identification signal and adjust the power delivered to the heaters in response to the OCG identification signal and based on parameter values stored in the memory. The optical demux outputs a plurality of optical signals at a corresponding one of a plurality of outputs. The transmission characteristics of the optical demux are varied depending on the amount of power delivered to the heaters. The varying of the transmission characteristics of the optical demux adjusts the spectral shifting of the plurality of wavelengths output by the optical demux. |
| US08818191B2 |
Wavelength reallocation method and node device
A method for reallocating a wavelength in an optical wavelength multiplexer transmission system is disclosed. The method includes switching a supply of a first channel electric signal from a first optical transmitter device to a second optical transmitter device, the first optical transmitter device converting the first channel electric signal into an optical signal of a first wavelength, and the second optical transmitter device converting the first channel electric signal into an optical signal of a second wavelength differing from the first wavelength, and transmitting the optical signal of the second wavelength output from the second optical transmitter device. |
| US08818188B2 |
Traffic generation and analysis for ONU emulation
An emulated Optical Network Unit (ONU) platform executes the functions of multiple emulated ONUs to enable traffic emulation in a Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) for data traffic, control traffic and management traffic. The emulated ONU platform generates OMCI messages, PLOAM messages, DBRu messages, data traffic and control traffic according to respective statistical specifications in respective profiles of the emulated ONUs. The emulated ONU platform formats and encapsulates the emulated traffic for upstream transmission to an OLT system according to dynamic bandwidth allocation instructions received from the OLT system. The emulated ONU platform then sends the emulated traffic upstream to the OLT system, and receives downstream traffic from the OLT system. |
| US08818184B2 |
Lens device, camera system, and exposure control method
When a exposure controlling unit changes an aperture value of a diaphragm in a predetermined range, the exposure controlling unit also changes a transmittance of a variable ND filter so as to perform an exposure control and, after obtaining a proper exposure by changing both the aperture value and the transmittance, sets the aperture value after exposure control to Fa, and in a case where the aperture value at which a maximum resolving power is obtained is set to Fb, when a condition, Fa≠Fb, is satisfied and the transmittance is neither the minimum nor the maximum, the exposure controlling unit brings the aperture value close to Fb and changes the transmittance so as to maintain the proper exposure after the exposure control. |
| US08818183B2 |
Focus detection apparatus and method for controlling the same
A focus detection apparatus that performs a first determination for determining whether a signal level indicating an amount of the electric charges accumulated in the photoelectric conversion element has reached a lower threshold, and a second determination for determining whether the signal level has reached a higher second. During a time period from when it is determined that the signal level has reached the lower threshold to when it is determined that the signal level has reached the higher threshold, the second determination is performed at a shorter time interval if an elapsed time from when the accumulation of the electric charges is started to when it is determined that the signal level has reached the first threshold is shorter than a reference time, and at a longer time interval if the elapsed time is longer than the reference time. |
| US08818182B2 |
Pictures using voice commands and automatic upload
A system and method is disclosed for enabling user friendly interaction with a camera system. Specifically, the inventive system and method has several aspects to improve the interaction with a camera system, including voice recognition, gaze tracking, touch sensitive inputs and others. The voice recognition unit is operable for, among other things, receiving multiple different voice commands, recognizing the vocal commands, associating the different voice commands to one camera command and controlling at least some aspect of the digital camera operation in response to these voice commands. The gaze tracking unit is operable for, among other things, determining the location on the viewfinder image that the user is gazing upon. One aspect of the touch sensitive inputs provides that the touch sensitive pad is mouse-like and is operable for, among other things, receiving user touch inputs to control at least some aspect of the camera operation. Another aspect of the disclosed invention provides for gesture recognition to be used to interface with and control the camera system. |
| US08818178B1 |
Digital video recorder conflict handling employing rebroadcast requests
A conflict analysis (CA) information handling system (IHS) receives conflict information from a population of digital video recorder (DVR) IHSs. The conflict information indicates that a conflictee show is in conflict with a conflictor show in a DVR IHS. The conflict information may include a conflictee show identifier and open timeslots for each DVR IHS that transmits conflict information to the CA IHS. Using the conflictee show identifier and available timeslots received from the population of DVR IHSs, the CA IHS makes a recommendation to rebroadcast the conflictee show at a particular time when more than an predetermined threshold number of DVR IHSs are available to record a rebroadcast of the conflictee show. |
| US08818175B2 |
Generation of composited video programming
A system for creating video programming is provided. The system includes: a processor-based production server that has access to a library of existing styles for wrapping around video, each of such styles including a specific arrangement of design elements; a processor-based contributor device configured to accept input of video content and electronically transfer such video content to the production server via a network; and a processor-based administrator device, providing a user interface that permits a user to: (i) design new styles and modify the existing styles, (ii) specify rules as to when particular styles are to apply, and (iii) electronically communicate the new and modified styles and the rules to the production server. The production server applies the specified rules in relation to user-specific information in order to select a style and applies the selected style to generate a completed show. |
| US08818174B2 |
Reproduction apparatus and control method therefor
A reproducing unit reproduces/displays moving image data; a drawing unit enables a user to draw a freehand image on a displayed moving image while reproducing the moving image; a recording unit records freehand image data for reconstructing the freehand image drawn by the drawing unit in synchronism with a timing of reproducing the moving image data; an instruction unit causes reproduction of the moving image to start from an arbitrary point in the middle of the moving image; and a control unit reads out the freehand image before the instructed point by the instruction to start reproduction of the moving image from a point in the middle of a drawing operation of the freehand image, and displays the readout freehand image superimposed on a displayed moving image when the reproduction starts. |
| US08818173B2 |
Synchronous data tracks in a media editing system
A media editing system provides an editor with full visibility and editing capability for synchronous data that is adjunct to audio and video. The data tracks include one or more streams of data packets, each stream being of a particular data type. Synchronous data tracks are displayed on the timeline, facilitating data track editing independent of the associated media tracks. The UI also enables selective playback and export of the data tracks along with the corresponding video and audio. The system also enables data streams to be filtered and combined. Data from the data tracks can be extracted and imported into a media asset management system, enabling the data to be searched. |
| US08818165B2 |
Data processing apparatus, data processing method, and computer program
Non-destructive editing of a movie stream recorded with management information attached thereto according to a predetermined standard format is performed. First, an entry for desired content from among real play lists is added to a virtual play list. In the virtual play list, a playback content editing operation is performed. The process of editing a virtual play list that does not contain content of an entity involves non-destructive editing that does not accompany editing of the content of an entity. In addition, non-destructive editing of a virtual play list only requires the updating of a management information file, and only involves an increase in the used amount of the recording medium by the additional amount of the management information even if a playback section is copied, thus improving user convenience. |
| US08818164B2 |
Method of reproducing transport stream in video apparatus and video apparatus using the same
A transport stream reproducing method and a video apparatus such as a digital television receiver having a personal video recorder or PVR using the same are provided to facilitate the locating and reproducing of a specific point of a stored transport stream constructed of a plurality of transport packets according to the progress of a time control function. The method reproduces a transport stream in a video apparatus such as a digital television receiver including a PVR for storing a transport stream according to the time control function. The method includes storing, in the PVR, the transport stream together with file identification information corresponding to packets of the transport stream; displaying a progress bar indicating a progress status of the storing of the transport stream; storing, in a first storage unit, bookmark information set in response to a user command input for setting at least one bookmark with respect to the displayed progress bar, the bookmark information corresponding to the file identification information of at least one packet among the transport packets constructing the stored transport stream; displaying the at least one bookmark on the progress bar at a position corresponding to the user command input; and reproducing, in response to a bookmark selection made by a user selecting one of the at least one bookmark, the stored transport stream from the at least one packet corresponding to the set at least one bookmark, the reproducing using the file identification information of a packet corresponding to the selected bookmark. Thus, file information stored in packet units is used as information for reproduction from a specific point of a transport stream stored in a random address sequence, and bookmark information and random position assignment information of the storage unit can be used by a controller to reproduce the packets of a transport stream randomly stored in the storage unit from a specific point of reproduction. |
| US08818163B2 |
Motion picture playing method, motion picture playing apparatus and recording medium
A motion picture playing method for playing a motion picture image on a display unit includes a motion picture image-obtaining step for obtaining the motion picture image, a character string-obtaining step for obtaining a character string scrolled and displayed in a predetermined direction overlaid on the motion picture image obtained in the motion picture image-obtaining step, and a control step for controlling a display mode for scrolling and displaying the character string based on (i) a length of the character string in the predetermined direction obtained in the character string-obtaining step, and (ii) a playing time of the motion picture image obtained in the motion picture image-obtaining step. |
| US08818159B2 |
Fiber mount device, optical module using same, and optical module manufacturing method
A fiber mount device 2 includes a fiber sub-mount main body 31 that is made of ceramic transmitting a laser beam having a predetermined wavelength, a bonding pad 33 that is provided on the upper surface of the fiber sub-mount main body 31, and a laser absorption layer 32 that is provided on at least a part of the lower surface of the fiber sub-mount main body 31 and absorbs the laser beam having the predetermined wavelength. |
| US08818155B2 |
Planar waveguide prism lens
An optical waveguide system includes a substrate, a cladding layer arranged on the substrate, a core layer arranged on the cladding layer, and a lens-prism patterned in the core material, the lens-prism comprising a Fresnel lens portion, and a Fresnel prism portion. |
| US08818154B2 |
Laser based frequency standards and their applications
Frequency standards based on mode-locked fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers and fiber-based ultra-broad bandwidth light sources, and applications of the same. |
| US08818153B2 |
Opto-electro hybrid cable having electronic wires and optical fibers
According to the opto-electro hybrid cable of the invention, it is possible to prevent the excessive lateral pressure from being applied to the optical fibers from the electronic wires and the excessive bending or twisting from being generated. In addition, it is possible to increase the tensile strength and to prevent the excessive tension from being applied to the optical fibers, so that it is possible to keep the favorable transmission characteristics. |
| US08818151B1 |
Fiber Pump Signal Combiner
An novel fiber pump signal combiner is disclosed in which a fiber bundle array is coupled to a double-clad fiber with a taper section that is formed by etching a tapered outer surface into the cladding of a fiber rod to produce a high quality tapered outer surface free of defects with an inner core that has a constant diameter. |
| US08818143B2 |
Optical fiber instrument system for detecting twist of elongated instruments
An instrument system that includes an elongate body and an optical fiber is provided. The elongate body has a longitudinal axis and capable of being twisted about the longitudinal axis. The optical fiber is operatively coupled with the elongate body and having a strain sensor provided thereon. The strain sensor is configured to indicate twist of the elongate body. |
| US08818137B2 |
System and method for processing image files of an electronic device
In a system and method for processing images, a double-sided image format is set, and a new file with the double-sided image format is established. Specific content identifying the double-sided image format is written into a name domain of the new file, and data of a first image file is written as front image data into a data domain of the new file. The system further writes data of a second image file as back image data into the data domain after the front image data. Memory position of the front image data in the new file may be written into a front description domain of the new file according to a first byte number of the front image data. Memory position of the back image data may be written into a back description domain according to a second byte number of the back image data. |
| US08818136B2 |
Image interpolation method based on matrix and image processing system
The present invention relates to an image interpolation method based on matrix and an image processing system. The image processing system first determines a gradient direction of an image region formed by a pixel dot array containing an interpolation point, and then based on the gradient direction and a position of the interpolation point, determines a triangle for interpolation in the image region formed with the pixel dot array, and finally, based on pixel values of pixel dots corresponding to three vertexes of the determined triangle and a distance from the interpolation point to a vertex of the triangle, calculates a pixel value of the interpolation point. Thus, the problem of edge jag or sawteeth of details in an oblique direction of a zoomed image is effectively solved, and a high-quality image is obtained. Furthermore, for the method the calculation is simple, and the computation load is light. |
| US08818135B1 |
Low memory content aware fill
A first image at a first resolution is received, the first image having a first hole therein. Based on the first image, a second image is generated at a second resolution lower than the first resolution, the second image having a second hole therein corresponding to the first hole. In the second image, one or more second-image source patches for the second hole are identified. At least one first-image source patch in the first image is identified based on a location of the identified second-image source patch. The identified at least one first-image source patch are stored in memory. Fill content are identified in the at least one first-image source patch stored in the memory. The identified fill content are placed in the first hole. |
| US08818134B2 |
System and method for determining tile size for a map view
System and method for determining the tile size for a particular virtualized map view. |
| US08818129B2 |
Detecting image impairments in an interpolated image
Some aspects include a method and apparatus for detecting image impairments caused by interpolation in an output image interpolated from two or more input images. The method comprises applying a substantially shift invariant transform to the interpolated image and to at least one of the input or adjacent images to derive a transformed image representation for each image. The transformed image representations of the interpolated image and the at least one adjacent image are then compared and differences between the transformed image representations indicative of image impairments in the output image caused by interpolation are determined based on the results of the comparison. |
| US08818124B1 |
Methods, apparatus, and systems for super resolution of LIDAR data sets
Light detection and ranging (LIDAR) imaging systems, method, and computer readable media for generating super-resolved images are described. Super-resolved images are generated by obtaining data sets of cloud points representing multiple views of an object where the views have a view shift, enhancing the views by duplicating cloud points within each of the data sets, compensating for the view shift using the enhanced views, identifying valid cloud points, and generating a super-resolved image of the object by integrating valid cloud points within the compensated, enhanced views. |
| US08818123B2 |
Image processing apparatus and image conversion apparatus
A technique for eliminating the unnaturalness in a generated moving image while achieving high speed processing in an image processing apparatus which includes a deblocking filter is provided. A transcoder includes an MPEG2 decoder, a strength evaluation circuit, and an H.264 encoder. The strength evaluation circuit calculates a filter strength parameter on the basis of an image feature value parameter acquired by the MPEG2 decoder. The H.264 encoder applies a deblocking filter to an input image on the basis of the filter strength parameter in a coding process. The H.264 encoder codes a picture while the strength evaluation circuit performs a filter strength calculation process on a subsequent picture concurrently. |
| US08818119B2 |
Dynamic creation of trend graph
A method of generating a trend graph comprises storing a stream of data elements in a buffer having a storage capacity corresponding to a first number of data elements, compressing the stored data elements to fit within a display having a size corresponding to a second number of data elements smaller than the first number of data elements, detecting an event, and as a consequence detecting the event, compressing the stored data elements to occupy a reduced portion of the buffer. |
| US08818110B2 |
Image processing apparatus that groups object images based on object attribute, and method for controlling the same
In order to provide technology with which objects in image data can be managed in a further appropriate unit, an image processing apparatus includes an input unit for inputting image data; a detection unit that detects object images included in the input image data; a determination unit that determines an object attribute for each of the detected object images; a storage control unit that groups each of the detected object images based on the determined object attributes, and stores region information regarding the detected object images in a unit of the grouping in association with the image data in a storage unit; a dividing determination unit that determines whether or not to divide the grouped object images; and a dividing unit that extracts an individual object image from the grouped object images. |
| US08818107B2 |
Identification generation and authentication process application
Embodiments of the invention provide methods, devices, and systems for personalizing presentation instruments. According to one embodiment, a method for personalizing presentation instruments may include providing account information for a plurality of accounts and providing a plurality of images. Each of the images may be associated with an account and may be formatted according to one or more defined parameters to facilitate placement of each image onto a presentation instrument. Each formatted image may be overlaid or placed onto a presentation instrument to personalize each presentation instrument and each presentation instrument may be associated with account information corresponding to the image overlaid or placed on the presentation instrument. |
| US08818106B2 |
Method for organizing a database of images and retrieving images from that database according to a query image
A method for determining a matching score between a first set of n1 feature points, and a second set of n2 feature points includes producing a triple-wise affinity tensor, determining a leading eigenvector of the triple-wise affinity tensor, iteratively producing a binary optimal assignment vector and determining a matching score between the first set of feature points and the second set of feature points. The triple-wise affinity tensor includes the affinity score of assignments of triplets of feature points of the first set of feature points and triplets of feature points of the second set of feature points. The procedure of iteratively producing a binary optimal assignment vector is performed by discretization of the leading eigenvector. The procedure of determining a matching score is performed according to the triple-wise affinity tensor and according to the optimal assignment vector. |
| US08818103B2 |
Image retrieval method, image retrieval program, and image registration method
An image retrieval method comprising: a step of extracting at least one query feature vector from a query image on which a subject of the image retrieval is captured, the query feature vector representing a local feature of the query image; a step of accessing an image data base in which a plurality of reference images are stored previously, each reference image being stored in conjunction with learning images generated therefrom and reference feature vectors representing local features of the reference image and the learning images; a comparing step of comparing the query feature vector with the reference feature vectors stored in conjunction with each reference image using an approximate nearest neighbor search to find a reference feature vector approximately nearest to the query feature vector; and a selecting step of selecting a reference image with which the found reference feature vector is stored in conjunction from the reference images as a retrieval result wherein: the learning image is generated by adding a defocus and/or a motion-blur effect likely to occur on capturing the subject to each reference image, the reference feature vectors are extracted from each reference image and the learning image corresponding to the reference image respectively using the scale-space approach, the query feature vector is extracted from the query image using the scale-space approach, and each of the above steps is executed by a computer. |
| US08818092B1 |
Multi-threaded text rendering
Methods, systems and computer-readable storage mediums encoded with computer programs executed by one or more processors for rendering text within an image are disclosed. A block of text is segmented into a plurality of text segments, wherein each text segment comprises a sequence of characters. On each of a plurality of threads running in parallel, a text bitmap is generated for a respective text segment from the plurality of text segments, the text bitmap illustrating the sequence of characters for the respective text segment. Each of the text bitmaps are composited with an image bitmap of a source image, wherein the composited image bitmap comprises a rendering of the block of text onto the source image. |
| US08818091B2 |
Red-eye removal using multiple recognition channels
This disclosure pertains to apparatuses, methods, and computer readable media for red-eye removal techniques using multiple recognition channels. In the following examples, red, golden, and white recognition channels are used. A recognition channel is the monochrome extraction from a color photograph in a manner designed to make one kind of red-eye artifact glow with maximum contrast. Once the red-eye artifact has been characterized by, e.g., size and location, the techniques disclosed herein may then discern whether the red-eye artifact is, for example, a red-, golden-, or white-eye case by examining the configuration and characteristics of prominence bitmasks created for the various recognition channels. Once the type of red-eye case has been discerned, the techniques disclosed herein may then replace the artifact with a photographically reasonable result based on the type of red-eye case being repaired. Specular reflection may also be re-added to the photograph. |
| US08818090B2 |
Color processing apparatus and computer readable medium storing program
A color processing apparatus includes an obtaining unit that obtains a first color signal from outside, a converting unit that converts the first color signal obtained by the obtaining unit into a second color signal based on a viewing condition, and a generating unit that generates a third color signal on the basis of the first color signal obtained by the obtaining unit and the second color signal obtained through conversion performed by the converting unit, the third color signal being an input signal that is used for a color gamut mapping process of performing mapping to a color gamut of an output device. |
| US08818089B2 |
Device and method of removing chromatic aberration in image
A device and method of removing chromatic aberration which occurs in an image generated by capturing a target subject. The chromatic aberration removing device includes a chromatic aberration region detecting unit which detects a chromatic aberration occurrence region in an input image, a coefficient calculating unit which calculates a minimizing pixel value which minimizes a difference between sizes, numbers of pixels or intensities of edges of red, green, and blue (RGB) channels of the chromatic aberration occurrence region, a chroma signal processing unit which removes chromatic aberration in the chromatic aberration occurrence region, and a purple fringing removing unit which removes purple fringing. |
| US08818084B2 |
Color processing apparatus and method thereof
A table, which records a relationship between image data of patches included in a chart, which are acquired by capturing the chart under a plurality of types of illumination light having different characteristics, and the characteristics, is held for each image capturing device capturing the chart, and for each chart print condition. Specifying information of an image capturing device used to estimate characteristics of illumination light and a print condition of a chart used to estimate the characteristics of the illumination light are input as estimation conditions. Image data of a chart captured by the image capturing device under the illumination light is input. The characteristics of the illumination light are estimated based on a table corresponding to the estimation conditions and the input image data. |
| US08818083B2 |
System of drones provided with recognition beacons
The present invention relates to a system (1) of remotely controlled drones (10, 12) fitted with respective cameras (14) enabling a virtual shot from an assailant drone (12) at a target drone (10) to be validated by recognizing the target drone (10) in a video image (17) supplied by the camera (14) of the assailant drone (12) while firing a virtual shot. The recognition means comprise a beacon (15, 16) arranged on the target drone (10) and covered in two first strips (18) of a first color reflecting light at a first wavelength lying in the range 590 nm to 745 nm, situated on either side of at least one second strip (19, 20) of a second color reflecting light at a second wavelength, lying in a range 445 nm to 565 nm. It is thus possible to identify very reliably drones flying in an open space whether outdoors or indoors, in spite of the very great variety of interfering details present in the background images that are likely to be picked up by the camera. |
| US08818080B1 |
Photogrammetry engine for model construction
A system and methods for accessing 2D digital images and 3D geometric models over a network (preferably the Internet) and transforming and composing that media along with 2D digital image and 3D geometric model media, acquired by other means, into enhanced 2D image and 3D model representations for virtual reality visualization and simulation is disclosed. Digital images and models from a network and other sources are incorporated and manipulated through an interactive graphical user interface. A photogrammetric media processing engine automatically extracts virtual sensor (camera) and geometric models from imagery. Extracted information is used by a reconstruction processor to automatically and realistically compose images and models. A rendering system provides real-time visualization and simulation of the constructed media. A client-server processing model for deployment of the media processing engine system over a network is disclosed. |
| US08818078B2 |
Apparatus and method for optically measuring creep
A method of measuring creep strain in a gas turbine engine component, where at least a portion of the component has a material disposed thereon, and where the material has a plurality of markings providing a visually distinct pattern. The method may include capturing an image of at least a portion of the markings after an operational period of the gas turbine engine, and determining creep strain information of the component. The creep strain information may be determined by correlating the image captured after the operational period to an image captured before the operational period. |
| US08818076B2 |
System and method for cost-effective, high-fidelity 3D-modeling of large-scale urban environments
A method, a system, and a program for high-fidelity three-dimensional modeling of a large-scale urban environment, performing the following steps: acquiring imagery of the urban environment, containing vertical aerial stereo-pairs, oblique aerial images; street-level imagery; and terrestrial laser scans, acquiring metadata pertaining to performance, spatial location and orientation of imaging sensors providing the imagery; identifying pixels representing ground control-points and tie-points in every instance of the imagery where the ground control-points and tie-points have been captured; co-registering the instances of the imagery using the ground control-points, the tie-points and the metadata, and referencing the co-registered imagery to a common, standard coordinate system. The referenced co-registration obtained enables: extraction of ground coordinates for each pixel located in overlapping segments of the imagery, representing a 3D-point within the urban environment; and applying data pre-processing and 3D modeling procedures; to create the high-fidelity 3D model of a large-scale urban environment. |
| US08818075B2 |
Method for estimating defects in an object and device for implementing same
The invention relates to a device and method for estimating defects potentially present in an object comprising an outer surface, wherein the method comprises the steps of: a) illuminating the outer surface of the object with an inductive wave field at a predetermined frequency; b) measuring an induced wave field ({right arrow over (H)}) at the outer surface of the object; c) developing from the properties of the object's material a coupling matrix T associated with a depth Z of the object from the outer surface; d) solving the matrix system ( [ H → 0 → 0 → ] = T · J → ) to determine a vector ({right arrow over (J)}) at depth Z; e) extracting a sub-vector ({right arrow over (J)}S) from the vector ({right arrow over (J)}) corresponding to a potential defect on the object at depth Z; and f) quantitatively estimating the potential defect from the sub-vector ({right arrow over (J)}S) at depth Z, wherein the method is performed using a computer or processor. |
| US08818074B2 |
Wafer edge inspection and metrology
Some aspects of the present invention relate to a wafer inspection method. A plurality of images is acquired about an edge portion of a wafer. Each of the images comprises a pixel array having a first dimension and a second dimension. A composite image of compressed pixel arrays is generated by compressing each of the pixel arrays in the first dimension and concatenating the pixel arrays. The composite image is analyzed to identify a wafer feature, for example using a sinusoidal line fit. |
| US08818066B2 |
Grid computing on radiology network
A grid computing system and method is provided for medical data processing. The grid computing system comprises a software infrastructure, and an imaging device capable of interfacing with the software infrastructure over a distributed electronic network. Also included is a plurality of CPUs capable of interfacing with the software infrastructure over the network. The performance of the plurality of CPUs is dependent on balancing load. A large medical dataset is split onto several processing nodes of the plurality of CPUs, respectively, such that performance and power is increased. In the grid computing method, a grid is limited to a nuclear medicine or radiology network. A tight and easy configuration management of computing nodes, and a tight load balancing between standardized nodes are provided. An existing network of CPUs is utilized, such that the greatest benefit is provided at the lowest cost. |
| US08818060B2 |
Medical image display device and method
In a medical image display device for displaying a hollow organ of an examinee as a panoramic image, in order to inform an operator of the existence or nonexistence of a blind area in a panoramic image, the medical image display device has a panoramic image creating unit configured to create a panoramic image of a hollow organ of an examinee and a display unit configured to display the panoramic image, and further has a blind area detecting unit configured to detect a blind area in the panoramic image and an informing unit configured to inform an operator of the existence or nonexistence of the blind portion. Furthermore, a medical image display method of the present invention has a panoramic image creating step that creates a panoramic image of a hollow organ of an examinee and a display step that displays the panoramic image, and further has a blind area detecting step that detects a blind area in the panoramic image and an informing step that informs an operator of the existence or nonexistence of the blind portion. |
| US08818056B2 |
Method and device for acquiring latent fingerprint orientation
A method and device for acquiring latent fingerprint orientation. The method includes: extracting a valid area in a latent fingerprint image; acquiring an orientation field of the valid area and a confidence of coordinate points in the valid area; dividing the orientation field into a first area with a high confidence and a second area with a low confidence; collecting control points in the first area, performing triangulation on control points in the first area and determining differences between control points to determine a set of control points; manually marking control points in the second area, adding control points marked to the set, performing triangulation on control points in the set and determining whether a new manually marked control point is to be added in the set according to a difference determination; and establishing a model for control points in the set to obtain an orientation field of the image. |
| US08818047B2 |
Generation of an individual glyph, and system and method for inspecting individual glyphs
A method for generating individual glyphs, and a system and method for inspecting individual glyphs are disclosed. The system includes a true resolution imaging device configured to capture an image of a printed glyph. A registry service has a database for storing other glyphs and/or parameters of other glyphs. An analysis system, in selective communication with the registry service, includes computer software configured to receive the captured image; an image analysis program configured to perform forensic analysis on the received image to determine parameter(s) associated with the glyph; and an image comparison program configured to i) compare the glyph parameter(s) with parameters stored in the registry for other glyphs or with parameters determined, by image analysis program, for the other glyphs stored in the registry, and ii) generate a probability that the glyph and object are authentic based upon the comparison. |
| US08818045B2 |
Adaptive sub-pixel accuracy system for motion and disparities estimation
Display 105 is capable of rendering, or otherwise displaying, one or more of a standard definition (SD) image, a two-dimensional (2D), a three-dimensional image (3D) and a high definition (HD) image 110. |
| US08818036B1 |
Contextual behavior state filter for sensor registration
Described is a system for registering a viewpoint of an imaging sensor with respect to a geospatial model or map. An image of a scene of a geospatial region comprising an object is received as input. The image of the scene is captured by a sensor having a current sensor state. Observation data related to the object's state is received, wherein the observation data comprises an object behavior of the object given the geospatial region. An estimate of the current sensor state is generated using a probability of an observation from the observation data given the current sensor state x. Finally, the image of the scene is registered with a geospatial model or map based on the estimate of the current sensor state. |
| US08818033B1 |
System and method for detecting equations
A system and method of extracting formulas in an electronic image of a document using optical character recognition (OCR) is disclosed. In one example, the method comprises analyzing the electronic image, including a plurality of text lines, to generate a plurality of bounding blocks, each bounding block associated with a text line detected within the electronic image, searching the plurality of text lines to detect at least one character matching one of a plurality of character groups, calculating a symbol density of each of the plurality of character groups for each of the plurality of text lines, and classifying each of the plurality of text lines as at least one of an equation block type, an inline equation block type, and a descriptive block type, based on the symbol density, wherein each of the plurality of text lines classified as the equation block type is extracted. |
| US08818029B1 |
Weather forecasting systems and methods
A weather forecasting system has weather forecasting logic that receives raw image data from a satellite. The raw image data has values indicative of light and radiance data from the Earth as measured by the satellite, and the weather forecasting logic processes such data to identify cumulus clouds within the satellite images. For each identified cumulus cloud, the weather forecasting logic applies interest field tests to determine a score indicating the likelihood of the cumulus cloud forming precipitation and/or lightning in the future within a certain time period. Based on such scores, the weather forecasting logic predicts in which geographic regions the identified cumulus clouds will produce precipitation and/or lighting within during the time period. Such predictions may then be used to provide a weather map thereby providing users with a graphical illustration of the areas predicted to be affected by precipitation within the time period. |
| US08818027B2 |
Computing device interface
A computing device configured for providing an interface is described. The computing device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory. The computing device projects a projected image from a projector. The computing device also captures an image including the projected image using a camera. The camera operates in a visible spectrum. The computing device calibrates itself, detects a hand and tracks the hand based on a tracking pattern in a search space. The computing device also performs an operation. |
| US08818021B2 |
Watermarking of digital video
Techniques and mechanisms for watermarking of digital video are described herein. According to various embodiments, a request to transmit to a client machine video content based on a video content distribution item may be received. The video content distribution item may be divided into a plurality of video content segments. Designated ones of the video content segments may have a respective plurality of alternate video content segment encodings. Each of the alternate video content segment encodings may include a respective digital watermark. Different digital watermarks may encode different information within the alternate video content segment encodings. One of the respective alternate video content segment encodings may be selected for each of the designated video content segments to create a digital watermarking message to include in the video content. The video content including the selected video content segment encodings may be transmitted to the client machine. |
| US08818020B2 |
Method of providing security for transmitting a digital medical image
A method of preparing a digital medical image for secure transmission, the method comprising embedding data into the digital medical image using a reversible watermarking process, generating a code for tamper detection and localization from the digital medical image using a computational function, and embedding the code for tamper detection and localization into the digital medical image using the reversible watermarking process; and a method of reviewing a digital medical image prepared by the method of preparing, the method of reviewing comprising retrieving the code for tamper detection and localization from the digital medical image; reversing the watermarking processes to obtain a restored image; generating a code from the restored image using the computational function; and comparing the retrieved code for tamper detection and localization with the code generated from the restored image to detect and locate tampering. |
| US08818017B2 |
Geographic-based signal detection
The disclosure relates generally to geographic-based signal detection. One claims recites a method including: receiving information indicating a geographical area; with reference to at least a portion of the information indicating a geographical area, selecting a machine-readable indicia detector that corresponds to the information indicating a geographical area; using a programmed processor, processing machine-readable indicia with the selected machine-readable indicia detector to obtain a plural-bit message; and carrying out an action using the plural-bit message. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well. |
| US08818016B2 |
Apparatus for localization using image and range data and method thereof
A localization apparatus and method for localizing by use of image information and range data are provided. The localization apparatus includes an image sensor which captures an image and outputs image data, a range sensor which senses a distance and outputs a range sensing signal, an image feature point information processing unit which extracts image feature points from the sensed image and generates image feature point information about the extracted image feature points, a range feature point information processing unit which generates range feature point information about range feature points from the range sensing signal, and a state estimation unit which estimates a state variable including a position of the localization apparatus by using the image feature point information and the range feature point information as an observation value. |
| US08818002B2 |
Robust adaptive beamforming with enhanced noise suppression
A novel adaptive beamforming technique with enhanced noise suppression capability. The technique incorporates the sound-source presence probability into an adaptive blocking matrix. In one embodiment the sound-source presence probability is estimated based on the instantaneous direction of arrival of the input signals and voice activity detection. The technique guarantees robustness to steering vector errors without imposing ad hoc constraints on the adaptive filter coefficients. It can provide good suppression performance for both directional interference signals as well as isotropic ambient noise. |
| US08818001B2 |
Signal processing apparatus, signal processing method, and program therefor
A signal processing apparatus includes: a separation processing unit that generates observed signals in the time frequency domain by performing the short-time Fourier transform on mixed signals as outputs, which are acquired from a plurality of sound sources by a plurality of sensors, and generates sound source separation results corresponding to the sound sources by a linear filtering process on the observed signals. The separation processing unit has a linear filtering process section that performs the linear filtering process on the observed signals so as to generate separated signals corresponding to the respective sound sources, an all-null spatial filtering section that applies an all-null spatial filter to generate signals filtered with the all-null spatial filter (spatially filtered signals) in which the acquired sounds in null directions are removed, and a frequency filtering section that performs a filtering process by inputting the separated signals and the spatially filtered signals. |
| US08818000B2 |
System, device, and method utilizing an integrated stereo array microphone
The invention relates to an audio device for use proximate a user's ears. The audio device includes first and second audio transmitting/receiving devices that are capable of operating in stereo. The audio device may be used within a system for manipulating audio signals received by the device. The manipulation may include processing received audio signals to enhance their quality. The processing may include applying one or more audio enhancement algorithms such as beamforming, active noise reduction, etc. A corresponding method for manipulating audio signals is also disclosed. |
| US08817997B2 |
Stereophonic sound output apparatus and early reflection generation method thereof
A stereophonic sound output apparatus and an early reflection generation method thereof. The stereophonic sound output apparatus includes an early reflection generator to implement an early reflection when a 5.1 channel audio signal is down-mixed to a 2-channel audio signal to play back a 5.1 channel audio signal through a 2-channel headphone. The early reflection generator generates early reflections in pairs in which there is an appropriate time difference between the left side reflections and the right side reflections by generating an interaural time difference between two input audio signals and filtering. It is possible to copy the characteristics of early reflections in a real listening room. It is also possible to implement an early reflection similar to a real reflection measured in an apparatus for playing back the 5.1 channel audio signal through 2-channel headphone. A natural 5.1 channel effect may also be obtained using little computation. |
| US08817994B2 |
Audio jack reset
This document provides apparatus and methods for providing low-power operation of an interface circuit during an interval when a port of the interface circuit is in an uncoupled state. |
| US08817992B2 |
Multichannel audio coder and decoder
There is disclosed inter alia a method for dividing a first and a second signal into a plurality of time frames and determining for each time frame a first time delay associated with a delay between a start of a time frame of the first signal and the second signal, and determining a second time delay associated with a delay between an end of a time frame of the first signal and the second signal. Then selecting from the second signal at least one sample in a block of samples between the first time delay and the second time delay and stretching the selected at least one sample to equal the number of samples of the time frame of the first signal. |
| US08817987B2 |
Encryption communication apparatus and method for controlling transfer period of key resynchronization information
An apparatus and method for controlling a packet transfer period of key resynchronization information in an encryption communication system are provided. The encryption communication apparatus includes a receiving means that computes a packet loss ratio and a network transfer delay time through a received packet when the packet is received and generates network status report information for a packet size and a packet transfer period of key resynchronization information using the packet loss ratio and the network transfer delay time, and a transmitting means that transmits a packet of the key resynchronization information in the transfer period by controlling the packet size and the packet transfer period of the key resynchronization information according to the network status report information received from the receiving means when data is input. |
| US08817986B2 |
Cross enterprise communication
A system enables intermediary communication components to carry out cross enterprise communication. At a first sending enterprise the system comprises: a processor executing code to: receive a signed encrypted message from a sender within a first enterprise; validate the sender; decrypt the message; encrypt the message for receipt by a second enterprise; sign the encrypted message by the first enterprise; and send the re-signed re-encrypted message to a second enterprise. At the second receiving enterprise, the system comprises a processor executing code to: receive a signed encrypted message from a first enterprise; validate that the first enterprise is the sender; decrypt the message; encrypt the message for receipt by recipients at the second enterprise; sign the encrypted message by the second enterprise indicating that the message is from the first enterprise; and send the re-signed re-encrypted message to the recipients of the second enterprise. |
| US08817983B2 |
Streaming video to cellular phones
A method, system, and computer program product for deploying data to a web server for streaming video to a mobile device. The method can include receiving a request for streaming video from a mobile device upon the resolving of the request by a DNS. The method can further include simultaneously sending both a request to a database for the video requested and a playlist for the video to the mobile device. The method can then include receiving the video from the database. The video received is sent as a sequence of blocks, where each block can further be comprised of a sequence of chunks. The method can even further include decompressing each block and storing each chunk on a web server. The method can further include an exchange of a security credential. |
| US08817978B2 |
Order-preserving encryption and decryption apparatus and method thereof
An order-preserving encryption apparatus includes an initializer for setting a total space of a ciphertext with respect to a total space of a plaintext by considering security of the ciphertext, and setting a secret key for encryption and a pseudo-random number generator for generation of a pivot. Further, the order-preserving encryption apparatus includes a pivot generator for applying the secret key to the established pseudo-random number generator to generate a pivot for the plaintext to be encrypted. Further, the order-preserving encryption apparatus includes a ciphertext generator for generating information about size of a bit constituting the ciphertext by comparing the generated pivot and the plaintext; and a plaintext adjusting unit for adjusting a magnitude of the total plaintext space and a magnitude of the plaintext according to the ciphertext. |
| US08817977B2 |
Method for generating a digital signature
A method for generating a digital signature includes calculating a first magnitude representative of the inverse of a random number raised to the power two; obtaining a first element of the digital signature by executing scalar multiplication between an established point of the elliptic curve and the random number; obtaining a second magnitude by executing modular multiplication, with modulus corresponding to the established elliptic curve's order between the first magnitude and the secret encryption key; obtaining a third magnitude by executing a modular multiplication, with modulus corresponding to the established elliptic curve's order between the random number and the secret encryption key; obtaining a first addend of a second element of the digital signature by executing a modular multiplication, with modulus corresponding to the established elliptic curve's order between the second magnitude and the third magnitude; and generating a second element of the digital signature based on the first addend. |
| US08817976B2 |
Reversible cipher
A cipher device having a number of data bits in an input register corresponding to a data unit element, a sudoku filter coupled with the input register, and a data selector coupled with the sudoku filter and the input register. A fob cipher device has a FPGA programmed to perform encrypting of a plaintext with a transposed Sudoku to form a first ciphertext and encrypting the first ciphertext with pseudorandom mixing bits to form a second ciphertext. A reversible encryption method includes encrypting plaintext with a transposed Sudoku forming a first ciphertext, encrypting the first ciphertext with pseudorandom mixing bits forming a second ciphertext, and outputting the plaintext-corresponding second ciphertext. |
| US08817975B2 |
Cryptographic processing apparatus and operation method
According to one embodiment, a cryptographic processing apparatus is provided with first to fifth units. The first unit mask-converts input data from first temporary mask into first fixed mask (an invariable value in a first linear operation). In an encryption, the third unit performs a nonlinear operation on the mask-converted data and outputs a first result masked with second fixed mask data (an invariable value in a second linear operation). The fourth unit performs the second linear operation and outputs a encryption result masked with second fixed mask data. In a decryption, the second unit performs the first linear operation on the mask-converted data and outputs a second result masked with the first fixed mask. The third unit performs the nonlinear operation and outputs a decryption result masked with the second fixed mask. In encryption/decryptions, the fifth unit converts the mask of the encryption/decryption results into second temporary mask. |
| US08817974B2 |
Finite field cryptographic arithmetic resistant to fault attacks
Various embodiments relate to a method for integrity protected calculation of a cryptographic function including: performing an operation c=a∘b in a cryptographic function f(x1, x2, . . . , xn) defined over a commutative ring R; choosing a′ and b′ corresponding to a and b such that a′ and b′ are elements of a commutative ring R′; computing c′=a′∘′b′; computing a″=CRT(a, a′) and b″=CRT(b, b′), where CRT is the Chinese Remainder Theorem; computing c″=a″∘″b″; mapping c″ into R′; and determining if the mapping of c″ into R′ equals c′. |
| US08817972B2 |
Method of authentication using a decoding of an error correcting code on the basis of a public matrix
The invention relates to a cryptographic method of authentication using a decoding of an error correcting code on the basis of a public matrix, in which the public matrix is a quasi-cyclic matrix. The invention pertains also to a cryptographic device comprising computation means arranged so as to implement this method. The invention makes it possible to reduce the amount of public data to be stored in a cryptographic authentication method using a decoding of an error correcting code on the basis of a public matrix. |
| US08817971B2 |
Conference device
In a video teleconference device, a microphone and a speaker are arranged in a housing in such a manner that a voice input direction of the microphone and a voice output direction of the speaker are roughly orthogonal to each other. With that, the sound coming out of the speaker is not easily received as input by the microphone. Thus, with such a simple configuration, it becomes possible to effectively curb the echo effect and the howling effect. |
| US08817969B1 |
Systems and methods for query input via telephony devices
Providers of goods and services may desire human input regarding the products that they offer. A vocal query service provides a mechanism to present queries to human respondents. A human respondent may be presented with information and subsequently queried as to their opinion. The respondents receiving the query may be selected based upon profiles containing demographic information, interest information, desired contact time, and the like. Prospective respondents may be contacted via a personal telephone at a time of their choosing and may choose whether or not to respond. During the query, should a respondent require assistance, the respondent may be contact a customer service agent. Query respondents may be motivated to participate, as the query is designed to appeal to respondent's interest and is presented at a convenient time. The query service may also increase the customer service agents to expand the query to additional human respondents in near-real time. |
| US08817966B2 |
Method of collecting and employing information about parties to a televideo conference
A method for creating an intelligent routing and criteria-based matching system, so that people may be matched for conferencing to each other by pre-determined matching of their characteristics and their requirements. The invention makes it possible to connect individuals who may or may not have been known to each other previously, and who may be routed to each other based on being good fits to collaborate in the stated business or social setting or other reason for dealing with another person in a video conference meeting. The invention makes it possible for suppliers of services over the video conference medium to be connected to individuals who want these services. The system takes into account the business rules and preferences of all individuals involved, so that intelligent business service collaboration may take place between parties based on pre-set criteria. |
| US08817965B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for handling establishment of a communication session
According to various embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a method, system and apparatus for handling establishment of a communication session. A method of handling establishment of one or more communication sessions comprises receiving from a user an indication of user's desire to cause establishment of the one or more communication sessions. The method further comprises accessing scheduling data associated with the user, the scheduling data comprising one or more scheduling events, each of the one or more scheduling events associated with a corresponding one of the one or more communication sessions. The method further comprises in response to at least one of the one or more scheduling events, causing the corresponding one of the one or more communication sessions to be established with the communication device associated with the user. |
| US08817964B2 |
Telephonic voice authentication and display
An improved solution for telephonic voice authentication and display is provided. A method of identifying conference call participants includes detecting a sound made by one of conference call participants; identifying this conference call participant based on the sound; and then displaying an attribute of the conference call participant to one of the other conference call participants. The attribute may include a picture, a name, and/or other information related to the identified conference call participant. |
| US08817963B2 |
Cross-platform presence
Systems, methods, and computer program products for providing cross-platform presence are described. In some implementations, a cross-platform presence server can be provided that allows a caller to accurately assess the availability and other similar status of a callee by evaluating a device status of a plurality of communication devices associated with the callee. The cross-platform presence server can then determine, based on these device statuses, whether a callee is available. The availability of the callee can subsequently be displayed to the caller (e.g., on the caller's phone), or any other individuals who have been granted permission by the callee to be notified of the callee's availability. |
| US08817960B2 |
Automated attendant for a private telephone system
A call management device is connected to one or more internal networks and one or more external networks, and it operates to receive incoming calls or messages from the external networks and make a determination as to whether or not the call is from a qualified source. If the call is from a qualified source, the call is immediately forwarded to a destination device connected to the one or more internal networks, and if the call is from a source that is not qualified, the call is either terminated or the caller is prompted to enter a required response and identification information prior to the call be forwarded to the destination device. |
| US08817959B1 |
System for handling messages and distributing information
System for handling messages and distributing information between subscribers and their customers and contact. Each system subscriber can generate customized landing and flyer web pages called flyer pages for each of the subscriber's products, services, and/or listings. Landing and flyer pages can contain multiple links to other flyer pages. When a subscriber's customer or contact views a landing or flyer page and clicks on a link presented on that page, the system provides subscriber's information to a customer or contact immediately after the information is requested. The system can also make a lead, including a record of that event, and present the record to the subscriber who owns the landing or flyer page, allowing a subscriber to view a report with a history of who has viewed which page for all leads generated for their pages. Leads are tracked through a process that includes steps of lead generation and lead propagation. Embodiments of the system include a system for tracking sales leads, an internet-based wagering system, and an emergency response system. |
| US08817958B2 |
Method for indicating the context of a call to a called party
In embodiments of the disclosed technology, a plurality of ratings of websites is received, wherein each rating is associated with a category and a rater and each rater is associated with at least one group. A selection of a category is received from the user, wherein the user is associated with at least one group. One website location (or a plurality of website locations) is provided in the category to the user based on at least one rating of the plurality of ratings provided by at least one of the raters, wherein at least one group associated with the rater and at least one the group associated with the user are the same group. |
| US08817954B2 |
Using a complex events processor (CEP) to direct the handling of individual call sessions by an interactive voice response (IVR) system
Event data messages can be provided by an interactive voice response (IVR) system to a complex events processor (CEP). The event data messages can include a Stream_ID and a series of textual elements. The Stream_ID can uniquely identify a call session between a caller and the IVR system. The series of textual elements can represent speech input provided by the caller. The CEP can create a text string from the series of textual elements of event data messages having the same Stream_ID. The text string can inherit the Stream_ID of the event data messages. The CEP can utilize user-defined business rules to process the text string. When the CEP issues an action message, the Stream_ID of the text string can be appended to the action message sent to the IVR system. The IVR system can modify the call session associated with the Stream_ID of the action message accordingly. |
| US08817953B1 |
System, method, and computer readable media for confirmation and verification of shipping address data associated with a transaction
A system, method, and computer readable medium for confirmation and verification of address data associated with a data communication. The invention provides a method of obtaining at least one of the first address information and the second address information, converting by a processor one of the first address information and the second address information to a format compatible for comparison with the other of the first address information and the second address information, and quantifying a difference between the converted one of the first address information and the second address information and the other of the first address information and the second address information. |
| US08817945B2 |
Air bearing dynamic Z-axis balancing
A medical imaging system includes a stationary gantry and a rotating gantry that rotates around an examination region about a z-axis. An air bearing rotatably couples the rotating gantry to the stationary gantry. A radiation source is affixed to the rotating gantry and rotates with the rotating gantry and emits radiation that traverses the examination region. A detector array is affixed to the rotating gantry on an opposite side of the examination region with respect to the radiation source and detects radiation traversing the examination region. A dynamic z-axis imbalance determination system determines an imbalance of the rotating gantry in the z-axis direction directly from the air bearing, and the determined imbalance is used to position a balance mass affixed to the rotating gantry in the z-axis direction, thereby balancing the rotating gantry along the z-axis. |
| US08817943B2 |
Shift register
A shift register includes a plurality of stages for sequentially outputting A-scan pulses and B-scan pulses. At least one of the stages includes an A-sub-stage for controlling a voltage at an A-set node and a voltage at at least one A-reset node in response to an external A-control signal and generating an A-carry pulse based on the voltage at the A-set node, the voltage at the A-reset node and any one A-clock pulse, a B-sub-stage for controlling a voltage at a B-set node and a voltage at at least one B-reset node in response to an external B-control signal and generating a B-carry pulse based on the voltage at the B-set node, the voltage at the B-reset node and any one B1-clock pulse, and a scan output controller for generating a corresponding one of the A-scan pulses and a corresponding one of the B-scan pulses. |
| US08817941B2 |
Pressurized water reactor plant
According to an embodiment, a pressurized water reactor plant has a primary system which includes: a reactor vessel for housing a reactor core which is cooled by a primary coolant, a single steam generator, a hot leg pipe for connecting the reactor vessel and the steam generator, cold leg pipes, at least two primary coolant pumps, and a pressurizer for pressurizing the primary coolant pressure boundary in which the primary coolant flows. The plant also has: a passive cooling and depressurization system which is a primary depressurization means for equalizing the primary system pressure to the secondary system pressure at the time of a tube rupture accident of the steam generator, and a reactor containment vessel containing the primary system and cooling the primary system by air cooling. Thus, a compact pressurized water rector with high economic efficiency, safety, and reliability can be provided. |
| US08817936B2 |
Multiple synchronous IQ demodulators
A system for synchronizing IQ demodulators includes IQ demodulators, phase-controlling devices, a reference signal, a phase detector, and a control device. The phase-controlling devices are each associated with one of the IQ demodulators for outputting an output signal to its associated IQ demodulator having a phase controlled by the associated phase-controlling device. The phase detector is in communication with the output signals for determining whether the phase of any of the output signals is out-of-phase with a reference phase of the reference signal. The control-device is in communication with the phase-controlling devices programmed, internally or externally, to send a control signal to the associated phase-controlling device for any of the output signals which are out-of-phase with the reference phase of the reference signal so that the associated phase-controlling device synchronizes the phase of the output signal to being in-phase with the reference phase of the reference signal. |
| US08817935B2 |
Processing method for providing, starting from signals acquired by a set of sensors, an aggregate signal and data acquisition system using such method
Embodiment for forming an aggregate signal from a plurality of starting signals, comprising: acquiring said starting signals through respective sensors of a homogeneous sensors group; converting acquired signals in respective digital signals having data represented with a predetermined bits number; processing the digital signals to form aggregate signal. The processing step comprises the operations of: modifying digital signals changing the data format of each such digital signals from a first format to a second format, each data in the second format having been obtained from a respective data in the first format through an operation of permuting the bits position according to a permutation scheme associated with said data and to the specific digital signal comprising that data; forming aggregate signal obtaining said aggregate signal data by means of a bitwise logic operator acting upon said modified digital signal respective data. |
| US08817934B2 |
System and method for synchronization tracking in an in-band modem
Processing the synchronization of an inband modem to detect sample slip conditions is disclosed. Decision logic reliably detects the sample slip condition while minimizing the number of false alarms. |
| US08817930B2 |
Clock and mode signals for header and data communications
Data is communicated through two separate circuits or circuit groups, each having clock and mode inputs, by sequentially reversing the role of the clock and mode inputs. The data communication circuits have data inputs, data outputs, a clock input for timing or synchronizing the data input and/or output communication, and a mode input for controlling the data input and/or output communication. A clock/mode signal connects to the clock input of one circuit and to the mode input of the other circuit. A mode/clock signal connects to the mode input of the one circuit and to the clock input of the other circuit. The role of the mode and clock signals on the mode/clock and clock/mode signals, or their reversal, selects one or the other of the data communication circuits. |
| US08817928B2 |
Method and apparatus for rapid synchronization of shift register related symbol sequences
A sequence generator implemented on a receiver is synchronized with a sequence generator at a transmitter. The receiver receives k n-state symbols, with k>1 and n>1 wherein each of the k n-state symbols is associated with a generating state of the sequence generator at the transmitter. A processor in the receiver evaluates an n-state expression that generates an n-state symbol that is associated with a synchronized state of the receiver. Coefficients related to the n-state expression are stored on a memory and are retrieved by the processor. The synchronized state in one embodiment is part of a code hop. The sequence generator in the receiver may be part of a descrambler, of a communication device, of a data storage device and/or of an opening mechanism. |
| US08817927B2 |
Adaptive interference canceller in a digital phase array
A digital phased array may include a plurality of antenna elements forming a main array of the digital phased array, a plurality of mixers configured to down-convert data received at respective ones of the antenna elements, a plurality of analog-to-digital converters configured to digitize data provided by corresponding ones of the mixers, and a digital signal processor. The digital signal processor may be configured to receive digitized data including at least one interference signal and at least one desired signal, determine an angle of arrival of the at least one interference signal, steer a beam of the main array toward the at least one interference signal based on the determined angle of arrival, and perform interference cancellation relative to the at least one interference signal. |
| US08817925B2 |
System and method for RF spur cancellation
This disclosure is directed to a wireless device with a suppressor that couples to the aggressor signal of a frequency source to generate a cancelling signal for suppressing spurs resulting from operation of the frequency source. The amplitude and phase delay of the cancelling signal are adjusted to optimize the cancellation of the spur. Preferably, a calibration routine is performed to establish appropriate delay and amplitude values to cancel the spurs occurring at each device gain setting. |
| US08817924B2 |
Iterative pilot tone cancellation for improved channel estimation and decoding
Channel estimation is performed in a wireless network through cell/antenna pair ranking and iterative soft cancellation of pilot signals. Cell classification and ordering may be ranked and grouped for purposes of improving performance by dedicating hardware resources to higher priority received signals. A metric may be computed to rank the pairs. One such metric is reference signal (RS) power. Pairs may also be grouped into groups of pairs. Groups may be ordered by time-frequency resource and designated as serving-cell groups or non-serving cell groups. Higher priority pairs may be assigned a higher number of iterations. Higher priority groups may be processed first. Pairs which fall below a certain power threshold may be assigned no iterations. Iterations are distributed among hardware blocks to improve processing efficiency. Iteration numbers and hardware assignments may be modified to reach a desired complexity constraint. |
| US08817923B2 |
Digital broadcast receiver
When a decision is made that receiving performance deterioration due to an interfering wave is present in a digital broadcasting wave, an operating point of an RF AGC amplifier 6 and a time constant of gain control of the RF AGC amplifier 6 are altered. |
| US08817922B2 |
Wireless receiving apparatus and method
According to one embodiment, a wireless receiving apparatus a calculation module, a detection module and a determination module. The calculation module calculates, for each of modes, correlation values between a received signal and reference signals. The detection module synthesizes the correlation values to generate first correlation value sequences for each of the modes, and to detect at least one second correlation value sequence. The determination module selects a known signal period from the signal periods and a known signal interval from the signal intervals, based on first correlation values included in the second correlation value sequence, and to determine a received signal mode. |
| US08817916B1 |
Methods and apparatus for providing a maximum likelihood (ML) decoding pipeline for quadruture phase-shift keying (QPSK) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receivers
Methods and apparatus are provided for performing log-likelihood ratio (LLR) computations in a pipeline. Portions of a metric used to compute LLR values are computed in one pipeline part. The portions correspond to all permutations of some received signal streams. The portions are combined with one permutation x2 of the received signal stream that was not included in the previous pipeline computation in a subsequent pipeline part to produce M values associated with a particular bit position. At each subsequent clock cycle, a different permutation of x2 is combined with the previously computed portions producing different M values. State values corresponding to different values of bit positions of the received stream are computed by finding the minimum among the M values, in each clock cycle, that affect a particular bit position. The state values are combined to compute the LLR values for the bit position in a final pipeline part. |
| US08817901B2 |
Channel estimate interpolation circuit and method
To more accurately generate a virtual waveform of channel estimate values outside a bandwidth upon their interpolation in OFDM system while preventing the circuit size from increasing, a converter (104) performs a linear interpolation between channel estimate values corresponding to reference signals arranged at both ends of a predetermined bandwidth among first channel estimate values estimated based on reference signals, thereby estimating second channel estimate values corresponding to subcarriers outside the bandwidth. The converter (104) performs an inverse-FFT operation for channel estimate values obtained by merging the first and second channel estimate values to obtain a first delay profile, replaces with zero data components delayed for a predetermined threshold time or more in the first delay profile, performs an FFT operation for a delay profile obtained by the replacement to obtain third channel estimate values, and extracts therefrom channel estimate values corresponding to the subcarriers outside the bandwidth. |
| US08817899B2 |
Method and system for an alternating delta quantizer for limited feedback MIMO pre-coders
Aspects of a method and system for an alternating delta quantizer for limited feedback MIMO pre-coders may comprise quantizing a change in channel state information in a MIMO pre-coding system onto at least a first and a second codebook, each of which comprises one or more unitary matrices, using a cost function; feeding back, in an alternating manner, an index to an element of at least the first codebook or the second codebook, associated with the quantizing, from a receiver to a transmitter in said MIMO pre-coding system, and generating the at least first and second codebook based on at least the channel state information. The channel state information may be a matrix V and the cost function may be defined by the following relationship: f ( A ) = ( 1 N ∑ j = 1 N a jj 2 ) where A is a matrix of size N by N and aij is element (i,j) of matrix A. |
| US08817897B2 |
MC-CDMA multiplexing in an orthogonal uplink
Techniques are provided to support multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) in an orthogonal uplink of a wireless communication system. A method of wireless multi-carrier communications comprises dividing sub-carriers on an uplink into non-overlapping groups, allocating a time-frequency block including a hopping duration and a non-overlapped group, respectively, assigning a different set of orthogonal codes to each user, spreading data (or pilot) symbols of each user over the allocated time-frequency block, wherein the data (or pilot) symbols of each user are spread using the different set of orthogonal codes assigned to each user, mapping each data (or pilot) symbol to a modulation symbol in the time-frequency block, generating an orthogonal waveform based on the mapped symbols, and transmitting the orthogonal waveform. |
| US08817896B2 |
Method and device for allocating resources in an OFDM network
A radio station comprises means for allocating resources for communication with at least one other station, and including means for mapping data to be transmitted from at least the radio station to the at least one other station, and means for applying a cyclic shift to the data mapping, wherein this cyclic shift is adjusted depending on the number of data blocks to be mapped. A possible implementation concerns the mapping of the DVRB (Distributed Virtual Resource Block) in OFDM. |
| US08817893B2 |
Method for transmitting a signal from a transmitter to a receiver in a power line communication network, transmitter, receiver, power line communication modem and power line communication system
A method for transmitting a signal from a transmitter over a channel to a receiver on a Power Line Network, wherein said signal is OFDM-modulated on a set of sub-carriers, is proposed, wherein an OFDM tonemap and an eigenbeamforming encoding matrix are determined based on a channel estimation for each sub-carrier, a tonemap feedback signal and an eigenbeamforming feedback signal are generated, which are descriptive of said OFDM tonemap and said eigenbeamforming encoding matrix, respectively, and transmitted to the transmitter. A corresponding receiver, a transmitter, a power line communication and a power line communication system are described as well. |
| US08817887B2 |
Apparatus and method for splicing encoded streams
Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus that performs a process of splicing encoded streams together at a splicing point, the apparatus including: control means for determining a section to be subjected to re-encoding in the encoded streams; decoding means for decoding the encoded streams to generate baseband signals; and encoding means for encoding an edited baseband signal generated by splicing the baseband signals generated by the decoding means together at the splicing point to generate an edited encoded stream. The control means provisionally determines a first section to be subjected to re-encoding in first and second encoded streams to be spliced together at a first splicing point. When a second splicing point exists in the first section or a predetermined section that follows the first section, the control means determines a second section to be subjected to re-encoding based on the second splicing point. |
| US08817875B2 |
Methods and systems to encode and decode sequences of images
Methods and systems to compress and decompress sequences of images, such as video frames, including compression techniques to estimate pixel values, to determine differences between the estimated pixel values and actual pixel values, to arithmetically encode a corresponding sequence of difference values or symbols as a code value, and to output the code value and associated reference information in a data stream. Decompression techniques include techniques to read the code value and associated reference information from the data stream, to arithmetically decode the symbols from the code value, and to reconstruct the sequence of video frames from the decoded symbols and the associated reference information. Also disclosed are techniques to reduce or preclude overflow of registers or buffers used to hold code range values, and to order tables of code range values to improve efficiency of table look-up operations. |
| US08817872B2 |
Method and apparatus for encoding/decoding multi-layer video using weighted prediction
A method and apparatus effectively encode multiple layers using interlayer information in a multi-layered video codec. The method includes reading information concerning the low layer picture, calculating weighting factors using the information concerning the low layer picture, calculating a weighted sum of reference pictures for the current picture using the weighting factors and generating a predicted picture for the current picture, and encoding a difference between the current picture and the predicted picture. |
| US08817870B2 |
Efficient systems and methods for transmitting compressed video data having different resolutions
The present invention relates to systems and methods for combining compressed video data encoded or received with different resolutions. The present invention combines the compressed video data from the two separate bitstreams without decoding and re-encoding each bitstream. To do so, the present invention determines which compressed video bitstream has video data with a lower resolution, and applies a tiling process that alters the low resolution compressed video data such that it may be displayed at a high resolution. |
| US08817869B2 |
Image processing device and method, and image display device and method
To interpolate a frame between the current frame and a first delayed frame preceding the current frame, an image processing device generates test interpolation data for the first delayed frame from data in point-symmetric positions in the current frame and in a second delayed frame preceding the first delayed frame. Motion vectors pointing from the first delayed frame to the current frame are found by evaluating different test interpolation data against the actual data of the first delayed frame. These motion vectors are converted to pairs of motion vectors pointing from the first delayed frame and the current frame to the interpolated frame, and these pairs of motion vectors are used to detect occlusion and generate accurate data for the interpolated frame from the data of the first delayed frame and the current frame, excluding occluded data. |
| US08817868B2 |
Sub-block transform coding of prediction residuals
Techniques and tools for sub-block transform coding are described. For example, a video encoder adaptively switches between 8×8, 8×4, and 4×8 DCTs when encoding 8×8 prediction residual blocks; a corresponding video decoder switches between 8×8, 8×4, and 4×8 inverse DCTs during decoding. The video encoder may determine the transform sizes as well as switching levels (e.g., frame, macroblock, or block) in a closed loop evaluation of the different transform sizes and switching levels. The encoder and decoder may use different scan patterns for different transform sizes when scanning values from two-dimensional blocks into one-dimensional arrays, or vice versa. The encoder and decoder may use sub-block pattern codes to indicate the presence or absence of information for the sub-blocks of particular blocks. |
| US08817864B2 |
Communication device and method of setting communication device
A communication device includes multiple paths that are provided in the device and transmit signals; an adjuster that adjusts transmission characteristics to be a favorable state by adjustment of the waveform of the signals on the paths; and a controller that controls the adjustment of the transmission characteristics of the paths by the adjuster, identifies other path(s) that affects a path to be adjusted, and controls suppression of crosstalk due to the other path(s). |
| US08817863B2 |
Linear equalizer with passive network and embedded level shifter
The disclosed embodiments relate to the design of a linear equalizer that supports low-power, high-speed data transfers. In some embodiments, this linear equalizer contains a passive network that provides selective frequency peaking in a frequency range associated with a falling edge of a frequency response of the channel. It also includes a level shifter coupled between the channel and the passive network, wherein the level shifter is an active component that provides amplification and/or level-shifting. Moreover, the linear equalizer is designed so that power from the level shifter facilitates the selective frequency peaking of the passive network. |
| US08817862B2 |
Equalizer and equalizing method
An equalizer and a related equalizing method for equalizing signal reflection caused by a stub at a transmitting end are provided. The equalizer includes a summing device and a delay device. The summing device is utilized for adding a feedback delay signal to the input signal to generate the equalized signal. The delay device is coupled to the summing device, and utilized for delaying the equalized signal to generate the feedback delay signal. Wherein the delay device has a variable delay time and the variable delay time is a non-integer multiple of a bit time of the input signal. |
| US08817857B2 |
UPBO for vectored DSL
Residual FEXT resulting from intended and/or inherent partial cancellation of crosstalk in vectored DSL systems impairs upstream power back-off (UPBO) as traditionally implemented. By considering and taking into account the effects of residual crosstalk on vectored DSL system performance and operation, improved data rates and/or other vectored DSL system performance are realized through the use of UPBO parameters generated for a given residual FEXT environment. |
| US08817848B2 |
Software configurable distributed antenna system and method for reducing uplink noise
A distributed antenna system includes a master unit including a downlink RF input operable to receive an RF input signal from a downlink port of a base station, a first optical port, and a second optical port. The distributed antenna system also includes a first remote unit coupled to the first optical port. The first remote unit comprises a downlink antenna port and a first uplink antenna port and a second remote unit coupled to the second optical port of the master unit. The second remote unit comprises a downlink antenna port and a second uplink antenna port. The master unit is operable to transmit a first RF signal associated with the first RF uplink signal to a first uplink port of the base station and transmit a second RF signal associated with the second RF uplink signal to a second uplink port of the base station. |
| US08817840B2 |
Power supply arrangement
A power supply arrangement for supplying a square-wave current (I2) to a load connected to an output of the power supply arrangement, in particular a power supply arrangement in an arc furnace for generating an arc, including a transformer (TU) with at least two primary-site taps (1U1, 1U2) which form an input of the power supply arrangement, and with several secondary-side taps (2U1, 2U2, 2U3, 2UN), a bridge circuit (BU) with several first half bridges (11, 12, 13) which include converter valves (V11, V12, V13, V14, V15, V16) and which each have a first terminal (A11, A12, A13) of the bridge circuit, with a bridge section with a choke (L1), and with a second half bridge (20) which has converter valves (V17, V18) and a second terminal (A20) of the bridge circuit (BU), wherein each first terminal (A11, A12, A13) is connected to one of the secondary-side taps (2U1, 2U2, 2U3) of the transformer (TU), wherein the second terminal (A20) is connected to the output. |
| US08817839B2 |
Two-stage laser system for aligners
The invention relates to a two-stage laser system well fit for semiconductor aligners, which is reduced in terms of spatial coherence while taking advantage of the high stability, high output efficiency and fine line width of the MOPO mode. The two-stage laser system for aligners comprises an oscillation-stage laser (50) and an amplification-stage laser (60). Oscillation laser light having divergence is used as the oscillation-stage laser (50), and the amplification-stage laser (60) comprises a Fabry-Perot etalon resonator made up of an input side mirror (1) and an output side mirror (2). The resonator is configured as a stable resonator. |
| US08817838B2 |
Laser device with optical element module on separate plate
A laser device, which includes an oscillator unit having a rectangular-solid-shaped housing containing a laser oscillator for generating and outputting a laser light; an amplifier unit having a rectangular-solid-shaped housing containing an amplifier that receives and amplifies the laser light to output; and, a group of optical elements including optical elements provided on a laser light path, wherein the laser device includes one or more amplifier units, and the oscillator and the amplifier units are arranged such that surfaces having a wide area other than a surface having a smallest area of a housing of the oscillator unit and a housing of at least one amplifier unit are next to and face each other, or such that surfaces having a wide area other than a surface having a smallest area of a housing of at least two amplifier units are next to and face each other. |
| US08817834B2 |
Method and system for I/Q mismatch calibration and compensation for wideband communication receivers
Methods and systems for I/Q mismatch calibration and compensation for wideband communication receivers may comprise receiving a plurality of radio frequency (RF) channels, downconverting the received plurality of received RF channels to baseband frequencies, determining and removing average in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) gain and phase mismatch of the downconverted channels, determining a residual phase and amplitude tilt of the downconverted channels with removed average I and Q gain and phase mismatch, and compensating for said residual phase and amplitude tilt I and Q gain and phase mismatch of the downconverted channels. The determined phase tilt may be compensated utilizing a phase tilt correction filter, which may comprise one or more all-pass filters. The average I and Q gain and phase mismatch may be determined utilizing a blind source separation (BSS) estimation algorithm. |
| US08817832B2 |
Multi-wavelength diode laser array
A multi-wavelength laser array of a plurality of emitters in a diode bar or stack where each beam is deflected by a different angle to be incident upon a uniform volume holographic grating with a portion of the beam being deflected as a feedback portion while a further portion provides a wavelength tuned output unique to each emitter. The arrangement of a uniform volume holographic grating with deflectors such as phaseplates eliminates the need to use expensive wavelength chirped gratings. |
| US08817823B2 |
Method and device for time synchronization
A method and a device for time synchronization are disclosed according to the embodiments of the present invention. The method includes: selecting, by a slave device, a port of a single-fiber bi-directional line as a synchronization port of a 1588 clock protocol; specifying a work mode of the synchronization port; exchanging a 1588 clock synchronization packet with a master device through the synchronization port according to the work mode; acquiring transmission time information and restore a system clock according to the 1588 clock synchronization packet; and adjusting the system clock according to the work mode and the transmission time information. The device includes: a line processing module, a clock recovery module and a clock adjustment module. Through the method and the device, zero-error time synchronization is implemented; and in the case of unfixed path delay, the time synchronization can also be implemented. |
| US08817821B2 |
Method and device for user datagram protocol packet compression and decompression
A method for compressing a user datagram protocol (UDP) data packet includes: when receiving an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) UDP data packet, a compressor searching a context of the UDP data packet, if the context does not exist, creating the context of the UDP data packet, taking a value of an IP identifier (IP-ID) field of the UDP data packet as an initial value of a serial number (SN) of the context, and then compressing the UDP data packet according to the context. Also provided are methods and devices for compressing and decompressing a UDP data packet. The methods and devices can effectively improve the compression efficiency, reduce the probability of sending the IR/IRDYN packet, significantly reduce 1 byte transmission, improve the compression efficiency by 50%, and reduce the probability of using an extension header with a high capacity. |
| US08817819B2 |
Base station apparatus, communication method, terminal apparatus and integrated circuit
A base station executes communication using the uplink unit band and a plurality of downlink unit bands correlated to the uplink unit band. The base station includes: a PDCCH generation unit which includes the uplink allocation information relating to the uplink unit band only in some of the channel signals of each of the downlink unit bands; and a padding unit which adds zero information to allocation information only in the selected some channel signals having the bandwidth of the corresponding downlink unit band smaller than that of the uplink unit band until the downlink allocation information size becomes equal to the uplink allocation information size. |
| US08817816B2 |
Multicast support for dual stack-lite and internet protocol version six rapid deployment on internet protocol version four infrastructures
A method implemented by a network apparatus comprising receiving a Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) membership report message from a host, sending an Automatic IP Multicast Tunneling (AMT) Relay discovery message comprising an anycast address for a border relay (BR) via an IPv4 network, receiving an AMT Relay advertisement message comprising a unicast address for the BR via the IPv4 network, sending an AMT request message to the BR via an AMT tunnel, receiving an AMT query message comprising a MLD listener query from the BR via the AMT, sending an AMT membership message comprising the MLD membership report message of the host to the BR via the AMT tunnel, and receiving an AMT multicast data message comprising an encapsulated IPv6 multicast message from the BR via the AMT tunnel. |
| US08817814B2 |
Transmission device, transmission system, transmission method, and transmission program
A transmission device (4a) characterized by having a setting unit (corresponding to a LAN mapping circuit (100a)) for setting each one of radio lines (1, 2) as a radio line for transmitting a frame having a specific frame structure and a radio line for transmitting a packet, and a transmission unit (corresponding to a LAN packet dividing circuit (200a), an E1 framing circuit (300a), a LAN packet reconstruction circuit (400a), a buffer circuit (500a), a selector circuit (600a), and a multiplexing-demultiplexing circuit (700a)) for transmitting the frame and the packet using the radio lines (1, 2) in accordance with information (LAN mapping information (101a)) set by the setting unit (100a). |
| US08817813B2 |
System and method for adaptive channel scanning within a wireless network
An access point device that is adapted to a wireless network and a wired network is disclosed. The access point includes a transceiver to receive wireless frames from a plurality of wireless devices of the wireless network, respectively, and at least one component to process information extracted from the wireless frames and to control channel scanning based upon at least one of an amount of wireless device traffic and a type of call. |
| US08817812B2 |
Method of controlling connection between nodes in digital interface
A method of controlling connection between nodes in a digital interface whereby a first node that is a master node determines a second node to be the master and controls a point-to-point connection or a broadcast connection to another node. The first node having the display device determines the second node to be the master in accordance with a user selection, and transmits a connection command of a predetermined format for transmitting a data stream to the second node. The second node determined as the master in accordance with the transmitted connection command of the predetermined format is allocated with a channel and a bandwidth from an isochronous resource manager (IRM), and performs a point-to-point connection between the second node and the first node to transit the data stream. Thus, the transmission/reception, reproduction, and control of the data stream of the program can be smoothly performed. |
| US08817811B2 |
Communications apparatus, system and method with schedule checking
Data communications are effected in a network having a plurality of different network devices, at least two of the network devices connected to a common wired network link and in which each network device is assigned to communicate during different time slots within a communication cycle. Stored communication protocol data is used to evaluate received configuration data specifying a communication schedule. An output indicative of a non-compliant communication is generated if the evaluation indicates that the communication schedule fails to comply with the protocol data. If the communication schedule complies with the stored communication protocol data, the communication schedule is stored and used to communicate data between the network devices, via a central communication circuit according to time slots specified in the evaluated communication schedule. |
| US08817808B2 |
MIMO based network coding network
A wireless communication system includes an intermediate node, a first node and a second node. A method for implementing MIMO based network coding, comprises the first node transmitting first data to the intermediate node, and the second node transmitting second data to the intermediate node. Both the first node and the second node may use spatial multiplexing or time division multiplexing or frequency division multiplexing on a common/different resource. The intermediate node receives the transmissions from the first node and second node, and performs network coding on the first data and second data using a predefined network coding scheme to produce network coded information. The intermediate node transmits the network coded information to the first node and second node using multi-user MIMO and each first or second node receives the MIMO transmissions from the intermediate node and applies network decoding procedures to recover the first data and second data. |
| US08817797B2 |
Method and apparatus for multipath protocol packet relay
A method and apparatus for processing packet streams associated with stream-based transport connection to thereby enable communication between a source host and one or more destination hosts. |
| US08817794B2 |
Network system and communication device
It is ensured to prevent a user from misrepresenting a time stamp, and to send out packets in sequence in which the packets are accepted to all users who are geographically isolated from each other. A unique time stamp impartation function is realized by respective communication devices on a net inside an administrative responsibility range of a communication common carrier, hardly accessible by a user. If a packet with a time stamp imparted by a subscriber terminal, provided thereto, is received, the respective communication devices positioned on the net inside the administrative responsibility range nullify the relevant time stamp in order to prevent misrepresentation of the time stamp, by a user outside the administrative responsibility range, and restores the packet from the subscriber together with the time stamp when transferring the packet to the outside of the administrative responsibility range. |
| US08817792B2 |
Data forwarding method, data processing method, system and relevant devices
A data forwarding method, a system and relevant devices are provided. The data forwarding method includes: obtaining, by a forwarding device, a packet; matching the packet with a preset stream forwarding table if the packet is not a long-session stream identifier packet, forwarding the packet according to a table entry if the table entry is matched, and sending the packet to a packet processing engine for processing if no table entry is matched; and maintaining the stream forwarding table according to the long-session stream identifier packet if the packet is a long-session stream identifier packet. A data forwarding system and relevant devices are also provided. |
| US08817790B2 |
Identifying flows based on behavior characteristics and applying user-defined actions
A mechanism is disclosed for identifying, classifying, and controlling flows in a network. In one implementation, a separate set of behavioral statistics is maintained for each flow. These behavioral statistics are updated as packets belonging to a flow are processed. Whenever a packet belonging to a flow is processed, a set of policies that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy is determined. For each policy that the flow's behavioral statistics satisfy, actions that are associated with that policy are applied relative to the packet. The actions may be designed to cause a router to handle, in a user-specified manner, packets that are likely to represent a particular kind of traffic. Thus, different flows, such as VOIP, gaming, streaming, and P2P flows, which are associated with different behavioral statistics, may be handled in ways applicable for the specific application traffic type. |
| US08817789B2 |
Communication apparatus, communication apparatus control method, and computer program for causing computer to execute the control method
In 802.11n, the time during which the band is occupied is prolonged by the use of the frame aggregation method or in accordance with the type of communication frame, and this may influence communication of another apparatus. To solve this problem, a communication frame length (a communication frame to be used and the number of frames to be aggregated) is determined by taking account of priority information of a plurality of communication apparatuses. |
| US08817786B2 |
Method for filtering packets coming from a communication network
A method of filtering packets coming from a communication network (1) comprising, after successful registration of a terminal (20) with a service platform (32): a step of associating a registration context with the terminal, the context comprising registration information transmitted between the terminal and the service platform during registration; a step of creating at least one filtering rule on the basis of the registration context, said rule aiming to block packets that do not conform to at least a portion of the registration information; and a step of filtering the packets as a function of the rule created. |
| US08817784B2 |
Method and apparatus for multicast packet reception
Roughly described, incoming data packets are delivered by the NIC directly to at least two user level endpoints. In an aspect, only filters that cannot be ambiguous are created in the NIC. In another aspect, the NIC maintains a filter table supporting direct delivery of incoming unicast and multicast data packets to one user level endpoint. Additional requests to join the same multicast group cause replacement of the NIC filter with one in the kernel. In another aspect, a NIC has limited capacity to maintain multicast group memberships. In response to a new multicast filter request, the kernel establishes it in the NIC only if the NIC still has sufficient capacity; otherwise it is established in the kernel. |
| US08817783B2 |
Information processing apparatus, image processing apparatus, control method, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus which make it possible to search from an information processing apparatus, for an IPv6-compatible image processing apparatus which has an IPv6 network address designated by the information processing apparatus. A device management application determines search conditions, and specifies information associated with a designated network. Further, the device management application generates a IPv6 multicast address using the thus specified information, transmits a search message designating the IPv6 multicast address, and receives a response transmitted from an image processing apparatus associated with the IPv6 multicast address. |
| US08817780B2 |
TS packet grooming
Received data packets are groomed to improve performance of MPEG-2 transport stream packet in a digital video broadcasting system. Multitude of crosschecking techniques are applied to ensure that crucial pieces of information such as the packet identifier (PID) field, the continuity counter (CC) field, table ID, section length, IP header checksum, table and frame boundaries, application data table size are corrected if necessary. |
| US08817779B2 |
Telephone communication system and method over local area network wiring
A device for enabling a local area network wiring structure to simultaneously carry digital data and analog telephone signals on the same transmission medium. It is particularly applicable to a network in star topology, in which remote data units (e.g. personal computers) are each connected to a hub through a cable comprising at least two pairs of conductors, providing a data communication path in each direction. Modules at each end of the cable provide a phantom path for telephony (voice band) signals between a telephone near the data set and a PBX, through both conductor pairs in a phantom circuit arrangement. All such communication paths function simultaneously and without mutual interference. The modules comprise simple and inexpensive passive circuit components. |
| US08817776B2 |
Method to share phone line
A first method for sharing telephone resources includes a VoIP device connecting to a first device over an IP network, receiving a request from the first device to call a second device with a telephone number, connecting to the second device through a telephone system, and transferring voice signals between the first and second devices. A second method for sharing telephone resources includes a first VoIP device joining a group of VoIP devices connected to an IP network to share their telephone resources, receiving from a caller a telephone number to call a device, connecting to a second VoIP device from the group over the IP network, transmitting the telephone number to the second VoIP device so the second VoIP device connects to the device through a telephone system, and transmitting to and receiving from the second VoIP device voice signals between the caller and a recipient at the device. |
| US08817775B2 |
Access gateway and method of operation by the same
An access gateway containing IP telephone service functions for subscribers under an integrated access device (IAD), forming a PSTN network side speech path or IP network side speech path selectively for each subscriber, and, further automatically switching, when trouble occurs at the IP network side, the IP network side speech path to the PSTN network side speech path. |
| US08817774B2 |
Integrated set-top box DSL VOIP WIFI device
An integrated Set-Top Box DSL VOIP WIFI device including a housing; a telecommunications line input for accepting a telecommunications line containing a video content signal and a data content signal from a provider, the data content signal for providing the voice over internet protocol to a telecommunication's device; a virtual local area network for splitting the video content signal and the data content signal; a video output for accepting a video line for transmitting the video content signal to a video device; a data output for accepting an audio line for transmitting the data content signal to at least one of a telecommunications device and a digital computing device; an antenna for transmitting the data content signal to a wireless communications device; and a passive pass-through filter for connection for providing transmission of E911 service voice signals. |
| US08817773B2 |
Reverse call origination via a non-signaling network
An approach is provided for originating a telephone call from a country with low telephone rates to a country with high telephone rates using a non-signaling network, such as a global computer network. This can be accomplished without additional specialized telephone equipment or any modifications to switches and databases in either country. Also, the telephone call can be established without any manipulations of signaling information transmitted by a carrier in the high traffic country. Such an approach provides flexible allocation of charges for originating a telephone call from a country with low telephone rates to a country with high telephone rates. |
| US08817769B2 |
Power decision pilot for wireless communication
Techniques for transmitting power decision pilots are described. A transmitter (e.g., a base station or a UE) may transmit a power decision pilot to indicate a transmit power level that it will use on subsequent time-frequency resources. In one design, the transmitter may determine a set of time-frequency resources to use for transmitting the power decision pilot, determine the transmit power level for the power decision pilot based on the transmit power level to use for data transmission, and transmit the power decision pilot on the set of time-frequency resources to indicate the transmit power level to use for data transmission on the subsequent time-frequency resources. A receiver (e.g., a UE or a base station) may receive power decision pilots from a set of transmitters and may estimate channel quality that the receiver can expect on the subsequent time-frequency resources based on the power decision pilots. |
| US08817765B2 |
Mobile router network operations center with billing reconciliation
A network operations center is operable with a plurality of wireless mobile routers, each comprising a wide area network wireless interface to access a cellular network provided by a predetermined cellular service provider. Each mobile router is operable to upload and download data via the cellular network, each mobile router is operable to monitor the uploaded and downloaded data to generate usage data. The network operations center comprises: first apparatus operable to manage communications with the plurality of mobile routers, operable to receive the usage data, and operable to access billing data from the predetermined cellular service provider for each of the mobile routers; and second apparatus operable to compare the usage data for each mobile router to corresponding billing data to determine if there is a billing discrepancy. |
| US08817764B2 |
Mobile router configured for billing reconcilliation
A mobile router comprises: a wide area network wireless interface operable to access a cellular network; first apparatus operable to upload data and to download data via the interface to the cellular network; second apparatus operable to monitor the uploaded data and the downloaded data and to generate data corresponding to predetermined quantifiable units corresponding to the uploaded data and the downloaded data; and the first apparatus and second apparatus cooperatively operate to automatically upload the usage data to a server for generation of usage discrepancy reports. |
| US08817754B2 |
Method and apparatus for transmitting downlink reference signal in wireless communication system that supports multiple antennas
A method for transmitting a channel status information reference signals (CSI-RSs) for a maximum of eight antenna ports includes mapping the CSI-RSs for a maximum of eight antenna ports onto a data region of a downlink subframe having a normal cyclic prefix (CP) configuration according to a predetermined pattern; and transmitting the downlink subframe to which the CSI-RSs mapped, wherein the predetermined pattern defines the CSI-RSs to be mapped onto two OFDM symbols of the data region in the downlink subframe and mapped to at least one of four subcarrier positions in each of the two OFDM symbols, and wherein the four subcarrier positions defined by the predetermined pattern may be two consecutive subcarrier positions and two other consecutive subcarrier positions spaced apart by four subcarriers. |
| US08817753B2 |
Mobile terminal apparatus and radio communication method
To provide a mobile terminal apparatus and radio communication method for enabling feedback control information to be efficiently transmitted on uplink channels, a radio communication method of the invention is characterized by having in a mobile terminal apparatus the steps of receiving a signal for each of a plurality of component carriers from a radio base station apparatus, generating feedback control information for each component carrier from the signal, mapping the feedback control information for each component carrier to suitable radio resources based on the number of component carriers, the presence or absence of uplink transmission data, and the number of bits of control information to transmit as feedback, and transmitting an uplink transmission signal mapped to the radio resources. |
| US08817749B2 |
Call setup for circuit switched fall back calls
Establishing a circuit-switched fallback (CSFB) call. A request to establish a CSFB call may be received. A first wireless link with a first cell may be released. The first cell may provide packet-switched services but not circuit-switched services. A second wireless link may be established with a second cell. The second cell may provide packet-switched services and circuit-switched services. The CSFB call may be established via the connection to the second cell. Packet-switched registration with the second cell may be performed after the CSFB call is established. |
| US08817747B2 |
Anchor carrier handover
A method of transferring anchor carrier status from a first carrier to another carrier in a multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network. The multi-carrier wireless telecommunications network comprises a base station and user equipment operable to simultaneously transmit and receive signals on multiple radio frequency carriers within a sector of the telecommunications network. The method comprises receiving details of a triggering event to be forwarded to a network node, the triggering event including a measurable characteristic of the first carrier changing past a predetermined first threshold value, providing triggering information indicative of the triggering event to a network node, determining which other carriers of the multicarrier telecommunications network have a measurable characteristic past a predetermined second threshold value, providing information relating to the above carriers to the network node, and transferring anchor carrier status to another carrier determined to have a measurable characteristic past the predetermined second threshold value. |
| US08817746B2 |
Apparatus and method for alleviating barred access in mobile communication system
A user equipment for alleviating barred access while reselecting from a first cell to a second cell in a mobile communication system is provided. A wireless module detects receives system information broadcasted in the first cell. A storage unit stores the system information. A controller reselects the user equipment from the first cell to the second cell. Particularly, the cell reselection is not performed during a connection establishment procedure. Also, the controller determines whether a first barred access timer is running in response to reselecting from the first cell to the second cell, and stops the first barred access timer and informs the upper layer of an RRC protocol that the access of the first service is allowed in response of that the first barred access timer is running. |
| US08817741B2 |
Method and apparatus for resource management in handover operation
A method and apparatus for resource management during handover operation includes initiating a handover from a first access network to a second access network. A policy update message is sent and a policy update confirmation message is received. A general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol (GTP) message and a radio access bearer (RAB) release message is sent and a GTP and RAB release acknowledgment is received. Connectivity is established for uplink and downlink transmission in the second access network. |
| US08817734B2 |
Physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission time interval (TTI) bundling
Technology for organizing physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmissions is disclosed. One method can include a node generating transmission time interval (TTI) bundling configuration information with instructions to bundle PUSCH transmissions for a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process in at least 20 TTIs in an approximately 50 subframe time interval in at least one PUSCH TTI bundle. The node can transmit the TTI bundling configuration information to a wireless device to enable the wireless device to transmit a PUSCH signal in the at least one PUSCH TTI bundle within an approximately 50 subframe time interval. |
| US08817732B2 |
Method for transmitting control channel to relay node in wireless communication system and apparatus thereof
A method for transmitting a relay node specific downlink physical control channel (R-PDCCH) at a base station in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes the steps of allocating one or more Resource Blocks (RBs) for the relay node specific downlink physical control channel, mapping the relay node specific downlink physical control channel to the one or more resource blocks, and transmitting the relay node specific downlink physical control channel to the relay node by using the one or more resource blocks, wherein the mapping step includes mapping the relay node specific downlink physical control channel along a frequency direction in a symbol belonging to a lowermost index, among the one or more resource blocks, and then mapping the relay node specific downlink physical control channel along the frequency direction in a symbol belonging to a next index. |
| US08817725B2 |
Scheduling transmission of traffic treated less preferentially despite timing requirements
A source device has a wireless communication interface. Through the wireless communication interface, the source device establishes a communication session over a wireless medium with a sink device and determines a maximum capacity of a buffer at the sink device for receipt of audio samples to be transmitted in packets from the source device to the sink device in an asynchronous connectionless link over the wireless medium. Scheduling access to the wireless medium by the wireless communication interface for transmission of audio samples on the link takes into account the maximum capacity of the buffer. |
| US08817723B2 |
Methods and apparatus for inter-cell interference coordination self-organized network
A method of resource allocation for use in a wireless network is disclosed. A network coloring decision to assign a plurality of resource blocks to a plurality of cells within the wireless network is triggered upon occurrence of a network event. A network coloring is performed by assigning each cell of the plurality of cells a resource block from the plurality of resource blocks. An effect of interference among adjacent cells with a same resource block assignment is reduced as measured by a network performance metric related to a number of resource block assignment conflicts over the plurality of cells. |
| US08817720B2 |
Method and device for determining subband index
The present invention discloses a method for determining a subband index, the method comprises: an Evolved Node B (eNB) receives r, calculates a difference between the received r and a formula 〈 N - s i M - i 〉 corresponding to each obtained subband index, searches sequences 〈 N - 1 M - i 〉 , 〈 N - 2 M - i 〉 , … , 〈 0 M - i 〉 in a stored intermediate value table according to the calculated difference to obtain each si constituting {si}i=0M−1. The present invention further discloses a device for determining a subband index, the device comprises a table generation module, a receiving module and a calculation module. The method and device disclosed in the present invention are capable of reducing the storage space needed for a subband index report. |
| US08817717B2 |
Concurrent background spectral scanning for bluetooth packets while receiving WLAN packets
A Bluetooth detection unit can be implemented to minimize the time required for executing the inquiry and paging scan procedures on a Bluetooth device associated with a collocated WLAN device. The Bluetooth detection unit can execute concurrent background spectral scanning to detect Bluetooth control packets while the WLAN device is receiving WLAN packets. The Bluetooth detection unit can analyze, for each Bluetooth control channel, the Bluetooth device can determine energy measurements associated with each Bluetooth control channel and can determine whether each Bluetooth control channel comprises a narrowband signal based, at least in part, on frequency domain samples associated with an RF signal received at the WLAN device. The Bluetooth detection unit can determine which of the Bluetooth control channels comprise a Bluetooth control packet. |
| US08817716B2 |
Efficient working standby radio protection scheme
A radio link transmission method that comprises transmitting data on a plurality of radio channels. The method allocates a portion of the capacity of each radio channel for transmission of identical data on the plurality of radio channels. The remaining capacity of each radio channel is allocated for transmission of unique data, which is different for each radio channel. The method further transmits the identical data on each radio channel of the plurality of radio channels, and transmits the unique data in the respective radio channels of the plurality of radio channels. |
| US08817713B2 |
Method and arrangement in a telecommunication system
A mobile station for use with a mobile network, and being arranged to be assigned one or more Temporary Block Flows, TBFs, by the mobile network, and to receive RLC/MAC Blocks from the mobile network, each of which RLC/MAC Blocks is associated with one of said TBFs, and to identify a received RLC/MAC Block by means of a Temporary Flow Identity, TFI, which has been assigned by the mobile network to the TBF with which the RLC/MAC Block is associated. The mobile station is arranged to recognize TFIs which belong to a first group of TFIs as well as TFIs which belong to a second group of TFIs, with a TFI in the second group comprising a TFI in the first group of TFIs together with additional information in the received RLC/MAC block. |
| US08817712B2 |
Apparatus for providing location based service and method thereof
A mobile terminal for providing a location based service includes a short-distance communication module to detect a signal from an access point, to receive server connection information from the access point, to connect to a server belonging to a service area serviced by the access point based on the server connection information, and to automatically receive contents associated with the service area from the server; a display unit to display the received contents; and a control unit to control the short-distance communication module and the display unit. |
| US08817709B2 |
Methods and apparatus for controlling channel utilization
Methods and apparatus for determining a portion of a channel, e.g., a peer discovery channel, to use in a communications network, e.g., an ad hoc peer to peer network, are described. In the communication network, the channel includes a recurring set of time/frequency resources. A device monitors the congestion level and decides to use a whole channel or a fraction of a channel (e.g., ½. ¼) as a function of the congestion level. The device may change the fraction of the channel it occupies as the congestion level changes. The device broadcasts control information indicating the fraction of the channel it occupies. The device may be a mobile wireless terminal. |
| US08817707B2 |
Mechanisms for roaming between 3GPP operators and WLAN service providers
Embodiments describe methods, apparatuses and logic for a user equipment (UE) to connect to an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) based on credentials from a UE's home third generation partnership project (3GPP) network. In some embodiments, the UE may receive selection policy parameters from the WLAN including a network access identifier (NAI) realm. The UE may also receive selection policy parameters from the 3GPP network. The UE may compare the selection policy parameters of the WLAN with the selection policy parameters of the 3GPP network and discover roaming relationships between service providers and the relative priorities of different networks, and create a network list based on the comparison. The UE may then associate with an AP of the WLAN based on the prioritized network list. |
| US08817705B2 |
Method, apparatus and system for transmitting user plane data
Receiving a connection establishment request message sent by a user equipment; establishing a signaling connection with the user equipment according to the connection establishment request message; and transmitting a user plane IP data packet through the signaling connection. After a signaling connection is established between a UE in an idle state and a mobility management device, an uplink user plane IP data packet or a downlink user plane IP data packet, is directly transmitted between the UE and the network side through the signaling connection, with no need to specifically establish (recover) an RAB between the UE and an S-GW, which can save the signaling overhead, thus reducing the network load and lowering the operating cost of an operator. |
| US08817695B1 |
Dynamic adjustment of reverse link ACK transmission power based on forward link slot utilization
A method and system for dynamically adjusting reverse-link ACK transmission power based on forward-link timeslot utilization. A radio access network (e.g., a base station) may monitor timeslot utilization on the forward link and, upon detecting that the timeslot utilization is threshold high, may cause one or more served access terminals to increase their ACK transmission power, thereby possibly helping to minimize re-transmissions for data packets that have already been successfully received, and thus helping to minimize unnecessary use of potentially scarce forward-link timeslots. |
| US08817692B2 |
Method and apparatus for allocating resources in a wireless communication system
A method and apparatus for allocating backhaul resources to a relay in a wireless communication system, particularly a method and apparatus for processing a downlink signal at a relay in a wireless communication system are discussed. The method in one embodiment includes receiving resource allocation information indicating a resource block set from a Base Station (BS) through higher layer signaling, receiving a downlink subframe, starting from a predetermined Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, from the BS, monitoring the resource block set in the downlink subframe to receive a physical control channel, and performing an operation according to the received physical control channel. |
| US08817691B2 |
Resource allocation for OFDMA systems with half-duplex relay(s) and corresponding transmission protocol
A transmission protocol is provided for wireless communications in an OFDMA system that uses a rateless code and techniques are provided for dynamically adjusting the subcarrier resources allocated to an OFDMA relay node so that the relay is used at the right time according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). As a result, a higher throughput is achieved between source and destination nodes based on a low complexity algorithm for determining when relay assistance is helpful for completing a transmission between the source and destination nodes. |
| US08817689B2 |
Method of transmitting data in a radio network, radio network and receiving station
In accordance with the invention there is at least a method of receiving data streams from at least two sending stations, wherein the data streams are sent to a receiving station; storing said data streams; and re-sending from the stored data streams a repeat of one or more data streams of the data streams sent to the receiving station, wherein the re-sending the repeat of the one or more data streams comprises selecting a weaker at least one data stream of the data streams and re-sending the weaker at least one data stream to the receiving station. Further, there is receiving at least two data streams; storing said received at least two data streams; receiving a repeat of one or more data streams re-sent by at least one relay station; and combining the received at least two data streams and the received repeat of the one or more data streams. |
| US08817688B2 |
Radio relay device and radio relay method
A radio relay device (100) is applied to a radio communication system wherein a period in which downlink data are transmitted and a period in which uplink data are transmitted are provided in time division in communication time frames that are segmented on a time axis. The radio relay device (100) is provided with a donor transceiver (120D) that exchanges data with a radio base station, a remote transceiver (120R) that exchanges data with a radio terminal, and controllers (130D, 130R) that alternately execute control to operate the donor transceiver (120D) and stop the remote transceiver (120R) in at least one communication time frame, and control to stop the donor transceiver (120D) and operate the remote transceiver (120R) in at least one communication time frame. |
| US08817686B2 |
Downlink reference signal for type II relay
A network comprising a relay node configured to transmit a first common reference signal (CRS) to a plurality of user agents (UAs) using a first plurality of physical antennas and/or virtual antennas, and an access node configured to transmit a second CRS to the UAs using a second plurality of physical antennas and/or virtual antennas, wherein the first CRS and the second CRS are combined for the same number of first and second physical antennas and/or virtual antennas. Also included is a network comprising a relay node configured to transmit a dedicated reference signal (DRS) to a UA using a first plurality of physical antennas and/or virtual antennas, and an access node configured to transmit a second DRS to the UA using a second plurality of physical antennas and/or virtual antennas, wherein the first DRS and the second DRS are transmitted at about the same time. |
| US08817684B2 |
Adaptive mobile multicasting for wireless networks
Video streams may be adaptively switched between multicast and unicast transmission over a wireless interface of a wireless network. A device may track a quantity of videos that are being streamed over the wireless network. The device may determine, based on the tracked quantity of videos, whether to dedicate a radio channel, of at least one cell in the wireless network, to streaming a first of the videos. The device may transmit, in response to a request, from a mobile device, for the first video, an identification of the dedicated radio channel so that the mobile device can receive the first video as a streaming video over the dedicated radio channel. |
| US08817683B2 |
Network relay apparatus and inter-network relay method
In a network relay router 10, a multicast routing protocol processing module 11A sequentially sends a join request message (CP1) to a router 30a functioning as a rendezvous point via an interface 101, based on the settings of a multicast group address or destination address and a sender VRF name. The network relay router 10 receives a multicast packet (DP1) from the router 30a via the interface 101 and acquires a sender address or source address of a transmission device SE from the received multicast packet. The network relay router 10 sends a join request message (CP2) via an interface 102 on the side of the transmission device SE and receives a multicast packet via the interface 102. This establishes an optimum multicast route (MR) between the transmission device SE and the network relay router 10. |
| US08817679B2 |
Base station, communication system and communication method
A base station includes a receiver configured to receive data wirelessly transmitted from plural mobile stations which repeatedly transmit the data until a reception acknowledgement signal representing that the data has been received by the base station is received, a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit data to the plural mobile stations, and a controller configured to assign a radio resource for data transmission to a mobile station of the plural mobile stations in accordance with a data transmission request received from the mobile station, make the receiver receive data from the mobile station in the assigned radio resource, when the receiver has received the data from the mobile station make the transmitter transmit the reception acknowledgement signal to the mobile station, and when the radio resource is reassigned in association with the wireless transmission of the reception acknowledgement signal make the transmitter retransmit the reception acknowledgement signal. |
| US08817677B2 |
Power control device for home appliances
An energy controller, as a communication device, transmits and receives data by transmitting a signal for establishing transmission and reception of the data to network-connected home appliances. The energy controller includes a power saving control unit that determines a transmission period such that the transmission period during which the signal is transmitted is increased as a power value difference increases, which is a value obtained by subtracting the total power consumption value of a power consumption appliance from available power supply value to the power consumption appliance including the network-connected home appliances; and a wireless communication IF for transmitting the signal containing the information indicating the transmission period to the network-connected home appliances in order to set the network-connected home appliances in an active state with a period according to the transmission period. |
| US08817671B2 |
Full duplex transmission circuit and electronic apparatus
Disclosed herein is a full duplex transmission circuit including: a first internal input terminal receiving a signal to be transmitted; a second internal input terminal receiving a signal having an amplitude equal to ½ times the amplitude of the signal to be transmitted and having the same phase as the phase of the signal to be transmitted; an external input/output terminal; an internal output terminal; a first metal oxide semiconductor transistor; and the second metal oxide semiconductor transistor. A current generated by the current source as well as the sizes of the first and second metal oxide semiconductor transistors are set so that the transconductances of the first and second metal oxide semiconductor transistors become equal to 1/Z. |
| US08817670B2 |
Full duplex communication circuit and method therefor
Duplex communications are facilitated. In connection with various example embodiments, current sources are used to drive transistor-based circuits coupled across a first resistive circuit, to send signals on a communications medium. While driving the transistor-based circuits, the current sources are used to drive reference transistor-based circuits coupled across a second resistive circuit. A differential output signal based upon a power-related value across the first resistive circuit, less a power-related value across the second resistive circuit. This differential output signal characterizes a power-related value corresponding to a received signal on the communications medium, as gleaned from a total signal corresponding to both transmitted and received signals, less a signal corresponding to the transmitted signal. |
| US08817666B2 |
System and method for multiple spanning tree protocol domains in a virtual local area network
A system and method that modifies the behavior of the IEEE 802.1D STP standard to thereby decouple the one data domain from the one control domain involves managing multiple spanning tree protocol (STP) instances in a virtual local area network (VLAN). The method includes the step of assigning a unique set of ports within the VLAN to each of the multiple STP instances. Then, each of the multiple STP instances are managed to keep each of the multiple STP instances separate. Finally, when a topology change is detected in one of the multiple STP instances, entries that have been learned on the unique set of ports assigned to the STP protocol instance where the topology change is detected are fast-aged or transitioned from one state to another. |
| US08817665B2 |
Alternate down paths for directed acyclic graph (DAG) routing
In one embodiment, a node N, within a computer network that utilizes a directed acyclic graph (DAG) to route packets, may select a parent node P that is a parent to the node N in the DAG. The node N may determine a grandparent node GP within the computer network that is a parent of the parent node P in the DAG. The node N may select an alternate parent node P′ within the computer network that has connectivity to the grandparent node GP and the node N. A sibling connection may be established within the computer network between the parent node P and the alternate parent node P′. The sibling connection may provide a path for reaching prefixes reachable via the node N. |
| US08817663B2 |
Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable media for creating and managing ad-hoc groups linked to an event and spanning multiple modes of communication
A method for creating and managing ad-hoc groups linked to an event and spanning multiple modes of communication includes creating an ad-hoc group associated with an event. Available modes of communication are determined for each participant in the group. For each mode of communication, first information for contacting each participant is determined. Second information that serves as an alias for each participant is determined. A consolidated view of the available modes of communication with each of the participants in the group is provided using the aliases. |
| US08817661B2 |
Method of providing hand-off hysteresis for subnet borders
In one embodiment, at least one grouping message is broadcast from a network element. The grouping message causes an access terminal (AT) in the communications network to regard the at least first and second subnets as both being members of a same subnet group. Location information and a maximum distance parameter associated with at least one area and configured to create a buffer zone along a border between the first and second subnets are broadcasted from the network element to the AT. The AT is prevented from sending a subnet identifier request message when the AT has, as an origin area, an area of the first subnet in the buffer zone and the AT travels to an area of the second subnet in the buffer zone. Session transfers are performed outside the buffer zone triggered by distance based location update messages, thus preventing session transfer ping-ponging. |
| US08817656B2 |
Discovery for fibre channel over ethernet devices
Techniques are provided for performing discovery in a Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) network. An FCoE Node (ENode) discovers the FCoE Forwarders (FCFs) connected to its network segment by transmitting a solicitation message to the multicast MAC address “All-FCF-MACs”. All FCFs receive packets with this multicast MAC address including the solicitation message that announces the presence of the ENode. Each FCF replies with a unicast advertisement message that provides the ENode with a MAC address of the responding FCF. The ENode builds a list of the FCFs available on its network segment and may then establish a virtual link with one or more of the FCFs through a Fabric Login (FLOGI) exchange. |
| US08817653B2 |
Detecting irregular retransmissions
A packet trace is received. Transmitted bytes and retransmitted bytes are identified in the packet trace. Upon identifying the transmitted bytes and the retransmitted bytes in the packet trace, one or more time-rate pairs are determined from the packet trace. The time-rate pairs are plotted on a rate tracking graph. |
| US08817643B1 |
Method and apparatus for monitoring a radio link in a communication system
In a method for monitoring a radio link in a wireless communication system, a plurality of short term radio link quality values based on one or more measured channel matrices is determined. A long term radio link quality value is determined from the plurality of the short term radio link quality values. Additionally, radio link failure or recovery is indicated, when appropriate, based on the long term radio link quality value. |
| US08817641B2 |
Communication terminal, communication device and methods thereof for detecting and avoiding in-device interference
According to an embodiment, a communication terminal is described comprising two radio communication modules and a controller configured to, in response to the reception of a request for starting communication using the second radio communication module, perform at least one of requesting from a communication device to perform reception quality measurements of signals received from the first radio communication module if the first radio communication module is transmitting signals to the communication device; and performing reception quality measurements of signals received from the communication device by the first radio communication module if the first radio communication module is receiving signals from the communication device. |
| US08817638B2 |
Method and system for network communications utilizing shared scalable resources
Aspects of a method and system for network communications utilizing shared scalable resources are provided. In this regard, networking state information for one or more of a plurality of communication devices may be communicated to a network management device. The network management device may be operable to aggregate the networking state information. The plurality of communication devices may receive aggregated networking state information from the network management device. The plurality of communication devices may route packets based on the received aggregated networking state information. The network management device may be dynamically or manually selected from the plurality of communication devices. The plurality of communication devices may be associated with a sharing domain, and one or more communication devices may be dynamically added to and/or removed from the sharing domain. |
| US08817637B2 |
Apparatus, and associated method, for requesting data retransmission in a packet radio communication system
Apparatus, and an associated method, that reduces the occurrence of generation of redundant requests for retransmission of packet-formatted data, formatted at a physical layer and at a higher-logical layer, such as at an RLP layer. An estimate of an appropriate delay period is formed. The estimate is responsive to communication conditions in the communication system. When a data packet appears to have been inadequately delivered to the RLP logical layer, a DELAY_DETECTION_WINDOW timer is caused to time out the delay period estimated by the estimator. The request for retransmission, generated at the RLP layer, is permitted, upon expiration of the timer if the data packet has not yet been successfully delivered to the RLP layer and the transmitter has not given up the data packet delivery. |
| US08817635B2 |
Methods, test systems and arrangements for verifying compliance with requirement specifications
A method for verifying compliance of a communication device with one or more requirement specifications is disclosed. The method comprises establishing a link between a test system and the communication device, wherein the establishing comprises configuring two or more bearers, one or more control channels, and one or more uplink packet filters; closing a test loop comprising the test system and the communication device, wherein the closing comprises activating a test loop function of the communication device; sending units of data associated with different service data flows in a downlink of the test loop from the test system to the communication device, each of the units of data including information representing the service data flow associated with the unit of data; receiving the units of data at the communication device; transferring the units of data to an uplink transmission arrangement of the communication device; and verifying, at the test system, that each of the units of data is transmitted, by the communication device in an uplink of the test loop to the test system, on a correct bearer corresponding to the service data flow associated with the respective unit of data according to the one or more uplink packet filters. Corresponding test system and test loop function arrangement are also disclosed. |
| US08817630B1 |
Perimeter-based protocol for efficiently transmitting a message through a communications network
In a communications network having a plurality of nodes, a method of suppressing re-transmission of a message by a receiving node is disclosed. The receiving node receives a message from each of a plurality of transmitting nodes. Each of the receiving node and the transmitting nodes has a coverage area bounded by a perimeter. For each of the plurality of transmitting nodes, it is determined which portion of the perimeter of the coverage area of the receiving node is within the coverage area of the respective transmitting node. Re-transmission of the message by the receiving node is suppressed when the perimeter of the coverage area of the receiving node is completely within the combined coverage areas of the plurality of transmitting nodes. |
| US08817629B2 |
Method for routing-assisted traffic monitoring
A method for routing-assisted traffic monitoring includes providing a set of flows, each flow having an associated ingress routing device and an associated egress routing device. A controller determines a micro-flowset routing for the set of flows, the micro-flowset routing defining which of a set of directed links connecting a plurality of routing devices are used to route each of the flows from the respective ingress routing device to the respective egress routing device. The controller transmits flow information to at least a first routing device of the plurality of routing devices according to the micro-flowset routing, the flow information defining which of the set of directed links are to be used to route at least one flow entering the first routing device to a second routing device of the plurality of routing devices. |
| US08817628B2 |
Wireless system
In a wireless system of one embodiment, a first wireless device includes: a first transmitter which transmits an end-of-transmission notification; and a first receiver which receives a change request signal sent from a second wireless device receiving the end-of-transmission notification. The second wireless device includes: a second receiver which receives the end-of-transmission notification; and a second transmitter which transmits a change request signal when the end-of-transmission notification is received. The first transmitter transmits a signal at a longer interval after the first receiver receives the change request signal, and the second transmitter transmits a signal at a shorter interval after the second transmitter transmits the change request signal. |
| US08817627B2 |
Methods and systems for message transfer part (MTP) load sharing using MTP load sharing groups
Methods and systems for load sharing signaling messages at the MTP level are disclosed. When a signaling message is received, it is determined whether the signaling message includes a routing indication indicating route-on-point-code-subsystem-number. If the routing indicator indicates route-on-point-code-subsystem-number, it is determined whether the signaling message belongs to an MTP level 3 load sharing group. If the signaling message belongs to an MTP level 3 load sharing group, the signaling message may be routed to any of the point codes in the MTP level 3 load sharing group. Routing the signaling message to a point code in the MTP level 3 load sharing group may include replacing the destination point code in the signaling message with the destination point code of the node to which the signaling message is to be routed. Once the point code has been replaced, the signaling message is routed to the destination associated with the point code. |
| US08817622B1 |
Data network with aggregate flow monitoring
Each switch of the data network includes a number of switch ingress ports for receiving arrival data flow. An aggregate flow monitor is operatively associated with each ingress port for monitoring the aggregate arrival data flow in defined traffic constraint envelopes containing frames. An eligibility time computation mechanism computes an eligibility time at which arriving frames to an ingress port will be conformant to the defined traffic envelope to the ingress port given past frame arrivals. A holding mechanism holds the arriving frames to the ingress port until the eligibility time is reached. A release mechanism releases the arriving frames for forwarding at the eligibility time. The aggregate flow monitor, the eligibility time computation mechanism, the holding mechanism, and the release mechanism cooperate to provide an aggregate traffic shaping function, thus allowing the switch to enforce the traffic constraint envelope for each ingress port. |
| US08817620B2 |
Network virtualization apparatus and method
Some embodiments provide a network virtualizer for managing several managed switching elements that forward data in a network. The virtualizer includes an interface for receiving input logical forwarding plane data. It also includes a converter for converting the input logical forwarding plane data to output physical control plane data. In some embodiments, the physical control plane data is translation into physical forwarding plane data that direct the forwarding of data by the managed switching elements. |
| US08817619B2 |
Network system with quality of service management and associated management method
A network system with QoS management and an associated management method are provided. The network system comprises a switch network, a target device, and at least a source device for issuing a packet to the target device via the switch network. The switch network comprises a flow control unit, a switch unit and a scheduling unit. The flow control unit determines whether to output a high priority packet according to a target priority level and a high priority bandwidth quota of the source device, and directly outputs a low priority packet. The switch unit determines a packet forwarding sequence according to a packet arbitration policy. The scheduling unit determines the sequence for packets to enter the target device. The scheduling unit updates the target priority level as the priority level of a packet entering the target device, and informs the flow control unit of the updated target priority level. |
| US08817618B2 |
Quality of service determination based on upstream content source
Systems and methods for providing trigger based dynamic changes to a packet flow in a communication network are described. The trigger based dynamic changes can include upgrading and downgrading quality of service (QoS), processing the packet flow, and providing services to the packet flow. These changes can be provided by inspecting packets at a gateway for trigger conditions and setting up a proxy instance for the packet flows. The proxy can coordinate QoS changes and management of packet flows. The triggers can be based on the destination of the packet, for example, the uniform resource locator (URL) and/or by the services (e.g., email, video, messaging) that the subscriber is accessing. The triggers can also be based on the identity of the user or agreements a provider might have with an operator of network equipment for users accessing the provider's website. |
| US08817615B2 |
Method for operating a wireless network and a wireless network
For allowing a best possible usage of network resources even under congestion conditions a method for operating a wireless network, especially an IP (Internet Protocol) network, is described, wherein a queue management function based on an average queue length in a network element is used. The method is characterized in that a result of a weighting function will be combined or multiplied with the average queue length for determining a combined congestion contribution for use within the queue management function, wherein the weighting function takes into account per-user information on a wireless channel condition. Further, a corresponding wireless network, preferably for carrying out the above mentioned method, is also described. |
| US08817612B2 |
Method for implementing limited policy and charging control and system thereof
The present invention provides a method and system for implementing limited policy and charging control. The method comprises a PCRF determining whether a visited network where a UE roams supports PCC, and sending a message containing an identifier indicating the limited policy and charging control deployment to an AF. After receiving the message containing the identifier, the AF performs no subscription of the event trigger and/or cancels the subscription of the event trigger based on the identifier. Using the method and system in accordance with the present invention, the AF can be notified more conveniently and accurately of the current policy and charging control deployment situation when the limited policy and charging control is implemented (i.e., when the visited network does not support the PCC). Moreover, the AF may perform the corresponding operations according to the current policy and charging control deployment situation, thereby saving system resources. |
| US08817611B2 |
Parallel operation of RSTP (rapid spanning tree protocol) and MRP (media redundancy protocol) and segmentation/coupling
The invention relates to a method for running a network, in particular an Ethernet network with redundancy properties, wherein the network has a ring network topology, in which network devices are connected to each other with the data ports thereof via data lines and exchange control data and user data by means of protocols via the data lines, wherein the protocols prevent the transmission of network traffic via certain data ports of individual network devices with the exception of network traffic for controlling and/or monitoring the media redundancy, in order to avoid an endless circulation of network traffic in physical loops of the network, wherein it is provided according to the invention that at least two different protocols are executed parallel to each other in the network on the network devices, wherein the parallel operation of the at least two redundancy protocols is enabled by the fact that the control over the data ports to be blocked is assigned to an individual redundancy, or the parameters for the at least two redundancy protocols are chosen and/or the work processes of the redundancy protocols are arranged that one redundancy protocol does not block connections which the other redundancy protocol regards as active. |
| US08817599B2 |
Mobile router with session proxy
A mobile router having a session proxy module is disclosed. The session proxy module may act as a proxy (such as a TCP proxy) for all sessions (e.g., TCP sessions) going through the mobile router. That is, for example, when a local end-user seeks to establish a TCP session from their local end-user device (such as laptop) with a destination (such as a third party server), the session proxy module may (1) terminate the TCP session coming from the local end-user device and (2) establish a TCP (or some other protocol) session on the backhaul interface with the destination. That way, all end-user traffic between the end-user and the destination may be transparently routed through the mobile router. |
| US08817598B2 |
Hardware based convergence for a ring network
In accordance with an example embodiment, there is disclosed herein, an apparatus having first and second interfaces for communicating on a ring network. Upon receipt of a first signal on the first interface indicating a break in the ring, the apparatus stops forwarding packets onto the ring. Upon receipt of a second signal on the second port indicating a break in the ring, the apparatus forwards all packets destined for the ring network onto the ring network via both the first and second interfaces. |
| US08817593B2 |
Method and apparatus providing failover for a point to point tunnel for wireless local area network split-plane environments
A method, apparatus and computer program product for providing failover for a point to point tunnel for wireless local area network split-plane environments is presented. A second network switch learns first data associated with a third network switch and the second network switch terminates a tunnel. The third network switch learns second data associated with the second network switch. The first and second data are synchronized between the second network switch and the third network switch. The second network switch and the third network switch load sharing tunnel data packets. The third network switch forwards tunnel control packets received by the third network switch to the second network switch. A failure relating to the second network switch is detected and a new tunnel is established with the third network switch. |
| US08817592B2 |
Storage device and storage device control method
A storage device is communicably connected to a host through a network switch on a network. The storage device includes a disk array having a storage medium storing data, and a plurality of controller units each having a port for connection to the network and controlling I/O process for the disk array. A first controller unit carries out a first setting to send, to the first controller unit, the packets sent by the host to a second controller unit, and a second setting to let the host regard at least part of the packets sent by the first controller unit to the host as are sent by the second controller unit, for the network switch. |
| US08817591B2 |
Inter-domain signaling to update remote path computation elements after a call set-up failure
In one embodiment, a router in a non-originating domain receives a signal to establish a tunnel, the signal having an identification (ID) of an originating path computation element (PCE) of an originating domain from where the signal to establish the tunnel originated. In response to determining that establishment of the tunnel fails, the router may signal the failure of the establishment to a local PCE of the non-originating domain, the signaling indicating the ID of the originating PCE to cause the local PCE to provide updated routing information of the non-originating domain to the originating PCE. |
| US08817587B2 |
Optical information recording medium having super-resolution film
An optical information recording medium has a first information recording layer (20) and a second information recording layer (40) each of which includes (i) a group of pre-pits (31, 51) constituting marks (32, 52) and spaces (33, 53) and (ii) a super-resolution film (23, 43), the marks (32, 52) and the spaces (33, 53) having different lengths, an average length of a smallest mark that is smallest in length and a smallest space that is smallest in length being less than or equal to a resolution limit of a reproduction optical system for reproducing information recorded on the first information recording layer (20) and the second information recording layer (40), the group of pre-pits (31, 51) being formed so that a push-pull signal for the reproduction optical system to reproduce the information recorded by the group of pre-pits is negative in polarity. This provides an inexpensive and high-capacity multilayer optical information recording medium based on a super-resolution technology. |
| US08817586B2 |
Information storage medium, reproducing method, and recording method
A machine readable information storage medium, a reproducing method and apparatus which reproduces data from the storage medium, and a recording method and apparatus for recording data on the storage medium. The information storage medium includes a control area which stores within a data structure information usable by the recording or reproducing apparatus to record or reproduce the data on or from the storage medium. The information stored within the data structure includes a version corresponding to a specification, a revision number of recording speed, and an extended part version field. |
| US08817581B1 |
Thermally-assisted magnetic recording head using near-field light
A plasmon generator of a thermally-assisted magnetic recording head has a first configuration member having a near-field light generation end surface at an ABS, and a second configuration member being in contact with main magnetic pole, and terminating at a front end portion of a slope positioned at the position recessed from the ABS. An end part of a separator layer, which is interposed between the main magnetic pole and the first configuration member, on a side opposite to the ABS is at a position more recessed from the air bearing surface than the front end portion of the slope of the second configuration member. |
| US08817580B2 |
Fastening of a dial to a timepiece bottom plate
A timepiece assembly including centring pins integral with a bottom plate, each arranged to cooperate with radial and tangential play with an oblong groove in a dial, for the relative positioning of the dial with respect to the bottom plate, and a holding means integral with the bottom plate, arranged to cooperate with a complementary holding device integral with the dial, the holding device and/or complementary holding device including an elastic return device for pressing the dial resting onto the bottom plate. The elastic return device has tangential mobility in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the bottom plate and to a radial line connecting the center of the bottom plate to the elastic return device. |
| US08817572B2 |
Semiconductor memory apparatus and method of operating using the same
A semiconductor memory apparatus includes a reset pad configured to receive and transfer an external reset signal and an external control signal; a first input buffer configured to buffer the external reset signal in response to a buffer control signal and output an internal reset signal; a second input buffer configured to buffer the external control signal in response to the buffer control signal and output an internal control signal; and an input buffer control unit configured to generate the buffer control signal in response to an external command. |
| US08817570B2 |
Devices having bias temperature instability compensation
Methods are provided for operating a memory device. An exemplary method involves obtaining a standby current through a memory block and adjusting a supply voltage for the memory block based on the obtained standby current. An exemplary memory device includes a block of one or more memory cells, a voltage regulating element coupled to the block to provide a supply voltage to the block, a current sensing element coupled to the block to measure current through the block, and a control module coupled to the voltage regulating element and the current sensing element to adjust the supply voltage provided by the voltage regulating element based on a measured current through the block obtained from the current sensing element. |
| US08817565B2 |
Method for measuring a temperature in an electronic device having a battery and a memory device
A temperature sensing device can be embedded in a memory module or system in order to sense the temperature of the memory module or system. One oscillator generates a temperature variable signal that increases frequency as the temperature of the oscillator increases and decreases frequency when the temperature of the oscillator decreases. A temperature invariant oscillator generates a fixed width signal that is controlled by an oscillator read logic and indicates a temperature sense cycle. An n-bit counter is clocked by the temperature variable signal while the fixed width signal enables/inhibits the counter. The faster the counter counts, the larger the count value at the end of the sense cycle indicated by the fixed width signal. A larger count value indicates a warmer temperature. A smaller count value indicates a colder temperature. |
| US08817564B2 |
Circuit for sensing multi-level cell
A circuit for sensing a multi-level cell (MLC) comprises a first switch associated with a first read bit, a second switch associated with a second read bit, a first switch control unit to control the first switch in response to a first data bit from a counter, and a second switch control unit to control the second switch in response to a second data bit from the counter. |
| US08817562B2 |
Devices and methods for controlling memory cell pre-charge operations
A memory having a memory array having bit cells coupled to bit lines. The memory further includes a precharge circuit that precharges bit lines. The memory also includes a control circuit coupled to the precharge circuit that enables the precharge circuit at a beginning portion of a read cycle, keeps the precharge circuit disabled until an end of the read cycle, and keeps the precharge circuit disabled during a write cycle. A method of operating a memory, in which the memory includes an array of memory cells coupled to bit lines, includes precharging the bit lines at a beginning of a read cycle. The method also includes blocking precharging of the bit lines for a duration of a write cycle. |
| US08817561B2 |
Method for estimating channel characteristics of nonvolatile memory device
A method for estimating channel characteristics of a nonvolatile memory device including a plurality of memory cells includes the steps of: calculating first threshold voltage distributions of the memory cells programmed according to input data, based on the input data and a physical structure of the memory cells; calculating second threshold voltage distributions of the memory cells, based on output data and the physical structure of the memory cells; and analyzing the relation between the first and second threshold voltage distributions, using a mask. |
| US08817560B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having redundant fuse circuit
A semiconductor memory device includes: a memory cell array configured to include a redundant cell array; a column selection line driver configured to select and drive a column of the redundant cell array and a column of the memory cell array; a plurality of unit redundant fuse circuits each configured to include a fuse and a fuse latch; a comparison logic array configured to include comparison logics that respectively correspond to the unit redundant fuse circuits; and a global address line set configured to transfer a column address to the comparison logic array. |
| US08817556B2 |
Command generation circuit and semiconductor memory device
There is provided a command generation circuit. The command generation circuit includes a first driving unit driving an output node in response to an internal MRS command and a RAS idle signal; a second driving unit driving the output node in response to an off-signal; and a latch unit latching a signal at the output node in response to a power-up signal and generating an SRR command. |
| US08817555B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device includes an internal signal generation unit configured to output a column select signal and a write enable signal in response to an external address, a write circuit unit configured to output internal data corresponding to external data in response to the write enable signal, a core unit configured to store the internal data in response to the column select signal, and an output timing control unit configured to control output timings of the internal signal generation unit and the write circuit unit in response to an external command, an internal synchronization signal, and preamble related information. |
| US08817552B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
A semiconductor memory device comprises a plurality of memory layers arranged in multilayer, each memory layer including a cell array, the cell array containing a plurality of first parallel lines, a plurality of second parallel lines arranged crossing the first lines, and a plurality of memory cells connected at intersections of the first lines and the second lines; a pulse generator operative to generate pulses required for data access to the memory cell; and a control means operative to control the pulse generator such that the pulse output from the pulse generator has energy in accordance with the memory layer to which the access target memory cell belongs. |
| US08817548B2 |
Semiconductor memory device having an electrically floating body transistor
A method for performing a holding operation to a semiconductor memory array having rows and columns of memory cells, includes: applying an electrical signal to buried regions of the memory cells, wherein each of the memory cells comprises a floating body region defining at least a portion of a surface of the memory cell, the floating body region having a first conductivity type; and wherein the buried region of each memory cell is located within the memory cell and located adjacent to the floating body region, the buried region having a second conductivity type. |
| US08817545B2 |
Semiconductor memory devices, systems including non-volatile memory read threshold voltage determination
A semiconductor memory system can include a memory device having a memory cell array that includes a plurality of memory cells. A memory controller can be configured to perform domain transformation on data written to and/or read from the plurality of memory cells to provide domain-transformed data and configured to perform signal processing on the domain-transformed data to output processed data or a control signal. |
| US08817542B2 |
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device in an embodiment includes a semiconductor layer, a memory cell array, word lines, bit lines, a source line, and a control circuit. The memory cell array has memory strings, each of the memory strings having memory cells. The word lines are connected to the control gates of the memory cells. The control circuit controls a voltage applied to the semiconductor layer, the control gates, the bit lines, and the source line. When executing a read operation, the control circuit begins application of a first voltage to the source line at a first time, the first voltage having a positive value. The control circuit begins application of a second voltage to unselected word lines at the first time or thereafter, the second voltage setting the memory cells to a conductive state regardless of retained data of the memory cells. |
| US08817530B2 |
Data-masked analog and digital read for resistive memories
An analog read circuit measures the resistance of each of a plurality of bits in an array of resistive memory elements. Data stored within a latch determines whether to selectively enable the analog read circuit. In an alternate embodiment, a sense amplifier is coupled to the latch and the array, and the data stored in the latch determines whether to selectively enable the sense amplifier. |
| US08817520B2 |
Two capacitor self-referencing nonvolatile bitcell
A system on chip (SoC) provides a memory array of self referencing nonvolatile bitcells. Each bit cell includes two ferroelectric capacitors connected in series between a first plate line and a second plate line, such that a node Q is formed between the two ferroelectric capacitors. The first plate line and the second plate line are configured to provide a voltage approximately equal to first voltage while the bit cell is not being accessed. A clamping circuit coupled to the node Q. A first read capacitor is coupled to the bit line via a transfer device controlled by a first control signal. A second read capacitor coupled to the bit line via another transfer device controlled by a second control signal. A sense amp is coupled between the first read capacitor and the second read capacitor. |
| US08817519B2 |
Integrated circuit including e-fuse array circuit
An integrated circuit includes a high voltage generator generating a high voltage, a negative voltage generator generating a negative voltage, a divided voltage generator generating a divided voltage by dividing the power source voltage and supplying it to a read voltage terminal, a first power gate supplying the high voltage or the divided voltage to a program voltage terminal, a second power gate supplying the negative voltage or the ground voltage to a deactivation voltage terminal, a third power gate supplying the ground voltage or the divided voltage to an activation voltage terminal, and an e-fuse array circuit operating using voltage of the program voltage terminal as a program voltage, voltage of the divided voltage terminal as a read voltage, voltage of the activation voltage terminal as an activation voltage, and voltage of the deactivation voltage terminal as a deactivation voltage. |
| US08817510B2 |
Apparatus and method for controlling a power inverter
An apparatus and method for controlling a DC-to-AC inverter is disclosed. The DC-to-AC inverter may be configured to convert DC power received from an alternative energy source to AC power for supplying an AC grid or load. The inverter may determine whether the power presently supplied by the alternative energy source is less than a predetermined amount of power and, if so, disable an output converter of the inverter. Additionally, the inverter may predict the voltage of a DC bus of the inverter at a future point in time and, if the predicted DC bus voltage is greater than a predetermined maximum DC bus voltage, enable the output converter to transfer energy from the DC bus to the AC grid to reduce the DC bus voltage. |
| US08817509B2 |
High frequency power supply device
There is provided a high frequency power supply device. The power control unit comprises an impedance adjuster that includes a variable reactance element and adjusts a load side impedance by changing a reactance value of the variable reactance element, and an impedance control unit that controls the variable reactance element of the impedance adjuster in response to a power value detected by a power detection unit so as to perform control of approximating the power value of the high frequency power, which is fed from the high frequency power generation unit to the load, to the setting value or control of maintaining the power value within the set allowable range by changing a resistance of the load side impedance in response to the power value detected by the power detection unit. |
| US08817506B2 |
Converter circuit, and motor drive control apparatus, air-conditioner, refrigerator, and induction heating cooker provided with the circuit
A converter circuit including a step-up converter including a rectifier, a step-up reactor, a switching element, and a reverse current prevention element; a step-up converter having a step-up reactor, a switching element, and a reverse current prevention element and connected in parallel with the step-up converter; a switching control unit that controls switching elements; and a smoothing capacitor that is provided at the output of the step-up converters. The switching control unit switches the current mode of the current flowing through the step-up reactors into any of a continuous mode, a critical mode, and a discontinuous mode based on a predetermined condition. |
| US08817505B2 |
Three-phase rectifier with bidirectional switches
A three-phase rectifier converts three-phase alternating current (AC) power supplied from a three-phase AC power supply into direct current (DC) power. The three-phase rectifier includes a full-wave rectifier circuit, a bidirectional switch circuit, and a controller. The full-wave rectifier circuit rectifies three-phase AC power to DC power. The bidirectional switch circuit switches on and off inputs of respective phases from the three-phase AC power supply to the full-wave rectifier circuit. The controller detects voltages of the respective phases of the three-phase AC power supply, generates switching patterns for the respective phases to switch the bidirectional switch circuit on and off based on the detected voltages of the phases, and controls switching of the bidirectional switch circuit based on the switching patterns. |
| US08817502B2 |
Switch control device, multi-channel converter including the same, and switch controlling method
The present invention relates to a switch control device, a multi-channel converter including the same, and a switch control method thereof. A multi-channel converter includes at least two converters, and each converter includes at least one power switch. The multi-channel converter supplies the sum of the output power of at least two converters to the load. The switch control device generates at least two gate signals switching operation of each of at least one power switch of at least two converters. The switch control device modulates a switching frequency of at least one power switch according to the load, determines the number of phases of the multi-channel converter according to the load, and generates a gate signal for the phase difference corresponding to the number of the determined phases between at least two gate signals to be generated. |
| US08817501B1 |
Reconfigurable switched capacitor power converter techniques
An apparatus for converting a first voltage into a second voltage includes a reconfigurable switched capacitor power converter having a selectable conversion gain. converter includes a cascade multiplier switched capacitor network having capacitors, each of which electrically connects to a stack node and to a phase node. A controller causes the network to transition between first and second operation modes. In the first mode, at least one capacitor is isolated from a charge transfer path of the reconfigurable switched capacitor power converter. Consequently, in the first mode of operation, the power converter operates with a first gain. In the second mode, the power converter operates with a second conversion gain. Meanwhile, a third voltage across the at least one capacitor is free to assume any value. |
| US08817500B2 |
Power supply apparatuses for preventing latch-up of charge pump and methods thereof
A power supply apparatus and a power supply method are disclosed. The power supply apparatus may include an internal power supply including a first voltage generator configured to generate a first voltage based on a pulse width modulation control signal, a charge pump configured to receive the first voltage and generate a second voltage, and an inrush current controller configured to be connected between the charge pump and the internal power supply and configured to generate the pulse width modulation control signal based on a target signal and a selection reference voltage. |
| US08817498B2 |
Hybrid control techniques for series resonant converter
A DC to DC converter system, includes inverter circuitry having a first and a second switch, the inverter circuitry further configured to generate a first and a second gate control signal, the signals configured to open and close the first and second switch, respectively, and generate an AC signal from a DC input signal. The system further includes transformer circuitry configured to transform the AC signal into a sinusoidal AC signal, second stage circuitry configured to rectify the sinusoidal AC signal to a DC output signal, and hybrid control circuitry configured to modulate the first and second gate control signals, wherein the modulation comprises pulse frequency modulation (PFM) and pulse width modulation (PWM). |
| US08817496B2 |
Primary-side sensing arrangements for power converters
A sensing arrangement and method a sense winding is used to provide a voltage which represents the voltage appearing across an in-circuit magnetic component. In a flyback phase, when the component is supplying the output, that voltage represents an output voltage and in a supply phase, the supply voltage. This arrangement provides a solution to the problem of the disparity in magnitude of sense winding output during the two phases by proving a pull-up resistor arranged to apply bias to the voltage measured, the pull-up being to a first level during the supply period and to a second value during the flyback period, the first and second levels being selected such that the voltage across the sense winding is scaled differently during the supply period and the flyback period. The invention is suitable for use in a transformer based flyback power converter in which the magnitude disparity problem may be exacerbated by a turns ratio. |
| US08817495B2 |
Ultralow no-load conduction loss DC power converter
An ultralow no-load conduction loss DC converter includes a DC power source, a transformer having a first winding, a first MOSET and a PWM controller at the primary side and a second winding, a third winding, a drive control unit, a rectifier unit and a second MOSFET at the secondary side. The second MOSFET, the drive control unit and the rectifier unit constitutes a combination circuit electrically coupled between one end of the second winding and one end of the third winding. The second MOSFET has set therein a body diode. The second winding and the second MOSFET forms a combination circuit electrically connected to a load. Thus, the decision to turn off the drive control unit is made at the secondary side so that non-load conduction loss can be minimized. |
| US08817494B2 |
PFC AC/DC converter reducing harmonics, switching loss, and switching noise
A converter includes a rectifying circuit of an AC voltage of an AC power source into a rectified voltage, an input smoothing capacitor Ci, a first series circuit connected to the input smoothing capacitor and including a first and a second switching elements, a second series circuit connected to a connection point of the first and second switching elements and a first end of the input smoothing capacitor and including a primary winding of a transformer and a first capacitor Cri, a controller to alternately turn on/off the first and second switching elements, a rectifying-smoothing circuit (D1, Co) to rectify and smooth a high-frequency voltage of a secondary winding of the transformer into a DC output voltage, and a second capacitor connected between a connection point of the primary winding of the transformer and the first capacitor and a first end of the AC power source. |
| US08817493B2 |
Controlling an adapter transformer voltage
Embodiments of an adapter are disclosed that include a transformer with a primary coil coupled to an H-bridge. The H-bridge is controlled by a control circuit that controls a voltage across the primary coil using the H-bridge, and the control circuit is configured to control the H-bridge so that during each of one or more intervals, a first voltage pulse is applied across the primary coil in a start direction, wherein the start direction alternates between a first direction and a second direction each interval. Then, a direction of subsequent voltage pulses across the primary coil is alternated between the first direction and the second direction a predetermined number of times. After the predetermined number of times, a last voltage pulse is applied across the primary coil; then, voltage across the primary coil is reduced to zero for a predetermined time. |
| US08817490B2 |
DC-DC converter
A DC-DC converter is configured with a voltage-source power converter at a primary side of a transformer, a current-source power converter at a secondary side of the transformer, and a controller. First and second voltage detection circuits respectively detect first and second voltages of the voltage-source and the current-source power converters. A current detection circuit detects an input-output current of the current-source power converter. The controller controls the voltage-source and the current-source power converters to transfer power between the primary side and the secondary side of the transformer. The controller includes a calculation unit that performs calculations based on the first voltage, the second voltage and the input-output current, and a table unit that include a plurality of parameter sets. The calculation unit performs the calculations based on one of the plurality of parameter sets that is selected from the table unit. |
| US08817482B2 |
In-vehicle electronic device
An in-vehicle electronic device includes a circuit board in which a preamplifier circuit, and the like are provided, and a holding case, which stores the circuit board. The holding case is configured by combining a lower case which is fixed to a glass surface in which an antenna radiation conductor is arranged, and an upper case which is detachably mounted on the lower case so as to cover the lower case, so that a connection terminal held in the lower case is brought into press-contact with an electrode of the circuit board. When the upper case is removed from the lower case, an elastic piece is bent by pushing a tip of a protruded portion to a base end side, or a snap claw is separated from a locking hole by inserting a tool such as a driver, in between a tongue piece and the elastic piece. |
| US08817481B2 |
Assembly with a printed circuit board
An assembly (10) comprises a housing (11) and a printed circuit board (14) received in the housing. The housing includes a housing body (12) and a cover (16). The housing body (12) has a first surface (26) supporting the printed circuit board (14) and also has a portion defining a second surface (22) receiving the cover (16). At least the portion of the housing body is formed of a material that is meltable by a laser welder. The second surface (22) is spaced from the first surface (26) by a distance that is at least as great as a thickness of the printed circuit board (14). The printed circuit board (14) is at least partially held in place by melted material from said portion. |
| US08817479B2 |
Thin-film transistor forming substrate, semiconductor device, and electric apparatus
A thin-film transistor forming substrate includes a substrate that has flexibility or elasticity and at least one electronic component that is disposed so as to be buried inside the substrate. The electronic component is configured so as to include one or more types of an IC, a capacitor, a resistor, and an inductor. |
| US08817477B2 |
Audio/video appliance of improved ergonomics and extractability for incorporating in a motor vehicle, in particular a car radio
The assembly comprises: a car radio with a housing and a removable half front plate; a mounting sheath; means for securing the housing in the sheath; and means for unlocking the housing, said means comprising a tool suitable for being inserted in at least two orifices formed in the front face of the housing. These two orifices are formed in a central zone of the housing that is hidden by the front plate when it is mounted on the housing, and that is visible when the front plate is separated from the housing. The assembly has essentially no peripheral cover fitted thereto. The U-shaped tool makes it easy to extract the car radio using one hand in a single movement. |
| US08817476B2 |
Apparatus, add-on module, and a system comprising a host apparatus and an add-on module
An apparatus (102) comprises a mechanical interface configured to mechanically receive a module (101) into an assembled configuration. Within said mechanical interface, the apparatus comprises a first connector configured to receive a first matching counterpart in a first insertion direction (103), and a second connector configured to receive a second matching counterpart in a second insertion direction (104), which second insertion direction is the direction of a curvilinear motion and different from said first insertion direction (103). The apparatus (102) comprises a hinge joint between said first connector and a body of the apparatus. The hinge joint has an axis of rotation, which is essentially perpendicular against said second insertion direction (104). |
| US08817469B2 |
Heat transfer using a durable low-friction interface
A system includes a removable module to process data when installed in the system, where the module includes a first surface via which heat, that is generated by the module, is transferred. The system also includes a port into which the module is installed; and a heat sink, associated with the port, to dissipate the heat received from the first surface, where the heat sink includes a second surface on which a material is applied, and where the material makes contact with the first surface when the module is installed that allows the heat to be received from the first surface, conforms to an American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM)-B607-91 standard or a United States military specification-C-26074, and transfers the heat to the second surface that allows the module to operate at a temperature that is less than a threshold. |
| US08817468B2 |
Switching power supply
A switching power supply has electronic parts that configure a switching circuit. The electronic parts are accommodated in a casing. A seat member is formed unitarily with the casing on which the electronic parts are mounted. A coolant channel is formed through the seat member so as to be open at least at two positions of an outer wall surface of the casing. Coolant that flows through the coolant channel cools the electronic parts mounted on the seat member. |
| US08817462B2 |
Electronic device with interchangeable electronic module
An electronic device includes a body, an electronic module, and an elastic element, wherein the body has at least an accommodating space and a first connector. The electronic module is accommodated in the accommodating space and has a plurality of connection ports and a second connector electrically connected to the plurality of connection ports. The second connector is electrically connected to the first connector, and the plurality of connection ports is exposed on the outer surface of the body. The elastic element surrounds the junction between the first connector and the second connector, wherein the electronic module presses the elastic element against the body. |
| US08817461B2 |
Fixing mechanism for fixing a detachable module and related electronic device
A fixing mechanism for fixing a detachable module is disclosed. The fixing mechanism includes a frame for covering the detachable module. The frame includes a frame body and a pivoting portion connected to the frame body. A pivoting hole is formed on the pivoting portion. The fixing mechanism further includes a casing. The casing includes a lateral plate whereon a slot is formed, a shaft portion extended from the lateral plate in a first direction and disposed on a side of the slot, and an engaging portion extended from the lateral plate in a second direction and disposed on another side of the slot for inserting into the pivoting hole of the pivoting portion so that the pivoting portion is capable of pivoting from a first position to a second position as abutting against the shat portion. |
| US08817460B2 |
Bracket of electronic device, draw set assembly of electronic device, and computer case
A bracket is used for an electronic device into a frame. The frame includes two opposite wall surfaces and at least one pair of guiding rails disposed on the two wall surfaces. The bracket includes a main connection portion, two main elastic arms, and main engaging posts. The main elastic arms respectively extend from two ends of the main connection portion. The two main elastic arms extend towards the same direction with a clamping space defined between the two main elastic arms for accommodating the electronic device. The main engaging posts are respectively disposed on sides of the two main elastic arms facing each other, so that the main engaging posts extend towards the clamping space for engaging lateral surfaces of the electronic device. The two main elastic arms respectively slide along the two guiding rails, so as to fix the electronic device into the frame. |
| US08817457B1 |
Reversible folio for tablet computer with reversible connection for keyboard and reading configuration
A reversible folio for a tablet computer has a tablet shell with a cavity removably receiving the tablet computer. A proximal edge of the tablet shell has a symmetrical profile different from a non-symmetrical profile of the table computer. A keyboard pivotally and removably coupled to the tablet shell. A channel is pivotally coupled to an edge of the keyboard. An interior of the channel removably receiving the proximal edge of the tablet shell, and has a symmetrical profile mating with the symmetrical profile of the tablet shell. The channel and proximal edge have first and second symmetrical magnet arrays, respectively. The proximal edge of the tablet shell physically mates with the channel of the keyboard, and the second magnet array of the tablet shell magnetically mates with the first magnet array of the channel, in both a first orientation and an opposite second orientation. |
| US08817452B2 |
High performance carbon nanotube energy storage device
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to an energy storage device and a method for manufacturing the energy storage device. The method includes accessing a metal substrate and forming plurality of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) directly on a metal substrate. The method further includes removing substantially all amorphous carbon from said plurality of CNTs and coupling the plurality of CNTs to an electrolytic separator. |
| US08817451B2 |
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof
Semiconductor devices and methods of manufacture thereof are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, a capacitor plate includes a first propeller-shaped portion and a second propeller-shaped portion. A via portion is disposed between the first propeller-shaped portion and the second propeller-shaped portion. |
| US08817442B2 |
Switch comprising a testable current transformer, and method for testing a current transformer of a switch
A switch and a method for testing the power transformers of a power supply of the switch are provided, wherein each power transformer generates an analog transformer voltage corresponding to the alternating current, wherein an electronic trip unit, to which each transformer voltage is applied, compares a current derived from each transformer voltage with a current condition, and wherein a rectifier circuit connected to the power transformer charges a capacitor which feeds the power supply of the trip unit. A switching device short-circuits each rectifier circuit when a predefined capacitor voltage is reached. To provide the protective function of the switch, a monostable multivibrator is connected to one pole of each power transformer, wherein each monostable multivibrator is set by the respective transformer voltage and reset after a predefined time, and wherein the level at the output of each monostable multivibrator is used to test the respective power transformer. |
| US08817439B2 |
Power delivery circuit having protection switch for reverse battery condition
According to one disclosed embodiment, a power delivery circuit includes a switch for protection of a load in a reverse battery condition. The load is coupled in cascade with the protection switch, where the protection switch disconnects the load from the battery in the reverse battery condition. The protection switch does not include p-n junction diodes present in conventional protection switches using FETs. The protection switch utilizes, for example, a GaN HEMT, that does not include a p-n junction diode. Thus, the threat of internal conduction in the protection switch during a reverse battery condition is eliminated. The power delivery circuit also protects the load in a load dump condition. |
| US08817437B2 |
High voltage open-drain electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device
A high voltage open-drain electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device is disclosed, which comprises a high-voltage n-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (HV NMOSFET) coupled to a high-voltage pad and a low-voltage terminal and receiving a high voltage on the high-voltage pad to operate in normal operation. The high-voltage pad and the HV NMOSFET are further coupled to a high-voltage ESD unit blocking the high voltage, and receiving a positive ESD voltage on the high-voltage pad to bypass an ESD current when an ESD event is applied to the high-voltage pad. The high-voltage ESD unit and the low-voltage terminal are coupled to a power clamp unit, which receives the positive ESD voltage via the high-voltage ESD unit to bypass the ESD current. |
| US08817435B2 |
Integrated electrostatic discharge (ESD) device
A method for making a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate of a first conductivity type and having a surface region, forming a well region of a second conductivity type and having a first depth in the substrate, adding a gate dielectric layer overlying the surface region, adding a gate layer overlying the gate dielectric layer, forming a first LDD region of the first conductivity type and having a second depth within the well region, forming an emitter region of the second conductivity type within the first LDD region, and forming a second LDD region of the first conductivity type with the well region, a channel region separates the first and second LDD regions. The method further includes forming a source region being of the first conductivity type within the second LDD region and adding an output pad coupled to both the drain and emitter regions. |
| US08817434B2 |
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device
An exemplary ESD protection device is adapted for a high-voltage tolerant I/O circuit and includes a stacked transistor and a gate-grounded transistor e.g., a non-lightly doped drain type gate-grounded transistor. The stacked transistor and the gate-grounded transistor are electrically coupled in parallel between an I/O pad and a grounding voltage of the high-voltage tolerant I/O circuit. |
| US08817431B2 |
System and integrated method for a parallel and series arc fault circuit interrupter
To prevent property fires, electrical circuits need to be protected from arc faults due to line-to-line, line-to-neutral and line-to-ground conductivity, known as high current parallel arcing, and protected from arc faults occurring along line-to-line, line-to-load, load-to-load, load-to-neutral and neutral-to-neutral conductor configurations, known as low current series arcing. Devices that protect electrical circuits from these arc faults is known as a combination-type arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). Unlike prior art AFCI designs that meet the UL 1699 standard requirement for series arc fault detection down to 5 amps, the present AFCI invention employs a bi-directional Hall-effect current sensor (HECS) integrated circuit, a HECS measurement phase shift correction circuit, and a microprocessor with an integrated method to detect high current parallel arcing and low current series arcing, while also mitigating false arcing circuit detections and interruptions due to normal arcing electric motor-driven appliances like ceiling fans. |
| US08817430B2 |
AC voltage controller
An AC voltage controller has two transistors which can be positioned between two AC voltage terminals in series with a load. The two transistors are connected in series in such a way that their respective source terminals are connected to one another. The AC voltage controller also contains a signal generator for generating a switching signal for actuating the two transistors, a buffer which is connected downstream of the signal generator and which is set by the signal generator in order to actuate the two transistors. An actuation circuit or driver circuit is connected downstream of the buffer, for the purpose of actuating the two transistors in accordance with the set state of the buffer. A current-limiting circuit is provided for limiting or switching off the current through the two transistors in the case of an excessively large current through the load. |
| US08817427B2 |
Current limitation system for limiting the effects of a fault in a DC grid and a method of operating a current limitation system
A current-limitation system for limiting a current through an DC connection in case of a fault occurring in a DC grid of which the DC connection forms a part is provided, as well as a method of operating a current-limitation system for limiting a current through an DC connection in case of a fault occurring in a DC grid of which the DC connection forms a part. |