| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US08832049B2 |
Monitoring communications
Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses for monitoring communications are presented. A communication that includes non-public information may be identified. Subsequently, it may be determined whether the communication meets at least one outlier condition. In response to determining that the communication meets the at least one outlier condition, the communication may be submitted for review. |
| US08832048B2 |
Techniques and system to monitor and log access of information based on system and user context using policies
An information management system approves or denies user requests to access information of the system. The information includes all types of information including documents and e-mail. The information management system is driven using a policy language having policies and policy abstractions. The information management system may approve or deny many different types of requests including opening a document or file, copying a file, printing a file, sending an e-mail, reading an e-mail, cut and paste of a portion of a document, saving a document, executing an application on a file, and many others. |
| US08832047B2 |
Distributed document version control
Systems and techniques to provide distributed document version control. In general, in one implementation, the technique includes: receiving information, in a distributed document control system, specifying a locally saved copy of a first electronic document; determining, in response to the received information, whether the first electronic document should supersede a second electronic document in the distributed document control system; and storing, based on an outcome of the determining, information in the distributed document control system that links the first electronic document with the second electronic document in a superior-subordinate relationship such that when an action is requested with respect to the second, subordinate electronic document, the distributed document control system forces an action to be taken with respect to the first, superior electronic document. Various implementations include those in computer program products and client-server systems. |
| US08832039B1 |
Methods and apparatus for data restore and recovery from a remote data store
Methods, apparatus, and computer-accessible storage media for restoring data from a snapshot to a data volume. The blocks in the volume may be treated as an implicit tree structure, for example a binary tree; each local block corresponds to a block on the snapshot. A local block on the volume may be marked, for example fingerprinted with metadata, to indicate that the local block has not been restored. Initially, the local block at the root node is marked. To restore a local block, the restore process may generate a list indicating all local blocks on a path from the root node of the tree to the target node that have not been restored. The marks in the local blocks are used in generating the list. For each block indicated in the list, children of the block are fingerprinted, and the block is restored from the snapshot. |
| US08832033B2 |
Using RSS archives
In some aspects, at least two different probes are applied to datafeed archives to derive information based on data in the archives. The probes are part of a probe plan to determine a result based on the derived information. The result is determined based on the derived information. |
| US08832029B2 |
Incremental virtual machine backup supporting migration
A record of changes to virtual machine data of a virtual machine and a record of changes to snapshots of the virtual machine that have been received since the virtual machine was last backed up are maintained. In response to it being time to perform an incremental backup of the virtual machine, a portion of the virtual machine data is backed up based on the record of changes to the virtual machine data, and a portion of the snapshots is backed up based on the record of changes to the snapshots. In response to it being time to migrate the virtual machine to a second host device, the virtual machine data, the record of changes to the virtual machine data, the record of changes to the snapshots, and one or more of the snapshots are migrated to the second host device. |
| US08832023B2 |
System for managing distributed assets and metadata
A system for managing distributed digital assets and related metadata in a network, including several interconnected nodes, each of the interconnected nodes providing accessibility to the distributed digital assets via user controlled stores and caching subsystems such that the management of the assets and related metadata is based on predetermined criteria. Each node includes a caching subsystem, a metadata store, a controller, a user-controlled asset component, and a networking subsystem for communication between each of the nodes. The interconnected nodes provide support for platform operation of client applications. |
| US08832022B2 |
Transaction processing device, transaction processing method and transaction processing program
An object of the present invention is to carry out transaction processing on a plurality of records even in the case the transaction processing is executed in an environment that manages records composed of pairs of keys and values. The transaction processing device of the present invention includes a group information storage unit that stores information relating to transactions, in association with information relating to groups generated by logically grouping records used in the transactions according to attribute values of a unique key common to the records, a group specification unit that specifies the group corresponding to the transaction by referencing the stored information based on the transaction corresponding to a processing request received from the application, a log management unit that manages logs of the records belonging to the specified group by collectively storing all contents of the logs in the physically same storage area, and a data updating unit that updates real data by reflecting the contents of the managed logs in the records corresponding to those logs. |
| US08832021B2 |
Image processing apparatus, control method, and storage medium
An apparatus includes a creating unit that creates a plurality of files different in file format from identical setting information stored in a storage unit of the apparatus, a receiving unit that receives at least one of the created plurality of files, a determination unit that determines a file to be used among the plurality of received files according to at least one of the file formats of the plurality of files and dates of updates of the plurality of files, and an updating unit that updates the stored setting information using the determined file. |
| US08832014B2 |
Forward inferencing of facts in parallel
A method and system for inferring facts in parallel in a multiprocessor computing environment is provided. An inference system infers facts by applying rules to a collection of existing facts. For each existing fact, the inference system schedules a thread to apply the rules to that existing fact. As a thread infers a new fact (i.e., one that is not already in the collection of facts), the thread adds that inferred fact to the collection of facts. When a thread adds a new fact to the collection, the thread also applies the rules to that new fact. After the threads complete execution, the inference system may apply the rules to the facts of the collection, including the newly inferred facts, by again launching a thread for each fact to apply the rules to that fact. The inference system performs this processing iteratively until a termination condition is satisfied. |
| US08832013B1 |
Method and system for analytic network process (ANP) total influence analysis
An apparatus includes an analytic network process (ANP) storage memory that stores an ANP model populated with data, the ANP model having feedback connections in place among nodes within the ANP model, and a processor in communication with the ANP storage memory. The processor is configured to facilitate selecting one or more metrics to use to determine influence of criteria within the ANP model. Also, the processor determines a combined influence score, the combined influence score being a single score for each of the criteria in the ANP model. Also, the processor determines which of the criteria in the ANP model is most influential among the criteria in the ANP model, for the one or more metric which is selected to use to determine the influence of the nodes in the ANP model. |
| US08832008B2 |
Techniques for real-time customer preference learning
Techniques for real-time offer customer preference learning are presented. Local agents on communication channels are equipped with predefined rules that capture actions and behaviors of customers interacting with an enterprise. The metrics associated with these actions and behaviors are plugged into the rules and in some cases combined with known pre-existing preferences for the customers for purposes of evaluating the rules and creating newly learned preferences for the customers. The newly learned preferences are dynamically fed into offer evaluation processing to determine whether to make offers to the customers. |
| US08832007B2 |
Differential dynamic host configuration protocol lease allocation that classifies the client/operating system
Disclosed is a novel passive fingerprinting technique based on DHCP messages to determine the device type and operating system. DHCP implementations are shown to vary among device types and have an effect on DHCP lease durations. To improve network address utilization, without introducing any protocol changes, the present invention provides a new leasing strategy which takes into account device types. This strategy, compared to current approaches, improves the address utilization sixfold without considerably increasing DHCP overhead. |
| US08832006B2 |
Discriminant model learning device, method and program
To provide a discriminant model learning device capable of efficiently learning a discriminant model on which domain knowledge indicating user's knowledge or analysis intention for a model is reflected while keeping fitting to data. A query candidate storage means 81 stores candidates of a query as a model to be given with domain knowledge indicating a user's intention. A regularization function generation means 82 generates a regularization function indicating compatibility with domain knowledge based on the domain knowledge to be given to the query candidates. A model learning means 83 learns a discriminant model by optimizing a function defined by a loss function and the regularization function predefined per discriminant model. |
| US08832002B2 |
Computer implemented method for the automatic classification of instrumental citations
The learning method taught in this patent document is significantly different from previous methods for automatic classification of citations that are labor intensive and subject to human bias and error. The present invention automatically generates and avoids these limitations. A set of operational definitions and features uniquely suited to the scientific literature is disclosed along with their use with a learning method that is capable of analyzing the textual content of articles along with bibliometric data to accurately classify instrumental citations. |
| US08831997B2 |
System and method to facilitate creation of educational information
The computer-implemented system to facilitate creation of educational information employs a networked computer system that stores at least one resource in association with a first electronic file, storing metadata information about usage of the resource. A resource assembly tool implemented by a computer is programmed to access the networked computer system to display information to an instructor about at least one resource, including the metadata information. This aids the instructor in selecting resources for inclusion in educational information being created. The resource assembly tool is configured to assemble the educational information to include resources selected for inclusion being created for dissemination to learners via said networked computer system. The networked computer system is further configured to capture information about usage of the resource and to update the stored metadata information to reflect said captured information. |
| US08831996B2 |
Computer system and program
In computer and video games in which a character is managed by registering an ID assigned to an object, objects corresponding to the same player can be duplicately registered, and a bonus that increases the ability of the player corresponding to the duplicately registered object is granted. |
| US08831995B2 |
Optimized server for streamed applications
An optimized server for streamed applications provides a streamed application server optimized to provide efficient delivery of streamed applications to client systems across a computer network such as the Internet. The server persistently stores streamed application program sets that contain streamed application file pages. Client systems request streamed application file pages from the server using a unique set of numbers common among all servers that store the particular streamed application file pages. A license server offloads the streamed application server by performing client access privilege validations. Commonly accessed streamed application file pages are stored in a cache on the streamed application server which attempts to retrieve requested streamed application file pages from the cache before retrieving them from persistent storage. Requested streamed application file pages are compressed before being sent to a client as well as those stored in the cache. |
| US08831992B2 |
Apparatus and method for facilitating cryptographic key management services
A cryptographic key management system includes executable instructions to control access to keys based on permissions for users and groups. Executable instructions support cryptographic operations on the keys through a network application program interface. The cryptographic operations are controlled by the permissions. The cryptographic operations are distributed between the servers and the clients in accordance with criteria specifying optimal execution of cryptographic operations between the servers and the clients. |
| US08831991B2 |
Limited-life electronic mail account as intermediary
In one aspect, a method includes but is not limited to detecting that a limited-use electronic mail account user has accessed a limited-use electronic mail account; accepting an input commanding the disposition of the item of electronic mail received by the limited-use electronic mail account; and disabling further use of the limited-use electronic mail account. In addition to the foregoing, other method and system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application. |
| US08831986B2 |
Fees and foreign currency exchange calculation
Various methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed for calculating a fee linked to an online financial transaction. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a fee calculation request linked to an online financial transaction associated with a fee type, a country code, and a client identifier; and then selecting, using a microprocessor, an initial base fee from either a default base fee determined by the fee type and the country code or from an overriding base fee associated with the financial transaction, wherein the initial base fee includes a transaction percentage and a fixed amount. The method further includes applying, using the microprocessor, at least one adjustment to the initial base fee to calculate a final fee, the at least one adjustment being applied when an associated condition set is determined to be true. |
| US08831984B2 |
System and method for inventory management using mobile drive units
A method for inventory management includes deploying a first mobile drive unit having first dimensions and deploying a second mobile drive unit having second dimensions, the first and second dimensions being different. The first and second mobile drive units are operable to transport inventory items to a plurality of inventory stations in the same workspace. |
| US08831983B2 |
Point-of-care inventory management system and method
A system and method are disclosed for controlling an inventory of point-of-care diagnostic devices. The inventory includes a main inventory and at least one subinventory. Each device has an ambient temperature shelf life. Data associated with the devices is entered, including: the current quantity and predetermined minimum quantity of devices in the main inventory; and the current quantity and predetermined minimum quantity of devices in the subinventory. A first timestamp is associated with each device when the device is transferred from the main inventory to the ambient temperature subinventory. The first timestamp is compared to a second timestamp prior to use of the device to determine whether the device's ambient temperature shelf life is exceeded. The current quantity of devices in the subinventory is updated in response to an event that causes a change in the current quantity of devices in the subinventory. |
| US08831982B2 |
Fiscal board receiving case and fiscal printer
A fiscal board receiving case is provided. A management board receiving case includes a case main body and a lid connected to the case main body and receives a management board on which a memory storing data including fiscal information and a management board-side connector are mounted. A control board receiving case includes a case main body and a lid connected to the case main body and receives a control board on which a controller and a control board-side connector connected to the management board-side connector are mounted. The management board receiving case and the control board receiving case are configured such that one box-like body that receives at least the management board is formed while the management board-side connector and the control board-side connector are connected to each other by engaging the management board receiving case with the control board receiving case through engagement members provided in the cases. The management board receiving case and the control board receiving case are configured such that engagement between the cases and engagement between the case main body and the lid in each of the cases are irreversibly maintained after the cases are engaged with each other. |
| US08831979B1 |
System and method for anonymous processing of financial transactions
A method for anonymous processing of a purchasing request. Initially, a text message comprising the purchasing request is received, by a processing platform, from a mobile phone. A current authorization code comprising a random number is generated in response, and then sent, via a text message, to the mobile phone. A merchant is provided with a pending authorization code, who then sends a communication including the pending authorization code to the platform. The purchasing request is validated in part by determining whether the pending authorization code is identical to the current authorization code. |
| US08831978B2 |
Deal analysis workbench for a customer relationship management environment
The present invention provides a method, system and computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for facilitating consistent application of price polices on every sales transaction supported through a customer relationship management system, in order to identify price exceptions in violation of stated corporate pricing objectives. Having such capabilities coupled with a customer relationship management system enables embodiments of the present invention to reduce the time to identify and evaluate price exceptions that impact revenue and margin. Agents responsible for sales interaction with customers can immediately identify violations of price policies. Those responsible for authorizing exceptions can easily determine the effect of those exceptions upon impacted markets. |
| US08831977B2 |
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing personalized dissemination of information
Methods, systems, and computer program products for implementing personalized dissemination of information are provided. A method includes receiving personal information elements for a subject, and applying business rules to the personal information elements, data elements designated for publication by a source of the data elements, and a database of information strings. The information strings include words and phrases that are commonly recognized across a populace. In response to application of the business rules, the method also includes selecting one or more of the data elements from the source, one or more of the personal information elements, and an information string from the database of information strings. The method further includes constructing a contextually relevant output string that is relevant to the subject. The output string includes portions of the selected information string, data elements, and personal information elements. The method further includes conveying the output string to the subject. |
| US08831974B1 |
Campaign specification system and method
The invention is directed to a method and system for automatic management of targeted marketing campaigns. The system may include user interface presentation components for allowing selection of marketing matrix data defining a target population and selection of suppressions for limiting the target population. The system may further include integration components implemented by a processor for integrating the marketing matrix with the suppressions and automatically generating record selection components for automatically selecting records from a database based on the marketing matrix data and suppressions and creating a selection table including the selected records. Additionally, the system may include a list generation engine for generating a campaign list based on the created selection table and transmission components for transmitting the generated campaign list to at least one list recipient. |
| US08831966B2 |
Method for delegated administration
A method for adaptively delegating a capability, comprising the steps of providing for the delegation of the capability to a first role; allowing the step of providing for the delegation to be initiated by a principal in a second role; and hierarchically relating the capability, the first role and the second role. |
| US08831961B2 |
Preprocessing method, preprocessing apparatus and coding device
The present disclosure relates to coding and decoding technologies, and discloses a preprocessing method, a preprocessing apparatus, and a coding device. The preprocessing method includes: obtaining characteristic information of a current frame signal; identifying whether the current frame signal requires no coding operation of removing LTC according to the characteristic information of the current frame signal and preset information; and if identifying that the current frame signal requires no coding operation of removing LTC, performing the coding operation of removing STC for the current frame signal; and if identifying that the current frame signal requires the coding operation of removing LTC, performing the coding operations of removing both LTC and STC for the current frame signal. Through the technical solution provided herein, the coding operation of removing LTC is performed for only part of the input frame signals. |
| US08831960B2 |
Audio encoding device, audio encoding method, and computer-readable recording medium storing audio encoding computer program for encoding audio using a weighted residual signal
An audio encoding device includes a time-frequency converting unit that conducts time-frequency conversion of channel signals included in an audio signal having a plurality of channels in frame units having a certain length of time to convert the channel signals to respective frequency signals; a downmixing unit that generates a main signal representing a major component of a first channel and a second channel among the plurality of channels, and a residual signal that is a component orthogonal to the main signal; a weight determining unit that obtains a decoding value predicted and a decoding value predicted, obtains signal components affecting each other between the first channel and the second channel; a weighting unit that uses the weighting coefficient; a residual signal encoding unit that encodes the weighted residual signal the weighting coefficient; and a main signal encoding unit that encodes the main signal. |
| US08831951B2 |
Verbal labels for electronic messages
Verbal labels for electronic messages, as well as systems and methods for making and using such labels, are disclosed. A verbal label is a label containing audio data (such as a digital audio file of a user's voice and/or a speaker template thereof) that is associated with one or more electronic messages. Verbal labels permit a user to more efficiently manipulate e-mail and other electronic messages by voice. For example, a user can add such labels verbally to an e-mail or to a group of e-mails, thereby permitting these messages to be sorted and retrieved more easily. |
| US08831946B2 |
Method and system of indexing speech data
A method and system of indexing speech data. The method includes indexing word transcripts including a timestamp for a word occurrence; and indexing sub-word transcripts including a timestamp for a sub-word occurrence. A timestamp in the index indicates the time and duration of occurrence of the word or sub-word in the speech data, and word and sub-word occurrences can be correlated using the timestamps. A method of searching speech transcripts is also provided in which a search query in the form of a phrase to be searched includes at least one in-vocabulary word and at least one out-of-vocabulary word. The method of searching includes extracting the search terms from the phrase, retrieving a list of occurrence of words for an in-vocabulary search term from an index of words having timestamps, retrieving a list of occurrences of sub-words for an out-of-vocabulary search term from an index of sub-words having timestamps, and merging the retrieved lists of occurrences of words and sub-words according to their timestamps. |
| US08831945B2 |
Language model generating device, method thereof, and recording medium storing program thereof
A text in a corpus including a set of world wide web (web) pages is analyzed. At least one word appropriate for a document type set according to a voice recognition target is extracted based on an analysis result. A word set is generated from the extracted at least one word. A retrieval engine is caused to perform a retrieval process using the generated word set as a retrieval query of the retrieval engine on the Internet, and a link to a web page from the retrieval result is acquired. A language model for voice recognition is generated from the acquired web page. |
| US08831939B2 |
Voice data transferring device, terminal device, voice data transferring method, and voice recognition system
A voice data transferring device intermediates between an in-vehicle terminal and a voice recognition server. In order to check a change in voice recognition performance of the voice recognition server, the voice data transferring device performs a noise suppression processing on a voice data for evaluation in a noise suppression module; transmits the voice data for evaluation to the voice recognition server; and receives a recognition result thereof. The voice data transferring device sets a value of a noise suppression parameter used for a noise suppression processing or a value of a result integration parameter used for a processing of integrating a plurality of recognition results acquired from the voice recognition server, at an optimum value, based on the recognition result of the voice recognition server. This makes it possible to set a suitable parameter even if the voice recognition performance of the voice recognition server changes. |
| US08831936B2 |
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer program products for speech signal processing using spectral contrast enhancement
Systems, methods, and apparatus for spectral contrast enhancement of speech signals, based on information from a noise reference that is derived by a spatially selective processing filter from a multichannel sensed audio signal, are disclosed. |
| US08831933B2 |
Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for multi-stage shape vector quantization
A multistage shape vector quantizer architecture uses information from a selected first-stage codebook vector to generate a rotation matrix. The rotation matrix is used to rotate the direction of the input vector to support shape quantization of the first-stage quantization error. |
| US08831931B2 |
Apparatus for generating a decorrelated signal using transmitted phase information
An apparatus for generating a decorrelated signal having a receiving unit for receiving phase information, a transient separator, a transient decorrelator, a second decorrelator and a combining unit, wherein the transient separator is adapted to separate an input signal into a first signal component and into a second signal component such that the first signal component has transient signal portions of the input signal and such that the second signal component has non-transient signal portions of the input signal. The transient decorrelator is adapted to apply the phase information received by the receiving unit to a transient signal component. |
| US08831930B2 |
Business listing search
A method of operating a voice-enabled business directory search system includes receiving category-business pairs, each category-business pair including a business category and a specific business, and establishing a data structure having nodes based on the category-business pairs. Each node of the data structure is associated with one or more business categories and a speech recognition language model for recognizing specific businesses associated with the one or more businesses categories. |
| US08831925B1 |
Indexing behaviors and recipes of a circuit design
An executable circuit design is used to generate waveforms, from which behaviors of the circuit are captured. The behaviors and various combinations thereof can then be saved in a database, along with descriptions and other metadata about them, thereby generating a behavioral index of the circuit design code. Behavioral indexing of circuit designs allows a user to maintain an indexed behavior database, track changes in behaviors as the circuit design's executable description evolves, and figure out how the executable description can be reused in different projects. When applied to digital design development, it facilities the current design and verification effort, as well as design reuse down the line. |
| US08831923B2 |
Method and system for determination of horizontal stresses from shear radial variation profiles
Described is method and system of determining horizontal stress from radial profiles of dipole shear together with the far-field estimate of the Stoneley shear modulus. The system and method include selecting an optimal number of regression points on measured radial profiles for obtaining reliable estimation of maximum and minimum horizontal stress magnitudes in the presence of noisy data, where measured radial profiles of dipole shear moduli might exhibit a small amount of random fluctuations. |
| US08831919B2 |
Physics-inspired up sampling for cloth simulation
A technique for physically-based cloth simulation uses linear upsampling operators. The upsampling operators enrich the appearance of a coarse mesh physical cloth simulation. The technique starts by pre-computing the upsampling operators using a pair of coarse and fine training simulations aligned with tracking constraints using harmonic test functions. Then the upsampling operators are trained using a novel regularization technique that enables mid-scale detail learning without over-fitting. Oscillatory modes may be introduced to add dynamic details not captured by the coarse mesh simulation alone. Trained upsampling operators can then be advantageously applied to coarse mesh simulations of cloth to add realistic detail to the cloth in real-time three-dimensional applications. |
| US08831918B2 |
System for manufacturing laminated circuit boards
The present invention relates to a pin-less registration and inductive heating system involving the use of a pre-alignment station for imaging an initial position of a laminate element, an imaging and computer operation control system for determining a required correction factor between an alignment of the laminate element at the pre-alignment station and a preferred stack orientation for the laminate element, and an alignment and transfer system for securely gripping, transferring, and repositioning a laminate element from atop position to the preferred stack orientation employing a preferred four-axis orientation. |
| US08831917B2 |
System and method for analyzing spiral resonators
A spiral resonator is analyzed by modeling a set of loops of the spiral resonator with a model of a circuit including a set of units, wherein each unit includes a resistor and an inductor to model one loop of the spiral resonator. Values of the resistor and the inductor of each unit are based on properties of a corresponding loop. Electrical connection of the loops is modeled by electrically connecting the units in a corresponding order of the loops. A capacitive coupling in the spiral resonator is modeled by connecting adjacent units with at least one capacitor having a value based on the capacitive coupling between two corresponding adjacent loops. An inductive coupling in the spiral resonator is modeled based on inductive coupling between pairs of loops. The operation of the spiral resonator is simulated with the model of the circuit. |
| US08831912B2 |
Checking of functions of a control system having components
A method for checking functions, to be checked, of a control system, the control system having components to be checked, in particular redundant components, and an evaluation unit which evaluates the operability of the components on the basis of status reports of the components, the method including a component-side check of the functions, to be checked, of the components to be checked, and a system-wide check of at least one, but not all, of the functions checked on the component side. |
| US08831911B2 |
Device and method for monitoring a gas turbine
A device and method for monitoring a gas turbine is disclosed. The device includes a receiver for receiving condition values of the gas turbine and an analytical device. The analytical device is designed to determine condition information from the condition values of the gas turbine using Bayes' Prediction. |
| US08831906B1 |
Technique for determining closest point of approach
A technique for estimating the closest point of approach (CPA) of an object includes: tracking a range rate of the object based on Doppler measurements of the object; computing a first CPA estimate based on the tracked range rate; separately tracking a position of the object based on position measurements of the object; computing a second CPA estimate based on the tracked position; and computing a fused CPA estimate based on the first and second CPA estimates. |
| US08831905B2 |
Motion capture and analysis
Motion capture and analysis is described, including a motion sensor unit configured to capture data associated with movement of an object, to process the data to determine one or more values, to store the data and the one or more values, and to convert the data and the one or more values from an analog signal to a digital signal associated with a wireless transmission, and a display unit configured to receive the data from the motion sensor unit, the data being transmitted using through the wireless transmission, to process the data to determine one or more values, to store the data, and to graphically present the data and the one or more values. |
| US08831900B2 |
System for controlling at least one actuator for thrust reverser cowlings on a turbojet engine and method for testing said system
The invention relates to a system for controlling at least one actuator (6) for thrust reverser cowlings (2) on a turbojet engine, comprising a set of actuator and/or control components with at least one actuator (6) for cowlings (2) driven by at least one electric motor (7) and control means (9) for the electric motor (7). The control means (9) comprise test means (20), with an interface (22) destined for receiving test requests from a user. The test means (20) are designed on reception of a test request to carry out a test cycle on one or more components (7, 6, 15, 18) of the system comprising an isolated actuation to the component(s) (7, 6, 15, 18) with regard to the other components of the system. |
| US08831893B2 |
Method for estimating kinetic rates
The present invention relates to a method for estimation of kinetic characteristics for the formation and dissociation of a complex using lateral flow. The present invention facilitates an easy to use method with high accuracy. |
| US08831892B2 |
Chromatograph analyzing device
A chromatograph analyzing device for automatically executing a base line setting process on an unseparated peak using preset base line conditions. The chromatograph analyzing device includes a separation unit for separating a component included in a sample, and a data processing device for identifying the component of the sample and the quantity of the component in the sample by using a chromatogram obtained from the separation. |
| US08831888B2 |
Method of processing spectrometric data
A method of characterizing a sample from spectrometric data using calculation of spectral distance values is disclosed, for use in the field of mass spectrometry. Molecular formula assignment of peaks in mass spectral data is difficult and time-consuming, and the invention provides a computer implemented method of finding a most likely elemental composition of a measured spectral peak of interest. The method analyzes isotopic peaks in a portion of the spectrum, using both their mass positions and intensities, to determine a spectral distance between those peaks and isotopic peaks of a candidate composition, finding peaks that match (140). A pattern spectral distance is determined (150) to provide a measure of the correspondence between a set of those peaks in the measured spectrum and peaks of each of a number of candidate compositions. The spectral fit is used to determine a most likely candidate composition. |
| US08831884B2 |
Methods of determining water droplet size distributions of clouds
In one aspect, methods of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud are described herein. In some embodiments, a method of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud comprises sampling a depth of the cloud with a beam of electromagnetic radiation, measuring a scattering signal of the electromagnetic radiation returned from the cloud over a range of field of view angles to provide a measured scattering curve [ptotal(θ)], removing a portion of the measured scattering curve, replacing the removed portion with an extrapolation of the remaining measured scattering curve to provide an estimated scattering curve, and determining a first estimate droplet size distribution [n(1)(D)] from the estimated scattering curve. |
| US08831880B2 |
Estimating positions of a device and at least one target in an environment
A method/system for estimating a state of a device and at least one target in an environment. The process involves computing a state vector using an error state form of the position of the device in a local coordinate reference frame. |
| US08831862B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing public traffic information
Disclosed herein are a method and apparatus for providing traffic information for a public transportation means, such as a bus, and utilizing the provided information. A method of encoding traffic information according to the present invention creates information about a bus stop, creates identification information for respective bus routes passing through the bus route and information about arrival time, creates identification information indicating that the type of traffic information to be encoded is stop-based public traffic information, and constructs a message segment including the created information. A sequence of multiple message segments constructed as described above are wirelessly transmitted. |
| US08831860B2 |
Method and a system for monitoring vibratory phenomena that occur in an aviation gas turbine engine in operation
A method of monitoring vibratory phenomena that occur in an aviation gas turbine engine in operation includes establishing a frequency spectrum of a vibratory signal representative of the operating state of the engine and of its components; using a plurality of vibratory signatures, each corresponding to a vibratory phenomenon that occurs during operation of aeroengines of the same type as the engine being monitored and originating from a defect in or an abnormal operation of a component of the engines; identifying, in the spectrum, the points of curves that match mathematical functions, each defining a vibratory signature; and for each identified curve corresponding to a defect of engine components, analyzing the amplitude associated with the points of the curve relative to predefined amplitude values corresponding to a degree of severity of the defect; and as a result of an amplitude value being exceeded or an abnormal operation being detected, issuing a message associated with the vibratory signature. |
| US08831857B2 |
Method and system for estimating fuel composition
Methods and systems are provided for operating a fuel system configured to deliver a gaseous fuel to an engine. Following tank refilling, the fuel composition is selectively updated based on fuel tank pressure, temperature, and air content data. When the engine is subsequently restarted, the fuel rail is primed for a duration based on the updated composition. |
| US08831853B1 |
Slip or loss of traction detector using the third derivative of rotational speed difference
The utilization in a vehicle of the third derivative of rotational speed differences to enable early detection of the likely development or actual initiation of a condition involving wheel slip or loss of traction between the wheel and the surface over which it is traveling and to provide information to means to prevent the development of or reduce, inhibit, limit, eliminate, or control that condition is materially superior to the previously-disclosed methods intended for those purposes. The utilization of the third derivative of rotational speed differences for the indicated purposes produces highly useful and unexpected results and effectively addresses the problem of the detection of slip or loss of traction by means of a method of analysis not previously recognized or applied to that problem. |
| US08831852B2 |
Integrated controller for vehicle
In an integrated controller for a vehicle, a main control unit determines whether a road ahead is a split-μ road based on captured images obtained by left and right CCD cameras, and, if so, increases a braking intervention distance correction gain for correcting braking intervention distances set by a collision prevention control unit. The collision prevention control unit performs collision prevention control at a brake timing earlier than usual using the braking intervention distances corrected by the correction gain. Furthermore, when the road ahead is determined to be a split-μ road, the main control unit decreases a target torque correction gain for correcting a target torque set by an engine control unit to prevent the vehicle from becoming unstable as a result of a yaw moment acting on the vehicle generated by a generated driving force due to a difference in friction coefficient μ between left and right road surfaces. |
| US08831851B2 |
Vehicle with brake steering
A vehicle including a respective brake for each driven, ground-engaging member that is operable under the control of driven member brake commands generated in a controller, a ground-engaging, steerable member that defines a steering angle, a sensor for generating a steering angle signal that is indicative of the steering angle, a sensor for generating a vehicle speed signal, and a sensor for generating a respective driven member speed signal. The controller is capable of generating driven member brake commands based on steering angle and vehicle speed signals together with a driven member slip estimation signal that is generated from the driven member speed signals. |
| US08831848B2 |
Electro-hydraulic clutch system
An electro-hydraulic clutch system for a motor vehicle includes a clutch mechanism that selectively engages an engine of the motor vehicle with a gear box, an actuator that pumps and retrieves hydraulic fluid to and from the clutch mechanism to activate the clutch mechanism, and a solenoid with a valve and/or a check ball that is disposed in the path of the hydraulic fluid between the actuator and the clutch mechanism. The solenoid has a normally closed position to prevent flow of the hydraulic fluid back to the actuator in the event of a system failure. The solenoid can also be used to reduce energy consumption in steady state conditions. |
| US08831845B1 |
Method of learning engaged positions and a neutral position of a synchronizer actuator fork of a dual clutch transmission
A method of controlling a dual clutch transmission includes repeatedly moving a synchronizer into interlocking engagement with a first gear with an actuator fork, and repeatedly sensing a position of the actuator fork for each occurrence that the actuator fork moves the synchronizer into the interlocking engagement with the first gear. The sensed positions of the actuator fork are averaged to define a first engaged position of the actuator fork for engaging the first gear. A second engaged position at which the actuator fork couples the synchronizer to a second gear may be determined in the same manner. A neutral position may be determined by identifying the axial locations of peak acceleration of the actuator fork while moving between the first engaged position and the second engaged position. The identified axial locations are averaged to define the neutral position of the actuator fork. |
| US08831842B2 |
Hybrid vehicle automatic simulated shifting
A system for simulated shifting for a hybrid vehicle, the system includes a plurality of wheels, an engine, a sensor, a transmission, a memory for storing target engine speeds and deceleration torques for a plurality of simulated gears, and a processor. The engine provides a torque to the plurality of wheels. The sensor detects a requested deceleration torque. The transmission simulates a current simulated gear by delivering an applied torque, which corresponds to the requested deceleration torque, to the plurality of wheels and an engine speed corresponding to the simulated gear. The processor simulates a downshift by increasing an engine speed of the engine without changing the applied torque to the plurality of wheels when the requested deceleration torque exceeds a deceleration torque of a lower simulated gear. |
| US08831841B2 |
Automatic steering device for self-propelled straddle carriers for lifting and transporting manufactures
An automatic steering device for self-propelled straddle carriers for lifting and transporting manufactures, includes a spatial portal structure (1) resting on the ground on a plurality of steering wheel units (4) connected by a fifth wheel (14) to the structure above, where each wheel unit (4) includes two tyred wheels (8, 8′) each of which is associated with its own electric motor unit (10, 10′) independently with respect to the other; each electric motor is supplied by its own vector frequency converter controlled by a control unit provided with a control microprocessor; angular rotation of each wheel unit (4) is measured by an incremental encoder integral with the upper structure and with the fifth wheel (14) and connected to the microprocessor. |
| US08831832B2 |
Motor control apparatus and electric power steering apparatus provided with the same
A motor control apparatus that is capable of making the whole control system robust not only with respect to motor parameter variations such as the temperature variation and the manufacturing unevenness but also with respect to disturbances while using a cheap and compact one-shunt type current detecting circuit and simultaneously diagnosing an estimation error and an electric power steering apparatus provide with the motor control apparatus. |
| US08831831B2 |
Trailer backing aid using GPS mapping and camera image display
A method of controlling a vehicle and trailer assembly comprises initiating an input mode for a trailer backing system. A first set of data points, a second set of data points, and a third set of data points are input into the trailer backing system. The input mode for the trailer backing system is ended. An intended backing path is determined based upon the first, second, and third set of data points. |
| US08831828B2 |
In-vehicle information system, in-vehicle apparatus and information terminal
An in-vehicle information system includes: an information terminal; and an in-vehicle apparatus. At least one of the information terminal and the in-vehicle apparatus decides whether or not a vehicle is currently in a traveling state. The in-vehicle apparatus includes a display unit with a display screen, and restricts an image area ranging over part of or all of the display screen to be obscured from view when deciding that the vehicle is currently in a traveling state. The information terminal includes an application stored therein, outputs an image corresponding to the application to the in-vehicle apparatus, and outputs regulatory information pertaining to an image area to be restricted within the image corresponding to the application, to the in-vehicle apparatus. The in-vehicle apparatus sets an image area in the display screen to be restricted by using the regulatory information output by the information terminal. |
| US08831825B2 |
Monitoring for equipment efficiency and maintenance
A system and method for monitoring fuel efficiency of a vehicle is provided. Fuel efficiency of a vehicle may be monitored in real-time using telemetry transmitted from the vehicle. The telemetry may be analyzed in combination with a fuel efficiency model in order to determine whether the real-time fuel efficiency determination deviates from a baseline fuel efficiency. The real-time fuel efficiency monitoring system and method may be used for feedback for the driver, such as sending real-time messages to the driver to modify operation of the vehicle to increase fuel efficiency. The fuel efficiency model may further be used to assign vehicles in a fleet to particular routes, vehicles to particular drivers, or vehicles to particular routes with particular drivers. |
| US08831824B2 |
Centralized management of motor vehicle software applications and services
In one example, a network device stores a mapping of application operation modes to vehicle conditions such as a first condition of the vehicle powered but not moving and a second condition of the vehicle moving. The network device receives a wirelessly transmitted request for a particular application to utilize an interface powered by the vehicle. The network device compares an application identifier specified by the received request to the mapping. The network device then identifies a portion of the vehicle interface according to the comparison and signals control software on the vehicle to grant the particular application access to only the identified portion of the vehicle interface itself. The application can reside on the mobile device and utilize the vehicle interface as an extended interface, or the application can reside on the vehicle. |
| US08831823B2 |
Centralized management of motor vehicle software applications and services
In one example, a network device stores a mapping of application operation modes to vehicle conditions such as a first condition of the vehicle powered but not moving and a second condition of the vehicle moving. The network device receives a wirelessly transmitted request for a particular application to utilize an interface powered by the vehicle. The network device compares an application identifier specified by the received request to the mapping. The network device then identifies a portion of the vehicle interface according to the comparison and signals control software on the vehicle to grant the particular application access to only the identified portion of the vehicle interface itself. The application can reside on the mobile device and utilize the vehicle interface as an extended interface, or the application can reside on the vehicle. |
| US08831822B2 |
Battery management system and battery replacement method
A battery management system includes: measuring a surface pressure of a vehicle-mounted secondary battery (battery cell) for driving the vehicle with a lapse of time; calculating a high-rate driving frequency coefficient on the basis of the measured surface pressure at intervals of a predetermined period (24 hours); deriving a high-rate driving frequency on the basis of the number of times that the calculated high-rate driving frequency coefficient has exceeded a predetermined threshold; and selecting a replacement battery from among batteries including a high-power battery on the basis of the derived high-rate driving frequency. |
| US08831821B2 |
Controller area network message transmission disable testing systems and methods
An inhibit path diagnostic system includes a first control module. The first control module includes a message output and transmits a first message from the message output to a controller area network (CAN) via a message transmission path. An inhibit path circuit includes the message transmission path. A second control module transmits a disable control signal to the inhibit path circuit to disable the message transmission path. The first control module transmits a second message from the message output subsequent to and based on the transmitting of the disable control signal. At least one of the first control module and the second control module detects a fault of the inhibit path circuit subsequent to the transmitting of the second message and based on a feedback signal from the CAN. |
| US08831815B2 |
Method of diagnosing a starter relay failure using synchronized state machine
A method and electrical system for detecting and compensating for a failure in a starter circuit that comprises first and second relays in a circuit path to a starter motor of a vehicle. The method and system determine if at least one of the first or second relays is in a closed position when it should be in an open position and disables a vehicle starter operation if it is determined that at least one of the first or second relays is in the closed position when it should be in the open position. The vehicle starter operation could be a stop-start operation of the engine. |
| US08831813B1 |
Modifying speed of an autonomous vehicle based on traffic conditions
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to speed control in an autonomous vehicle. For example, an autonomous vehicle may include a user interface which allows the driver to input speed preferences. These preferences may include the maximum speed above the speed limit the user would like the autonomous vehicle to drive when other vehicles are present and driving above or below certain speeds. The other vehicles may be in adjacent or the same lane the vehicle, and need not be in front of the vehicle. |
| US08831810B2 |
Bicycle drive apparatus
A bicycle drive apparatus includes a bicycle crankset, a bicycle transmission, a drive assistance electric motor and a microcomputer. The microcomputer includes an output control section, a gear shift feasibility determining section and a gear shift control section. The output control section controls an output of the drive assistance electric motor. The gear shift feasibility determining section determines if an output condition of the bicycle crankset satisfies a gear shift allowable condition. The gear shift control section receives a gear shift request, instructs the output control section to at least one of stop the output of the drive assistance electric motor and decrease the output of the drive assistance electric motor, and instructs the transmission to execute a gear shifting operation upon the gear shift permission determining section determining that the gear shift allowable condition is satisfied. |
| US08831809B2 |
Method and system to avoid unintended engine on/offs for hybrid vehicles
A system and method for controlling a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain having an engine defining one power source, and a traction motor and electrical storage device defining another power source include inhibiting a stopping and a starting of the engine based upon an unintended tip-out event and an unintended tip-in event, respectively. The total power demand and the available electric power are determined. The total power demand is filtered. The engine is prevented from being pulled-up or pulled-down based upon a difference between the total power demand and the filtered power demand being exceeding a threshold. However, if the difference exceeds the threshold, and if the available electric power exceeds the total power demand, then the engine is permitted to pull-up or pull-down. |
| US08831807B2 |
Method and device for operating a user interface for displaying the travel range of a vehicle
In a method and a device for operating a user interface in a vehicle, in particular for determining and displaying information in connection with electrical consumers, an operator action is detected, by which the operation of an electrical consumer disposed in the vehicle is modified, and a change in the energy consumption of the electrical consumer caused by the operator action is determined. Using the determined energy consumption, a change in the travel range of the vehicle caused by the modified operation of the electrical consumer is calculated, and the calculated change in travel range is displayed directly. The method and the device are especially suitable for a vehicle driven by an electric motor. |
| US08831805B2 |
Construction machine and industrial vehicle having power supply system
A construction machine or industrial vehicle having a power supply system which includes a chargeable and dischargeable capacitor and a feeder circuit connecting a battery and the capacitor to a load capable of power running and regeneration. The capacitor is connected through a DC/DC converter which includes a controller that controls energy charged or discharged by the capacitor through the DC/DC converter to the load. The controller includes a power running/regeneration operation estimater which estimates an operation pattern including a point of change between power running and regeneration modes of the motor, or DC current supplied to an inverter, or control lever information and previously stored operation pattern information, and a capacitor target voltage calculator which controls an output command value of the DC/DC converter according to the estimated operation pattern so that a capacitor target voltage sequentially decreases in power running and sequentially increases in regeneration. |
| US08831804B2 |
Method for controlling an automatic geared transmission
A method of controlling an automatic geared transmission of a vehicle drive train. The transmission is linked, on the input side, to a hybrid drive which comprising an engine and an electric motor and, on the output side, to an axle drive and wheels. During vehicle stand still with the engine and/or electric motor operating and a disengaged drive train, rolling of the motor vehicle is prevented, or at least limited, by shifting the transmission. When the automatic geared transmission is in the neutral position (Gl=N), a safety function is activated to avoid uncontrolled rolling of the vehicle in which actuation of shift operating elements, the throttle and the brake pedal, as well as the rolling speed, are captured by sensors and in which, when the drive operating elements (shift operating element xSBE=0, throttle xFP=0, brake pedal xBP=0) are not activated, a starting gear is engaged once a predetermined limiting speed (vRoll>vGr) is exceeded. |
| US08831803B2 |
Hybrid vehicle, method of notification for hybrid vehicle, and computer-readable storage medium having program stored thereon for causing computer to execute method of notification for hybrid vehicle
A hybrid vehicle is configured to be capable of traveling with fuel and electric power serving as energy sources. A charger receives electric power from an external power supply connected to a charging port to charge a power storage device. An ECU calculates a distance traveled per unit amount of electric power supplied from the external power supply by the charger and a distance traveled per unit amount of fuel consumed by an engine. A notification unit notifies a user of each distance traveled, as calculated by the ECU. |
| US08831796B2 |
System and method for indicating a perspective cockpit field-of-view on a vertical situation display
An aircraft display system is provided and configured to render a cockpit display having a field-of-view. The system comprises a monitor and a processor coupled to the monitor and configured to generate a vertical situation display on the monitor. The vertical situation display includes at least one graphic indicative of a region of the terrain encompassed by the field-of-view. |
| US08831795B2 |
Data synchronisation for a flight information system
A method (49) for synchronizing flight information that comprises a step of connecting airborne components (21) of a flight information system (10) and ground-based components (24) of the flight information system (10), a step of comparing flight data stored with the airborne components (21) and content stored with the ground-based components (24), and a step of synchronising (66, 69) the airborne components (21) and the ground-based components (22). |
| US08831792B2 |
Redundant adaptive algorithm for electrical pressure regulated high pressure tank systems
A method and system for controlling a pressure regulator in a gas storage system using a pressure switch as a pressure measurement device. A controller uses supply pressure data and gas flow demand data to compute a feed-forward control term, and uses data from a pressure sensor downstream of the pressure regulator to compute a feedback control term. During normal operation, with pressure downstream of the regulator oscillating about a set point pressure, on-time and off-time periods of a pressure switch are monitored, and an adaptive control term is computed which balances on-time and off-time. If the pressure sensor fails, excessive switch on-time or off-time will be detected; in response to this, the feedback control term is disregarded, and an adaptive control term is computed which aims to restore balanced on-time and off-time of the switch, thus indicating that the actual pressure is oscillating about the set point. |
| US08831791B2 |
Processor cooling management
Illustrative embodiments provide a computer implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer program product for adjusting cooling settings. The computer implemented method comprises analyzing a set of instructions of an application to determine a number of degrees by which a set of instructions will raise a temperature of at least one processor core. The computer implemented method further calculates a cooling setting for at least one cooling system for the at least one processor core. The computer implemented method adjusts the at least one cooling system based on the cooling setting. The step of analyzing the set of instructions is performed before the set of instructions is executed on the at least one processor core. The step of adjusting the at least one cooling system is performed before the set of instructions is executed on the at least one processor core. |
| US08831789B2 |
Goal-based load management
Systems and methods are provided that facilitate dynamic load shedding control in an industrial environment in accordance with one or more production goals provided by a user. One or more production goals for system of industrial load devices (e.g., target product output, desired maximum peak energy demand, and the like) can be provided to a policy engine, which generates goal-based criteria in a standardized format based on the production goals. The goal-based criteria can be provided to a load modulation component, which uses the criteria to calculate load shed priorities for respective load devices on the system designed to ensure that the one or more specified production goals are achieved. The load modulation component can also generate a load shed schedule or load shed criteria used to determine when or under what conditions load shedding is to be initiated in order to achieve the one or more production goals. |
| US08831787B2 |
Power sensor
Disclosed is an apparatus, system, and method for sensing the current supplied to a motorized hoist for raising a maintenance platform and providing an estimate of the operating status of the motor, for example, as stopped, starting, stalled or operating as expected. In various embodiments, measures of voltage and current may be used to determine the operating condition of the hoist and to estimate the magnitude of the applied load. Unintended modes of operation can then be determined so that the conditions can be indicated to the operator and protective measures taken. |
| US08831785B2 |
Multi-stage humidity control system and method
A system for multi-stage control of humidity in fluid flow supplied to at least one information technology apparatus includes a sensor, a first stage apparatus configured to vary humidity levels in the fluid flow, and a second stage apparatus positioned downstream of the first stage apparatus along the fluid flow to further vary humidity levels in the fluid flow. The system also includes a controller configured to receive environmental condition information from the sensor, to determine whether the information indicates that the humidity level is outside of a predetermined range, and to manipulate an operation of at least one of the first stage apparatus and the second stage apparatus to vary the humidity level in the fluid flow in response to the information indicating that the humidity level is outside of the predetermined range. |
| US08831783B2 |
Biochemical processing apparatus
A biochemical processing apparatus is provided having a stage receiving a biochemical reaction cartridge which includes chambers and flow paths communicating therebetween, a moving system for moving liquid via the flow paths, and a detector for detecting the presence of the liquid in a chamber and/or the amount of the liquid. In addition, a determining device determines a result of the movement of the liquid from the information of the liquid in the chamber detected by the detector. |
| US08831777B2 |
Robot program changing device
A program changing device includes a sequence interchanging unit for interchanging plural teaching points in a teaching sequence such that total movement time of a robot becomes smaller than that when the robot is moved in line with an initial teaching sequence of the teaching points, a calculating unit for calculating difference amounts between the initial teaching points and a trajectory of the robot that is obtained by executing an after-interchanged operational program by simulation, a position adjusting unit for adjusting positions of the teaching points of the after-interchanged operational program until the difference amounts become equal to or smaller than a predetermined allowable value, and a teaching point changing unit for changing the adjusted teaching points to be the initial teaching points when cycle time of the after-interchanged operational program including the adjusted teaching points is longer than initial cycle time. |
| US08831775B2 |
Method and system for electronic assistance in dispensing pharmaceuticals
A system and method for electronic assistance in dispensing pharmaceuticals, utilizing software, hardware and barcode technology to yield error free, clinically correct, adjudicated prescriptions. The system is adaptive to the preferences of an authorized user, by being configurable on the basis of when and what type of warnings are given in particular circumstances, based on entries in a field, and whether the order can proceed. Additionally, the invention allows for automated and electronically assisted refilling of orders. The invention allows for tracking and monitoring of prescription orders through barcode labeling and scanning. |
| US08831772B2 |
Lift apparatus for stable placement of components into a rack
A method uses scales onboard a lift apparatus to weigh an uninstalled component that is positioned on the lift apparatus for installation into a rack. Data is accessed that identifies the weight and rack location of components currently installed in the rack, and one or more available rack locations are identified where the component may be installed without violating one or more predetermined rack stability rules. The method then uses the lift apparatus to raise the component into a selected one of the one or more available rack locations. The components are preferably information technology components, such as servers, network switches and power distribution units. |
| US08831769B2 |
Robot and method of controlling the same
A robot and a method for controlling the same are provided. The robot includes a first control unit to control the overall operation of the robot and a second control unit to supplement the function of the control unit in preparation for the malfunction of the first control unit such that the second control unit controls the robot to perform a predetermined safety-considered motion when the first control unit malfunctions. |
| US08831767B2 |
Methods and systems for monitoring a parameter of a measurement device during polishing, damage to a specimen during polishing, or a characteristic of a polishing pad or tool
Methods and systems for monitoring a parameter of a measurement device during polishing, damage to a specimen during polishing, a characteristic of a polishing pad, or a characteristic of a polishing tool are provided. One method includes scanning a specimen with a measurement device during polishing of a specimen to generate output signals at measurement spots on the specimen. The method also includes determining if the output signals are outside of a range of output signals. Output signals outside of the range may indicate that a parameter of the measurement device is out of control limits. In a different embodiment, output signals outside of the range may indicate damage to the specimen. Another method includes scanning a polishing pad with a measurement device to generate output signals at measurement spots on the polishing pad. The method also includes determining a characteristic of the polishing pad from the output signals. |
| US08831765B2 |
Method for operating an automatic handling system applied to many wafer processing apparatuses
The instant disclosure provides a method for operating an automatic handling system applied to many wafer processing apparatuses. When a OHT (Overhead Hoist Transport) vehicle is moved to one of the wafer processing apparatuses, the OHT vehicle can ask a OHT control module whether a wafer carrier device can be unloaded from the OHT vehicle onto the wafer processing apparatus. There are two judgment methods as follows: (1) If there is another wafer carrier device already disposed on the wafer processing apparatus, the OHT control module will inform the OHT vehicle that the wafer carrier device cannot be unloaded from the OHT vehicle onto the wafer processing apparatus; (2) If there is no any wafer carrier device disposed on the wafer processing apparatus, the OHT control module will inform the OHT vehicle that the wafer carrier device can be unloaded from the OHT vehicle onto the wafer processing apparatus. |
| US08831758B1 |
Interface-based game-space contest generation
An approach to facilitating interface-based game-space contest generation is provided. A user interface may be provided to an administrator. The user interface may be configured to receive user inputs from the administrator that include one or more performance criteria to be associated with a contest to be provided in a game space, one or more awards to be distributed in association with the contest, and one or more qualifications to participate in the contest. A notification that relates to the contest may be provided, based on the user inputs, in the game space. Performance scores of users that participated in the contest may be determined based on the performance criteria and activities that are performed in the game space by the participating users. Automated distribution of the awards to individual ones of the participating users may be facilitated in accordance with the performance scores of the individual participating users. |
| US08831756B2 |
Control system of a technical installation
A control system of a technical installation including at least one field device which makes available at least two redundant protocol values that are converted by the control system into a single non-redundant functional value is provided. The control system is provided with at least two redundant communication channels for converting the at least two redundant protocol values, the channels controlling the respective protocol value with respect to its exactitude and transmitting an exact protocol value. |
| US08831755B2 |
System and method for feedback control
A system and method for controlling a plant having a minimum phase transfer function P(s) and given an input signal u, the plant having an output y and a plant frequency range comprising a transfer function J(s) comprising the product of a high gain filter J1(s) having a gain k1 sufficient that J ( ω ) > [ 1 + 1 ɛ ] when |ω|≦ω1 and |1+J(ω)|>1/M for all ω wherein ω1 is selected to obtain a desired time response, and a low pass filter J2(s) selected such that |1+J(ω)|>1/M for all ω and J(s) is strictly proper, wherein ε<1 and M>1 and ε and M are selected to meet a desired sensitivity requirement. An error signal e is calculated comprising the difference between the system input signal u and the plant output signal y, and the error signal modified according to the transfer function C(s)=P−1(s)J1(s)J2(s) and inputting the error signal into the plant. The system and method can be extended to unstable invertible plants. A global sensitivity bound M≧1 could also be achieved for plants including right half planes zeros. The system and method are shown applied to a read-write head positioning actuator of a hard disk drive, but can be applied equally to other systems such as electrical systems, mechanical systems, industrial processes, military applications, flight control, power generation, computer servo systems, phase lock loops and the like. |
| US08831754B2 |
Event prediction using hierarchical event features
Event prediction using hierarchical event features is described. In an embodiment a search engine monitors search results presented to users and whether users click on those search results. For example, features describing the search result events are universal resource locator prefix levels which are inherently hierarchically related. In an embodiment a graphical data structure is created and stored and used to represent the hierarchical relationships between features. An online training process is used in examples which enables knowledge to be propagated through the graphical data structure according to the hierarchical relations between features. In an example, the graphical data structure is used to predict whether a user will click on a search result and those predictions are used by the search engine to rank search results for future searches. In another example the events are advertisement impressions and the predictions are used by an online advertisement system. |
| US08831750B2 |
Ear implant electrode and method of manufacture
A novel electrode array is described for ear implant systems such as cochlear implants (CI) and vestibular implants (VI). The electrode array includes electrode wires for carrying electrical stimulation signals. At a terminal end of each electrode wire is an electrode stimulation contact for applying the electrical stimulation signals to adjacent neural tissue. An electrode carrier of resilient material encases the electrode wires and has an outer surface with a plurality of contact openings exposing the stimulation contacts. Multiple bend control elements are distributed along the length of the electrode array to control bending flexibility of the electrode array as a function of a bend radius threshold to be greater for bending less than the bend radius threshold and lesser for bending greater than the bend radius threshold. |
| US08831748B2 |
Medical electrical electrodes with conductive polymer
A medical electrical electrode includes an elongated conductive coil located over a lead body, and a conductive polymer material in contact with the lead body and located between individual coils of the elongated conductive coil. In certain embodiments, the conductive polymer is a polymer (e.g., silicone) implanted with a conductive filler (e.g., carbon black). In certain embodiments, the conductive polymer material is generally isodiametric with an outer diameter of the individual coils of the elongated conductive coil. A medical electrical electrode is fabricated by sliding an elongated conductive coil over a length of a lead body, dispersing a conductive polymer on the helical coil, inserting a tubing over the elongated conductive coil, distributing the polymer material between individual turns of the elongated conductive coil, heating the tubing so the tubing shrinks around the elongated conductive coil, and removing the tubing. |
| US08831746B2 |
Self-folding paddle lead and method of fabricating a paddle lead
In one embodiment, a medical lead comprises a lead body for conducting electrical pulses and a paddle. The paddle includes an intermediate metal layer, at least an insulative polymer backing layer, and an insulative polymer covering layer. The intermediate metal layer comprises a plurality of features defined by gaps in the metal material in the metal layer such that each feature is electrically isolated from each other feature, wherein each feature includes a respective connector element that is electrically coupled to at least one conductor within the lead body, wherein a portion of the insulative polymer covering layer is exposed above each feature to define a respective electrode for the corresponding feature. Also, the paddle possesses shape memory to cause the paddle to assume a substantially planar orientation when the shape memory is in a relaxed state. |
| US08831745B2 |
High-density array of micro-machined electrodes for neural stimulation
The present invention is a micro-machined electrode for neural-electronic interfaces which can achieve a ten times lower impedance and higher charge injection limit for a given material and planar area. |
| US08831743B2 |
MRI compatible electrode circuit
An MRI compatible electrode circuit construct is provided. The construct includes at least two filter components constructed from an electrode wire. One filter component may be a single or multiple layer resonant LC filter positioned proximate an electrode that resolves the issue of insufficient attenuation by effectively blocking the RF induced current on the wire from exiting the wire through the electrode. The second filter component may include one or more non-resonant filter(s) positioned along the length of the electrode wire that resolve(s) the issue of excessive heating of the resonant LC filter by significantly attenuating the current induced on the wire before it reaches the resonant LC filter. The resonant LC filter may also be positioned distal to the end of the non-resonant filters with the non-resonant filters proximate the electrode. |
| US08831741B2 |
Catheter with deflectable cap
A catheter system for delivery of a medical implant, the system including a cap removably covering an open distal end of a catheter. An elongate actuator wire is fixedly attached to the cap, extends through a lumen of the catheter, and has a distal region that can assume a pre-formed shape when unconstrained by the catheter lumen. The pre-formed shape of the wire distal region defines a bend adapted to laterally deflect the cap from the catheter distal end when assuming the pre-formed shape. At least a portion of the lumen adjacent the catheter distal end is sized and shaped to slidably receive the medical implant alongside the actuator wire. A push rod extends through the catheter lumen for ejecting the medical implant from the catheter distal end. Methods of using the invention are also disclosed. |
| US08831740B2 |
Implantable lead assembly having a plurality of inductors
An implantable lead assembly includes an elongated body, a bobbin, and a conductor. The elongated body includes a distal end having an electrode and a proximal end having a header connector portion for coupling the elongated body with an implantable medical device. The bobbin is disposed in the elongated body. The conductor is disposed in the elongated body and is electrically coupled with the header connector portion and the electrode. The conductor is wound around the bobbin to form first and second inductive coils that are axially separated from each other by an inter-coil gap formed from the bobbin. The first and second inductive coils have different self resonant frequencies. |
| US08831733B2 |
Brain repair using electrical stimulation of healthy nodes
A method and system of compensating for a damaged brain node is disclosed. The damaged node is determined by techniques such as fMRI or neural recording. A healthy node that can compensate for the function of the damaged node is determined. A stimulating electrode is placed on at least one functioning node to bypass the activity from the damaged node to compensate for a missing node. The functioning node is then stimulated to compensate for the damaged node. |
| US08831727B2 |
Methods and systems for managing fusion and noise in cardiac pacing response classification
Methods and systems for detecting noise in cardiac pacing response classification processes involve determining that a cardiac response classification is possibly erroneous if unexpected signal content is detected. The unexpected signal content may comprise signal peaks that have polarity opposite to the polarity of peaks used to determine the cardiac response to pacing. Fusion/noise management processes include pacing at a relatively high energy level until capture is detected after a fusion, indeterminate, or possibly erroneous pacing response classification is made. The relatively high energy pacing pulses may be delivered until capture is detected or until a predetermined number of paces are delivered. |
| US08831722B2 |
Shock timing technology
A method for accurately determining timing points for T-wave shocks is particularly useful in a system for determining a cardiac shock strength in an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD. The method involves acquiring at least one first signal, acquiring at least a second signal, comparing the signals, and selecting a timing point with the T-wave of the signal. The first and second signals may be two different aspects of a single electrogram, first and second electrograms, or a combination thereof. Comparison preferably involves signal alignment and qualitative analysis. |
| US08831721B2 |
Pressure and impedance based discrimination of hemodynamic stability
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator evaluates the hemodynamic stability of an arrhythmia to determine whether or not to defibrillate. The device obtains cardiac pressure and cardiac impedance data and evaluates a phase relationship between these parameters. Hemodynamically stable rhythms will result in an out of phase relationship. |
| US08831720B2 |
Method of implanting and using a subcutaneous defibrillator
A subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is disclosed which has an electrically active canister which houses a source of electrical energy, a capacitor, and operational circuitry that senses the presence of potentially fatal heart rhythms. At least one subcutaneous electrode that serves as the opposite electrode from the canister is attached to the canister via a lead system. Cardioversion-defibrillation energy is delivered when the operational circuitry senses a potentially fatal heart rhythm. There are no transvenous, intracardiac, or epicardial electrodes. A method of subcutaneously implanting the cardioverter-defibrillator is also disclosed as well as a kit for conducting the method. |
| US08831718B2 |
Neural stimulation system to prevent simultaneous energy discharges
Various aspects of the present subject matter relate to a system. Various embodiments of the system comprise at least one port to connect to at least one lead with at least one electrode, at least one stimulator circuit and at least one controller. The at least one stimulator circuit is connected to the at least one port and is adapted to deliver neural stimulation to a neural stimulation target using the at least one electrode. The at least one controller is adapted to determine when another energy discharge other than the neural stimulation to the neural stimulation target is occurring and to prevent delivery of the neural stimulation simultaneously with the other energy discharge. Other aspects and embodiments are provided herein. |
| US08831713B2 |
Prevention of false asystole or bradycardia detection
In general, this disclosure is directed to signal processing based methods to reject undersensing in a signal indicative of cardiac activity, e.g., ECG. The undersensing may be due to very small signal amplitudes or due to a sudden increase in single peak amplitude resulting in an increased sensing threshold. The undersensing may result in falsely detecting a cardiac event, e.g., asystole or bradycardia. The techniques of this disclosure monitor the behavior of the signal to determine when a detected asystole is false. |
| US08831708B2 |
Multi-modal medical imaging
A nuclear probe and ultrasound transducer are interconnected, such as being in a same hand-held housing. The interconnection aligns the coordinate systems in a known spatial relationship. The ultrasound data is used to detect transducer offset or change in position without a tracking sensor. The radiation detected by the nuclear probe may be reconstructed into an image based on the detected transducer position since the nuclear probe moves with the ultrasound transducer. Both anatomical and functional imaging may be provided together without the complications of calibration and tracking. Where a therapeutic transducer is included, therapy may also be provided. The anatomical and functional information identifies the regions for treatment. The same device, already positioned correctly based on the functional and anatomical imaging, is then used for treatment with high intensity focused ultrasound. |
| US08831703B2 |
Selective MR imaging of segmented anatomy
A system and method for performing an MRI or MRS scan that is optimized for a particular target structure. A prescan is conducted during a first session in which an image that is optimized for segmentation is acquired along with an alignment scout image or a 2D or 3D navigator signal. The segmentation process is employed to locate and define the target structure. During a second session the alignment scout image or navigator signal is reacquired and the information is used to determine the position transformation needed to align images from the two sessions. The position transformation information and the segmentation information are then employed to tailor a prescribed pulse sequence to examine the target structure. |
| US08831702B2 |
Bio-signal detection electrode and bio-signal detection apparatus
Provided is a bio-signal detection electrode including: an electrode section made of a gel including an electrolytic solution; and a support section configured to support the electrode section with respect to an accessory, the electrode section adhering to the support section. |
| US08831701B2 |
Uni-polar and bi-polar switchable tracking system between
An volume of a patient can be mapped with a system operable to identify a plurality of locations and save a plurality of locations of a mapping instrument. The mapping instrument can include one or more electrodes that can sense a voltage that can be correlated to a three dimensional location of the electrode at the time of the sensing or measurement. Therefore, a map of a volume can be determined based upon the sensing of the plurality of points without the use of other imaging devices. An implantable medical device can then be navigated relative to the mapping data. |
| US08831700B2 |
Apparatus and method for creating a stable optical interface
A system and a method for creating a stable and reproducible interface of an optical sensor system for measuring blood glucose levels in biological tissue include a dual wedge prism sensor attached to a disposable optic that comprises a focusing lens and an optical window. The disposable optic adheres to the skin to allow a patient to take multiple readings or scans at the same location. The disposable optic includes a Petzval surface placed flush against the skin to maintain the focal point of the optical beam on the surface of the skin. Additionally, the integrity of the sensor signal is maximized by varying the rotation rates of the dual wedge prisms over time in relation to the depth scan rate of the sensor. Optimally, a medium may be injected between the disposable and the skin to match the respective refractive indices and optimize the signal collection of the sensor. |
| US08831698B1 |
Device and module interface
A device holster configured to hold a device and at least one accessory module is disclosed. The accessory module can be an electronic module or a non-electronic module. In one embodiment, the accessory module is inserted into a pouch. The pouch includes a pouch interface for communication of data and/or transmission of power between an accessory module interface and a device interface. The pouch can be positioned on a face of the device holster or alternatively may be hingedly connected to the device holster. The accessory module may alternatively be built into the device holster or removably attached. The device holster may be integrated into an article of clothing or itself may be an article of clothing. |
| US08831688B2 |
Mobile terminal and operation control method thereof
Discussed are a mobile terminal and an operation control method thereof in which a delay time of the screen lock execution is controlled according to the user's gaze information. The mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present disclosure may include an input unit configured to receive a user input; an execution controller configured to execute screen lock if the user input is not received for a predetermined time T1; and a change controller configured to change the predetermined time T1 based on the user's gaze information. |
| US08831687B1 |
Two-sided dual screen mobile phone device
According to one embodiment, a mobile phone device includes a generally rectangular-shaped enclosure, the enclosure including a first side on an opposite side of the enclosure from a second side. The first side has a first display that occupies between about 60 percent and about 100 percent of the first side, and the second side has a keypad and a second display. In another embodiment, a method includes outputting data on a first display of a mobile phone device, wherein the first display occupies between about 60 percent and about 100 percent of the first side, detecting a reorientation of the mobile phone, and outputting data on a second display on a second side of the mobile phone device, wherein the first side is opposite the second side, wherein the second side includes a keypad and the second display. Other embodiments are disclosed as well. |
| US08831682B2 |
Wireless detector and adapter
The handheld wireless network detector and adaptor includes a housing at least partially enclosing a processor, a self-contained power source, an interface, a wireless transceiver, a wireless network detector and a wireless network adapter. The interface is configured to communicate with an external computing device. The wireless transceiver is configured for transmitting and receiving radio signals. The wireless network detector is configured to use the wireless transceiver to detect a presence of a detected wireless network. The wireless network adapter is configured for facilitating real time communication between the external computing device and the detected wireless network via the interface and said wireless transceiver. |
| US08831681B1 |
Image guided audio processing
An image guided audio communication device is disclosed that includes a camera mounted on a front-side that captures an image. Directional information from the image is used to control priorities given to audio signals coming toward a front-side of the communication device during audio processing. |
| US08831679B2 |
Common radio element application manager architecture for wireless picocells
A multi-modal multi-modulation base station such as a picocell is disclosed. The base station can include multiple radio devices that can be configured to communicate with user devices using different protocols and different frequencies. The base station includes a backhaul interface to core networks that can also operate according to multiple protocols. A common radio element application manager control operations of the radio devices including core network connectivity, mode-to-mode communications, and synchronization of picocell features. |
| US08831677B2 |
Customer-controlled instant-response anti-fraud/anti-identity theft devices (with true-personal identity verification), method and systems for secured global applications in personal/business e-banking, e-commerce, e-medical/health insurance checker, e-education/research/invention, e-disaster advisor, e-immigration, e-airport/aircraft security, e-military/e-law enforcement, with or without NFC component and system, with cellular/satellite phone/internet/multi-media functions
All-in-one wireless mobile telecommunication devices, methods and systems providing greater customer-control, instant-response anti-fraud/anti-identity theft protections with instant alarm, messaging and secured true-personal identity verifications for numerous registered customers/users, with biometrics and PIN security, operating with manual, touch-screen and/or voice-controlled commands, achieving secured rapid personal/business e-banking, e-commerce, accurate transactional monetary control and management, having interactive audio-visual alarm/reminder preventing fraudulent usage of legitimate physical and/or virtual credit/debit cards, with checks anti-forgery means, curtailing medical/health/insurance frauds/identity thefts, having integrated cellular and/or satellite telephonic/internet and multi-media means, equipped with language translations, GPS navigation with transactions tagging, currency converters, with or without NFC components, minimizing potential airport risks/mishaps, providing instant aid against school bullying, kidnapping, car-napping and other crimes, applicable for secured military/immigration/law enforcements, providing guided warning/rescue during emergencies and disasters. |
| US08831674B2 |
Message server
An apparatus includes a housing, an interface, a processor and a memory. The interface is affixed to the housing and is configured for coupling to a cellular wireless network. The processor is affixed to the housing and is coupled to the interface. The memory is affixed to the housing and is coupled to the processor. The memory is configured to store a set of instructions for causing the processor to receive a first message using the interface and, in response thereto, for causing the processor to broadcast a second message using the cellular wireless network and using the interface, the second message having a transmission parameter determined by the first message and wherein the second message is compatible with a messaging service protocol. |
| US08831672B2 |
Method and arrangement in a communication system
A method in a communication system for managing energy consumption of base stations within the communication system includes computing a marginal energy value for a first base station based on an energy source type of the first base station and computing a marginal energy value for a second base station based on an energy source type of the second base station. The method also includes comparing the marginal energy value for the first base station and the marginal energy value for the second base station. Additionally, the method includes adjusting an amount of wireless communication managed by the first base station in relation to the second base station, such that the amount of wireless communication managed by the first base station is increased if the first base station has a lower marginal energy value than the second base station, or the amount of wireless communication managed by the first base station is decreased if the first base station has a higher marginal energy value than the second base station. |
| US08831670B2 |
Performing a power boost in a wireless communication system
A method and system are provided for boosting power for a communications link between a base station and a user device, or user equipment, in a cellular communications network. In one embodiment, the communications link is a downlink between the base station and the user device established via a downlink channel having a full channel bandwidth including a number of sub-carrier frequencies. The base station determines whether a power boost is needed for a downlink to the user device. If so, the base station uses a subset of the sub-carrier frequencies from the full channel bandwidth as a reduced bandwidth channel, or sub-channel, for the downlink to the user device such that signal power is concentrated on the sub-carrier frequencies of the reduced channel bandwidth rather than spread across the sub-carrier frequencies of the full channel bandwidth. As a result, a power boost for the downlink is provided. |
| US08831669B2 |
Wireless communication device, mobile phone and wireless communication device control method
A wireless communication device includes a reference value acquiring unit configured to receive from a base station a timing adjustment value for use in adjusting a timing, and acquire a reference value associated with the received timing adjustment value, the reference value being a threshold for determining whether a transmission power is excessive, a variation acquiring unit configured to receive a transmission power control command transmitted by the base station, and sequentially acquire a variation in transmission power from the command, and a transmission power calculator configured to vary a transmission power value on the basis of the variation in transmission power when the transmission power value does not exceed the reference value, and configured to vary the transmission power value on the basis of a variation less than the variation in transmission power when the transmission power value exceeds the reference value. |
| US08831666B2 |
Link power savings with state retention
Methods and apparatus relating to link power savings with state retention are described. In one embodiment, one or more components of two agents coupled via a serial link are turned off during idle periods while retaining link state in each agent. Other embodiments are also disclosed. |
| US08831662B2 |
Reserved virtual radio conference calling
Disclosed is a two-way radio frequency (RF) communications system including a first device that receives, from a first subscriber unit, a virtual radio conferencing call (VRC) request identifying a plurality of other subscriber units to be partied to the VRC call and a conference time period during which to conduct the VRC call. The device reserves RF resources at one or more corresponding radio sites associated with the subscriber units partied to the VRC call for the conference time period. At a beginning of the conference time period, the device causes a virtual radio conference call start message to be transmitted to the subscriber units partied to the call instructing the subscriber units to join the VRC call via the reserved RF resources at their respective radio sites. |
| US08831661B2 |
Method, system and apparatus for contacting a target mobile station using a secondary connection
A method and system for notifying a target mobile station, which is temporarily out of communication with a network device over a primary connection, are provided. By way of example, one method includes receiving a notification from the network device over the primary connection. The notification indicates that data is available for the target mobile station. The notification is transmitted to the target mobile station over a secondary connection. The notification requests or instructs the target mobile station to establish communication with the network device over the primary connection in order to receive the data. |
| US08831656B2 |
Method and system for mapping logical channel to MAC flow
The present disclosure discloses a method for mapping a logical channel to a Media Access Control (MAC) flow, the method includes: a Radio Network Controller (RNC) informs a User Equipment (UE) of corresponding relationship between a Common Control Channel (CCCH) and an Enhanced-Dedicated Channel (E-DCH) MAC flow through signaling; the UE receives the signaling, and obtains the corresponding relationship between the CCCH and the E-DCH MAC flow. The present disclosure further discloses a system for mapping a logical channel to an MAC flow. Through the method and system disclosed in the present disclosure, it is convenient for both a Node B (NodeB) and UE can accurately obtain the corresponding relationship between the CCCH and the E-DCH MAC flow, which ensures the NodeB decodes correctly, thus improving the success rate in receiving signaling and data. |
| US08831652B2 |
Method and apparatus for grouping points-of-interest according to area names
An approach is provided for crowd sourcing and grouping points-of-interest based on cell broadcast message information. Reception of a message from a mobile terminal is caused, at least in part. The message specifies point-of-interest information and an associated area name corresponding to one of a plurality of cells of a communication network. The message is parsed to determine the point-of-interest information and the associated area name. A connectivity graph specifying relationships among the cells is selectively updated with the point-of-interest information. |
| US08831649B2 |
Apparatus and method for editing emoticon in a portable terminal
Emoticon message composition is supported in a portable terminal. An edit window in the form of a lattice is displayed for message composition. During special character input selection, a list window including a plurality of special characters is displayed in the edit window. The list window is arranged such that a plurality of lines are shown in the edit window. The special characters displayed in the list window are arranged in a sequence of being stored in a queue that includes one of a special character queue for a message recipient or a basic special character queue. |
| US08831647B2 |
Presence-enabled mobile access
A real-time communications system that is capable of convening an on-line meeting or teleconference involving text, audio, video, and/or data between multiple users of mobile and non-mobile devices. A mobile telephone is operative to receive an invitation to join an on-line meeting with at least one user of another mobile or non-mobile device. If the mobile telephone network can provide an indication of whether the mobile telephone is powered-on and within the coverage area of the mobile telephone network, a real-time messaging server employs this information to determine the on-line presence of the mobile telephone user before transmitting the meeting invitation. Otherwise, the real-time messaging server assumes that the mobile telephone user is present and on-line. The mobile telephone user may indicate his or her desire to join the on-line meeting by transmitting an SMS message to the real-time messaging server in response to the meeting invitation, after which the real-time messaging system may convene the on-line meeting between the multiple users. |
| US08831640B2 |
Method and system for notifying proximity of mobile communication terminals users
A method for notifying proximity of users of mobile communication terminals, comprising: a) having a mobile communication terminal obtaining from a remote server data suitable to be used by the mobile communication terminal for deriving a distance between a position of another mobile communication terminal and the mobile communication terminal; b) having the mobile terminal determining, based on said obtained data, whether the position of the other mobile communication terminal falls within a predetermined distance range; and c) in case the position of the other mobile communication terminal falls within said predetermined distance range, having the mobile communication terminal generating a notification for the user of the mobile communication terminal. A corresponding system is also disclosed. |
| US08831638B2 |
Location-based service system and method for generating secondary information
Provided are a location-based service system and method for generating secondary information. The location-based service system, which includes a processor, may include an information receiving unit to receive location information corresponding to a location in a route of a user, and an information adding unit to add to multimedia content that the user created, using the processor, at least a part of the received location information and location-related information which is associated with the received location information. |
| US08831632B2 |
Efficient resource usage for location sharing in computer networks
A location sharing system and related processes across computer networks are provided that efficiently utilize resources by adjusting location determination techniques at client devices. A rule-based architecture including user-based heuristics facilitates location determination that is accurate while optimizing resource consumption. Current interest in or other behavior associated with a target user or requesting user can be used in selecting a location determination protocol at the client device. An accurate portrayal of a user's location can be provided efficiently by correlating interest to utilize more accurate but larger resource-intensive components when interest is higher and to utilize less accurate but lower resource-intensive components when interest is lower. |
| US08831629B2 |
System and method for identifying mobile communication devices
A method includes detecting, at a device coupled to a network, a communication transmitted over the network. The method includes determining whether the communication is associated with an unauthorized data request, and, in response to determining that the communication is associated with the unauthorized data request, determining an access point associated with a source of the communication. The method further includes transmitting a message to a service provider. The message may request identification of mobile communication devices that are located within a threshold distance of the access point. |
| US08831627B2 |
System and method for tracking, monitoring, collecting, reporting and communicating with the movement of individuals
A tamper resistant and easily adjustable mobile tracking device is provided, or alternatively may be created by adding appropriate programming to a GPS enabled cellular communications device, by which location data and other information is transmitted to an administrative hub for processing and distribution according to operator defined parameters. Confirmed two-way communications are possible with mobile devices having display screens. |
| US08831626B2 |
Method for determining position based on portable internet using received signal strength indicator and system thereof
Provided are a system and method for determining a position based on portable Internet in a portable Internet system. The method includes receiving, by the terminal, information on neighbor base stations (BSs) from a main BS, scanning the neighbor BSs while measuring Received Signal Strength Indicators (RSSIs) for the main BS and the neighbor BSs, determining whether the RSSI for the main BS is greater than a preset threshold value, and deciding, as a position of the terminal, a position associated with an IDentification (ID) of the main BS when the RSSI is greater than the threshold value. |
| US08831623B2 |
Dynamically managing and reconfiguring wireless mesh networks
A wireless network with multiple subscriber systems in a lobe pool may operate by determining a state of the wireless network, identifying a new condition, the new condition including a new demand condition or a new network health condition, determining whether the new condition has a threshold impact on operations of the wireless network or component subscriber systems of the wireless network, and if the threshold impact exists, reconfiguring the wireless network to accommodate the new condition. |
| US08831617B2 |
Tiered wireless, multi-modal access system and method
A wireless, multi-modal access device and system adapted to integrate a number of communications networks operating in differing communication modes to facilitate transfer of communication links during a communication session to promote efficient use of the communication networks. The system includes a plurality of Universal Multi-Modal Access Devices UMMAD that are capable of operating at different frequencies and different protocols (TDMA, AMPS, CDMA, GSM, PCS etc) to communicate with any one of a number of Wide Bandwidth Gateways (WBG), which are each capable of communication using one or more of the protocols. The communication links may be switched from one WBG to another or from one protocol to another during a communication session to continue the session under the control of a Universal System Traffic Controller. Numerous other applications of the UMMADs for unique identification and e-commerce are disclosed. |
| US08831612B2 |
Handover method and apparatus
A method of controlling handover in a server and including receiving a handover required message including information indicating that a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) membership for a terminal in a Home (e)NodeB has expired; transmitting a handover command message to the Home (e)NodeB; receiving a status report message from the Home (e)NodeB indicating that the CSG membership for the terminal is updated; receiving information related to a CSG membership of the terminal from a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) if the terminal handover was performed from the Home (e)NodeB to another base station; determining that the terminal performs a reverse handover from the another base station to the Home (e)NodeB based on the status report message and information obtained from the HSS; and transmitting a control message to perform the reverse handover to another base station. |
| US08831608B2 |
Apparatuses, systems, and methods for inbound handover enhancement
A wireless communications device with a wireless module and a controller module is provided. The wireless module performs wireless transmission and reception to and from a service network comprising at least two first home base stations having the same physical cell identity (PCI) or physical scrambling code (PSC), a plurality of second home base stations neighboring the first home base stations, and a macro base station. The controller module receives a message from the macro base station via the wireless module, requests the wireless module to detect a plurality of PCIs or PSCs respectively corresponding to the first home base stations and the second home base stations in response to the message, and transmits to the macro base station via the wireless module the detected PCIs or PSCs, prior to being handed over to the one of the first home base stations from the macro base station. |
| US08831607B2 |
Reverse link other sector communication
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate soft handoff and enhanced performance in a wireless communication environment. In multiple access systems, access points assign certain resources (e.g., time, frequency, code) to each terminal. This assignment information can also be provided to neighboring sectors, allowing such sectors to receive and decode terminal transmissions. The information can be provided via backhaul signaling. Decoding by sectors within the active set of the terminal facilitates smooth transition as terminals move between sectors during soft handoff. In addition, sectors can signal successful receipt and decoding of transmissions, avoiding redundant processing. |
| US08831606B2 |
Mobile terminal registration method in a radio network
A mobile terminal registration method in a radio network includes: a. A mobile terminal sending a non-access stratum message and identifier information of last registration to a radio access network unit, and the identifier information comprising the Serving CN Node identifier, Serving CN Node pool identifier and Public Land Mobile Network Identifier; b. If the radio access network unit determines that the identifier information is invalid, the radio access network unit allocating a Serving CN Node to the mobile terminal and sending the non-access stratum message to the Serving CN Node; c. After the Serving CN Node receives the non-access stratum message, if determining that a registration request of mobile terminal can be accepted, the Serving CN Node sending a success response message to the mobile terminal, and the message carrying identifier information of current Serving CN Node; d. The mobile terminal saving the new identifier information. |
| US08831603B2 |
Communications circuit and method with reduced power consumption
A method of operating a communications circuit with at least one control channel and at least one data channel includes the steps of monitoring the at least one control channel, powering a receiver portion of the circuit when the at least one control channel indicates that data is to be received, and refraining from powering the receiver portion when the at least one control channel indicates that data is not to be received. The circuit can operate, for example, under the 3GPP HSDPA standard. Where desired, the clock and power supply to the receiver portion and a bit rate processing portion can be independently gated. |
| US08831602B2 |
Call delivery for a dual mode device
A method may include receiving a call, at a first mobile switching center (MSC) associated with a first network, wherein the call is intended for a subscriber of services associated with a second network. The method may also include sending a first location request message to a home location register (HLR) to request location information associated with a mobile device to which the call is directed, receiving, by the first MSC, an address associated with a service control point (SCP) and determining, by the SCP, that the second network is experiencing an outage or a problem. The method may further include determining, by the SCP, whether the mobile device is registered with the first network, and forwarding the call via the first network, in response to determining that the mobile device is registered with the first network. |
| US08831601B2 |
Terrestrial communications network suitable for providing air-to-ground connectivity
The present invention includes a plurality of native cellular nodes configured to provide wireless connectivity to one or more ground-based wireless devices, each native node including a BTS having a transceiver configured to transmit a downlink signal to the ground-based devices at a native downlink frequency and receive an uplink signal from the ground-based devices at a native uplink frequency, a plurality of augmented nodes configured to provide connectivity to one or more airborne devices, each augmented node including an augmented BTS having a transceiver configured to transmit a downlink signal to the one or more airborne communications devices via an upwardly directed antenna at the native downlink frequency and receive an air-to-ground uplink signal from the airborne devices at a selected air-to-ground uplink frequency different from the native uplink signal frequency, wherein the native nodes and the augmented nodes are configured to operate on a common backhaul infrastructure. |
| US08831599B2 |
Avoiding ping-pong handovers
The present invention provides a method and respective entities for avoiding handovers in a ping-pong manner in a communication network. The method comprises comparing, when a handover of a mobile station to a base station is intended, decision criteria of the intended handover with decision criteria of previous handovers of the mobile station to that base station, and deciding on allowing or preventing the intended handover based on the result of the comparison. |
| US08831597B1 |
Unified caller identification across multiple communication modes
A mobile device is adapted to operate in a first communication mode and a second communication mode. An identifier is acquired for a mobile device, wherein the identifier is sent to identify the mobile device when the mobile device places a call in the first communication mode. A call is placed to a destination device while the mobile device operates in the second communication mode. The same identifier is sent to the destination device while the mobile device operates in the second communication mode. The mobile device is served by a first service provider while it operates in the first communication mode. The mobile device is served by a second service provider while it operates in the second communication mode, the second service provider being different from the first service provider. |
| US08831593B2 |
Configuration sub-system for telecommunication systems
Certain aspects are directed to a configuration sub-system for telecommunication systems. The configuration sub-system can include a test signal generator, a power measurement device, at least one additional power measurement device, and a controller. The test signal generator can be integrated into components of a telecommunication system. The test signal generator can provide a test signal to a signal path of the telecommunication system. The power measurement device and the additional power measurement device can respectively be integrated into different components of the telecommunication system. The power measurement device and the additional power measurement device can respectively measure the power of the test signal at different measurement points in the signal path. The controller can normalize signals transmitted via the telecommunication system by adjusting a path gain for the signal path based on measurements from the power measurement device and the additional power measurement device. |
| US08831587B2 |
Managing a network element
A method for managing a network element involves receiving via a first interface field data from a communication network. The field data is compared with available network status data such, that a difference between network status data and field data can be determined. A configuration data is generated such that the configuration data are adapted to align the network status data and the field data. Then, a corresponding network element for receiving the configuration data is determined and the configuration data is distributed via a first interface to a corresponding network element. |
| US08831585B2 |
Systems, methods and articles for a communications device providing communications and services involving automobile head units
Network communications, Web-based services and customized services using the Web-based services may be provided to drivers and users via the automobile head unit in the vehicle and via their mobile device. The automobile head unit in the vehicle and the mobile device are communicatively linked via a short range wireless connection. Also, these devices may communicate over a network such as a cellular network to a service provider that provides entertainment and informational services to the mobile device and the head unit of the vehicle. The user's profile and preferences are able to follow the user to various locations and into vehicles because this information is stored at a server accessible by the user's mobile device, and in some embodiments, also the head unit. The mobile device may provide services to the head unit if it does not have wider network connectivity over the short range wireless connection. |
| US08831577B2 |
Venue-oriented commerce via mobile communication device
Methods and systems for venue-oriented commerce via a mobile communication device are presented. An example system may include an access device and a communication node. The access device may be located at a commercial venue and communicatively coupled via a local area network with a mobile communication device located at the venue. The communication node may be communicatively coupled to the access device via a wide area network to provide a commercial service related to the commercial venue to a user of the mobile communication device. The access device may exchange information relating to the commercial service between the communication node and the mobile communication device. |
| US08831576B2 |
Apparatus and methods for over the air provisioning of a single PDP context mobile communications device
A mobile communications device and registration server and methods of use thereof. The mobile communications device comprises means for establishing a first data context and means for establishing a second data context. The first data context is established to transmit a request for parameters from the mobile communications device to a first network node and to receive at the mobile communications device a response from the first network node including the parameters. The second data context is established by transmitting the parameters from the mobile communications device to the second network node. |
| US08831573B2 |
Video greetings for voicemail systems
A method for operating a voicemail system can include receiving a call at the voicemail system, wherein the call originates from a calling party device, determining if the calling party device is compatible with a video greeting feature, sending a video greeting to the called party device if it is determined that the calling party device is compatible with the video greeting feature, and recording a voicemail message received in response to the video greeting being played on the called party device. Another method can include sending a video greeting identifier to the called party device, the video greeting identifier being used to identify a video greeting stored on the calling party device. Methods for operating a mobile device and a voicemail system are also disclosed. |
| US08831571B2 |
Dynamic text communication administration
A system for administering text communications may be configured to determine if an incoming communication that includes text meets any of various criteria and respond based on that determination. A reply may include information based on the criteria or information related to how other messages with the same or similar criteria have historically been handled by a user. Reply communications may be in a different form than that of the incoming communication. Other actions may be taken in addition or instead of replying, including setting calendar reminders or tasks, and sending delegate notifications. Data used for determinations may be collected over time or gathered from external systems. |
| US08831563B2 |
Providing a service with location-based authorization
Methods and systems for providing a service are provided. A request is received to provide the service to a device. A location of the device, or a network interface through which the device is coupled, is determined. Finally, the delivery of the service is authorized based on the determined location of the device, or the determined network interface. |
| US08831560B2 |
Charging method selection for service data flows based on the data services being requested
Systems and methods are disclosed for performing Policy and Charging Control (PCC) for packet core networks. One embodiment comprises a PCC architecture that includes an online charging system (OCS). The OCS receives a request for charging rules for an initial data service from a PCRF. The request from the PCRF includes a service indicator for the initial data service. The OCS selects a charging method for the initial data service based on the service indicator, and transmits a response to the PCRF that includes the selected charging method. The PCRF may then make a PCC decision based on the charging method selected by the OCS, and a PCEF may enforce PCC rules for the initial data service. If there is a service changing during a data session, the OCS selects a charging method for the new data service, and the PCRF updates the PCC rules accordingly. |
| US08831555B2 |
Reestablishment procedure for an emergency call
Traditional rules that apply to cell selection are overridden to allow cell selection on an acceptable cell, in addition to cell selection on a suitable cell. Once a mobile device acquires service on an acceptable cell, mobile device can inform network of the emergency call in progress or initiation of an emergency call, which allows network to perform necessary actions to support the emergency call during establishment/reestablishment. |
| US08831554B2 |
Management of a multi-application mobile carrier tree
Efficient utilization and management of integrated mobile base station carrier trees is provided herein. Such trees provide an organizational structure for allocating calls in a code division, tone division, time division and/or like mobile infrastructure. Calls can be allocated to portions of the carrier tree as a function of characteristic(s) associated with the call. Accordingly, like calls are grouped within the carrier tree with like calls. In addition, portions of the carrier tree can be re-allocated to different types of traffic to meet fluctuations in traffic demand. Further, calls can be re-packed from existing segments of the carrier tree to other segments to maintain calls having common characteristics in contiguous groups, and to maintain idle segments another contiguous group(s). Accordingly, the wireless carrier tree can be packed and managed more efficiently, providing greater throughput and reduced contention for resources. |
| US08831552B1 |
RF band pass filter with feedback control
A wireless receiver comprises a band-pass filter module that includes an input for receiving a first pilot signal, an output that generates a first signal based on the first pilot signal, and a control input for adjusting a center frequency of the band-pass filter module. A control module determines the energy of the first signal, generates a control signal based on the energy, and communicates the control signal to the control input of the band-pass filter module. |
| US08831549B2 |
Receiver circuit and associated method
A receiver circuit, e.g., a low-IF receiver, including two mixing paths. The two mixing paths scale an input signal respectively by two mixing gains and shift phase of the input signal respectively by two mixing phase offsets to provide two mixed signals. The two mixing gains and the two mixing phase offsets are arranged to produce an amplitude adjustment between amplitudes of the two mixed signals and a phase difference of 90 degrees plus a phase adjustment between phases of the two mixed signals. With the amplitude adjustment and/or the phase adjustment properly tuned to nonzero value(s) in association with band-pass response of the receiver circuit, image rejection can be achieved and optimized. Associated method is also disclosed. |
| US08831547B2 |
Multi-antenna system
An antenna system is disclosed that includes a frontend portion and a backend portion. The frontend portion includes multiple antennas that supply antenna signals, a first control unit for controlling the frontend portion dependent on control signals received from the backend portion, and a first crossover network that connects a feed line to the first crossover network and the first control unit. The backend portion includes multiple receivers, a second control unit that provides the control signals for the first control unit, and a second crossover network that connects the feed line to the second crossover network and the receivers. The frontend portion is configured to transmit via the feed line antenna signals to the backend portion in a certain frequency range. The backend portion is configured to transmit the control signals to the frontend portion in a frequency range other than the certain frequency range. |
| US08831546B2 |
MRC antenna diversity for FM IBOC digital signals
A radio receiver includes a first signal path including a first tuner configured to receive a first signal from a first antenna, and a first demodulator configured to demodulate symbols from an output of the first tuner to produce first branch metrics derived from the demodulated symbols; a second signal path including a second tuner configured to receive a second signal from a second antenna, and a second demodulator configured to demodulate symbols from an output of the second tuner to produce second branch metrics derived from the demodulated symbols; a combiner for maximum ratio combining the first branch metrics and the second branch metrics; and processing circuitry to process the combined first and second branch metrics to produce an output signal. |
| US08831543B2 |
Method and system for a linearized transmitter including a power amplifier
Disclosed are various embodiments for transmitting radio frequency signals. A radio frequency transmitter may be configured to generate an analog signal comprising an in-phase component and a quadrature-phase component. The in-phase component and the quadrature-phase component of the analog signal may be provided to multiple radio frequency processing chains. One of the radio frequency processing chains may generate an output radio frequency signal based on the in-phase component and the quadrature-phase component. |
| US08831541B2 |
Multiple antenna wireless telecommunication method and system
A wireless telecommunication system and method including at least two transmit antennae and means for implementing a downlink switched sub-channels diversity scheme during transmission. The method includes splitting a total bandwidth allocated for transmission of a transmitted signal to individual sub-channels or groups of sub-channels; boosting each of the sub-channels or groups of sub-channels; and routing each of the sub-channels or groups of sub-channels to a different transmit antenna. |
| US08831540B2 |
Amplitude modulation utilizing a leaky wave antenna
Methods and systems for amplitude modulation using a leaky wave antenna are disclosed and may include amplitude modulating an output of one or more power amplifiers in a wireless device by modulating a bias current in the power amplifiers that are coupled to one or more leaky wave antennas. The leaky wave antennas may include a balun that may be integrated on the chip, on a package to which the chip may be affixed, and/or integrated on a printed circuit board to which the chip may be affixed. An output power of the power amplifiers may be adjusted by configuring a bias voltage on the leaky wave antennas. The bias voltage may be configured utilizing a DC to DC voltage controller. The bias current may be modulated via one or more switched current sources. The switched current sources may be binary weighted and/or may be current mirrors. |
| US08831539B2 |
Mobile wireless communications device with reduced microphone noise from radio frequency communications circuitry
A mobile wireless communications device includes a housing and circuit board in the housing and having radio frequency (RF) circuitry and a power amplifier and microphone mounted thereon. An antenna is carried within the housing and operative with the RF circuitry. An RF shield surrounds and isolates the microphone from the RF circuitry, power amplifier and antenna and shields the microphone from radiated energy generated from the RF circuitry, antenna or power amplifier. |
| US08831536B2 |
Wireless device with multi-port distributed antenna
Methods and systems for an on-chip and/or on-package T/R switch and antenna are disclosed and may include selectively coupling one or more low noise amplifiers (LNAs) and/or one or more power amplifiers (PAs) to one or more ports of a multi-port distributed antenna utilizing configurable transmit/receive (T/R) switches integrated on a chip with the LNAs and PAs. The LNAs and PAs may be impedance matched to the antenna by coupling them to a port based on a characteristic impedance at the port. The T/R switches may be integrated on a package to which the chip may be coupled. The signals transmitted and received by the antenna may be time division duplexed. The antenna, which may include a microstrip antenna, may be integrated on the chip or the package. The LNA and the PA may be coupled to different ports on the antenna via the T/R switches. |
| US08831535B2 |
High-frequency module
In a high frequency module, an inductor is formed with a common terminal of a switch element as a starting point so as to wind in a substantially spiral shape clockwise when viewed from an upper surface side of a laminated body, and inductors are formed with a first individual external terminal and a second individual external terminal as starting points so as to wind in a substantially spiral shape clockwise when viewed from the upper surface side of the laminated body, the first individual external terminal and the second individual external terminal defining input ends of transmission signals. Other inductors are also formed so as to wind in a substantially spiral shape clockwise when viewed from the upper surface side of the laminated body such that all the directions of magnetic fields generated by the inductors coincide with one another. |
| US08831529B2 |
Wireless communications circuitry with temperature compensation
A test system for calibrating wireless electronic devices is provided. The test system may include a test host, a radio communication tester, and a temperature chamber in which an electronic device under test (DUT) may be tested. The DUT may include a temperature sensor for monitoring an internal temperature of the DUT and may include power amplifier circuitry for outputting radio-frequency test signals. The tester may be used to measure output power levels of the radio-frequency test signals when the DUT is operating at a given reference temperature and when the DUT is operating at target operating temperature levels other than the given reference temperature. Power amplifier output level offset compensation values may be computed by comparing output power levels measured at each of the target operating temperatures to output power levels measured at the given reference temperature and may be stored in the DUT prior to normal operation. |
| US08831524B2 |
Systems, methods, devices, and computer program products for control and performance prediction in wireless networks
Systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are directed to mobility control and performance prediction in directional wireless networks. Network coverage and connectivity are optimized. Convex and non-convex network modeling is implemented to provide adaptive topology control and mobility control within the network, whereby communication links are retained, released, or reconfigured based on their communication role within the network architecture. Optionally or alternatively, network health is monitored, future network failure or degradation conditions are predicted, and the network reconfigures responsive to the predictions to avoid the failure or degradation conditions. |
| US08831521B2 |
Circuits and methods of low-frequency noise filtering
A circuit includes an input terminal for receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal and a noise mitigation circuit coupled to the input terminal. The noise mitigation circuit is configured to detect a low-frequency noise signature in the RF signal and to automatically adjust an attenuation network to filter low-frequency noise from the RF signal in response to detecting the low-frequency noise signature. |
| US08831519B2 |
Distributed multi-channel cognitive MAC protocol
A method includes sending a message from a first cognitive radio apparatus to at least one second cognitive radio apparatus, the message being sent over a first communication channel and containing an advertisement of at least one second communication channel for use in sending data from the first cognitive radio apparatus to the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus. The method further includes receiving a reply from the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus over the first communication channel, where the reply contains one of an acceptance of one of the at least one second communication channels, a rejection of the at least one second communication channel and an advertisement of at least one third communication channel, or a rejection of the at least one second communication channel without an advertisement of at least one third communication channel. The method further includes transmitting the data from the first cognitive radio apparatus to the at least one second cognitive radio apparatus over an agreed upon one of the second or third channels. |
| US08831514B2 |
Near-field communication (NFC) system providing NFC tag geographic position authentication and related methods
A near-field communication (NFC) system may include an NFC tag comprising a memory configured to store geo-position data corresponding to a geographic position of the NFC tag, and a first NFC sensor coupled to the memory and configured to initiate a transaction based upon NFC communications. The NFC system may further include a mobile wireless communications device comprising a second NFC sensor and a controller coupled thereto. The controller may be configured to establish NFC communications with the first NFC sensor when in proximity thereto and retrieve the geo-position data therefrom, authenticate a geographic position of the NFC tag based upon the retrieved geo-position data, and perform the transaction with the NFC tag if the geographic position of the NFC tag is authenticated. |
| US08831509B2 |
Mobile device having enhanced in-holster power saving features using NFC and related methods
A communications system may include a holder, a first near-field communication (NFC) device carried by the holder, and a mobile device. The mobile device may include a housing configured to be removably positioned within the holder, a second NFC device carried by the housing and configured to communicate with the first NFC device via NFC communications, and a controller carried by the housing and coupled to the second NFC device. The controller may be configured to operate the second NFC device to scan for the first NFC device in a first mode when the housing is removed from the holder, and operate the second NFC device in a second mode based upon communication with the first NFC device when the housing is positioned within the holder, where the second mode has a lower power consumption level associated therewith than the first mode. |
| US08831507B2 |
Method and system for determining a position fix indoors
Whenever a mobile device in a building is within proximity of a RF communication device, the mobile device may be operable to receive location information transmitted, for example by broadcasting it, from a RF communication device. The transmitted location information comprises altitude information of the RF communication device. At least an altitude of the mobile device may be determined based on the received altitude information of the RF communication device. The RF communication device may be located in an elevator car and/or on a particular floor in the building. Whenever the RF communication device is located in the elevator car, the altitude information of the RF communication device may be received by the RF communication device from an elevator controller. In instances when the RF communication device also transmits its latitude/longitude (LAT/LON), the mobile device may be operable to determine a 3-dimentional (3D) location of the mobile device. |
| US08831503B2 |
Creasing apparatus having rotating base with recess
An apparatus includes a sheet path, an creasing member positioned on a first side of the sheet path, and a base positioned on a second side of the sheet path opposite the creasing member. The base is positioned relative to the creasing member so that a sheet of print media passes along a processing plane between the creasing member and the base when traveling in a processing direction along the media path. The processing plane is parallel to flat sides of the sheet of print media as the sheet of print media passes between the creasing member and the base. The base comprises a surface positioned parallel to the processing plane. The surface of the base has a recess having a shape corresponding to the creasing member. The surface of the base rotates in the processing plane. |
| US08831496B2 |
Fuser unit
A fuser unit includes a cylindrical member that has flexibility; a nip member that is disposed to slidingly contact with an inner surface of the cylindrical member; and a backup member that is driven by a driving force and configures a nip region between the backup member and the cylindrical member on the nip member, wherein the cylindrical member includes folded-back portions formed at outer sides of a recording-sheet conveyance region in a recording-sheet width direction by folding back entire circumferences of both ends of the cylindrical member outward. |
| US08831494B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus including same
A fixing device includes a substantially cylindrical metal member, a heater positioned to heat the metal member, an endless, flexible fixing member disposed rotatably around the metal member and heated by the metal member to heat and fix a toner image, a rotary pressing member disposed opposite the metal member and pressed against an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member to form a nip therebetween, and a stationary member disposed at an inner circumferential surface side of the fixing member and pressed by the pressing member via the fixing member to form the nip. At least when the fixing member is relatively moved toward the metal member during assembly of the fixing member with the metal member, the metal member includes at least one protruding portion protruding axially outward from an axial end of the metal member to guide the fixing member axially toward the metal member. |
| US08831492B2 |
Image heating apparatus
An image heating apparatus, including: a heat rotary member configured to heat an image on a recording material; a rubbing rotary member configured to rub the heat rotary member; a separation plate configured to separate the recording material from the heat rotary member; and a first and a second contact member which are in contact with the heat rotary member to position the separation plate with a predetermined gap from the heat rotary member, wherein, in a width direction of the heat rotary member, the first and second contact members are out of contact with the heat rotary member within a range in which the rubbing rotary member rubs the heat rotary member, and are in contact with the heat rotary member outside the range, and wherein the first and second contact members are in contact with on one end and the other end of the heat rotary member, respectively. |
| US08831489B2 |
Electrostatic image forming apparatus having electrode for suppressing electric discharge
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member; an image forming portion for forming a toner image on the image bearing member; an intermediary transfer belt for carrying the toner image transferred from the image bearing member; a transfer belt for carrying and conveying a recording material; an attraction portion for electrostatically attracting the recording material to the transfer belt; a transfer portion for transferring the toner image from the intermediary transfer belt onto the recording material attracted to the transfer belt; and an electrode member, disposed downstream of the attraction portion and upstream of the transfer portion with respect to a movement direction of the transfer belt, being contacted to an inner surface of the transfer belt. |
| US08831488B2 |
Image forming apparatus and controlling method therefor
An image forming apparatus includes a first station including a first photosensitive drum, a second station including a second photosensitive drum, and an intermediate transfer member for receiving the first toner image from the first drum and the second toner image from the second drum sequentially. In addition, a first sensor detects a first index image on the intermediate transfer member, and a second sensor detects a second index image on the second drum. A controller controls a peripheral speed of the second drum, and an executing device executes a test mode using a first test inclined index image and a second test inclined index image. The controller controls image forming conditions for the first and second index images in accordance with outputs of the first and second sensors in the test mode. |
| US08831487B2 |
Regulating device, image bearing member cleaning device, developing device, cleaning device, process cartridge and image forming apparatus
A developer layer thickness regulating device includes a blade member for regulating a thickness of a layer of a developer on a surface of a developing roller rotatably supported by a developing container for accommodating the developer and includes a supporting member for supporting the blade member. The supporting member is capable of being fastened to a part of the developing container by a fastening member, and a position of the supporting member relative to a part of the developer container is adjustable with respect to a widthwise direction of the blade member, when the supporting member is fastened to the developing container by the fastening member, so as to fasten the blade member at a predetermined position relative to the developing container. The supporting member has a projection-recess portion which is capable of biting into the part of the developing container when the supporting member is fastened by the fastening member. |
| US08831484B2 |
Powder container, powder processing apparatus using the same, and powder container controlling method
A powder container includes a container body having an opening corresponding to a powder opening of a container receiver; an open/close lid that closes the opening; a first restricting portion inclined to face a contact surface, which is located upstream of the powder opening and inclined with respect to an open/close operation direction of the open/close lid, when the container body is attached to the container receiver, the first restricting portion contacting the contact surface to restrict a position of the open/close lid in the open/close operation direction; and a second restricting portion restricting a posture of the open/close lid with respect to the container receiver in a direction in which the first restricting portion is tilted down toward the contact surface, when the container body is attached to or detached from the container receiver and a press member restricts movement of the open/close lid. |
| US08831483B2 |
Developing device and image forming apparatus
In a developing device including a developer tank and a developing roller, an internal space of the developer tank is divided into a first conveying path, a second conveying path, a first communication path and a second communication path, by a partition wall. A first developer conveying section which conveys a developer in the developer tank in a conveying direction X is disposed in the first conveying path. A second developer conveying section which conveys the developer in the developer tank in a conveying direction Y is disposed in the second conveying path. The first developer conveying section includes a plurality of inner spiral blade pieces, a rotation tube, an upstream spiral blade, a downstream spiral blade, support members, and a first gear. |
| US08831481B2 |
Electrophotographic apparatus having having temperature dependent photosensitive member
An electrophotographic apparatus does not have a unit for maintaining a uniform surface temperature of an electrophotographic photosensitive member through its surface. The electrophotographic photosensitive member has temperature dependent characteristics and is equally divided into two regions in a cylindrical shaft direction such that absolute values of the temperature dependence of the photosensitive-member characteristics in the two regions are not the same. The electrophotographic photosensitive member is arranged so that when, among the two regions, a region which has a smaller absolute value of the temperature dependence of the photosensitive-member characteristics is defined as a first region, and a region which has a larger absolute value of the temperature dependence of the photosensitive-member characteristics is defined as a second region. The change of the surface temperature of the first region becomes larger than the change of the surface temperature of the second region when an image is formed by the electrophotographic apparatus. |
| US08831479B2 |
Unit mounting and dismounting mechanism, mounting and dismounting mechanism for fixing unit, and image forming apparatus
A unit mounting and dismounting mechanism includes a unit mountable in and dismountable from an apparatus body, an engaging portion provided in one of the apparatus body and the unit, a pressing member provided in the other of the apparatus body and the unit, the pressing member engaging with the engaging portion and pressing the unit against the apparatus body with a biasing force of a biasing member in a mounting direction of the unit when the unit is mounted in the apparatus body, and a release member provided in the unit, the release member being operated in a direction different from a dismounting direction of the unit from the apparatus body so as to move the pressing member against the biasing force of the biasing member in a direction to release pressing. |
| US08831474B2 |
Developing device and image forming apparatus including the same
A developing roller including a housing containing toner; and a developing roller installed in the housing and supplies the toner to an electrostatic latent image formed on a photoconductor, the developing roller including a cylindrical unit in the form of a hollow pipe and a power transmission unit connected to one end of the cylindrical unit and connected to a power transmission member for rotating the developing roller. Both ends of the cylindrical unit are supported by the housing and the power transmission unit is not restricted by the housing. Both ends of the cylindrical unit are supported by the housing and the power transmission unit is not restricted by the housing. |
| US08831473B2 |
Photosensitive unit and image forming apparatus
A photosensitive unit is provided. The photosensitive unit includes a frame, plural photosensitive drums which are held by the frame, plural cartridges detachably mounted in the frame. Each cartridge includes a developing roller for supplying developer to the corresponding photosensitive drum, a supply roller, and a casing having a first casing portion supporting the developing roller and the supply roller and including a first wall, and a second casing portion storing developer and including a second wall connected to the first wall through a first stepped portion. The frame includes plural beam members which are provided between a pair of side parts. Each beam member includes a third wall which opposes the first wall with a distance therebetween, and a fourth wall which opposes the second wall with a distance therebetween in a state where a cartridge is mounted in the frame. |
| US08831472B2 |
Unit frame having grip part
An image forming unit includes a cartridge and a unit frame. The cartridge has a cartridge-grip. The unit frame is configured to accommodate the cartridge. The unit frame includes a first plate, a second plate, a first beam, and a second beam. The first plate has a through hole. The first beam extends between the first plate and the second plate. The first beam includes a frame-grip disposed between an upper end of the first beam and a lower end of the first beam. The second beam extends between the first plate and the second plate. When the cartridge is accommodated in the unit frame, a distance between the lower end of the first beam and an upper end of the frame-grip is smaller than a distance between the lower end of the first beam and an upper end of the cartridge-grip. |
| US08831468B2 |
Optical scanner and image forming device
An optical scanner includes a plurality of automatic cleaning units which automatically cleans dust-proof glasses. The automatic cleaning units include screw shafts threadedly coupled to holding units that hold cleaning members. When the holding members are moved by rotationally driving the screw shafts of the automatic cleaning units at the same time, the height of the cleaning member of at least one of the automatic cleaning units with respect to the dust-proof glasses becomes different from the height of the cleaning members of the remaining automatic cleaning units with respect to the dust-proof glasses. |
| US08831465B2 |
Image forming apparatus having a suction device and a duct with ports having ventilation areas dependent on proximity to the suction device
The present application discloses an image forming apparatus for forming an image by means of toner. The image forming apparatus includes an image carrier including an image carrying surface to form an electrostatic latent image; a developing device which supplies the toner to the image carrying surface to form a toner image; and a suction device configured to create airflow for suctioning the toner scattered from the developing device. The developing device includes a duct configured to guide the airflow to the suction device. The duct includes a connection surface, to which the suction device is connected, and a suction surface provided with suction ports into which the toner flows. The suction ports aligned in a direction apart from the connection surface include different suction ports in ventilation area. |
| US08831464B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a detection unit provided in the housing to detect temperature or humidity, an image forming section provided in the housing and including a detected portion to be detected by the detection unit, a first air inlet provided in the housing, a suction unit that sucks air outside of the housing through the first air inlet, a substantially cylindrical duct provided at a position influenced by temperature or humidity of the detected portion and including an entrance from which air flows in and an exit from which air flows out, the duct allowing the air sucked by the suction unit to pass therethrough, and an opening provided in the housing. The detection unit is provided at a position on a path of air flowing into the housing through the opening and on a path of the air that has passed through the duct. |
| US08831463B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes an outer cover in which an air intake and an exhaust outlet are formed, an image forming unit, a fixing device to fix an image on a recording medium and including a fixing casing in which a sheet inlet and a first exhaust opening are formed, and a thermal shield disposed above the sheet inlet of the fixing device and between the fixing device and a component adjacent to the fixing device, an air channel to guide air sucked in through the air intake to the exhaust outlet, defined by the thermal shield as well as the fixing casing. The first exhaust opening formed in the fixing casing communicates with the air channel formed by the thermal shield and the fixing casing to merge the hot air discharged from the fixing device into the air flowing in the air channel. |
| US08831462B2 |
Developing cartridge and image forming apparatus for protecting an electrode from damage during handling
A developing cartridge includes a housing including first and second sidewalls; a developing roller, received by the sidewalls, and rotatable about a first axis line; a coupling rotatable about a second axis line parallel with the first axis line, wherein the coupling transfers rotational force to the developing roller, the rotational force being input by an drive input part, which advances and retreats, in a direction along the second axis line; and a moving member received so that the moving member can be moved along the advancing and retreating direction. The moving member has a pushing part, which is pushed toward the second sidewall, and an electrode part, which applies developing bias, and wherein when the pushing part is pushed, the moving member moves toward the second sidewall, so that the electrode part protrudes more from the second sidewall than before the pushing part was pushed. |
| US08831459B2 |
Printing apparatus, control method therefor and program for same
A printing apparatus that executes printing by using a recording material includes an accepting unit which accepts an instruction from a user, a receiving unit which receives a command from an external device, a first shifting unit to shift the printing apparatus to a state in which the user can supply the recording material according to the instruction accepted by the accepting unit, and a second shifting unit configured to shift the printing apparatus to a state in which the user can supply the recording material according to the command received by the receiving unit. In a case where the printing apparatus is shifted by one of the first shifting unit and the second shifting unit, the printing apparatus is no longer shifted by the other one of the first shifting unit and the second shifting unit. |
| US08831457B2 |
Fixing device and image forming apparatus
A fixing device includes an excitation coil, a fixing member heated by electromagnetic induction by the excitation coil, a magnetic shunt alloy member, a Curie temperature of which is higher than a target fixing temperature, a determiner that determines whether the temperature of a non-sheet passing region of the fixing member is about to reach the Curie temperature, and a power controller that controls power supplied to the excitation coil. Until the determiner determines that the Curie temperature is about to be reached, the power controller performs feedback control to provide power to the excitation coil. When the determiner determines that the Curie temperature is about to be reached, the power controller switches to fixed power control so that a difference between power supplied when the Curie temperature is about to be reached and power supplied after reaching the Curie temperature falls within an allowable range. |
| US08831449B2 |
Image forming apparatus capable of optimally performing density fluctuation correction
An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier; a developing device; a transfer device; and a fixing device. An electrostatic latent image formed on the image carrier is rendered visible as a toner image by depositing the toner by the developing device, and the toner image is transferred by the transfer device and fixed onto a recording medium by the fixing device and output. The apparatus further includes a density fluctuation meter including a rotary position detector, a density fluctuation detector, and a density fluctuation storage; a density fluctuation extractor unit including a first extractor, a second extractor, and a density fluctuation storage; and a control table generator unit including a control table generator and a control table storage, so that based on the control table stored in the control table storage, the voltage to be applied to the developing device is controlled and the toner image is output. |
| US08831448B2 |
Fixing device, image forming apparatus, and fixing condition control method
A fixing device includes a temperature rise characteristic acquisition unit that acquires a temperature rise characteristic of a recording medium based on temperature change information of the recording medium acquired on a temperature basis of the recording medium detected by a temperature detection unit that detects the temperature of the recording medium, and a heat generation unit that generates a heat quantity provided to the recording medium in a fixing nip for fixing an image carried on the recording medium, that is adjusted on the basis of the temperature rise characteristic acquired by the temperature rise characteristic acquisition unit. |
| US08831443B2 |
Image forming apparatus and method for calibrating density and color
According to the embodiments of the invention, the problem to be solved is whether errors have occurred for color sensors for calibrating density and color or their corresponding reference plates. At step S103, it is determined whether the difference is larger than a predefined threshold. If so, the sensors are determined abnormal; otherwise, it is normal. At step S111, color sensors 50a, b, c, and d read the density of recording medium 11 on at least one of its coordinates, compares the readings of sensors determined abnormal with that of sensors determined normal, and determines whether the difference obtained at step S112 is within the predefined threshold. At step S114, for color sensors determined abnormal at step S103, an abnormity alarm message is displayed on a UI as shown in FIG. 8 or sent to the user via e-mail. |
| US08831440B2 |
Method and device for generating optical signals
The method includes: receiving a first Non Return to Zero (NRZ) data signal and a synchronous clock signal, and performing Return to Zero (RZ) processing to generate a first complementary RZ data signal pair; receiving a second NRZ data signal and a synchronous clock signal, and performing RZ processing to generate a second complementary RZ data signal pair; and modulating the first complementary RZ data signal pair and the second complementary RZ data signal pair on light to generate an RZ-Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (RZ-DQPSK) optical signal. Through the method and device, RZ processing are performed on the NRZ data signals to generate the complementary RZ data signal pairs, and the complementary RZ data signal pairs are modulated on the light, thereby reducing the cost and the insertion loss of the entire device, lowering the requirements for input optical power and reducing the complexity of loop circuit control. |
| US08831439B2 |
Upsampling optical transmitter
Consistent with the present disclosure, data, in digital form, is received by a transmit nodes of an optical communication, and converted to analog signal by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to drive a modulator. The modulator, in turn, modulates light at one of a plurality of wavelengths in accordance with the received data. The modulated light is then transmitted over an optical communication path to a receive node. At the receive node, the modulated optical signal, as well as other modulated optical signals are supplied to a photodetector circuit, which receives additional light at one of the optical signal wavelengths from a local oscillator laser. An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is provided in the receive node to convert the electrical signals output from the photodetector into digital form. The output from the ADC is then filtered in the electrical domain, such that optical demultiplexing of individual channels is unnecessary. |
| US08831431B2 |
Fast transceiver control interface
An apparatus comprising an optical transceiver module. The apparatus also includes an interface coupled to the optical transceiver and comprising a plurality of pins. The interface is configured to communicate a burst data word at a data rate of about one data word within about a shortest burst time based on multiplexing one of a plurality of control and/or monitoring signals onto one of the plurality of pins. |
| US08831421B2 |
Camera module having guiding rod and lens holder sleeve moving along guiding rod
A camera module includes a guiding rod made of metal, a lens holder, a guiding sleeve made of metal, and a lens unit. The guiding sleeve is connected to the lens holder, and is sleeved on the guiding rod. The lens unit is received in the lens holder. The material of the guiding rod and the guiding sleeve permits a more controlled and precise movement of the guiding sleeve on the guiding rod in obtaining focus, friction force between the guiding rod and the guiding sleeve is decreased, and the degree of precision achieved will endure for a significantly longer time. |
| US08831412B2 |
Cylindrical canister housing with integral heat transfer
A housing for transporting a generally cylindrical canister configured to store at least one of a pressurized gas and a pressurized liquid. The housing includes a first housing section and a second housing section that is movable with respect to the first housing section from a first operating condition to a second operating condition. A heat transfer element is coupled to at least one of the first and the second housing sections to define at least a portion of a boundary of a generally cylindrical volume. The canister is generally fixed from movement with respect to the first and the second housing sections when the second housing section is in the first operating condition, and the canister is movable with respect to the first and the second housing sections and configured to be removed from the generally cylindrical volume when the second housing section is in the second operating condition. |
| US08831411B2 |
Randomly accessible visual information recording medium and recording method, and reproducing device and reproducing method
Access point pictures designated as randomly accessible positions are I pictures or P pictures. Information indicating the decoding sequence (I1, P1, B1, B2, B3, B4, P2, . . . ) of pictures functioning as access points and attribute information (picture_type) indicating whether a picture functions as an access point or is necessary for decoding of the access point following a given access point are recorded on the video information recording medium. Random access is possible even if the GOP interval is lengthened. |
| US08831407B2 |
Systems and methods for time-based athletic activity measurement and display
Activity metrics may be recorded with granularity to allow a user to view performance information specific to particular times of an activity session. Accordingly, in one example, activity metrics may be detected and recorded for a minimum time unit that may be automatically defined or defined by a user. The metrics may then be conveyed to a user through a display or through audible content. Users may be able to select portions of the activity session to store based on the granular performance information. Content files such as audio or video or athletic performance data files may be cropped based on the selected portions. |
| US08831401B2 |
Management of television recordings
In a television recording apparatus having a storage unit capable of storing recordings of television signals, during reproduction of a recording, an analysis of the reproduced television signal is performed to detect a credits sequence of a program. Responsive to input of a command to cease reproduction before the end of a recording, in the event that the command is input after the detected credits sequence, then the recording is deleted or there is displayed a graphical interface providing for user input to indicate a desire for deletion of the recording or not. |
| US08831400B2 |
Recording medium, playback device, and integrated circuit
On a recording medium, stereoscopic and monoscopic specific areas are located one after another next to a stereoscopic/monoscopic shared area. The stereoscopic/monoscopic shared area is a contiguous area to be accessed both in stereoscopic video playback and monoscopic video playback. The stereoscopic specific area is a contiguous area to be accessed immediately before a long jump occurring in stereoscopic video playback. In both the stereoscopic/monoscopic shared area and the stereoscopic specific area, extents of base-view and dependent-view stream files are arranged in an interleaved manner. The extents on the stereoscopic specific area are next in order after the extents on the stereoscopic/monoscopic shared area. The monoscopic specific area is a contiguous area to be accessed immediately before a long jump occurring in monoscopic video playback. The monoscopic specific area has a copy of the entirety of the extents of the base-view stream file recorded on the stereoscopic specific area. |
| US08831396B1 |
Homogenizing optical fiber apparatus and systems employing the same
A beam homogenizing apparatus includes at least one flexible optical fiber for receiving light, the flexible optical fiber including a homogenizing output portion having a tileable cross-section, the output portion for producing a substantially homogenized intensity profile for light emitted therefrom. |
| US08831395B2 |
Cable pulling arrangement
Certain types of fiber optic cable assemblies include a fiber optic cable; and a cable pulling assembly coupled to one end of the fiber optic cable. The fiber optic cable includes optical fibers and a first fanout arrangement at which the optical fibers are transitioned from a multi-fiber cable section to connectorized pigtails. Some example cable pulling assemblies include an enclosure defining a cavity in which the second end of the fiber optic cable is disposed. A first end of the enclosure surrounds the first fanout arrangement. A second end of the enclosure is folded into a loop. A first cable tie arrangement secures the second end of the enclosure in the loop. At least a second cable tie extends through opposite side holes in the first fanout arrangement and through both top and bottom portions of the enclosure. |
| US08831394B2 |
Fiber management spool
Provided is a fiber management spool, the spool including a barrel extending up from a bottom portion. The spool further includes at least one outer fiber retaining arm extending up from an annular portion of the bottom portion and the annular portion extends radially away from an outer circumferential surface of the barrel. The at least one snap finger extends downward from a central portion of the bottom portion, wherein the snap finger is configured to engage a panel to releasably secure the spool to the panel. |
| US08831392B2 |
Lighting using natural light
Embodiments described herein generally relate to re-using the energy of natural light. In some examples, a lighting unit is described. An example lighting unit can include a multiple number of bound light-conductive members. A long-lasting phosphorescent material can be dispersed between the multiple number of bound light-conductive members. A luminance of the lighting unit can be at least several thousand cd/m2. |
| US08831391B2 |
Optical fiber cutting blade, optical fiber cutting device and method of cutting off the optical fiber, as well as component for peeling the coating and breaking the optical fiber and method of peeling the coating and breaking the optical fiber
A component for peeling the coating and breaking the optical fiber, which comprises the first member made of resin material including a groove portion enabling to receive a coated optical fiber, an optical fiber cutting blade and a coat removing blade integrally formed within the groove portion, and a breaking portion in an intermediate portion, and the second member made of resin material including a groove portion corresponding to the groove portion in the first member enabling to receive a coated optical fiber, a coat removing blade corresponding to the coat removing blade in the first member, and a breaking portion in an intermediate portion corresponding to the breaking portion in the first member. |
| US08831389B2 |
Insulated composite power cable and method of making and using same
An insulated composite power cable having a wire core defining a common longitudinal axis, a multiplicity of composite wires around the wire core, and an insulative sheath surrounding the composite wires. In some embodiments, a first multiplicity of composite wires is helically stranded around the wire core in a first lay direction at a first lay angle defined relative to a center longitudinal axis over a first lay length, and a second multiplicity of composite wires is helically stranded around the first multiplicity of composite wires in the first lay direction at a second lay angle over a second lay length, the relative difference between the first lay angle and the second lay angle being no greater than about 4°. The insulated composite cables may be used for underground or underwater electrical power transmission. Methods of making and using the insulated composite cables are also described. |
| US08831386B2 |
Metamaterial optical elements self-assembled on protein scaffolds
Protein scaffolds from tobacco mosaic virus coat protein modified to incorporate polyhistidine can bind to a metal or a dye while having improved self-assembly characteristics. The scaffold can take the form of tubes or disks, and can further be formed into dual plasmonic ring resonators. Such self-assembled structures provide useful optical properties. |
| US08831383B2 |
Enhanced techniques for visual image alignment of a multi-layered document composition
A system and method for enabling visual processing of selected objects in a complex document. The system and method enhance the visibility of certain selected objects or layers in a document, and attenuates the visibility of the remaining objects or layers. This is accomplished by selecting a portion of an input image according to a pre-determined criteria, applying a first image modification scheme to the selected portion of the image to produce a first modified portion of the image, applying a second image modification scheme to a non-selected portion of the image to produce a second modified portion of the image, and displaying the image as a combination of the first modified portion and the second modified portion. |
| US08831374B2 |
Fluoroscopy apparatus, fluoroscopy system, and fluorescence-image processing method
A fluoroscopy apparatus including: an illumination unit having a light source radiating illumination light and excitation light onto an observation target, a fluorescence-imaging unit acquiring a fluorescence image by imaging fluorescence generated at the observation target by the excitation light, a white-light-imaging unit acquiring a reference image by imaging light returning from the observation target by the illumination light, and an image-correction unit obtaining a correction fluorescence image by raising the luminance value of the fluorescence image to the power of a reciprocal of a first and second exponent obtained by a power approximation of a distance characteristic of luminance versus observation distance, for the fluorescence image, and that obtains a corrected fluorescence image by dividing the correction fluorescence image by the correction reference image. |
| US08831370B2 |
Wavelength diverse scintillation reduction
Systems, including apparatus and methods, for obtaining and/or correcting images, particularly from atmospheric and/or other distortions. These corrections may involve, among others, collecting two or more sets of image data corresponding to images of the same scene in different wavelength regimes, and using correlations between wavelength and expected distortion to distinguish apparent image motion due to distortion from apparent image motion due to object or scene motion. These systems may be useful in any suitable imaging context, including navigation, targeting, search and rescue, law enforcement, commercial video cameras and/or surveillance, among others. |
| US08831368B2 |
ACM-based simulcast transmission and reception apparatus and method
Provided are an adaptive coding modulation (ACM)-based simulcast transmission and reception apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a transmitter configured to analyze whether or not it is raining in a region where a receiver is present on the basis of channel state information (CSI) provided by the receiver, encode and/or modulate an image signal according to the analysis result, and provide the encoded and/or modulated image signal through a single band or multiple bands. On the basis of a result of analyzing whether or not it is raining in a region where a receiver is present, it is possible to effectively prevent signal attenuation caused by rain by providing image signals having different resolutions through multiple bands when the region is in a rainfall state. |
| US08831355B2 |
Scale robust feature-based identifiers for image identification
A method for deriving an image identifier comprises deriving a scale-space representation of an image, and processing the scale-space representation to detect a plurality of feature points having values that are maxima or minima. A representation is derived for a scale-dependent image region associated with one or more of the detected plurality of feature points. In an embodiment, the size of the image region is dependent on the scale associated with the corresponding feature point. An image identifier is derived using the representations derived for the scale-dependent image regions. The image identifiers may be used in a method for comparing images. |
| US08831351B2 |
Data processing apparatus, method for controlling data processing apparatus, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium
When a display language is different from an OCR language, which is used for document name OCR, the name of a document to be sent may not be correctly displayed on a screen. A data processing apparatus is provided that includes a document name setting unit configured to set a document name including a character string recognized on the basis of document data for the document data generated by a read unit, and a control unit configured to restrain the document name setting unit from setting the document name when a language specified by a character recognition language specifying unit is different from a language specified by a display language setting unit. |
| US08831350B2 |
Generation of document fingerprints for identification of electronic document types
Candidate identification utilizing fingerprint identification is disclosed. The method includes receiving a candidate image comprising a plurality of constituent elements arranged in a content pattern, compensating for rotation variation in the content pattern of the received candidate, analyzing each of the plurality of constituent elements comprising the content pattern of the received candidate image to define a bounded area about each of the plurality of constituent elements, building a candidate fingerprint representative of the content pattern wherein the candidate fingerprint is based on the defined bounded area, comparing the candidate fingerprint to a plurality of fingerprints wherein each of the plurality of fingerprints represents one of a plurality of exemplars, identifying one of the plurality of fingerprints that corresponds to the candidate fingerprint, and evaluating the candidate and one or more identified exemplars to determine the best match there between, wherein the identified exemplar corresponds to the one of the plurality of fingerprints. |
| US08831348B2 |
Retrograde curve filtering for variable offset curves
Systems and methods are provided for providing a navigation interface to access or otherwise use image content items. In one embodiment, an image manipulation application identifies at least one offset curve corresponding to at least one base curve. The offset curve may identify an offset curve corresponding to the outer boundary of a feathered region for an image mask. The image manipulation application identifies multiple line segments identifying the offset curve. Each line segment connects a sampled point along the path of the base curve to a corresponding point along the path of the offset curve. The image manipulation application determines that the offset curve includes a retrograde region based on analyzing the line segments. The image manipulation application modifies the at least one offset curve to eliminate at least some of the retrograde region by applying a radius-modulating filter to one or more of the line segments. |
| US08831342B2 |
System and method for compressing video data and alpha channel data using a single stream
A system and method provides video data and its corresponding alpha channel data using a single stream or file, compressed using the same format and decompression algorithm for each of the video data and the alpha channel data. |
| US08831340B2 |
Methods and apparatus for tone mapping high dynamic range images
Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable storage media for tone mapping High Dynamic Range (HDR) images. An input HDR image is separated into luminance and color. Luminance is processed to obtain a base layer and a detail layer. The base layer is compressed according to a non-linear remapping function to reduce the dynamic range, and the detail layer is adjusted. The layers are combined to generate output luminance, and the output luminance and color are combined to generate an output image. A base layer compression technique may be used that analyzes the details and compresses the base layer accordingly to provide space at the top of the intensity scale where the details are displayed to thus generate output images that are visually better than images generated using conventional techniques. User interface elements may be provided via which a user may control one or more parameters of the tone mapping method. |
| US08831337B2 |
Method, system and computer program product for identifying locations of detected objects
First and second objects are detected within an image. The first object includes first pixel columns, and the second object includes second pixel columns. A rightmost one of the first pixel columns is adjacent to a leftmost one of the second pixel columns. A first equation is fitted to respective depths of the first pixel columns, and a first depth is computed of the rightmost one of the first pixel columns in response to the first equation. A second equation is fitted to respective depths of the second pixel columns, and a second depth is computed of the leftmost one of the second pixel columns in response to the second equation. The first and second objects are merged in response to the first and second depths being sufficiently similar to one another, and in response to the first and second equations being sufficiently similar to one another. |
| US08831336B2 |
Method, system and computer program product for detecting an object in response to depth information
First information is about respective depths of pixel coordinates within an image. Second information is about respective depths of the pixel coordinates within a ground plane. In response to comparing the first information against the second information, respective markings are generated to identify whether any one or more of the pixel coordinates within the image has significant protrusion from the ground plane. In response to a particular depth of a representative pixel coordinate within the image, a window of pixel coordinates is identified that is formed by different pixel coordinates and the representative pixel coordinate. In response to the respective markings, respective probabilities are computed for the pixel coordinates, so that the respective probability for the representative pixel coordinate is computed in response to the respective markings of all pixel coordinates within the window. In response to the respective probabilities, at least one object is detected within the image. |
| US08831335B2 |
Stereo matching processing apparatus, stereo matching processing method and computer-readable recording medium
Improving stereo matching speed and accuracy, an image data input unit acquires image data of plural images of a predetermined region captured from plural different positions. A reference disparity setting unit sets a reference disparity suitable for the plural images. The search range setting unit sets a predetermined range smaller than the image range as a search range for stereo matching, by referring to points in the images between which the reference disparity set by the reference disparity setting unit is provided. A stereo matching unit searches out, for an arbitrary point in one of the plural images, a point in the other image that matches the arbitrary point, from the search range set by the search range setting unit, by referring to a point in the other image that provides the reference disparity set by the reference disparity setting unit. |
| US08831333B2 |
Mask pattern analysis apparatus and method for analyzing mask pattern
A pattern analysis method includes the steps of: grouping a plurality of polygons in a circuit layout into a plurality of polygon groups; locating a potential defect area of each polygon group according to an aerial image of the circuit layout; determining a representing point of the potential defect area of each polygon group; determining representing points of the plurality of polygons in each polygon group; and comparing a distribution pattern of the representing points of the plurality of polygons relative to the representing point of the potential defect area in one of the polygon groups with a distribution pattern of the representing points of the plurality of polygons relative to the representing point of the potential defect area in another of the polygon groups. The steps aforesaid are executed by a processor in a computer system. |
| US08831323B2 |
Method and apparatus for measuring activity of a tracer
In a method and apparatus for measuring activity of a tracer in a subject in a medical imaging protocol, comparable features in each of a time series of image data sets of the subject are detected. A first activity value for a first region of interest containing a first of the features in a first image data set is obtained, and a size of the first feature is measured. The first activity value is then modified using the measured size of the first feature. A second activity value for a second region of interest containing a second of the features in a second image data set is obtained. The modified first activity value and the second activity value are then combined to produce a measure of activity of the tracer over the time series. |
| US08831320B2 |
Device and computed tomography scanner for determining and visualizing the perfusion of the myocardial muscle
A device is disclosed for determining and visualizing the perfusion of the myocardial muscle with the aid of static CCTA images. In at least one embodiment, the device includes a segmentation unit for segmenting the coronary blood vessels and the left myocardial muscle from a CCTA image of the heart; a first simulation unit for simulating the blood flow through the coronary blood vessels; and a second simulation unit by which the local perfusion of the myocardial muscle is determined on the basis of the ascertained blood flow into different regions of the myocardial muscle. The perfusion of the different regions of the myocardial muscle is visualized in a schematized image on a visualization unit. By virtue of the proposed device it is possible to dispense with further imaging examinations after the performance of a CCTA scan, thereby relieving the pressure both on the part of the physician and on the part of the patient. |
| US08831319B2 |
Method and system for calibrating CT images
A method of correcting CT numbers in image data includes selecting at least one reference region in a CT image, wherein the selected region is a region associated with substantially same CT number when no artifacts are present in the CT image, estimating artifacts in at least one other region of the CT image based at least in part on detected CT numbers in the at least one reference region, and correcting CT numbers in the at least one other region of the CT image based on the estimated artifacts. |
| US08831317B2 |
Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and blood vessel imaging method
Blood streams different in direction can be selectively depicted, and a blood vessel image (MRA image) which has an excellent blood vessel contrast and in which a background signal is suppressed is obtained. Therefore, the present invention sets a pre-saturation area (pre-saturation area) in an area containing at least a part of an imaging area and performs imaging in a blood vessel imaging operation using a pre-saturation pulse for pre-exciting spins. |
| US08831315B1 |
Methods and systems for assessing image quality in modeling of patient anatomic or blood flow characteristics
Systems and methods are disclosed for assessing the quality of medical images of at least a portion of a patient's anatomy, using a computer system. One method includes receiving one or more images of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy; determining, using a processor of the computer system, one or more image properties of the received images; performing, using a processor of the computer system, anatomic localization or modeling of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy based on the received images; obtaining an identification of one or more image characteristics associated with an anatomic feature of the patient's anatomy based on the anatomic localization or modeling; and calculating, using a processor of the computer system, an image quality score based on the one or more image properties and the one or more image characteristics. |
| US08831314B1 |
Methods and systems for assessing image quality in modeling of patient anatomic or blood flow characteristics
Systems and methods are disclosed for assessing the quality of medical images of at least a portion of a patient's anatomy, using a computer system. One method includes receiving one or more images of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy; determining, using a processor of the computer system, one or more image properties of the received images; performing, using a processor of the computer system, anatomic localization or modeling of at least a portion of the patient's anatomy based on the received images; obtaining an identification of one or more image characteristics associated with an anatomic feature of the patient's anatomy based on the anatomic localization or modeling; and calculating, using a processor of the computer system, an image quality score based on the one or more image properties and the one or more image characteristics. |
| US08831309B2 |
Filter approach to catheter electrode detection and tracking
A method including receiving a first two-dimensional (2D) image; and applying a filter to the 2D image to produce a filtered image that identifies a circular object of interest, wherein the filter is based on the integral sum of the function S, where the filter output at point x is M ( x ) = ∫ ∀ y ∈ V ′ S ( m , θ , r , y ) Δ y which is obtained from the 2D image, the function S is represented by S(m,θ,r,y)=S1(m)S2(θ,r), where m is a magnitude of a gradient at location y, r is a radial distance from y to x, and θ is an angle between the gradient at location y and the radial distance from y to x, S 1 ( m ) = ( tan - 1 ( m - C 1 ) + π 2 ) π , s 2 ( θ , r ) = 1 σ 2 π ⅇ - ( r × sin θ ) 2 2 σ 2 × ∫ - r × sin ( 90 - θ ) C 2 - r × sin ( 90 - θ ) 1 σ 2 π ⅇ - x 2 2 σ 2 ⅆ x , C1 depends on a gray-level value of the object, C2 and σ depend on a size of the object. |
| US08831306B2 |
Flow type particle image analysis method and device
At each of mutually different multiple focal positions, focal adjustment parameter values are obtained from images of standard particles made of the same substance. Each focal adjustment parameter value is figured out as any one of the ratio between the density value around the center of the standard particle image and the density value around the outline, the difference therebetween, and the density value around the center. The in-focus position is adjusted on the basis of the relationship between the obtained focal adjustment parameter values and the focal positions. Moreover, on the basis of the relationship between the focal adjustment parameter values and the focal positions, the parameter values are converted into focal positions, and the focal positions and dispersion thereof are used to check the displacement of the in-focus position and the thickness of the sample liquid. |
| US08831305B2 |
Pseudo dual-energy material identification system and method with undersampling
Pseudo dual-energy material identification systems and methods with under-sampling are disclosed. The system comprises a ray generating device, a mechanic rotation control section, a data collecting subsystem comprising a first tier of detectors and a second tier of detectors, and a master control and data processing computer. The system utilizes a CT-imaging-based material identification method with under-sampled dual-energy projection data, in which only a few detectors at the second tier are used to perform dual-energy projection data sampling, and optimization is made on the procedure of solving an equation system. |
| US08831304B2 |
Blood vessel segmentation with three-dimensional spectral domain optical coherence tomography
In the context of the early detection and monitoring of eye diseases, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy, the use of optical coherence tomography presents the difficulty, with respect to blood vessel segmentation, of weak visibility of vessel pattern in the OCT fundus image. To address this problem, a boosting learning approach uses three-dimensional (3D) information to effect automated segmentation of retinal blood vessels. The automated blood vessel segmentation technique described herein is based on 3D spectral domain OCT and provides accurate vessel pattern for clinical analysis, for retinal image registration, and for early diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of glaucoma and other retinal diseases. The technique employs a machine learning algorithm to identify blood vessel automatically in 3D OCT image, in a manner that does not rely on retinal layer segmentation. |
| US08831301B2 |
Identifying image abnormalities using an appearance model
The identification of known normal structures within an image is preferably accomplished using an appearance model. Specifically, an active appearance model, which encapsulates a complete model of the shape and global texture variations of an object from a collection of samples, is utilized to define normal structures within an image by restricting training samples supplied to the active appearance model during a training phase to those that do not contain abnormal structures. Accordingly, the trained appearance model represents only normal variations in the object of interest. When another image with abnormalities is presented to the system, the appearance model cannot synthesize the abnormal structures which show up as errors in a residual image. Accordingly, the errors in the residual image represent potential abnormalities. |
| US08831300B2 |
Time-lapsing data methods and systems
Time-lapsing mirror methods and related systems. |
| US08831296B2 |
Biometric authentication apparatus, biometric authentication method, and program
There is provided a biometric authentication apparatus including a vein image extraction unit for extracting a vein image showing positions of veins from an image including veins in a finger portion, a vein image dividing unit for dividing the extracted vein image into a plurality of partial regions, a vein pixel counting unit for counting the number of pixels corresponding to the veins in each of the divided partial regions, a vector generation unit for arranging, in a predetermined order, count results of the respective partial regions, and generating a vein distribution vector, which is a numerical sequence representing a degree of distribution of the veins in the vein image, and an authentication unit for authenticating the vein distribution vector generated by the vector generation unit, based on a registered vein distribution vector, which is a vein distribution vector registered in advance. |
| US08831294B2 |
Broadcast identifier enhanced facial recognition of images
A system may recognize faces within an image by using wireless identifiers captured at the time the image was taken to determine a list of candidates for facial recognition. A database may contain people associated with one or more wireless identifiers, which may be identifiers associated with various protocols, such as Bluetooth, cellular telephones, WiFi, or other protocols. In some cases, the list of candidates may be expanded by using candidate's social networks. The recognized faces may be tagged in the image as metadata, then used in various scenarios. In one scenario, an album of images from an event may be created by matching people who were tagged in images. In another scenario, people may exchange business contact information or social network contacts by taking images of each other. |
| US08831291B1 |
System, method, and computer program product to provide wireless sensing based on an aggregate optical detection
A system including a plurality of actuation devices with each individual actuation device configured to be manipulatable, a control panel, a plurality of diffraction gratings located on a back side of the control panel, each respective diffraction grating is configured to be in communication with at least one actuation device so that the respective diffraction grating is moved from a first position to at least one other position when the at least one actuation device is manipulated, a lighting device configured to illuminate the plurality of diffraction gratings, an imaging device configured to capture an image of the plurality of diffraction gratings, and a processor configured to convert the image into a discrete value, the discrete value being evaluated to determine which of the at least one actuation device is manipulated, how the manipulation reflects operation of the control panel, or to provide a response indicative of the manipulation. |
| US08831278B2 |
Method of identifying motion sickness
A method to determine the propensity of an image-sequence to induce motion sickness in a viewer includes using a processor to analyze the image-sequence information to extract salient static and dynamic visual features in the image sequence information, evaluating distribution of the salient static and dynamic features in the saliency map to estimate a probability of the image sequence causing the viewer to make eye and head movements and, using the estimated probability to determine the propensity that the image-sequence would induce motion sickness in a user as a consequence of the eye and head movements. |
| US08831277B1 |
Optical helmet tracking system
The present invention includes a distributed, parallel processing optical helmet tracking system. The system includes at least one imaging sensor mounted to a helmet that outputs image data at a first helmet orientation and at a second helmet orientation. The system uses a plurality of processors, each of which receives from the imaging sensor, data representative of an independently viewable, complete and separate image subsection. A designated processor receives output data from each of the plurality of processors, and processes such output data to generate a signal which is representative of differences between the first helmet orientation and the second helmet orientation. The invention also includes methods for determining movement of a sensor. |
| US08831275B2 |
Automated indexing for distributing event photography
The present method relates to the automated indexing of event images for distribution. The automated indexing can use automated facial recognition to determine which people are in each image. The images indexed in this fashion can be presented in a gallery, ordered by characteristics of the people in the images such as their name or room number, so as to facilitate the selection of the images by the people. The identification of the people in the images can be assisted by security or other information regarding the people that may be available to the event manager. Furthermore, the closeness of the relationships of two people can be inferred from the degree to which the people are in the same images, allowing the people in the images to be placed into groups, which can be hierarchical and/or overlapping, and which can assist in the organization of images being presented to the people, either in a gallery or electronic display format. |
| US08831271B2 |
Subgraph detection device, subgraph detection method, program, data structure of data, and information recording medium
To provide a detection device capable of, e.g., obtaining a list of genes whose expressions are commonly changed in response to administration of a specific drug or drugs, based on consideration of relationship (e.g., interacting relationship among genes) among genes, a list of proteins whose expressions are commonly changed in response to administration of a specific drug or drugs, based on consideration of relationship (e.g., interacting relationship among proteins) among proteins, and a list of users who purchased an identical product or products, based on consideration of relationship (e.g., friendship) among users, and so forth. A graph data obtaining unit (20) obtains graph data indicating a graph including a plurality of vertexes. A vertex data obtaining unit (22) obtains vertex data that correlates an information item to a vertex. Based on the graph data and the vertex data, a subgraph detection unit (24) detects a subgraph that is a subgraph of the graph in which information items correlated to the respective vertexes in the subgraph have predetermined relationship. |
| US08831268B2 |
Micro-speaker
A micro-speaker includes a case having a ring wall forming a receiving cavity, a number of restricting apertures formed in the ring wall, a magnetic plate received in the case and having a main plate, a plurality of auxiliary plates extending from the main plate, and a number of protrusions extending from edges of the auxiliary plates, a first gap formed between two adjacent auxiliary plates communicating with the receiving cavity of the case, the main plate and the auxiliary plates being surrounded by the ring wall of the case, and the protrusions being located in the restricting apertures for restricting the magnetic plate in proper position. |
| US08831262B2 |
Directional audio waveguide array
A directional waveguide array apparatus can transmit and/or receive airborne or fluid-borne audio with the appropriate selection of transducers. The present invention advances directional waveguide arrays by allowing construction of a directional audio device with desired frequency bandwidths, array patterns, and gain by appropriate geometric configurations of the array of waveguide channel ports, as well as dimensioning and configuration of waveguide channel and chamber parameters. Embodiments of the present invention enable increased immunity to environmental noises, temperature, and humidity; low cost of construction; high reliability; simplicity of operation; very low power consumption; real-time steering of directivity (interference) pattern; wide range of audio powers that can be transmitted or received; and interchangeable transducer types. |
| US08831257B2 |
Exterior power supply for hearing aid
An exterior power supply for a hearing aid has a battery-shaped conductor, two thin power contacts, and a DC power source. The battery-shaped conductor is received in a battery container of the hearing aid and has a top electrode and a bottom electrode. The thin power contacts are mounted to the battery-shaped conductor and respectively and electronically connected to the top and bottom electrodes of the battery-shaped conductor. Each thin power contact has a thickness matching a gap between an opening and a door of the battery container of the hearing aid. The DC power source is electronically connected to the battery-shaped conductor through a power wire and the thin power contacts to output DC power to the top and bottom electrodes of the battery-shaped conductor. Therefore, the hearing aid obtains DC power from the battery-shaped conductor and the button cell is not replaced frequently. |
| US08831256B2 |
Controlling a link for different load conditions
The present application discloses systems, methods, and articles of manufacture for determining prescription rules for a hearing prosthesis. A system in accordance with the present disclosure includes a receiver, a transmitter for wirelessly inducing electrical signals in the receiver, and first and second loads coupled to the receiver and associated with first and second applications, respectively. The system also includes a signal generator coupled to the transmitter. The signal generator is configured to energize the transmitter to transfer the electrical signals at a first duty cycle to the receiver for the first application and to energize the transmitter to transfer the electrical signals at a second duty cycle to the receiver for the second application. |
| US08831252B2 |
Thermoacoustic device
A thermoacoustic device includes a substrate, at least two sound wave generators and at least two signal input devices. The substrate has at least two surfaces. Each of the at least two sound wave generators is located on each of the at least two surfaces. At least one of the at least two sound wave generator includes a carbon film. The carbon film includes at least one carbon nanotube layer and at least one graphene layer stacked with each other. The at least two signal input devices are configured to input signals to the at least two sound wave generator in a one by one manner. |
| US08831247B2 |
Phantom power circuit
A phantom power circuit has a detection circuit and a limiting circuit, the detection circuit detecting a pulse current generated in association with connection or disconnection of a condenser microphone, the limiting circuit limiting the output of the condenser microphone. The detection circuit detects a pulse current generated between input terminals of the condenser microphone. The limiting circuit reduces the output from the condenser microphone when the detection circuit detects the pulse current. |
| US08831243B2 |
Method of and circuit for adjusting frequency of a driving signal of electronic horn by means of capacitor
The present invention discloses a driving circuit for electronic horn and a driving method for the electronic horn. The driving circuit includes an oscillating circuit, which generates a signal having oscillating frequency. Based on the signal, said driving circuit generates a driving signal to drive the electronic horn to produce sound. It is characterized in that said oscillating circuit includes a variable capacitor, and the oscillating frequency is changed by adjusting capacitance of the variable capacitor so as for the frequency of the driving signal to be consistent with working frequency of the electronic horn. The present invention overcomes the problem of mismatch between the frequency of circuit's driving signal and the horn's sounding diaphragm and horn's tone inflexion due to resistance change caused by vehicle vibration. |
| US08831238B2 |
Noise cancellation system
A method of controlling a noise cancellation system, for use in an audio device, comprises: generating an ambient noise signal representative of ambient noise; filtering and applying gain to the ambient noise signal to generate a noise cancellation signal; passing the noise cancellation signal to a speaker; and generating an error signal from an error microphone, wherein the gain applied to the ambient noise signal is controlled based on the error signal, and the method further comprises: determining from the error signal whether the audio device is in an off-ear position, and controlling the noise cancellation system based on said determination as to whether the audio device is in the off-ear position. |
| US08831237B2 |
Sound source separation apparatus and sound source separation method
A sound source separation apparatus includes a transfer function storage unit that stores a transfer function from a sound source, a sound change detection unit that generates change state information indicating a change of the sound source on the basis of an input signal input from a sound input unit, a parameter selection unit that calculates an initial separation matrix on the basis of the change state information generated by the sound change detection unit, and a sound source separation unit that separates the sound source from the input signal input from the sound input unit using the initial separation matrix calculated by the parameter selection unit. |
| US08831235B2 |
Speaker polarity determination device
A speaker determination device determines a polarity of a speaker connected to output terminals. Test sound is outputted to an acoustic space via the connected speaker and is collected by a microphone. A reference signal is generated based on the test signal. A polarity determining unit compares predetermined frequency range components of the microphone signal obtained by the microphone and the reference signal, and determines the polarity of the speaker, i.e., whether the speaker is connected in positive phase or in negative phase. |
| US08831226B2 |
Method for key update based on the amount of communication in wireless sensor networks having hierarchy structure
The present invention relates to a key update method based on the amount of communication in wireless sensor networks having a hierarchy structure. |
| US08831224B2 |
Method and apparatus for secure pairing of mobile devices with vehicles using telematics system
A method for establishing secure wireless communications between a mobile device and a vehicle, where a user is not required to enter a password, but instead the telematics system is used to bootstrap the trust between the mobile device and the vehicle. The user initiates the process by pressing a button on the mobile device to request pairing. The vehicle uses its secure OnStar cellular communication link to verify the mobile device with the OnStar server, which generates and sends a session key to the vehicle via the vehicle-OnStar cellular connection, and also sends the session key to the mobile device via the device's own cellular connection. The session key serves as a shared secret, such that the vehicle can issue a secrecy challenge to the mobile device. When the mobile device responds appropriately, a trusted wireless communications link can be established between the mobile device and the vehicle. |
| US08831210B2 |
Method and system for detection of onset of near-end signal in an echo cancellation system
A method, a system and a computer program product for fast detection of the onset of a near-end signal is provided. An Acoustic Echo Canceller (AEC) attenuates an acoustic echo present in a tele-communication network. The AEC includes an adaptive filter that estimates the acoustic echo and generates an error signal. The error signal is the difference between the acoustic echo and the estimate of acoustic echo plus a near-end signal, if present. The method comprises computing an onset indicator parameter from the error signal and the estimate of acoustic echo. Several other parameters are subsequently calculated by using the onset indicator parameter, the error signal and the estimate of acoustic echo. |
| US08831208B2 |
System and method for optimizing call flows of a spoken dialog system
A dialog manager for a spoken dialog system. A decision module selects a path from a plurality of alternative paths for a given call, wherein each path implements one of a plurality of strategies for a call flow. A weighting module weights the path selection decision and is connected to a probability estimator for estimating the probability value that a given one of the plurality of paths is the best-performing path. |
| US08831205B1 |
Intelligent communication routing
A system and method for communicating in a communication network, comprising presenting a communication comprising data over a communications network to a router, said router being adapted to route the communication to one of a plurality of available network destinations; automatically executing a communication targeting algorithm in the router, based at least in part on the data, wherein the communication targeting algorithm operates to contextually jointly analyze a plurality of parameters extracted from the data and a plurality of contextual parameters, to determine an optimum target for the communication, wherein the optimum target varies in dependence on both the data and the context of the communication; and routing the communication in dependence on the algorithm execution. |
| US08831204B1 |
Protecting sensitive information provided by a party to a contact center
A secure three-way bridge in a SIP-based processing switch protects sensitive information provided by a party during a call with an agent in a contact center. During the call, the agent may bridge an interactive voice response system (“IVR”) onto the call using the secure three-way bridge so that the party can enter sensitive information, such as a credit card account, to the IVR. The information is provided by the party using dual-tone multiple frequency (“DTMF”) tones that are presented in an unmodified form to the IVR, but modified and then presented to the agent, so that the agent is unable to discern the sensitive information provided by the party. Other embodiments may accomplish similar capabilities by application of components outside of the bridging structure. Further, recording systems may record the call comprising the modified audio, thus protecting the sensitive information from subsequent detection upon review of the recording. |
| US08831196B2 |
Telephony interface for virtual communication environments
A telephony interface for realtime network communications in virtual communication environments allows telephony communicants to interact with other communicants in an immersive communication environment. |
| US08831195B2 |
Communicating with an automated interactive telecommunications service system
A method for accessing and interacting with an interactive telecommunications service system according to one embodiment can include activating a programming mode, and entering a plurality of keystrokes to create a keyed sequence where the keyed sequence can include a telephone number and a menu response sequence. The menu response sequence can control the menu driven portion of the telecom service system after the device is connected via a telecommunications network. The keyed sequence can include delays between each of the plurality of keystrokes. The delays can be recorded and a session identifier can also be recorded. The keyed sequence can be associated with the delays and the session identifier in response to the activated programming mode. Access to the service and results from a service request can be automated. |
| US08831186B2 |
Systems and methods for gathering information
A method for retrieving information may include receiving a telephone call from a caller and identifying a telephone number from which the telephone call was made. The method may also include retrieving information from a database based on the identified telephone number. The method may further include providing an audible message to the caller to verify whether the retrieved information is correct. |
| US08831185B2 |
Personal home voice portal
A method of accessing voice services through a personal computing system can include receiving, in the personal computing system, a telephone call from a user registered with the personal computing system, wherein the user is remotely located from the personal computing system, receiving a user spoken utterance over the telephone call, and speech recognizing the user spoken utterance to determine a request for a voice service. The method further can include formatting an electronic message according to the request for a voice service and sending the electronic message over a communications network to a remote computing system in accordance with the request for a voice service. Also, the method can include processing and formatting a response received from the remote computing system and playing back audio to the user over the telephone call. |
| US08831167B2 |
Shift register and gate driving circuit thereof
An Nth shift register includes a pull up unit, a driving unit, a first pull down unit, a second pull down unit, and a third pull down unit. The pull up unit is used for providing a first pull up signal according to a first clock signal, a second clock signal, and a starting pulse. The driving unit is used for providing a driving signal according to the first pull up signal and providing a gate signal according to the first clock signal and the driving signal. The first pull down unit is used for pulling down the first pull up signal according to the first clock signal. The second pull down unit is used for pulling down the driving signal according to a second pull up signal. The third pull down unit is used for pulling down the gate signal according to the second clock signal. |
| US08831162B2 |
Apparatus and method for measuring a temperature of coolant in a reactor core, and apparatus for monitoring a reactor core
A reactor core coolant temperature measuring apparatus for measuring the temperature of the coolant flowing in the reactor core of a nuclear reactor comprises a γ-ray thermometer having a temperature measuring section arranged below the bottom of the reactor core and a γ-ray heat generation detecting section arranged between the bottom and the top of the reactor core, a cable for transmitting the signal output from the temperature measuring section and an output signal processing means for receiving the signal and computationally determining the local temperature of the coolant at the position of placement of the temperature measuring section. |
| US08831160B2 |
Method and apparatus for switching clock frequency in a system-in-package device
An apparatus includes a first clock source, a second clock source and circuitry configured to supply a clock signal to a circuit. The circuitry operates to change the clock signal from one frequency to another different frequency. This change is made in a manner whereby no clock signal is supplied during a period of time when the change from the one frequency to the another different clock frequency is being made. |
| US08831152B2 |
Delay detector circuit and receiver apparatus
The present invention provides a delay detector circuit that delivers performance at low cost and can reduce power consumption, and a receiver apparatus that uses this delay detector circuit. The delay detector circuit according to the present invention performs a part of decoding processing for decoding data transmitted by a transmitter apparatus based on a received wave of a two-phase modulation method. The receiver apparatus according to the present invention uses the delay detector circuit described above. Therefore the delay detector circuit and receiver apparatus of the present invention deliver performance at low cost and can reduce power consumption. |
| US08831148B1 |
Tracking automatic gain control of orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing systems
A system including a variable gain amplifier, an automatic gain control module, and a channel estimation module. The variable gain amplifier is configured to amplify an input signal in accordance with a gain. The input signal includes a plurality of orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing symbols. Each of the plurality of orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing symbols is preceded by a respective cyclic prefix. The automatic gain control module is configured to adjust, based on a signal strength of the input signal, the gain of the variable gain amplifier during the respective cyclic prefix preceding each of the plurality of orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing symbols. The channel estimation module is configured to generate a channel estimate for each of the plurality of orthogonal frequency domain multiplexing symbols, and to update the channel estimate in response to the gain of the variable gain amplifier being adjusted. |
| US08831143B2 |
DC offset cancellation in direct conversion receivers
A method for DC offset cancellation includes defining, in a range of possible gain values for operating a direct conversion receiver, multiple sub-ranges of the possible gain values. Multiple DC offset correction values for the respective sub-ranges are stored in a memory. Upon detecting at the receiver that a gain of the receiver has changed from a first sub-range to a second sub-range, DC offset cancellation is initiated based on a DC offset correction value stored for the second sub-range and on a condition relating to past operation in the second sub-range. |
| US08831140B2 |
Protocol-agnostic automatic rate negotiation for high-speed serial interface in a programmable logic device
Automatic rate negotiation logic for a high speed serial interface in a programmable logic device determines whether multiple occurrences of a single-bit transition (i.e., a data transition from “0” to “1” to “0” or from “1” to “0” to “1”) occur within a predetermined time interval on a data channel of a high-speed serial interface. The interval preferably is selected such that multiple occurrences of a single-bit transition mean that the data channel is operating in full-rate mode. The rate negotiation logic may share a phase detector with clock data recovery circuitry in the interface. The phase detector may be a bang-bang phase detector specially adapted to detect single-bit transitions. |
| US08831133B2 |
Recursive digital pre-distortion (DPD)
Recursive digital pre-distortion (DPD) techniques are provided. Digital pre-distortion is performed by applying a signal to a recursive system to generate a state vector; providing the state vector as a feedback value to the recursive non-linear system; and applying the state vector to a second function to generate an output signal, wherein at least one of the recursive system and the second function comprise a non-linear function. The recursive non-linear system can be initialized to a known initial value. The recursive system is defined by a system of non-linear differential equations. |
| US08831130B1 |
Channel estimate predicted from several previous channel estimates, for pre-equalization
A data transmission method includes transmitting an encoded data signal in form of a data stream of data bursts between a transmitter and a receiver, making a decision as a function of at least one data transmission parameter as to whether an interference treatment of the data signal to be transmitted will be performed in the transmitter or in the receiver, performing the interference treatment in terms of at least one code in the transmitter, and performing the interference treatment of the data to be transmitted in terms of at least one further code in the receiver. |
| US08831128B2 |
MIMO communication system signal detection method
The present invention discloses a MIMO communication system signal detection method applied to a MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) system with m transmitting antennas and n receiving antennas. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring the channel (from m transmitting antennas to n receiving antennas) matrix H by using a channel estimation algorithm; calculating a transmitted signal preliminary estimation vector [{circumflex over (x)}1, {circumflex over (x)}2, . . . , {circumflex over (x)}m]T; dividing said m transmitting antennas into groups; obtaining at least one possible transmitted signal vectors for each group of transmitted signals by using signal detection technique; and finally obtaining possible transmitted signal vectors for all groups of transmitting antennas, combining each group of possible transmitted signal vectors into a m-dimensional possible transmitted signal vector in a logic relationship of tree structure, and forming a set of transmitted signal candidate vectors S from said m-dimensional possible transmitted signal vectors; obtaining a ML solution from said set of transmitted signal candidate vectors S with a ML detection algorithm. |
| US08831127B2 |
Antenna reconfiguration for MIMO communications when multiplicative noise limited
The MIMO method and apparatus disclosed herein improve throughput conditions limited by multiplicative noise by reducing the gain of the data streams associated with one or more dominant signal paths between MIMO communication nodes. As used herein, multiplicative noise refers to any noise dependent on or proportional to a signal strength at a transmitting node and/or a receiving node of a wireless communication network. An additional method and apparatus are included for determining that multiplicative noise limits the throughput conditions. |
| US08831125B2 |
Data transmission in a multiple antenna system
Some of the example embodiments presented herein are directed towards an eNodeB (401), and corresponding method therein, for providing data transmission in a multiple antenna system. The eNodeB (401) may be configured to receive a plurality of signal quality assessments and a CSI report from a user equipment. Based on the received data the eNodeB (401) may determine a received power difference between the received data. The eNodeB (401) may further determine a beamforming direction for subsequent data transmissions. Based on the power difference, the eNodeB (401) may account for the received power difference in the subsequent data transmissions, thus improving data communications towards the user equipment. |
| US08831123B2 |
Apparatus and method for soft demapping
Provided is a soft demapping apparatus that may detect a log likelihood ratio (LLR) value of a quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal, using a shifted table scheme, may designate a sub-region of the QAM signal corresponding to bit information that is obtained by decoding the LLR value, and may calculate an LLR value of other bit information included in the designated sub-region. |
| US08831121B1 |
Multicarrier channelization and demodulation apparatus and method
A method of decoding a digitally encoded signal having plural channels includes sampling a transient portion of a master filter mask, storing matched filter coefficients obtained from the sampling, receiving the digitally encoded signal, channelizing the digitally encoded signal into the plural channels, and generating a channel matched filter mask for each one of the plural channels using a subset of the stored coefficients. The method also includes filtering each one of the plural channels, in the frequency domain, based on the channel matched filter mask generated for each of the plural channels. Also disclosed are related methods using a burst reconstruction buffer, per channel distortion equalization, channel estimation and activity monitoring, and noise floor estimation, as well as corresponding apparatuses. |
| US08831116B2 |
Method and apparatus for providing channel quality and precoding metric feedback in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication system
An Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing communication system, wherein a frequency bandwidth is divided into one or more Resource Blocks Groups (RBGs) each having one or more Resource Blocks, provides for feedback of channel quality information and precoding metrics for a same at least one RBG of the one or more RBGs. More particularly, a user equipment measures one or more channel quality parameters associated with at least one RBG of the one or more RBGs, determines channel quality information and a precoding metric for an RBG of the at least one RBG, and reports the channel quality information and a precoding metric determined for the RBG to a radio access network. In one embodiment of the invention, the RBG whose channel quality information and precoding metric are reported may be selected from the at least one RBG based on the measured channel quality parameters. |
| US08831115B2 |
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. |
| US08831112B2 |
Information processing apparatus, encoding method and frame synchronization method
Provided is an information processing apparatus including a frame generator for generating a frame by adding, to data, a header indicating a beginning position of the data, an encoder for encoding the frame generated by the frame generator according to a specific coding scheme, and generating encoded data expressed by mutually different first and second-bits, a cycle changer for changing a coding cycle in a header section by controlling the encoder, and a line coding unit for performing line coding on the encoded data generated by the encoder, and generating an encoded signal which expresses the first-bit in a form of a plurality of first levels and the second-bit in a form of a plurality of second levels different from the first levels such that a same level does not occur consecutively and for which a polarity of the level is inverted every half cycle of a clock. |
| US08831111B2 |
Decoding with embedded denoising
Methods and systems for denoising embedded digital video decoding. Prediction and residue block of a current frame are obtained from motion vector. Variance of residue block is calculated using prior reference blocks, and a causal temporal linear minimum square error estimator is used to calculate a filter coefficient. The residue block is modified using the filter coefficient, and an output digital bitstream of blocks of pixels of the current frame is produced using the modified residue block and prior denoised prediction value of prior frames. |
| US08831110B2 |
Electronic news gathering method and system for the prioritized transmission of data
A method of remotely uploading recordings of live events to a broadcast station includes: a) recording live events at remote locations using a plurality of electronic news gathering (ENG) units, each of the live events being recorded by one of the ENG units as a signal; b) each of the ENG units encoding the signal into a data stream; c) assigning a priority level to each of the data streams; d) transmitting the data streams of the ENG units to the broadcast station through at least one base station, wherein the transmission of the data streams is prioritized based on the assigned priority levels; and e) receiving and decoding the data streams at the broadcast station. |
| US08831108B2 |
Low latency rate control system and method
An encoder within a video transmission system controls the bit allocation at a sub-frame level. A frame is divided into smaller blocks, known as rate control blocks. Rate control blocks are used as the basic unit for bit allocation. This bit allocation achieves the target bit rate desired by the system as well as meet latency constraints. The encoder uses the slice partitioning capabilities to generate the rate control blocks using one or more slices of the image frame. This feature allows the decoder to decode the rate control blocks independently and ensures that the encoded data size for each rate control block is allocated. The encoder also detects the overflow condition for the buffer and performing an operation to avoid the overflow condition based on whether the image frame is an inter-frame or a intra-frame. |
| US08831107B2 |
Method and device for video coding and decoding
A method and device for coding and decoding are disclosed. The method includes: dividing a picture to be encoded into several slices, each containing macroblocks continuous in a designated scanning sequence in the picture; dividing slices in the picture into one or more slice sets according to attribute information of the slices, each slice set containing one or more slices; and encoding the slices in the slice sets according to slice and slice set division information to get a coded bit stream of the picture. The decoding method includes: obtaining slice and slice set division information from a bit stream to be decoded and decoding the bit stream according to the obtained slice and slice set division information. The invention improves the performance of video transmission effectively and realizes region based coding. The implementation of coding and decoding is simple and the complexity of coding and decoding systems is reduced. |
| US08831096B2 |
Decoding apparatus, decoding method, and program of same
An encoding apparatus for encoding progressive image data and interlace image data corresponding to this progressive image data, having a first encoding unit configured to encode picture data composing the interlace image data to generate first encoded data and decoding and recomposing the first encoded data to generate recomposed image data, an up sample processing unit configured to up sample the generated recomposed image data to generate image data having the same resolution as that of the progressive image data, and a second encoding unit configured to encode the picture data composing the progressive image data to generate second encoded data using the generated image data as predictive image data. |
| US08831094B2 |
Video processing method and apparatus based on multiple texture images
Disclosed herein is a video processing apparatus and method based on multiple texture images, which can process videos with optimal video quality at a low transfer rate. For this, an input video is divided into shot segments, and one is selected from a plurality of frames of each shot segment as a seed image. A plurality of texture points are detected from the seed image. The plurality of texture points are tracked from the plurality of frames of the shot segment and then spatio-temporal location transform variables for the respective texture points are calculated. A plurality of texture images are defined using texture points at which the spatio-temporal location transform variables correspond to one another. |
| US08831089B1 |
Method and apparatus for selecting optimal video encoding parameter configurations
A method for determining optimal video encoding parameters is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) storing a plurality of configurable parameters each comprising a respective trial value, (B) generating a bitstream by encoding a test sequence of pictures using (i) a plurality of non-configurable parameters fixed in a design of the encoder, (ii) the configurable parameters and (iii) a plurality of dynamic parameters adjustable in real time by the encoder, (C) generating a reconstructed sequence of pictures by decoding the bitstream, (D) generating a quality metric based on the reconstructed sequence of pictures compared with the test sequence of pictures and (E) adjusting the respective trial values to optimize the quality metric. |
| US08831086B2 |
Prediction techniques for interpolation in video coding
This disclosure describes filtering techniques applied by an encoder and a decoder during the prediction stage of a video encoding and/or decoding process. The filtering techniques may enhance the accuracy of predictive data used during fractional interpolation, and may improve predictive data of integer blocks of pixels. There are several aspects to this disclosure, including a useful twelve-pixel filter support that may be used for interpolation, techniques that use coefficient symmetry and pixel symmetry to reduce the amount of data needed to be sent between an encoder and a decoder to configure the filter support for interpolation, and techniques for filtering data at integer pixel locations in a manner that is similar to sub-pixel interpolation. Other aspects of this disclosure concern techniques for encoding information in the bitstream to convey the type of filter used, and possibly the filter coefficients used. Predictive coding of filter coefficients is also described. |
| US08831084B1 |
Apparatus and method for common mode tracking in DFE adaptation
In an embodiment of the present invention, a feedback technique is used to track a reference signal with a DFE summing node common mode voltage. For example, in an embodiment implemented in CML, the feedback signal shifts both differential signals (e.g., the summing node common voltage and the reference voltage) by the same amount. In such an embodiment, the feedback technique preferably changes the reference common mode but not its differential mode. |
| US08831083B2 |
Transmission channel estimating device, transmission channel estimating method and receiving apparatus
Provided are a transmission channel estimating device, a transmission channel estimating method, and a receiving apparatus. A transversal filter unit generates an estimated reception signal on the basis of a stored known signal sequence and tap coefficients, generates an error signal on the basis of a difference between a reception signal and the estimated reception signal, generates updated tap coefficients on the basis of the known signal sequence, the tap coefficients and the error signal, designates an effective section formed by a predetermined number of taps out of a plurality of taps in the transversal filter unit 2, and designates a first section and a second section set so as to include a center tap, wherein the generation of the estimated reception signal and the updated tap coefficients is performed by generating an estimated reception signal and updated tap coefficients for the first section and generating an estimated reception signal and updated tap coefficients for the second section. |
| US08831080B2 |
Apparatus and method for channel quality feedback with a K-best detector in a wireless network
A receiver in a multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) system is configured to perform a method for generating channel quality feedback information. The method includes receiving, from a MIMO transmitter, pilot signals in each MIMO layer. The method also includes estimating the MIMO channel using the received pilot signals and performing a QR decomposition of the estimated MIMO channel. The method further includes predicting a probability of error for each MIMO layer after the QR decomposition of the estimated MIMO channel. The method still further includes determining a corresponding signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for each MIMO layer based on the probability of error for the each MIMO layer. |
| US08831078B2 |
Method and device for identifying at least one communication channel with an incident signal
Method for identifying within an incident signal at least one frequency communication channel, the incident signal being received on a wireless apparatus, comprising determining a power spectral density (PSD) of that incident signal and identifying the at least one channel from the PSD. The PSD determination comprises storing temporal samples of the incident signal received during a predetermined duration and performing a first Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) processing on the stored samples. |
| US08831077B2 |
Communication on a pilot wire
Systems and methods are disclosed for communicating on a pilot wire between Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) and an Electric Vehicle (EV). The EVSE and EV exchange a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal on the pilot wire to control charging operations of the EV. Data communications may also be transmitted on the pilot wire, such as between transmit and receive modems. The modems transmit communication signals either continuously, without regard to the state of the PWM signal, or only when the PWM is in an off-state. If transmitting while PWM is on, the modem needs a large coupling impedance and/or a large signal injection. To transmit only when the PWM is off, the modem may use a blocking diode in the coupling circuit or may synchronize to the pulses in the PWM signal. |
| US08831071B2 |
Communication device with testing
Communication devices and methods are disclosed, wherein a test signal is generated at a first frequency and a higher harmonic of said test signal is received and processed at a second frequency higher than said first frequency. |
| US08831068B2 |
Gas monitoring system using a random phase multiple access system
Methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, are configured for receiving monitor data from a gas meter. A data stream is created based upon the monitor data. The data stream is spread with a common pseudo-noise (PN) code that is used by a plurality of nodes in communication with an access point. The spread data stream is transmitted at a first time based on a slot start time and a first randomly selected timing offset. The spread data stream is transmitted while at least a portion of a second spread data stream is transmitted at a second time based on the slot start time and a second randomly selected timing offset. The second spread data stream is spread with the common PN code. |
| US08831067B2 |
Method and system for channel state information feedback
The present invention discloses a method for feeding back channel information, which includes: configuring a same codebook space at a data transmitting end and a data receiving end (101); the data receiving end selecting, from the codebook space, a codeword matched with a channel, and transmitting a sequence number corresponding to the codeword to the data transmitting end (102); and the data transmitting end extracting, according to the sequence number, a corresponding codeword from a locally-configured codebook space to obtain channel state information (103). The present invention also discloses a system for feeding back channel information, which includes a data transmitting end and a data receiving end. The method and system for feeding back channel information solve the problem that there is no channel information feedback method for dual-polarized channels. |
| US08831064B1 |
Method of and circuit for generating a spread spectrum clock signal
A method of generating a spread spectrum clock signal in an integrated circuit, the method comprising providing a programmable digital clock generator in programmable logic of the integrated circuit, coupling a user-programmable control signal to the programmable clock generator to control the frequency deviation of the spread spectrum clock signal, and generating the spread spectrum clock signal in response to the user-programmable control signal. |
| US08831054B2 |
Wavelength locking of a laser device
There is discussed an optical system comprising a laser device that outputs a divergent light beam. A first portion of the divergent light beam, including a central portion, passes through an etalon device, which acts as a wavelength discriminator, and then the central portion is incident on a first monitor photodiode, which generates a wavelength-dependent detection signal. A second portion of the divergent light beam is incident on a second monitor photodetector, without passing through the etalon device, to generate a wavelength-independent detection signal. A processor processes the wavelength-dependent detection signal and the wavelength-independent detection signal to determine a control signal for controlling the wavelength of the laser device. By accurately positioning a photodetector at the central fringe of the divergent light beam following transmission through the etalon device, a compact and cost-effective wavelength locking arrangement is provided. |
| US08831048B2 |
Fiber laser
A fiber laser includes a light emitting unit that amplifies pulsed signal light in a rare-earth doped fiber and emits output light, and a filter arranged in an optical path of the output light emitted from the light emitting unit. The signal light is light having a longer wavelength than a wavelength with which a gain is maximized in a rare-earth doped fiber within a gain wavelength band of the rare-earth doped fiber. The filter does not allow transmission of light in at least a part of the wavelength band that includes the wavelength with which the gain is maximized in the rare-earth doped fiber, and allows transmission of light having the same wavelength as the signal light and light in a wavelength band on a longer wavelength side than the wavelength of the signal light. |
| US08831045B2 |
Method and apparatus for performing discontinuous reception operation by connected mode user equipment in a mobile communication system
A method for performing a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) operation by a connected mode User Equipment (UE) in a mobile communication system. The method includes waking up at a wake-up timing, and determining whether an incoming data indication is received from a Node B; reestablishing uplink synchronization upon receipt of the incoming data indication; and waking up after sleeping for a time from the incoming data indication reception timing, receiving a transmission resource allocation message from the Node B, and receiving downlink data over allocated transmission resources. |
| US08831043B2 |
Method and system for operating cooperative receiving diversity scheme and selective cooperative relaying
A selective cooperative relaying method, the method including: determining, by a base station, whether a mobile station for which the base station provides a service is the mobile station necessary for direct transmission or is the mobile station necessary for cooperative relaying via a relay station; and selecting, by a base station, mobile stations using a simple relaying scheme, a cooperative transmission diversity scheme, or a cooperative receiving diversity scheme from mobile stations necessary for the cooperative relaying via the relay station. |
| US08831041B2 |
Prioritizing highly compressed traffic to provide a predetermined quality of service
A network optimization engine can be used to optimize the transmission of network traffic by employing means to prioritize highly compressed network traffic over other network traffic. The network optimization engine accomplishes network traffic optimization by calculating a compression ratio for received data packets and determining whether the calculated compression ratios exceed a compression ratio threshold. The predetermined compression ratio threshold can be a hard coded value or an empirically determined compression ratio threshold that is calculated using a sample of the received network packets. Network packets having a compression ratio that exceeds the compression ratio threshold are classified as highly compressed network traffic and transmitted according to a transmission scheme that is different than a transmission scheme used to transmit non-highly compressed network traffic. |
| US08831040B2 |
Data transfer device and data transfer system
A transfer device according to an embodiment transfers blocks generated by dividing a frame into pieces of data and adding a synchronization header each of the pieces of data. The blocks comprise a first, second and third blocks in this order. The transfer device is configured to acquire a first synchronization header in the first block, a second synchronization header in the second block and a third synchronization header in the third block, judge, in a case where a value of the second synchronization header is incorrect, as to whether or not the value of the second synchronization header can be estimated based on the first and the third synchronization headers so that the second block is consistent with the first and third blocks, and correct the second synchronization header into the estimated value. |
| US08831038B2 |
Transmission stream generating device for generating transmission stream which additional data is stuffed in a payload area of a packet, digital broadcast transmitting/receiving device for transmitting/receiving the transmission stream, and methods thereof
A transmission stream (TS) generating apparatus includes an adaptor which receives general data and generates a stream having a plurality of packets, and which provides adaptive field in some of the plurality of packets, and an inserter which inserts additional data into all the payload areas of some of the plurality of packets that are not provided with the adaptive fields. Because additional data is transmitted, without requiring adaptive field header in certain packet, a data transmission rate is increased. |
| US08831035B2 |
Executing and supporting a multiple bandwidth reservation request
In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a first message that includes at least a first bandwidth request that specifies a first bandwidth and a second bandwidth request that specifies a second bandwidth. The first bandwidth is a preferential bandwidth. The method also includes determining whether the first bandwidth may be allocated, and storing the first bandwidth and the second bandwidth in a stored reservation state if the first bandwidth may be allocated. If the first bandwidth may not be allocated, the method includes determining whether the second bandwidth may be allocated. The second bandwidth in the stored reservation state if it is determined that the second bandwidth may be allocated. In one embodiment, if the second bandwidth may be allocated, the first bandwidth is removed during process prior to sending the message to a subsequent node upstream. |
| US08831030B2 |
Transmission apparatus operation for VPN optimization by defragmentation and deduplication method
A transmission apparatus operation method for optimizing a virtual private network operates by defragmenting and de-duplicating transfer of variable sized blocks. A large data object is converted to a plurality of data paragraphs by a fingerprinting method. Each data paragraph is cached and hashed. The hashes are transmitted to at least one satellite apparatus. Only data paragraphs which were not previously cached at each satellite are transferred. |
| US08831023B2 |
Low latency mesh network
In an example embodiment, there is disclosed herein an apparatus comprising a wireless transceiver and packet processing logic coupled to the wireless transceiver. The packet processing logic is responsive to receiving a packet from a first node on a first path addressed to a node on a second path via the wireless transceiver to forward the packet on the second path towards the node on the second path via the wireless transceiver. The packet processing logic is further configured to send a reply to the packet to the first node on the first path via the wireless transceiver to a second node on the first path that is within range of the wireless receiver and on the second path to the first node on the first path responsive to determining the wireless transceiver cannot send a message directly the first upstream node. |
| US08831019B2 |
Path reconstruction and interconnection modeling (PRIM)
Internet data such as Border Gateway Protocol routing information and traceroute measurements are processed to create realistic predictive models of the paths IP traffic is likely to take between any two points on the Internet, even when direct measurements of the paths is not feasible. The prediction includes three categories: topology (what paths may exist), weighting (which paths are more or less likely to be taken under varying operational circumstances), and performance (latency, loss, jitter, etc. across the predicted paths). |
| US08831017B2 |
Data output adjustment apparatus, data output adjustment method, RGMII network system and RGMII network communication path change method
A data output adjustment apparatus which adjusts an output timing when an outputting data with different transmission speed includes an input part which is provided corresponding to an external device connected with the data output adjustment apparatus, and gets data from the external device, a buffer part which is provided corresponding to the input part, and buffers the data got by the input part, and, an outputting part which instructs the output timing of the data corresponding to the transmission speed to the buffer part, and receives and outputs the data that the buffer part outputted corresponding to the instruction. |
| US08831008B1 |
Reliable message delivery in mesh networks
A method of transmitting a packet in a low-power, ad-hoc, wireless mesh network may include receiving the packet at a first node. The network may include a plurality of nodes, and the plurality of nodes may include the first node. The method may also include transmitting, at a first time, the packet from the first node to a second node in the plurality of nodes. The method may additionally include receiving, at a second time, an indication from the second node that the second node successfully transmitted the packet to a third node. The method may further include maintaining a stored copy of the packet at the first node between the first time and the second time for retransmission. |
| US08831006B2 |
Modification of live streams
Mechanisms are provided for generating and modifying live media streams. A device establishes a session and requests a media stream from a content server. The content server provides the media stream to the device. The content server also obtains an insertion stream for inclusion in the media stream. Packets are removed from the media stream to allow inclusion of the insertion stream. Timestamp information and sequence number information is maintained to allow uninterrupted delivery of the modified media stream. |
| US08831004B2 |
Data delivery in conjunction with a hybrid automatic retransmission mechanism in CDMA communication systems
Techniques for delivering data recovered by a HARQ entity in proper order to higher layers in a CDMA system. In a method, packets are received from the HARQ entity by the re-ordering entity and missing packets among the received packets are detected. Packets may be transmitted in a sequential order based on transmission sequence numbers (TSNs) assigned to the packets, and missing packets may be detected based on the TSNs of the received packets. Delivery of received packets later than the missing packets are stalled because higher layers expect data in-order. A determination is thereafter made whether each missing packet is (1) subsequently received from the HARQ entity or (2) lost, by successively eliminating HARQ channels that may be used to send the missing packet. Received packets previously stalled by each missing packet are delivered after the missing packet is determined to be lost or received. |
| US08831003B2 |
Method and apparatus for reducing redundant traffic in communication networks
A capability is provided for reducing or even eliminating redundant traffic in cellular wireless networks. A method is provided for encoding a target packet in a manner for reducing redundancy of information in the target packet. The method includes identifying a region of the target packet that matches a region of a stored packet, removing, from the target packet, the identified region of the target packet from the target packet, and inserting, within the target packet, an encoding key comprising a hash of the stored packet. A method is provided for reconstructing a packet from an encoded packet that is encoded in a manner for reducing redundancy of information in a network. The method includes identifying an encoding key within the encoded packet, wherein the encoding key comprises a hash of a stored packet, retrieving the stored packet using the hash of the stored packet, removing the encoding key from the encoded packet, and inserting information from the stored packet within the encoded packet. |
| US08831001B2 |
Device, system, and method of voice-over-IP communication
The present invention includes devices, systems, and methods of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication. For example, a method includes: receiving a data stream comprising a set of VoIP packets; and modifying a Real Time Protocol (RTP) header of at least one of said VoIP packets to modify a jitter buffer delay of said data stream. Optionally, the method includes decreasing the jitter buffer delay by: dropping at least one packet from said data stream; and decreasing a sequence number and a timestamp value in an RTP header of at least one additional packet subsequent to said at least one packet. Optionally, the method includes increasing the jitter buffer delay by: identifying a pair of consecutive packets in the incoming data stream, the pair of consecutive packets having consecutive sequence numbers; and increasing a sequence number in an RTP header of at least a latter packet in said pair of consecutive packets. |
| US08830999B2 |
Dynamic updating of a label switched path
A request to add or remove a leaf node to a multicast group in a Point-to-Multipoint Label Switched Path is detected, and the leaf node can select a pre-configured tunnel in accordance with the requested multicast group. The leaf node encapsulates the received request and transmits it through the selected pre-configured tunnel. A root node for the multicast group receives the request through the tunnel and can identify the leaf node responsible for transmitting the message by the tunnel header. The root can determine if a Point-to-Multipoint Label Switched Path exists for the request multicast group and can update the membership of the multicast group by adding or removing the leaf node to the multicast group. |
| US08830998B2 |
Separation of edge and routing/control information for multicast over shortest path bridging
Techniques disclosed herein include systems and methods for providing a scalable solution to transmit edge IP Multicast sender information in a Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) network. Control information is exchanged between Ingress Backbone Edge Bridges and Egress Backbone Edge Bridges Such control messages do not cause path computations at Backbone Core Bridges within the SPB network. Such exchanges of control messages trigger sending SPB specific Intermediate System To Intermediate System (IS-IS) TLV control message with path computation information via IS-IS control messages. This second set of control messages is exchanged within the SPB network and includes source-specific multicast stream information that is used by Backbone Core Bridges to establish a multicast forward state and compute multicast forwarding paths. By separating edge and routing information, IP multicasting functionality within the SPB is provided while enabling scaling and new edge multicasting applications. |
| US08830996B2 |
Reconfigurable data distribution system
Systems, methods and computer programs products for a reconfigurable data distribution system are described herein. An embodiment includes a stream generator that receives analog data from a plurality of sensors. Data received from sensors, for example, may include video data received from an externally mounted camera on an armored vehicle. The stream generator converts analog data received from the sensors into a digital format that can be transmitted to a router. The router forwards the data in the digital format to a display processor. The display processor formats the data received from the router for display on a display device. The display processor may also receive data from other peripherals, including but not limited to, a touch screen device or a keypad. |
| US08830995B2 |
Transmission stream generating device for generating transmission stream which additional data is stuffed in a payload area of a packet, digital broadcast transmitting/receiving device for transmitting/receiving the transmission stream, and methods thereof
A transmission stream (TS) generating apparatus includes an adaptor which receives general data and generates a stream having a plurality of packets, and which provides adaptive field in some of the plurality of packets, and an inserter which inserts additional data into all the payload areas of some of the plurality of packets that are not provided with the adaptive fields. Because additional data is transmitted, without requiring adaptive field header in certain packet, a data transmission rate is increased. |
| US08830994B2 |
Network system
A network system includes a plurality of lower switching hubs, and upper switching hubs connected to each of the lower switching hubs, to relay a normal frame to be transmitted and received between the lower switching hubs. Each of the lower switching hubs includes a lower switch configuring portion for configuring a first link aggregation group for all ports connected to the upper switching hub, and transmitting a first control frame containing its own identifier from all the ports connected to the one or more upper switching hubs. Each of the upper switching hubs includes an upper switch configuring portion for configuring a second link aggregation group for ports connected to a same lower switching hub, based on the first control frames received from the lower switching hubs, and transmitting a second control frame containing its own identifier from the ports configured as the second link aggregation group. |
| US08830993B1 |
Extensible time space switch systems and methods for high capacity multi-service applications
A time-space switch in a ring architecture includes input circuitry including N links each receiving M timeslots, a two-dimensional matrix of a plurality of switching circuits, the two-dimensional matrix is configured to receive from the input circuitry each of the M timeslots from the N links in a pipelined manner, and output circuitry including N links configured to receive any of the M timeslots from any of the N links from the two-dimensional matrix. The input circuitry, the two-dimensional matrix, and the output circuitry are arranged in a ring architecture therebetween. A link encoding protocol method performed in electrical circuitry includes receiving a plurality of time slots, grouping the plurality of time slots into time slot groups, performing a cyclic redundancy check between adjacent time slot groups, 64/65B encoding the time slot groups, and forward error correction encoding a plurality of 65B codewords from the 64/65B encoding. |
| US08830991B1 |
Email notification of voice messages
A system and method is provided for receiving a voice message and sending an email message to notify of the receipt of the voice message. The system has a plurality of access devices which are coupled to each other over a network such as the Internet. These access devices may include computers, workstations, and the like. Upon receipt of a voice message, a notification of the message is sent to a recipient in the form of an email message. The system may be configured based on the specifications of the caller or the recipient. |
| US08830989B2 |
Automatic configuration of packet network services over dense wavelength division multiplex communication links using optical transport network frames
Techniques are provided to automatically configure packet based network services over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex (DWDM) network communication links. An optical wavelength is detected at an optical interface of a network device configured to send traffic between a packet switched network and an optical network. A message is sent to an optical control plane comprising information configured to request optical configuration information for the optical wavelength. A response to the message is received comprising the optical configuration information and the wavelength is activated at the optical interface using the optical configuration information. A frame is received over the wavelength that is formatted according to an optical protocol. Packet switched network information is extracting from an overhead portion of the frame that is configured to identify network parameters for configuring a packet switched network link and the associated routing. The packet switched network link is configured using the network parameters. |
| US08830988B2 |
Collecting network performance data from multiple autonomous systems
A computer apparatus comprises first Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) logic comprising BGP route table data; a network interface to communicatively couple to a first autonomous system; data collection logic in computer-readable storage media when executed operable to perform discovering an address prefix of a data collector that is communicatively coupled to second BGP logic of a router within a second autonomous system that is coupled to the first autonomous system, wherein the second autonomous system is independent of the first autonomous system; determining a path through the first autonomous system, the one or more networks or internetworks, and the second autonomous system to the data collector based on the BGP route table; requesting the data collector to provide one or more data values relating to performance of network elements of the second autonomous system; receiving and storing the one or more data values. |
| US08830982B2 |
System and method for multicarrier uplink control
An uplink control method for use in a communication system based on multiple carriers. The method includes allocating different types of random access channels for different types of uplink operations. |
| US08830976B2 |
WLAN channel allocation
Systems and methods for WLAN channel allocation in communication networks are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-based system to manage content streaming from a sender to a receiver comprises a processor and logic instructions stored in a tangible computer-readable medium coupled to the processor which, when executed by the processor, configure the processor to maintain, in a memory coupled to the controller, a list of specified service set identifier (SSID) devices, maintain a plurality of communication channels available for use in a wireless network environment, define at least a first reserved communication channel from the plurality of communication channels, receive a request from an SSID device for access to wireless network resources managed by the WLAN controller, and allocate the at least a first reserved communication channel to the SSID device when the SSID device is on the list of specified SSID devices. |
| US08830975B2 |
Mobile router method with rate limiting
A method for operating a mobile router, comprises: transferring data via a cellular network at a data rate controlled by the router; receiving data rate information via the cellular network; and utilizing the data rate information to control the data rate of data subsequently transferred via said cellular network. |
| US08830973B2 |
Coexistent channel access method
According to an embodiment of present invention, a method for transmitting a coexistent data stream, the method including: transmitting coexistent data stream transmission information including transmission power information of a first data stream targeted for a first station and transmission power information of a second data stream targeted for a second station in an environment in which the first station, a legacy station, coexists with a second station, a station supporting a wireless local area network (WLAN) system evolved further than the first station; and transmitting, by an access point (AP), the first and second data streams to the second station and the first station, wherein the AP transmits the first data stream with a higher transmission power level than that of the second data stream according to the coexistent data stream transmission information. |
| US08830968B2 |
Method and apparatus for mapping multi-standard IQ data based on CPRI
The invention provides a method for IQ data mapping, including the following steps of: mapping IQ data of one or more standards to a CPRI radio frame, wherein, the CPRI radio frame includes multiple multi-frames, and boundaries of the multi-frames are aligned with the header of the CPRI radio frame, and each multi-frame includes K basic frames, and each basic frame includes a plurality of IQ sub-containers, and one IQ sub-container constitutes one time slot, and the number K of the basic frames and bit widths Naxc of the IQ sub-containers included in each multi-frame are identical for different standards, and the length of the CPRI radio frame is 10ms. The invention also provides an IQ data mapping apparatus. |
| US08830967B2 |
Method for performing an adaptive modulation and coding scheme in mobile communication system
A method for performing an adaptive modulation and coding scheme in a mobile communication system. Including receiving a signal and selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) level from an MCS subset of an MCS set considering information derived from the signal, by a mobile station. The MCS subset is selected in accordance with a service type related to the mobile station and the MCS subset is configured with one or more MCS levels, the MCS set is represented by 5 bits and the MCS subset is represented by 4 bits to indicate MCS value, respectively, and the 4 bits of the MCS subset is a part of the 5 bits of the MCS set. |
| US08830964B2 |
Mobile network handover initiation
Methods and systems to monitor wireless signal strengths associated with wireless access points, and to initiate a handover procedure upon one or more thresholds. A handover may be initiated prior to a loss of an existing network connection. |
| US08830961B2 |
Mobile wireless system, access point device, and handover processing method
A mobile wireless system includes a first gateway (L-PGW), a second gateway (PGW), a first access point (HeNB) capable of establishing a communication path simultaneously with the first and second gateways, and a second access point (eNB) capable of establishing a communication path only with the PGW. When a mobile terminal connected to the HeNB and communicating with a communication destination node using a first path through the L-PGW switches a connection destination to the eNB, the HeNB establishes a second path through the HeNB and the PGW, while maintaining the first path. The HeNB transmits data, which has been transmitted to the HeNB along the first path, to the eNB along the second path, until the UE is connected to the eNB, and a third path to the communication destination node through the PGW is established. Accordingly, an interruption time of data reception involved in handover is shortened. |
| US08830960B2 |
Method and apparatus for maintaining communication during a baton handover
A method and apparatus enable high-speed downlink data transmissions to continue while a baton handover is in progress. In an aspect of the disclosure, a method of wireless communication includes switching an uplink from a source cell to a target cell while maintaining a downlink with the source cell, and transmitting over the uplink to the target cell at least one metric of quality of the downlink. In one example, the metric of quality may be a CQI. In another example, the metric of quality may be a HARQ ACK/NACK. The metric of quality of the downlink may be transmitted from the target cell to the source cell, directly or by way of a radio network controller. |
| US08830957B2 |
Dynamic internetwork load balancing
Examples are disclosed for executing vertical handovers of wireless devices configured to couple with heterogeneous wireless networks. In some examples, wireless devices on separate heterogeneous networks may be swapped between the heterogeneous networks. |
| US08830956B2 |
Method of configuring the absolute grant mapping table for drifting radio network controller
A method for configuring an absolute grant mapping relationship table for a drift radio network controller, comprises: a serving radio network controller informing the drift radio network controller of the absolute grant mapping relationship table used by an enhanced-dedicated channel absolute grant channel (E-AGCH) by signaling; and the drift radio network controller returning a response message to the serving radio network controller after storing the information configured. The present invention guarantees that absolute grant values corresponding to the Node B and the user equipment are obtained from the same absolute grant mapping relationship table, i.e. from the same table of relationships between absolute grant values and indexes, and the allocation and use of the power resource by them are consistent, so that efficient use of resources and security of the system are guaranteed. |
| US08830950B2 |
Method and apparatus for PDCP reordering at handoff
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate management of data delivery and processing in a wireless communication system and, more particularly, that support Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) reordering of packets during a handoff operation. Various aspects described herein can mitigate processing delays associated with PDCP reordering of packets at handoff by determining, communicating, and/or otherwise identifying one or more indicators during handoff that facilitate lossless communication of packets to a terminal with minimal delay. These indicators can include sequence number information for a source Node B, information regarding a step or jump size applied to a sequence number by a target Node B, a reset command, and/or other suitable indicators. |
| US08830949B2 |
Method and apparatus for implementing baseband resource pool in LTE base station
In a method for implementing a baseband resource pool in an LTE base station provided in the present invention, the LTE base station includes a main control module, a master board, and a slave board, and the master board and the slave board include baseband processing modules. In the method for implementing a baseband resource pool in an LTE base station provided in the present invention, the RACH processing capability of the LTE base station is improved by adding a slave baseband board including a baseband processing module. |
| US08830947B2 |
Channel sensing in uplink transmission
A solution for uplink transmission in a cellular communication system is disclosed. The same uplink time-frequency resource are scheduled to at least two terminal devices, and sensing periods of unequal lengths are allocated to the at least two terminal devices. The sensing period defines a duration a terminal device senses the uplink time-frequency resource for a conflicting transmission before transmitting in the uplink time-frequency resource. |
| US08830945B2 |
Method for processing control information in a wireless mobile communication system
In a wireless mobile communications system, a method for processing control information allows the operations of a mobile terminal to be simplified and permits efficient use of resources for the mobile terminal. The network instructs in advance, the transmission of control information, such as system information and the like, via a single indicator channel. The mobile terminal receives this single indicator channel and uses the indicator information that was transmitted via the indicator channel in order to receive the control information. |
| US08830940B2 |
Wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method
There are disclosed a wireless communication apparatus and a wireless communication method whereby a flexible frequency scheduling can be performed without increasing the circuit scale of DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform). In a terminal (200), a number-of-allocated-RBs setting unit (209) sets a number of allocated RBs, which is to be used for an actual transmission band corresponding to the number of notified RBs, to a number of resource blocks that can be expressed by one of “2n×3m×5l”. The allocated RB selecting unit (210) selects, based on the resource allocation information and the number of allocated RBs, either an unused one of the notified RBs that is not used as the transmission band or an additional RB that is added to the notified RBs and used as the transmission band. |
| US08830934B2 |
Configurable filter for multi-radio interference mitigation
In a multi-radio device, a configurable filter may be placed on the transmit side of an aggressor radio to reduce interference to receive side performance of a victim radio. The filter may be adaptively configured based on performance of the victim radio. The configurable filter may be in the form of a notch filter. The depth and width of the notch filter may be configured. The filter may be used to create a virtual guard band between an Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band and a cellular band by puncturing a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission nearest to the ISM band or reducing power on the nearest PUCCH transmission. |
| US08830932B2 |
Obtaining method and device for channel information
A method and device for acquiring channel information are disclosed in the present invention, to solve a technical problem in the related art that the channel information cannot be fed back flexibly according to requirements. The method includes: for one subband, User Equipment (UE) acquires Rank Indicator (RI) information of a current channel, in which the RI information indicates a rank (ν) of the current channel, and ν is a positive integral number not greater than 8; the user equipment determines the quantity of the Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) information required to be fed back to a base station according to ν, and transmits the PMI information in said quantity and the RI information to the base station; the base station acquires the channel information of said subband according to the PMI information in said quantity and said RI information. |
| US08830930B2 |
Device in wireless network, device resource management apparatus, gateway and network server, and control method of the network server
Provided is a device resource management apparatus in a wireless network, the device resource management apparatus including an access mode selection module to select a predetermined access mode among a plurality of access modes for a device, each of the plurality of access modes determining a type of a medium included in an access route between the device and an opponent device, and a device agency module to obtain an agent profile corresponding to the device when an access route between the device and the opponent device is formed according to the predetermined access mode, and to perform, as a proxy for the device, at least one function defined by the agent profile. |
| US08830926B2 |
Method for network co-ordination in a mobile communications system and apparatus thereof
Method and Apparatus thereof for coordinating a joint transmission between a plurality of cooperative access nodes serving a plurality of user terminals in a mobile communications system, including the steps of: receiving channel information by said access nodes from user terminals that are being served by said access nodes; exchanging between said access nodes of said received channel information thus ensuring that all channel information is distributed to all cooperative access nodes; processing all received channel information by each one of said access nodes, and determining by said access nodes using said processed channel information, of a channel estimation for said joint transmission. |
| US08830924B2 |
Method for requesting bandwidth by message having variable format
A method for requesting a bandwidth by a message having a variable format is disclosed. The method includes determining a bandwidth request type according to a size of an uplink bandwidth requested by a mobile station, generating a bandwidth request message having a header format according to the determined bandwidth request type, and transmitting the bandwidth request message to a base station. The determined bandwidth request type is one of a bandwidth request per connection, a bandwidth request per Quality of Service (QoS), and a bandwidth request per mobile station. |
| US08830923B2 |
Bandwidth adaptation techniques in wireless communications networks
Techniques are disclosed that involve bandwidth adjustment in wireless communications networks. For instance, an operating bandwidth may be established for wireless communications with one or more remote devices. This operating bandwidth may include a primary channel and one or more secondary sub-channels. Further, one or more statistics may be maintained that correspond to one of the one or more sub-channels. These statistics may be based on based on events on the corresponding sub-channel(s), such collisions, interference events, medium busy events, etc. Based on such statistics, the operating bandwidth may be decreased. Moreover, embodiments may increase the operating bandwidth based on output queue depth statistics. Further, a notification may be transmitted that indicates a change in the operating bandwidth. This notification may be in the form of a bandwidth change indication (BCI) frame. |
| US08830921B2 |
Channel assignment for wireless access networks
Channel assignment for wireless access networks is directed toward improved overall communication capability of the networks. A network is formed of wireless access points (APs) coupled via wired (and/or wireless) links and enabled to communicate with clients via radio channels of each of the APs. Local information is collected at each of the APs and processed to determine channel assignments according to a Neighbor Impact Metric (NIM) that accounts for one-hop and two-hop neighbors as well as neighbors not part of the network. Optionally, the NIM accounts for traffic load on the APs. The channel assignments are determined either on a centralized resource (such as a server or one of the APs) or via a distributed scheme across the APs. The local information includes how busy a channel is and local operating conditions such as error rate and interference levels. |
| US08830910B2 |
Wireless terminals including smart antenna systems having multiple antennas
A wireless communication device includes a transceiver configured for communication using multiple communication modes, the transceiver comprising a transmitter and a receiver. A plurality of antennas is coupled to the transceiver. The plurality of antennas includes a first antenna and a second antenna. The multiple communication modes include a multiple input multiple output (“MIMO”) mode and a single antenna receive mode. The device further includes a control circuit configured to detect selection of the single antenna receive mode as an active one of the multiple communication modes and to automatically alter a configuration of the plurality of antennas and transceiver by configuring the first antenna as a transmit only antenna and the second antenna as a receive only antenna responsive to detection of the selection of the single antenna receive mode. Related methods of operation are also discussed. |
| US08830907B2 |
Method of processing received signals, corresponding receiver and computer program product therefor
Signals received from channels exposed to multi-path propagation via a plurality of diversity antennas and including at least one pilot signal are processed by detecting a set of multi-path components for each received signal and computing a set of channel coefficients from multi-path components of the at least one pilot signal in the set of multi-path components. The set of channel coefficients is organized as a channel coefficient vector. From the channel coefficient vector, a set of combining weights is estimated to be applied to the received signals by: computing a spatial correlation matrix of the channel coefficient vector by neglecting the correlations between multi-path components of the channel coefficient vector having different delays, whereby the correlation matrix is a block diagonal matrix including null coefficients other than for non-null sub-matrixes arranged along the diagonal of the correlation matrix, wherein the sub-matrixes have a size equal to the number of diversity antennas; deriving from the spatial correlation matrix a resulting matrix by calculating the inverse of the sub-matrixes or a scaled version thereof; and multiplying the resulting matrix and the channel coefficient vector in order to obtain the desired set of combining weights. |
| US08830904B2 |
Method for controlling uplink power control considering multiplexing rate/ratio
A method for maintaining system interference at a low level when two or more users use one resource region in a wireless mobile communication system is provided. To control an uplink transmission power in a broadband wireless mobile communication system in multi-cell environments, information regarding the number of users who share an uplink time-frequency resource region is received from a base station, a power adjustment value is calculated based on the received number of users, and the uplink transmission power is determined by reflecting the calculated power adjustment value in a reference transmission power. Here, when only one mobile station uses the uplink time-frequency resource region, the reference transmission power is equal to a transmission power of the mobile station. |
| US08830896B2 |
Packet relay method and device
Feedback information including a transmission quality of a packet transmitted from a transmitting device to a receiving device is received from the receiving device and the transmission quality included in the feedback information is revised down, to be transferred to the transmitting device, based on information of resource consumed for maintaining a wireless link included in a path to the receiving device. The above revising down is executed if it is found that the information of resource consumed reaches a predetermined threshold or is not executed unless it is found otherwise. The information of resource includes, for example, the number of retransmission times of a packet for a predetermined period of time, a transmission power level or a code length of an error correcting code. |
| US08830895B2 |
Method and system for acquiring service list and multimedia broadcast multicast service data
The present invention discloses a method for obtaining a service list and multimedia broadcast multicast service data, and the method includes: obtaining electronic service guide (ESG) information, receiving a system information block (SIB)13 from system information, and obtaining a cell service list according to the ESG information and the SIB 13. The present invention also discloses a system for obtaining a service list and multimedia broadcast multicast service data; in the system, a cell service list acquisition unit is configured to obtain ESG information, receive an SIB 13 from system information, and obtain a cell service list according to the ESG information and the SIB 13. With the method and system in the present invention, the cell service list can be acquired, and the receiving of data of multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) service can be achieved after obtaining the cell service list. |
| US08830891B2 |
Ad-hoc network power save system and method
Symmetrical and asymmetrical ad-hoc, wireless networks and a method for saving power in the same may include causing a first station to determine whether a second station has a master capability to buffer data traffic for the first station. A first station requests the second station to buffer the data traffic intended for the first station for a first predetermined period. The first station enters a first power save mode, and the second station buffers the data traffic for the first station for the first predetermined period. The first station exits the first power save mode after the first predetermined period and the second station sends the buffered data traffic to the first station. Both the first and second stations may have master capabilities, or only one of the first and second stations may have a master capability. |
| US08830889B2 |
Systems for remotely waking up application processor of mobile device
Systems for waking up an application processor (AP) of a mobile device are disclosed. In one embodiment, one of the systems of the mobile device includes a Bluetooth device with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) feature configured to receive a connection request signal from an external device and a hardware module coupled to the Bluetooth device with BLE feature. The hardware module is configured to forward an AP ON request signal received from the external device via the Bluetooth device with BLE feature if the pairing request signal is determined to be valid, and wherein the Bluetooth device with BLE feature and the hardware module are supplied with quiescent current from a battery of the mobile device prior to the wake up of the AP. |
| US08830883B2 |
Method and apparatus for improving acknowledgement/negative acknowledgement feedback
A method, apparatus, and computer program product for wireless communication are provided to receive a downlink grant including a transmission power control (TPC) command and a downlink assignment index (DAI) for an uplink subframe, determine that a value for at least one of the TPC commands is an ACK/NACK resource indicator for an uplink control channel resource based on a value of the DAI, and transmit one or more ACK/NACK bits using the uplink control channel resource. In another example, an eNB may be equipped to transmit a downlink grant including TPC command and DAI for an uplink subframe, wherein the DAI is greater than 1 and the TPC command is replaced with an ACK/NACK resource indicator, and receive a signal including uplink control channel information, where ACK/NACK feedback for one or more downlink subframes associated with the uplink subframe are included in a resource indicated by the resource indicator. |
| US08830882B2 |
Repeater and method for operating such a repeater
A repeater capable of emitting as little electromagnetic radiation as possible is described. The repeater can transmit communication signals between a base station and a network terminal in a radio transmission network, such as a mobile radio network. The repeater can include a transmitter that can transmit the communication signals as a radio signal to the network terminal. The repeater can also include a sensor for detecting a switching signal and a control unit that can change the transmitter between a passive operating state and an active operating state based on the switching signal. The transmission power of the transmitter can be lower in the passive operating state than in the active operating state. |
| US08830880B2 |
Clock signal leakage cancellation in wireless systems
Methods and systems for utilizing undersampling for crystal leakage cancellation are disclosed and may include undersampling a composite signal comprising a desired signal and leakage signals due to one or more clock signals. Measured DC signals generated by each of the undersampled signals may be reduced by adjusting the phase and/or amplitude of the clock signals. The undersampling may be performed at one or more of the one or more clock signals, or at integer sub-harmonics of the clock signals. The composite signal may include a signal received by a wireless system or a signal to be transmitted by the wireless system. The undersampled signals may be low-pass filtered. The desired signal may include in-phase and quadrature signals or a polar signal. The undersampling may be performed by one or more sample and hold circuits and the clock signals may be generated utilizing one or more crystal oscillators. |
| US08830873B2 |
Flexible radix switch
A system and method for interconnecting nodes and routing data packets in high radix networks includes constructing or redefining a network structure to provide improved performance. Computation and data storage nodes are connected to a network of switching nodes that provide near optimum bandwidth and latency for networks of any size. Specialized interconnection patterns and addressing methods ensure reliable data delivery in very large networks with high data traffic volume. |
| US08830872B2 |
Network configuration for devices with constrained resources
A method includes receiving a wireless beacon from an ad hoc network at a wireless device, wherein the wireless beacon includes a data structure that encodes at least a portion of a wireless identifier of an access point. The method includes configuring the wireless device from the data structure received from the wireless beacon. The method also includes establishing a wireless network between the access point and the wireless device utilizing at least a portion of the wireless identifier encoded in the data structure. |
| US08830871B2 |
Persistent principal switch for fibre channel fabric
According to one aspect, a Fiber Channel (FC) switch that is currently serving as a Principal Switch among a plurality of FC switches in a FC Fabric sends an Exchange Fabric Parameters (EFP) frame having an empty domain identifier list to neighboring FC switches during a first portion a Principal Switch Selection phase. During a second portion of the Principal Switch Selection phase that is after the first portion, the first Fiber Channel switch sends to neighboring FC switches an EFP frame having a non-empty domain identifier list to indicate to the neighboring FC switches that the first FC switch is to remain serving as the Principal Switch in the FC Fabric. |
| US08830870B2 |
Network adapter hardware state migration discovery in a stateful environment
An approach is provided in which a discovery system receives a migration request to move a virtual machine that executes on a first system. The discovery system identifies a first network adapter corresponding to the first system, and identifies hardware state data used by the first network adapter to process data packets generated by the virtual machine. In turn, the discovery system identifies a second network adapter that is compatible with a native format of the hardware state data, and migrates the virtual machine to a second system corresponding to the identified second network adapter. |
| US08830868B2 |
Keep alive message overhead reduction for communication networks
A method of communications in a network having plurality of nodes including a base node (BN) and a plurality of levels (i) each including at least one service node (SN). The number (Ni(t)) of SNs registered in each of a plurality of i are determined. The current Keep Alive timer out (KA_TO) value for a KA timer at the BN is dynamically adjusted to an updated KA_TO value based on Ni(t) and i. Dynamically adjusting KA_TO values reduces the KA message overhead the network compared to known KA_TO value implementations. |
| US08830867B2 |
Methods and network elements operable to specify and determine complete sets of link state messages for link state routing protocols
A method, performed by a transmitter network element utilizing a link state routing protocol which has a maximum link state message size. The method is for providing information to avoid a disruption in data forwarding that would result from a receiver network element performing preferred route computations based on an incomplete set of link state messages. The method includes generating a complete set of link state messages having information indicating that the link state messages are the complete set of the link state messages. The complete set of the link state messages are collectively coherent with a link state of the transmitter network element. The method also includes transmitting the complete set of the link state messages, and the information indicating that the link state messages are the complete set of the link state messages, to a network. Also disclosed are transmitter network elements, receiver network elements, and methods thereof. |
| US08830864B2 |
Maintenance of high-speed channels by inserting channel maintenance data in a mobile data network to avoid channel type switching
A mobile data network includes a radio access network and a core network. A first service mechanism in the radio access network breaks out data coming from a basestation. When data is broken out by the first service mechanism, the data is delivered at the edge, which means the true activity of the channel is not visible to the core network. The reduction of data in the core network due to serving data at the edge risks causing a switch from a high-speed channel to a low-speed channel by the mechanism in the core network that monitors and assigns channel speeds. In order to maintain the high-speed channel, the on-going data rate for a subscriber session is monitored and channel maintenance traffic is injected towards and from the radio network controller (in both directions). The amount of channel maintenance traffic depends on thresholds that determine a desired data rate. |
| US08830863B2 |
System and method for dynamic coordination of radio resources usage in a wireless network environment
An architecture, system and associated method for dynamic coordination of radio resource usage in a network environment. In one aspect, a method of processing sensory reports of one or more sensing elements in a radio network comprises receiving a sensory report from a sensing element operating in multiple radio access technologies, the sensory report including sensory data associated with multiple radio channels relative to at least one radio element; identifying the sensing element's identity and determining if the sensory report has been tagged with a code generated by a predetermined code generator; responsive to the identifying and the determining, authenticating the sensory report; and correlating the sensory report from the sensing element with at least one of one or more previous sensory reports from the sensing element and one or more previous sensory reports received from another sensing element. |
| US08830861B2 |
Wireless communication method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving frame through relay
The present invention provides a wireless communication method used for transmitting and receiving a relay in a wireless local area network system. The wireless local area network system according to an embodiment of the present invention relates to a wireless communication method of setting a relay link through a relay and setting a transmission time point at which a data frame is transmitted in a source device by recognizing a propagation delay between devices, and the like when an operation mode of the set relay corresponds to a cooperating mode. |
| US08830860B2 |
Method for devices in a network to participate in an end-to-end measurement of latency
A method of determining the latency of path segments in a communication network that uses multi-bit data packets comprises generating a test packet for use in determining the latency of path segments in the network; transmitting the test packet from a first device coupled to the network; storing in the test packet the time when a preselected bit in the test packet is transmitted from the first device; when the test packet is received by a second device coupled to the network, storing in the second device at least one of (a) the time when a preselected bit in the test packet is received by the second device and (b) the difference between (i) the time when the preselected bit in the test packet is transmitted from the first device and (ii) the time when the test packet is received by the second device. |
| US08830859B2 |
Power based gain control adjustment
Method and devices for use in a wireless device are described herein. A signal is received over a plurality of time segments, the signal over each time segment including a plurality of resource element blocks. For each time segment, at least one resource element block is selected from the plurality of resource element blocks of the time segment based on information determined about the time segment. For each time segment, a power value associated with the at least one resource element block of the time segment is determined. For each time segment, a gain adjustment value to adjust the gain of the time segment or one or more subsequent time segments of the signal is determined based upon the power value associated with the at least one resource element block. |
| US08830852B2 |
Communication device, communication system, program, and communication method
A communication device includes a communication unit that receives a reception window size from a reception side communication device and transmits a packet of a transmission amount corresponding to a transmission window size to the reception side communication device; and a control unit that determines whether a channel with respect to the reception side communication device is in a broad band and high delay circumstance, changes a first state where the transmission window size is a first window size which is not larger than the reception window size to a second state wherein the transmission window size is a second window size which is larger than the reception window size when the channel is determined as the broad band and high delay circumstance, and transmits the packet of the transmission amount larger than the reception window size in the second state. |
| US08830850B2 |
Network monitoring device, network monitoring method, and network monitoring program
Information on a communication relation or communication path to be monitored is automatically generated to reduce load of a user. A path information generation part receives a destination IP address designated by a user, through an input receiving part. When the input of the destination IP address is received, the path information generation part uses configuration information tables, each of which stores configuration information of a device on a network, to identify IP addresses of networks each having a plurality of terminals, as branch IP addresses. The path information generation part uses the configuration information tables and transfer destination information tables each storing a routing table of a router, to identify the connection order of routers between the designated destination IP address and the identified branch IP addresses, to generate path information. |
| US08830849B2 |
Method and apparatus for detecting transmission signals
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods, apparatus, and computer-program products for the detection of potentially interfering user equipment (UE) in the proximity of a detecting entity. The detecting entity may be a base station or a UE. The detecting entity may take one or more actions in response to the detection in an effort to mitigate interference. |
| US08830848B1 |
Adjusting a control channel timer in a wireless communication
Systems and methods are disclosed herein for adjusting a control channel timer based on control communication traffic on a control channel. In a particular embodiment, a method provides exchanging data packets with a wireless network over a wireless traffic channel assigned to a wireless device. The method further provides monitoring control communications from the wireless network over a wireless control channel and adjusting a control channel timer that indicates a time period that the wireless device should continue to monitor the control communications based on a level of control communication traffic. The method further provides releasing the assigned traffic channel in response to the expiration of a dormancy timer. In response to the release of the traffic channel, the method provides starting the control channel timer. In response to the expiration of the control channel timer, the method provides stopping the monitoring of the control communication traffic. |
| US08830847B1 |
Determining path stability using source routed packets in wireless networks
A system for determining path stability using source routed packets in a wireless network comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to select a source route on which to send one or more probing packets, wherein the source route includes a path between a first node and a second node and calculate a stability of the path based at least in part on a success or a failure location of each of the one or more probing packets. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide instructions to the processor. |
| US08830844B2 |
Delaying network reselection following performance of a circuit switched fallback procedure in a call failure scenario
A method for delaying network reselection by a wireless communication device following a call failure is provided. The method can include determining an initiation of a voice call while connected to a first network. The method can further include participating in a circuit switched fallback (CSFB) procedure to transition from the first network to a second network in response to initiation of the voice call. The method can additionally include determining an occurrence of a call failure of the voice call. The method can also include, responsive to the call failure, barring reselection to the first network for a threshold barring period. |
| US08830841B1 |
Operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM) processing engine
A multi-stage engine for processing Operations, Administration, and Maintenance (OAM) data units in a network device that includes a memory and an ingress interface from which an OAM data unit is received, includes a first processing stage in a network device, such that the first processing engine is configured to identify a flow of communication traffic to which the OAM data unit belongs, where the flow of communication traffic is identified from among a plurality of flows of communicate traffic received by the network device, and a second processing stage includes an action identification module to identify in the memory an action corresponding to the identified flow using the OAM data unit, and a processing module to process the OAM data unit in accordance with the identified action. |
| US08830840B1 |
Network search methods and systems
Methods, systems, devices and computer program code products for enabling searches of digital communications network traffic to identify information transmitted by, received by, or exchanged with a given human or non-human entity, include, or include elements for, translating Pcap files or streams of IP network packets obtained from the network into a scalable form suitable for query by search engine functionality, thereby to enable scalable, text-based search of network information contained in the Pcap files, and providing scalable search engine functionality to enable a user to execute text-based searches on textual or human relationship-identifying information derived from the Pcap files or streams of IP network packets, thereby to identify information transmitted by, received by, or exchanged with the given human or non-human entity, wherein the scalable search engine functionality is capable of scaling to search massive quantities of Pcap file or IP network packet data. |
| US08830838B2 |
Node interface indicators
Techniques described herein provide for sending data packets from source to destination nodes. Indicators, such as counters, may determine the configuration of node interfaces. The data packets may be sent based on a comparison of current and stored indicators. |
| US08830837B2 |
Dynamic synchronized scheduling in a computer network
In one embodiment, a receiving node in a computer network may detect congestion, and also identifies a set (e.g., subset) of its neighbor nodes. In response to the congestion, the receiving node may assign a transmission timeslot to each neighbor node of the set based on the congestion, where each neighbor is allowed to transmit (synchronously) only during its respective timeslot. The assigned timeslots may then be transmitted to the set of neighbor nodes. In another embodiment, a transmitting node (e.g., a neighbor node of the receiving node) may receive a scheduling packet from the receiving node. Accordingly, the transmitting node may determine its assigned transmission timeslot during which the transmitting node is allowed to transmit. As such, the transmitting node may then transmit packets only during the assigned timeslot (e.g., for a given time). In this manner, congestion at the receiving node may be reduced. |
| US08830835B2 |
Generating flows for managed interconnection switches
A network controller for managing a set of interconnection switching elements that connect segmented networks to a shared physical interconnection network. The network controller includes i) an interface for receiving a logical control plane definition of a logical switching element that couples to a set of network segments at different segmented networks; ii) a control application for translating the logical control plane definition of the logical switching element into a first set of flow entries in a logical forwarding plane; and iii) a virtualization application for translating the first set of flow entries into a second set of flow entries in a physical control plane. The flow entries in the physical control plane are for subsequent conversion by the managed interconnection switching elements into a third set of flow entries in a physical forwarding plane that directs the forwarding of network data by the managed interconnection switching elements. |
| US08830834B2 |
Overlay-based packet steering
Network topology independent service deployment techniques, referred to as overlay-based packet steering techniques, are provided. In one example, a server destined packet is intercepted by an in-path network device enabled as a service classifier. The service classifier encapsulates the packet and inserts the packet into a service path to a service virtualization endpoint front ending one or more service nodes. In other words, the service virtualization endpoint receives the service-directed packet on an overlay-based service path. The service-directed packet includes a service header and a service overlay tunnel encapsulation. The service virtualization endpoint inspects the service header in the service-directed packet to identify a first service node to which the service-directed packet should be forwarded and, based on the inspection, forwards the service-directed packet, on the overlay-based service path, to the first service node. |
| US08830833B2 |
System and method for determining a state of a network service
A system and method for determining a state of a network service. Frames per second at an interface are measured to determine congestion. An effective throughput at the interface is measured to determine the congestion. An average packet size for a number of frames communicated through the interface is determined. The state for the network service is determined in response to the congestion and the average packet size. The state indicates whether the SLA is violated. A throughput rate communicated through the interface is adjusted in response to the state. |
| US08830830B2 |
Bandwidth management in an advanced metering infrastructure
In a network environment, a node may measure and/or recognize network activity or congestion and send feedback to downstream nodes (i.e., higher rank nodes) in response. During periods of lower network activity, lower congestion and/or lower network load, the feedback may direct an upstream flow of packets to be transmitted at a quality of service (QoS) level that allows consumption of more bandwidth than is indicated by a QoS level associated with a service level agreement (SLA) of the upstream flow of packets. During periods of higher network activity, congestion and/or network load, the feedback may limit the upstream flow of packets to the QoS level associated with the SLA of the upstream flow of packets. Accordingly, an upstream node (e.g., a root node) may use feedback to regulate bandwidth used by one or more downstream nodes and/or flows of packets, in part using network activity, congestion and/or bandwidth availability. |
| US08830823B2 |
Distributed control platform for large-scale production networks
Some embodiments provide a program that monitors several network controllers in a network. Each network controller manages a logical data path set that is implemented across several managed switching elements. The program detects that a first network controller in the several network controllers has failed. The program selects a second network controller in the several network controllers to manage the logical data path set managed by the first network controller. |
| US08830822B2 |
Techniques for determining local repair connections
Techniques for configuring a local repair connection for a protected connection including determining a path for the local repair connection. The path traversed by a local repair connection starts at a node in the path associated with the protected connection and ends at a merge point node in the path associated with the protected connection that is downstream from the start node. In one embodiment, the merge point node may even be more than two hops downstream from the start node in the path associated with the protected connection. The local repair path may include zero or more nodes that are not included in the path associated with the protected connection. Techniques are also described for optimizing the path associated with a local repair connection. |
| US08830817B2 |
Apparatus of multiplexing data transmission path for wireless sensor network
The present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for multiplexing a sync node and a gateway of a wireless sensor network, which is capable of allowing communication of the wireless sensor network to be normally performed by multiplexing paths of the sync node and the gateway of the wireless sensor network even in the case where any one of the sync node and the gateway abnormally operates and by transmitting upstream data and downstream data through a path selected among the duplexed paths according to characteristics of the wireless sensor network. |
| US08830815B2 |
Preamble design for television white space transmissions
A method for generating a Physical Layer Convergence Protocol Packet Data Unit (PPDU) having a preamble and a payload for television white space transmission (TVWS) is provided. The symbols of the PPDU each include 128 total (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) OFDM tones or 256 total OFDM tones. The preamble includes a signal (SIG) field symbol having 108 OFDM data tones if the symbols of the PPDU include 128 total OFDM tones or having 234 OFDM data tones if the symbols of the PPDU include 256 total OFDM tones. The SIG field symbol indicates at least one of an amount of data in the payload or a length of time that the PPDU will occupy the television broadcast frequency spectrum. The PPDU is generated by down-clocking an 802.11ac signal by a factor so that the bandwidth of the PPDU decreases down to one appropriate for use in a TVWS channel. |
| US08830813B1 |
Scalable space-frequency coding for MIMO systems
Systems, devices, and techniques for MIMO (Multiple-In-Multiple-Out) based space-frequency coding can include, in at least some implementations, techniques that include selecting a spatial multiplexing rate M for a transmission of data via two or more antennas, the data comprising N data streams, applying a first mapping to map the N data streams to a first portion of the antennas for a first data tone; and applying a different second mapping to map the N data streams to a different second portion of the antennas for a second data tone. |
| US08830812B2 |
Optimizing precoder settings using average SINR reports for groups of tones
Techniques are disclosed for compensating for crosstalk using adaptation of data signals transmitted over respective channels of a communication network. In one example, a method comprises the following steps. Data is transmitted to a communication network device via a communication line during a sequence of periods. For each period of the sequence of periods, a separate value of a measure of crosstalk that was measured at the communication network device is received, each value being an average of measurements at the device of measures of crosstalk for a plurality of communication network signal subcarriers. For each individual signal subcarrier of the plurality, a matrix is updated based on the received values, the matrix being configured to precode data transmissions to the communication network device over the individual signal subcarrier. The communication network may be a DSL system, the signal subcarriers may be DSL tones, and the measure of crosstalk may be a SINR value. |
| US08830810B2 |
Holographic optical pickup device, optical information recording and reproducing device, and method of recording and reproducing optical information
A holographic optical pickup device includes an image sensor that detects a diffracted beam generated from the region to be reproduced when irradiating an optical information recording medium with a reference beam, and sets the detected diffraction beam as a reproduction signal, and a photodetector that is different from the image sensor, which detects the diffracted beam generated from a recorded region in the recording medium when irradiating the recording medium with the reference beam. A light receiver of the photodetector is divided into a plurality of light receiving planes so as to generate the position error signal indicating the positional shifting of the region to be recorded/reproduced of the recording medium with respect to the objective lens from a differential signal of a plurality of signals derived from the respective light receiving planes. |
| US08830809B2 |
Optical information recording device
An optical information recording/reproduction device includes a detection unit which detects a focus-direction height of a recording medium, a focus adjustment unit which adjusts a focus-direction distance between the recording medium and a signal light optical system and a reference light system, and a control unit which controls the focus adjustment unit so that a relative distance between the object lens of the signal light optical system and the recording medium is adjusted according to the focus-direction height of the recording medium detected by the detection unit. |
| US08830808B1 |
Method and apparatus for zero offset and gain start
Aspects of the disclosure provide a signal processing circuit. The signal processing circuit includes a processing path and a zero-start module. The processing path is configured to process an electrical signal that is generated in response to reading data on a storage medium. The data includes at least a first field and a second field. The electrical signal has a first profile corresponding to the first field and has a second profile corresponding to the second field. The zero-start module is configured to detect a field change from the first field to the second field, and control the processing path to add a compensation as a function of a profile change from the first profile to the second profile to keep the processed electrical signal to have a predetermined profile in response to the detected field change. |
| US08830806B2 |
Optical disc with a theft deterrent coating
An optical disc used for storing content includes a theft control area selected to render the disc unreadable. The disc must be exposed to radiation of a specific wavelength before it can be read by a regular device. The theft control area may include an area that contains data that instructs the device not to read the disc. This area includes a coating that changes its optical characteristics when exposed to the radiation. The material could be radiochromic or thermochromic. Alternatively, the theft control area includes an RFID device that includes an element that is radiation sensitive. In this embodiment, when the disc is irradiated, the element changes its electrical characteristics. |
| US08830805B2 |
Optical disc and optical disc device
In a multilayer optical disc having information layers conforming to a plurality of different optical disc standards, because the type of each information layer is not recorded in the other information layers, in read and write operations by a compatible optical disc device conforming to a plurality of optical disc standards, every time the information layer being accessed changes, it has been necessary to read the type of the information layer and select a method of generating a tracking error signal adapted to the type of information layer, so access has taken time. In order to solve the above problem, in the optical multilayer disc according to the present invention, having information layers conforming to a plurality of different optical disc standards, in an area in one of the information layers, information about the other information layers is recorded. The time required to access the other information layers can be reduced by using this information to select a tracking error signal generating method. |
| US08830801B2 |
Near-field light device, recording apparatus using the same, and recording method
A recording apparatus records information onto a recording medium. The recording apparatus is provided with: a near-field light device; and a control unit for controlling the near-field light device. The near-field light device is provided with: a light source; a quantum dot structure which is laminated on the light source; a plurality of quantity dots which are included in the quantity dot structure and each of which generates near-field light on the basis of light emitted from the light source; and an output end which is configured to output at least one portion of energy of the near-field light to the exterior of the quantity dot structure. The control unit of the recording apparatus controls the light source to emit the light upon recording the information, thereby increasing temperature of a region of the recording medium based on a size of the output end. |
| US08830799B1 |
Near-field light generator and thermally-assisted magnetic recording head
A near-field light generator includes a multilayer structure having a front end face. The multilayer structure includes a first dielectric layer, a second dielectric layer, a third dielectric layer, a first metal layer, and a second metal layer. The first metal layer is interposed between the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer. The second metal layer is interposed between the second dielectric layer and the third dielectric layer. Each of the first to third dielectric layers and the first and second metal layers has an end located in the front end face. The dielectric material used to form the first dielectric layer, the dielectric material used to form the second dielectric layer, and the dielectric material used to form the third dielectric layer have the same permittivity. |
| US08830795B2 |
Apparatus for tracking time for contact lenses
An apparatus for tracking time for contact lenses is provided. The timer is configured to track a time that one or more contact lenses have been stored in a contact lens case. A securing mechanism is configured to secure the timer to a cap of the contact lens case. |
| US08830791B2 |
Measurement of 3D coordinates of transmitter
Implementations and techniques for measuring 3D coordinates of a transmitter using a receiver and a reflector are generally disclosed. The receiver may be attached asymmetrically to the reflector. |
| US08830789B2 |
Apparatus and method for imaging a subsurface using accumulated energy of wavefield
Provided is an apparatus of imaging a subsurface of a target area. The apparatus includes: an observed wavefield acquiring unit configured to acquire an observed wavefield for a target area based on seismic data; a parameter storage configured to store a characteristic parameter for the target area; a modeled wavefield creator configured to create a modeled wavefield corresponding to the observed wavefield using the characteristic parameter stored in the parameter storage; an energy calculator configured to calculate accumulated energies of the observed wavefield and the modeled wavefield, wherein the accumulated energies are defined as energies accumulated over time with respect to the observed wavefield and the modeled wavefield; and a parameter updating unit configured to update the characteristic parameter stored in the parameter storage such that a difference between the accumulated energy of the observed wavefield and the accumulated energy of the modeled wavefield is minimized. |
| US08830788B2 |
Sensitivity kernal-based migration velocity analysis in 3D anisotropic media
Seismic imaging systems and methods that employ sensitivity kernel-based migration velocity analysis in 3D anisotropic media may demonstrate increased stability and accuracy. Survey data analysts employing the disclosed systems and methods are expected to provide better images of the subsurface and be better able to identify reservoirs and deposits for commercial exploitation. Certain embodiments migrate seismic survey data with an anisotropic velocity model to obtain common angle image gathers. These gathers are processed to obtain depth residuals along one or more horizons. Angle-domain sensitivity kernels are used to convert the depth residuals into velocity errors, which are then used to refine the velocity model. A user is then able to view a representation of the subsurface structure determined in part from the refined velocity model. Multiple iterations may be needed for the velocity model to converge. The velocity model may be a layered to have constant velocity values between formation boundaries. |
| US08830787B2 |
Resonance method for measuring the electroacoustic constant and permeability of rock formations
Disclosed is a method for estimating a property of an earth formation penetrated by a borehole. The method includes: transmitting acoustic waves into the formation from an acoustic source disposed in the borehole and away from a wall of the borehole; generating radial acoustic eigenwaves within a space between the wall of the borehole and the acoustic source using the transmitted acoustic waves; receiving an acoustic signal with an acoustic receiver disposed at the wall of the borehole; sensing an electric field signal with an electric field sensor disposed at the wall of the borehole; and estimating the property using the received acoustic signal and the sensed electric field signal. |
| US08830785B2 |
Semiconductor memory apparatus
A semiconductor memory apparatus comprises first and second memory blocks each comprising semiconductor elements coupled to first and second local line groups, a first switching circuit configured to couple a first global line group to the first local line group of the first memory block in response to a block selection signal, a second switching circuit configured to couple a second global line group to the second local line groups of the first and second memory blocks in response to the block selection signal, and a third switching circuit configured to couple the first global line group to the first local line group of the second memory block in response to the block selection signal. |
| US08830783B2 |
Improving read stability of a semiconductor memory
A semiconductor memory storage device is disclosed. The memory comprises a plurality of storage cells for storing data each storage cell comprising an access control device for providing the storage cell with access to or isolation from a data access port in response to an access control signal, access control circuitry for transmitting the access control signal along an access control line to control a plurality of the access control devices connected to the access control line. The access control circuitry responds to a data access request signal by increasing a voltage level supplied to the access control line to a first voltage level at a first average rate and then in response to receipt of a further signal increasing the voltage level supplied to the access control line to the predetermined higher voltage level, in such a way that a further average rate of increase of the voltage level from the first to the predetermined higher voltage level is lower than the first average rate of increase to the first level. |
| US08830780B2 |
System and method of performing power on reset for memory array circuits
The disclosure relates to an apparatus for deactivating one or more predecoded address lines of a memory circuit in response to one or more of the predecoded address lines being activated upon powering on of at least a portion of the apparatus. In particular, the apparatus includes a memory device; an address predecoder configured to activate one or more of a plurality of predecoded address lines based on an input address, wherein the plurality of predecoded address lines are coupled to the memory device for accessing one or more memory cells associated with the one or more activated predecoded address lines; and a power-on-reset circuit configured to deactivate one or more of the predecoded address lines in response to the one or more of the predecoded address lines being activated upon powering on the at least portion of the apparatus. |
| US08830779B1 |
Low voltage fuse-based memory with high voltage sense amplifier
A fuse-based memory includes a plurality of bit lines. Each bit lines couples to a corresponding plurality of fuses. The fuses couple to ground through corresponding access transistors. The memory is configured to precharge an accessed one of the bit lines and a reference one of the bit lines using a low voltage supply. In contrast, a resulting voltage difference between the accessed bit line and the reference bit line is sensed using a sense amplifier powered by a high voltage supply, wherein a high voltage supplied by the high power supply is greater than a low voltage supplied by the low voltage supply. |
| US08830773B2 |
Semiconductor device having compensation capacitance
Disclosed herein is a device that includes: first and second memory mats each including a plurality of bit lines; a sense area arranged between the first and second memory mats; a column selection line provided on the first memory mat; and a compensation capacitance provided on the second memory mat. The sense area includes a plurality of sense amplifiers. Each of the sense amplifiers is connected to an associated one or ones of the bit lines. At least one of the sense amplifiers is selected based on a column selection signal supplied via the column selection line. At least a part of the compensation capacitance is formed in a same wiring layer as the column selection line. |
| US08830772B2 |
Sense amplifier circuit
A sense amplifier (100) includes first and second inverters (112 and 113). The first inverter has an input terminal (116) and an OUT_B output node and a first transistor (124). The second inverter (113) has an input terminal (115) and an OUT output node and a second transistor (125). The OUT_B output node of the first inverter is coupled to an input terminal of the second inverter, and the OUT node of the second inverter is coupled to an input terminal of the first inverter. The sense amplifier does not use a reference current; therefore, the sense amplifier does not need a reference current generator. The sense amplifier needs only one enable signal to reset a latch (110) of the sense amplifier. When coupled to a non-volatile memory element, voltages at the output nodes are indicative of a logic level of a bit stored in the non-volatile memory element. |
| US08830766B2 |
Margin free PVT tolerant fast self-timed sense amplifier reset circuit
In described embodiments, a circuit for providing a margin free PVT tolerant fast self-timed sense amplifier reset includes a sense amplifier coupled between a complementary pair of first and second bitlines in a memory cell, a first and second PMOS drivers connected to internal nodes of the sense amplifier, respectively, and outputting a first and second output signals, wherein the second output signal is inverted by an inverter to form an inverted output signal, a read detect block receiving the first and inverted output signals and generating a transition detect signal that is latched by a cross-coupled inverters and employed to generate a sense amplifier enable signal with a global sense amplifier enable signal, and a push-pull logic formed by a NMOS and a PMOS in series to generate an output of the circuit. |
| US08830764B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and data erase method thereof
A semiconductor memory device includes: a plurality of memory cells coupled in series between a bit line and a source line; and a bit line control voltage supply unit configured to provide a control voltage to the bit line according to an operation mode, wherein the bit line control voltage supply unit provides a control voltage having a ground voltage level to the bit line during a soft programming operation. |
| US08830762B2 |
Methods, devices, and systems for dealing with threshold voltage change in memory devices
The present disclosure includes methods, devices, and systems for dealing with threshold voltage change in memory devices. A number of embodiments include an array of memory cells and control circuitry having sense circuitry coupled to the array. The control circuitry is configured to determine changes in threshold voltages (Vts) associated with the memory cells without using a reference cell, and adjust the sense circuitry based on the determined changes and without using a reference cell. |
| US08830760B2 |
Semiconductor storage device
A memory includes memory cells and a sense amplifier including a sense node that transmits a voltage according to a current flowing in one of the memory cells and detects logic of data based on the voltage of the sense node. A write sequence of writing data in a selected cell is performed by repeating write loops each including a write stage of writing data in the selected cell and a verify read stage of verifying that the data has been written in the selected cell by performing discharge from the sense node through the selected cell. The sense amplifier changes, according to a logic of data detected at the verify read stage in a first write loop, a period of discharge from the sense node to the selected cell at the verify read stage in a second write loop following the first write loop. |
| US08830757B2 |
Method for operating nonvolatile semiconductor memory device
According to one embodiment, a method for operating a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, the device includes a memory unit having a memory string, and a control unit. The memory string includes a plurality of transistors and has a first group being part of the transistors, a adjusting transistor connected next to the first group, and a second group including transistors connected to a side opposite the first group with respect to the adjusting transistor. The method includes rewriting the threshold values of the transistors of the first group, and then performing control so as to set a first threshold value for adjustment to the adjusting transistor to adjust an amount corresponding to relative variations in the threshold values of the transistors of the second group, the relative variations being caused by the rewrite of the threshold values of the transistors of the first group. |
| US08830752B2 |
Dynamically configurable MLC state assignment
Memory devices facilitating a data conditioning scheme for multilevel memory cells. For example, one such memory device is capable of inverting the lower page bit values of a complete page of MLC memory cells when a count of the lower page data values is equal to or greater than a particular value or a comparison of current levels compared with a reference current level is equal to or exceeds some threshold condition. |
| US08830751B2 |
Semiconductor memory device
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a memory cells, a selection transistor, a memory string, a block, and a transfer circuit. The memory cells are stacked on a semiconductor substrate. In the memory string, the memory cells and the selection transistor are connected in series. The block includes a plurality of memory strings. In data write and read, the transfer circuit transfers a positive voltage to a select gate line associated with a selected memory string in a selected block, and a negative voltage to a select gate line associated with an unselected memory string in the selected block, and to a select gate line associated with an unselected block. |
| US08830750B1 |
Data reading method, and control circuit, memory module and memory storage apparatus using the same
A data reading method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module is provided. The method includes determining a corresponding read voltage based on a critical voltage distribution of memory cells of a word line. The method further includes: if the critical voltage distribution of the memory cells is a right-offset distribution, applying a set of right adjustment read voltage to the word line to read a plurality of bit data as corresponding soft values; and decoding the corresponding soft values to obtain page data stored in the memory cells. Herein, the set of right adjustment read voltage includes a plurality of positive adjustment read voltages and a plurality of negative adjustment read voltages and the number of the positive adjustment read voltages is more than the number of the negative adjustment read voltages. Accordingly, storage states of the memory cells can be identified correctly. |
| US08830749B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method for controlling the same
A semiconductor memory device capable of reducing the size of a NAND flash memory device includes a latch unit configured to store a bad block address, a comparator configured to compare the bad block address with an access address so as to output a bad-block detection signal, and a bad block controller configured to sequentially output a plurality of bad block pulses corresponding to the bad-block detection signal during a predetermined period in response to a plurality of bad-block flag signals that are sequentially activated. |
| US08830748B2 |
Methods and apparatus for soft data generation for memory devices
Methods and apparatus are provided for soft data generation for memory devices. At least one soft data value is generated for a memory device, by obtaining at least one hard read value; and generating the soft data value associated with the at least one hard read value based on statistics for reading the hard read value. The hard read value may be one or more of data bits, voltage levels, current levels and resistance levels. The generated soft data value may be one or more of (i) a soft read value that is used to generate one or more log likelihood ratios, and (ii) one or more log likelihood ratios. The statistics comprise one or more of bit-based statistics and cell-based statistics. The statistics may also optionally comprise pattern-dependent disturbance of at least one aggressor cell on the target cell, as well as location-specific statistics. At least one soft data value can be generated for a memory device, by obtaining a soft read value; and generating the soft data value associated with the soft read value based on statistics for reading the soft read value, wherein the statistics comprise one or more of location-specific statistics and pattern-dependent statistics. |
| US08830747B2 |
Off-die charge pump that supplies multiple flash devices
A system and method for storing data uses multiple flash memory dies. Each flash memory die includes multiple flash memory cells. A charge pump is adapted to supply charge at a predetermined voltage to each flash memory die of the flash memory dies, and an interface is adapted to receive instructions for controlling the charge pump. |
| US08830746B2 |
Optimized threshold search in analog memory cells using separator pages of the same type as read pages
A method includes reading a group of analog memory cells using first explicit read thresholds, to produce first readout results. The group is re-read using second explicit read thresholds, to produce second readout results. The group is read using one or more sets of auxiliary thresholds so as to produce auxiliary readout results, such that the number of the auxiliary thresholds in each set is the same as the number of the first explicit read thresholds and the same as the number of the second explicit read thresholds. A readout performance of third read thresholds, which include at least one of the first explicit read thresholds and at least one of the second explicit read thresholds, is evaluated using the first, second and auxiliary readout results. |
| US08830743B2 |
Method of operating memory controller, memory controller, memory device and memory system
A method of operating a memory controller, a memory controller, a memory device and a memory system are provided. The method includes reading first data from a nonvolatile memory device using a first read voltage, the first data includes a uncorrectable error bit, reading second data from a nonvolatile memory device using a second read voltage different from the first read voltage, the second data includes an correctable error bit, and reprogramming the nonvolatile memory device according to the comparison result of the first read voltage and the second read voltage. |
| US08830741B1 |
Phase change memory with flexible time-based cell decoding
Methods and systems for time-based cell decoding for PCM memory. Generally, the higher the PCM element resistance, the longer it takes for a read output to change state. PCM memory output is determined using differentiated timings of read outputs changing state, rather than differentiated values of read outputs. In some single-bit single-ended sensing embodiments, a reference, with resistance between the resistances corresponding to a pair of adjacent logical states, is stored in multiple reference cells; a “vote” unit emits a clock signal when a majority of the reference cell read outputs transition at the vote unit. Timing units produce different binary outputs depending on whether a data read output or the clock signal changes state first at the timing unit. Time-based decoding provides advantages including improved temperature and drift resilience, improved state discrimination, improved reliability of multibit PCM, and fast and reliable sensing. |
| US08830739B2 |
Non-volatile memory device having multi-level cells and method of forming the same
A non-volatile memory device including multi-level cells is provided. The device includes first and second conductive patterns. Additionally, the device includes an electrode structure and a data storage pattern between the first and second conductive patterns. The data storage pattern may include a phase change material and a first vertical thickness of a first portion of the data storage pattern may be less than a second vertical thickness of a second portion of the data storage pattern. The electrode structure may include first and second electrodes and a vertical thickness of the first electrode may be greater than that of the second electrode. |
| US08830737B2 |
Method and apparatus for sensing the state of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ)
A method of measuring the resistance of a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) is performed by selecting the MTJ to be measured, the MTJ having a resistance associated therewith and coupled to an access transistor. Further, measuring a voltage at an end of the MTJ that is coupled to the access transistor and measuring voltage, V0, at the coupling of the selected MTJ and the associated access transistor, turning off a decoder that is coupled to the MTJ, and after applying current, measuring the applied current and using the measured applied current to determine the resistance of the MTJ. |
| US08830729B2 |
Resistive memory apparatus
A resistive memory apparatus includes a sensing voltage generation unit and a memory cell. The sensing voltage generation unit configured to drive a sensing node to a voltage with a predetermined level in response to a reference voltage and a voltage of the sensing node. The memory cell is connected with the sensing node and configured to change a magnitude of current flowing through the sensing node according to a resistance value thereof. |
| US08830727B2 |
Multi-level memory cell with continuously tunable switching
The present disclosure provides a data storage device that includes multi-level memory cells. The data storage device may include circuitry configured to write data to the multi-level memory cell. The write circuitry may include compliance circuitry configured to implement continuously tunable switching. The write circuitry may be configured to select a compliance mode for the switching, the compliance mode being selected from the group comprising current compliance and voltage compliance. |
| US08830725B2 |
Low temperature BEOL compatible diode having high voltage margins for use in large arrays of electronic components
A crystalline semiconductor Schottky barrier-like diode sandwiched between two conducting electrodes is in series with a memory element, a word line and a bit line, wherein the setup provides voltage margins greater than 1V and current densities greater than 5×106 A/cm2. This Schottky barrier-like diode can be fabricated under conditions compatible with low-temperature BEOL semiconductor processing, can supply high currents at low voltages, exhibits high on-off ratios, and enables large memory arrays. |
| US08830724B2 |
Methods of operating PRAMS using initial programmed resistances and PRAMS using the same
A method of operating a PRAM device includes reading a PRAM reference cell to determine an initial programmed resistance of the PRAM reference cell and determining whether the initial programmed resistance has been reduced to below a predetermined reference threshold resistance. |
| US08830722B2 |
Methods, apparatuses, and circuits for programming a memory device
Subject matter described pertains to methods, apparatuses, and circuits for programming a memory device. |
| US08830716B2 |
Intelligent far memory bandwith scaling
Memory bandwidth management. In a two-level memory (2LM) system far memory bandwidth utilization at least a far memory is monitored and the available far memory bandwidth availability is dynamically modified based on monitored far memory bandwidth utilization. The operational state of at least one processing core is dynamically modified in response to modification of available far memory bandwidth. |
| US08830715B2 |
Semiconductor memory device including vertical channel transistors
A semiconductor memory device is disclosed. The semiconductor memory device includes a memory array block, a first word line and a second word line. The memory array block includes a plurality of adjacent columns of memory cells, each column of memory cells including a plurality of consecutive memory cells having a plurality of respective consecutive cell transistors that comprise at least a first group of cell transistors and a second group of cell transistors. The first word line is disposed above the plurality of respective consecutive cell transistors and electrically connected to the first group of cell transistors, and the second word line is disposed below the plurality of respective consecutive cell transistors and electrically connected to the second group of cell transistors. |
| US08830714B2 |
High speed large scale dictionary matching
A mechanism is provided for dictionary matching. The mechanism loads a plurality of dictionary memory arrays with a set of dictionary words and updates a plurality of status arrays. Each status array of the plurality of status arrays corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of dictionary memory arrays. Each entry of a given status array stores a status bit, which indicates whether a corresponding entry of the corresponding dictionary memory array stores a valid dictionary word. The mechanism receives an input data word and generates a hash value based on the input data word. The mechanism reads a dictionary word from each of the dictionary memory arrays and a status bit from each of the status arrays using the hash value as a read address. The mechanism determines whether a dictionary memory array within the plurality of dictionary memory arrays stores a valid dictionary word that matches the input data word. |
| US08830711B2 |
Hybrid switch for resonant power converters
A hybrid switch comprising two semiconductor switches connected in parallel but having different voltage drop characteristics as a function of current facilitates attainment of zero voltage switching and reduces conduction losses to complement reduction of switching losses achieved through zero voltage switching in power converters such as high-current inverters. |
| US08830710B2 |
RF energy recovery system
An energy recovery system is provided that can be used in place of a resistive termination. The energy recovery system can simulate the behavior and performance of a resistive termination, while recovering at least some of the energy that would otherwise have been dissipated within the termination. In one embodiment, the energy recovery system includes a rectification system having a plurality of tuned rectifier circuits and an RF input network to provide input power distribution to the plurality of tuned rectifier circuits and input impedance shaping to shape the collective input impedance of the plurality of tuned rectifier circuits as seen at the RF input port of the RF input network. |
| US08830706B2 |
Soft-start circuit
Provided is a soft-start circuit which is capable of reducing the current consumption after the output of a switching power supply apparatus having been raised. It comprises a soft-start generation unit 30 for generating a soft-start voltage Vss gradually raised from 0V by charging an external capacitor Css connected thereto; a power supply unit 20 for detecting the termination of a soft-start for supplying power to the soft-start generation unit 30; and a power supply judgment unit 40 for causing the supply of power from the power supply unit 20 to the soft-start generation unit 30 to be shut down. The power supply judgment unit 40 causes the supply of power from the power supply unit 20 to the soft-start generation unit 30 to be shut down after the soft-start voltage Vss having reached the reference voltage Vref. |
| US08830702B2 |
Semi resonant switching regulator, power factor control and LED lighting
Described are improvements in power factor control and systems embodying said improved power factor control. Improvements lie in a method of zero voltage switching in which a capacitor is placed in parallel with a switching device, and the switching device is operated responsive to a change in the polarity of the current through the capacitor. Switching therefore occurs at zero or close to zero voltage across the switching device in both on and off modes resulting in very low switching losses and electromagnetic interference. Systems employing the method include a power factor controller, LED light source, boost converter and a power source comprising one or more photovoltaic cells. |
| US08830698B2 |
Methods and devices for reducing communication and power signal leakages from filter assemblies
Novel assemblies for use in conjunction with RF shielded enclosures and the like include one or more RF power and signal filters connectibly inserted, attached to, or otherwise made a part of optimized cavities or receptacles formed within an optimized frame of the assembly. The use of optimized cavities or receptacles greatly reduces the number of exterior fasteners needed to connect filters to the assembly or the assembly to an enclosure which, in turn, reduces leakage. The optimized cavities or receptacles may be arranged in a compact manner in order to make optimum use of the available space on an optimized frame of the assembly. |
| US08830697B2 |
Ground structure of connector for portable terminal
A ground apparatus for connecting components for a portable terminal suppresses the occurrence of noise by grounding a connector. The ground apparatus includes a connector engaging portion at one side of a main board. A connector that includes a grounding portion is inserted into the connector engaging portion. A shield can is disposed to cover at least at part of the main board. The shield can includes a ground structure formed at the connector engaging portion area to enclose the connector and electrically couple the ground structure with the ground portion of the connector. |
| US08830695B2 |
Encapsulated electronic device
An electronic device includes a substrate (1), an electronic component (2) seated on the substrate (1), and a cover (3) across the electronic component (2) with a space (330) between the cover (3) and the electronic component (2). The cover (3) is configured on an inside (32) facing the electronic component (2) in such fashion that the cover (3) has at least one support structure (4, 40) protruding into the space (330). |
| US08830692B2 |
Ball grid array systems for surface mounting an integrated circuit using a Z-directed printed circuit board component
A printed circuit board according to one example embodiment includes a Z-directed component mounted in a mounting hole in the printed circuit board. The Z-directed component includes a body having a top surface, a bottom surface and a side surface. Four conductive channels extend through a portion of the body along the length of the body. The four conductive channels are spaced substantially equally around a perimeter of the body. An integrated circuit is mounted on a surface of the printed circuit board. The integrated circuit has a ball grid array that includes four conductive balls electrically connected to a corresponding one of the four conductive channels of the Z-directed component. |
| US08830690B2 |
Minimizing plating stub reflections in a chip package using capacitance
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to shifting the resonant frequency in a high-frequency chip package away from an operational frequency by connecting a capacitance between an open-ended plating stub and ground. One embodiment provides a multi-layer substrate for interfacing a chip with a printed circuit board. A first outer layer provides a chip mounting location. A signal interconnect is spaced from the chip mounting location, and a signal trace extends from near the chip mounting location to the signal interconnect. A chip mounted at the chip mounting location may be connected to the signal trace by wirebonding. A plating stub extends from the signal interconnect, such as to a periphery of the substrate. A capacitor is used to capacitively couple the plating stub to a ground layer. |
| US08830689B2 |
Interposer-embedded printed circuit board
Disclosed herein is an interposer-embedded printed circuit board, including: a substrate including a cavity formed in one side thereof and having a predetermined height in a thickness direction of the substrate; an interposer disposed in the cavity and including a wiring region and an insulating region; and a circuit layer formed in the substrate and including a connection pattern connected with one side of the wiring region. The interposer-embedded printed circuit board is advantageous in that an interposer is embedded in a substrate, so that the thickness of a semiconductor package can be reduced, thereby keeping up with the trend of slimming the semiconductor package. |
| US08830685B2 |
Tailorable flexible sheet of monolithically fabricated array of separable cells each comprising a wholly organic, integrated circuit adapted to perform a specific function
A flexible sheet of organic polymer material, may include a monolithically fabricated array of one or more types of cells juxtaposed among them to form a multi-cell sheet. Each cell may include a self consistent, organic base integrated circuit, replicated in each cell of same type of the array, and shares, in common with other cells of same type, at least a conductor layer of either an electrical supply rail of the integrated circuit or of an input/output of the integrated circuit. A piece of the multi-cell, sheet including any number of self consistent integrated circuit cells, may be severed from the multi-cell sheet by cutting the sheet along intercell boundaries or straight lines, with a reduced affect on the operability of any cell spared by the cutting. |
| US08830684B2 |
Cable storage structure of slide components, slide unit, electronic device, and cable storage method
A slide groove (27) is formed between opposed surfaces of an operation component case (11) and a display component case (12) coupled to each other so as to be slidable relative to each other. The slide groove (27) extends in single-layer space parallel to the opposed surfaces and is capable of storing a bundle of ultrafine coaxial cables (33). The slide groove extends portions of the ultrafine coaxial cables that have been drawn from cable holes (24, 28) opened in the opposed surfaces along the same sliding direction and stores the ultrafine coaxial cables in a state in which the ultrafine coaxial cables are curved in a plane direction between the opposed surfaces. The cable holes are opened at positions separated in the sliding direction at the beginning of sliding and at the end of sliding. |
| US08830680B2 |
Systems and methods for heat extraction in a power supply
Power supply and heat sink modules are suitable for use in sealed outdoor enclosures. Circuit elements in the power supply modules are connected to multiple heat sinks. The heat sinks are combined in heat sink modules. The heat sink modules provide high thermal conductivity while avoiding electromagnetic interference. |
| US08830679B2 |
Receptacle heat sink connection
A receptacle including a shield housing and a heat sink. The shield housing has a first side configured to be connected to a printed circuit board. The housing has an aperture for insertion of a plug of a cable assembly. The heat sink is connected to the first side or an opposite second side of the shield housing. The heat sink has a lateral end section which extends along an exterior of a least one lateral side of the shield housing. |
| US08830678B2 |
Heat sink system having thermally conductive rods
A heat sink system to conduct heat away from a printed circuit board assembly is provided. The heat sink system includes a chassis, a chassis cover, at least one thermally conductive block underlaying a high-heat section of the printed circuit board assembly, a plurality of thermally conductive through-rods, and at least one thermally conductive notch-rod associated with a respective thermally conductive block. The at least one thermally conductive block is in thermal contact with a portion of the chassis. The plurality of thermally conductive through-rods and at least one thermally conductive notch-rod each have a first end and a second end. The through-rods are positioned in holes formed in the printed circuit board. The notch-rods are positioned in a notch formed in the printed circuit board assembly. The first ends thermally contact the thermally conductive block and the second ends thermally contact the chassis cover. |
| US08830677B2 |
Engaging structure between a housing and an inflatable element
The present invention is to provide an engaging structure applicable to a display device and including a housing and an inflatable element, wherein the housing serves as a protective case of the display device and is formed with at least one assembly hole, and the inflatable element is formed with at least one connecting portion, such that, when the housing is assembled into an accommodating space of the inflatable element and the inflatable element is fully inflated, the connecting portion is engaged in the corresponding assembly hole. Thus, the portions of the inflatable element that correspond in position to the accommodating space are tightly pressed against the sides of the housing other than the side where a screen is installed at the display device. Since the inflatable element is lightweight and occupies a tiny space while in a deflated state, it will effectively reduce storage space and transportation costs. |
| US08830673B2 |
Server
A server including a chassis, an electronic module, a fan module and a handle is provided. The chassis has a first wedging portion. The electronic module is disposed in the chassis. The fan module is disposed in the chassis and is adjacent to the electronic module. The handle is pivotally connected to the fan module and has a second wedging portion, and the first wedging portion is used for wedging the second wedging portion. When the handle is rotated, the fan module is moved relatively to the first wedging portion for entering or exiting the chassis. |
| US08830671B2 |
Mounting apparatus for data storage device
A mounting apparatus includes a bracket, a cage and a cushion. The bracket includes a mounting plate and two limiting plates located on the mounting plate. The cage is secured to the mounting plate and surrounds the two limiting plates. The cage includes a restricting piece. The two limiting plates are adapted to receive a data storage device. A plurality of cushions are interposed between the two limiting plates and the data storage device, in such manner that the data storage device is held captive in the cage but is protected from external jolts or physical shocks. |
| US08830663B2 |
Apparatus, system, and method for attaching peripheral items to devices
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for attaching accessories to a portable electronic device. A device may be a cellular phone, mp3 player, or other device. An accessory may be an armband, a headphone management system, a stereo system, or other device. The accessories and devices may attach using associated device connector section and accessory connector section. The device connector section may adhere to a protection sheet, which in turn is directly attached to the device. The accessories may be removed when they are no longer in use, and may be swapped for other accessories that can attach to the device. Various embodiments of device connector sections and accessory connector sections can be used to make an appropriately secure connection between the device and accessory. |
| US08830660B2 |
Mechanical power service communicating device and system
A mechanical power communicating device and a modular system of a host and a mechanical power communicating device for communicating a mechanical power service. A first component of the mechanical power communicating device communicates a mechanical power service from host to a second component of the mechanical power communicating device or to a functional device. The mechanical power communicating device may be a functional device, an adapter for coupling a functional device to a host, or a functional unit of an adapter and a functional device. The mechanical power communicating device may include a first component having a first interface connectable to the host, the first component pivotally connected to a second component having a second interface connectable to the functional device. The modular system may include a host having differently oriented mechanical power service interfaces and the mechanical power communicating device. |
| US08830659B2 |
Device for suppressing interference phenomenon between capacitive detection areas of a sensor
The invention relates to a device for suppressing the interference phenomena between several detection areas (A, B) of a capacitive sensor (30) submitted to a humid ambient environment, characterised in that it comprises means for preventing the propagation of humidity (50) between the detection areas (A, B) in order to prevent any capacitive coupling between the different areas. The invention also relates to an opening handle (10) for an automobile. |
| US08830657B2 |
Switchboard and method of manufacturing same
A switchboard for coupling with a structure surface includes a panel box comprising a back wall and at least one sidewall extending from the back wall. The sidewall comprising a front. The switchboard further includes a door panel coupled to the front of the side and a positioning member located in the sidewall. The positioning member comprising a fixed end coupled to the sidewall and a moveable end configured to be positioned to contact the structure surface when the front of the panel box is at a pre-determined distance from the structure surface. |
| US08830654B2 |
Electronic component
An electronic component includes an electronic component body and metal terminals. The electronic component body includes a base member and external electrodes. The base member includes two opposed end surfaces, two opposed side surfaces, and two opposed principal surfaces. The external electrodes are disposed on the end surfaces of the base member. The metal terminals are connected to the external electrodes by bonding with solder. A relationship of about 21≦Vc/Vh≦about 320 is satisfied where Vc is a volume of the electronic component body and Vh is a volume of the solder provided at one of the pairs of the external electrodes and the metal terminals. |
| US08830652B2 |
Humidity resistant electronic components
A capacitor having improved tolerance to humidity. The capacitor includes a packaging material and/or a dielectric material comprising a film having a water vapor transmission rate significantly lower than the dielectric films and/or packaging films used in conventional capacitors. |
| US08830647B2 |
Fault current limiter
A fault current limiter (FCL) for limiting a fault current in a power line during a fault condition. The FCL includes a magnetic coupling circuit for monitoring current in the power line through magnetic coupling; a sensing circuit for sensing the current in the power line and providing a signal indicative of the sensed current; a control circuit receiving the signal indicative of the sensed current in the power line and determining whether the sensed current indicates that the fault condition exists; and high and low impedance paths that are connected in parallel. The high impedance path includes a discharging impedance circuit for limiting the fault current. The low impedance path includes a reactor circuit and a switching unit having an ON state for conducting current through the low impedance path and an OFF state for conducting current through the high impedance path. |
| US08830646B2 |
Protection coordination system
Provided is a protection coordination system. The system includes a current limiter arranged on a line between a first relay and a second relay to limit a fault current generated to within a predetermined scope. |
| US08830643B2 |
Polarity reversal protection unit for vehicle electric systems of motor vehicles
A polarity reversal protection device for motor vehicles has a detection device (10), a first connection element (22) electrically connected to a supply tap (94), a second connection device (24) having the electrical potential of the vehicle body. In case of a polarity reversal, the first connection element (22) is electrically connected to the first connection element (24) via the detector device (10). Further, the reverse polarity protection device is characterized in that a insulating layer (26) is provided between the first connection element (22) and the second connection element (24), that each of the connection elements (22, 24) has at least one receptacle (36, 38) and that the detection device (10) is at least positively engaged in at least one receptacle (36, 38). |
| US08830639B2 |
ESD protection against charge coupling
This document discusses among other things apparatus and methods for reducing ESD damage to buffer circuits. In an example, an output buffer can include an output, a first transistor configured to couple the output to a high logic supply rail, a second transistor configured to couple the output node to a low logic supply rail, pre-driver logic configured to drive a gate of the first transistor and a gate of the second transistor, and a first resistor configured to reduce electrostatic discharge (ESD) induced current between the first transistor and the pre-driver logic. |
| US08830634B2 |
Asymmetric comb bore in actuator design
The present invention generally relates to a head comb for use in a hard disk drive. In one embodiment, the head comb comprises a core body having a bore formed therethrough. The bore is bound by walls having a top extension extending into the opening and a bottom extension extending into the opening. The top extension has a first height, and the bottom extension has a second height that is different than the first height. |
| US08830630B2 |
Magnetic recording medium and magnetic storage apparatus
A magnetic recording medium may include a stacked structure of orientation control, lower recording, intermediate, and upper recording layers. The lower recording layer has a coercivity higher than that of the upper recording layer. The lower recording layer includes a first layer with a granular structure that includes magnetic particles including Co, Cr, and Pt, and an oxide covering a periphery of the magnetic particles, and a second layer with a non-granular structure that includes magnetic particles including Co, Cr, and Pt. The lower recording layer includes columnar crystals continuous with crystal particles forming the orientation control layer in a stacking direction of the stacked structure. |
| US08830628B1 |
Method and system for providing a perpendicular magnetic recording head
A method and system for providing a magnetic recording transducer having a pole are disclosed. The pole has side(s), a bottom, and a top wider than the bottom. The method and system include providing at least one side gap layer that covers the side(s) and the top of the pole. At least one sacrificial layer is provided on the side gap layer(s). The sacrificial layer(s) are wet etchable and cover the side gap layer(s). The magnetic recording transducer is planarized after the sacrificial layer(s) are provided. Thus, a portion of the side gap and sacrificial layer(s) is removed. A remaining portion of the sacrificial layer(s) is thus left. The method and system also include wet etching the sacrificial layer(s) to remove the remaining portion of the sacrificial layer(s). A wrap around shield is provided after the remaining portion of the sacrificial layer(s) is removed. |
| US08830626B2 |
Write pole with shaped box shield
A magnetic element may be generally configured as a data writer constructed at least with a write pole positioned within and separated from a box shield by a write gap. The box shield may be configured to maintain at least a separation distance from a first side of a leading edge of the write pole to an opposite second side of the leading edge. |
| US08830625B2 |
Data writer with tapered side shield sidewalls
A data writer may be generally configured at least with a write pole that has a pole sidewall and a continuous first taper angle connecting leading and trailing edges. The write pole can be positioned adjacent to a side shield that is configured with first and second shield sidewalls tapered to a shield tip that is the closest point between the write pole and side shield. |
| US08830624B2 |
Write pole for recording head
A write pole structure disclosed herein includes a write pole layer, a bottom layer including a beveled surface, and a cap layer between the write pole layer and the bottom layer, wherein the cap layer is made of a material with hardness less than hardness of the write pole layer. |
| US08830623B2 |
Shield structure for reducing the magnetic induction rate of the trailing shield and systems thereof
In one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a main magnetic pole, a trailing shield positioned on a trailing side of the main magnetic pole, a trailing gap positioned between the trailing shield and the main magnetic pole, side shields positioned on either side of the main magnetic pole in a cross-track direction, side gaps positioned between the side shields and the main magnetic pole on either side of the main magnetic pole in the cross-track direction, and trailing shield gaps positioned on either side of the main magnetic pole in the cross-track direction between the trailing shield and the side shields, wherein the trailing shield gaps extend beyond the side gaps in a direction parallel to the cross-track direction. In addition, a method for producing a magnetic head as described above is also disclosed, according to one embodiment. |
| US08830622B1 |
Spindle motor and recording disk driving device having the same
There is provided a spindle motor including a base member formed by firing processing a steel plate and provided with a cylindrical installation part, a shaft support part including a sleeve insertedly disposed in the installation part, a shaft rotatably supported by the shaft support part, a rotor hub fixed to an upper end of the shaft and provided with a driving magnet, and a stator core installation member disposed on the base member so as to be disposed outwardly of the installation part in a radial direction and having a stator core, wherein the stator core installation member includes a body part, an installation wall part extending from an upper surface of the body part and a support part, and the rotor hub is provided with an extending wall extending from a bottom surface thereof to form a labyrinth seal with the installation wall part. |
| US08830621B2 |
Method and apparatus for controlling load operations of a data storage cartridge that has been subjected to a shock event
A removable data storage cartridge has a shock sense indicator attached to its housing. The indicator includes a sensing structure that reacts to a shock event over a specified threshold. The invention indicates a physical shock event upon appropriate inquiry by the reader mechanism. Upon detecting that a shocked data storage cartridge has been loaded into a data storage library, the library and/or data storage drive alerts the operator and/or system administrator and moves the shocked cartridge to a quarantine pool to prevent damage to the data storage drive. |
| US08830618B2 |
Fly height control for hard disk drives
A fly height control circuit includes an input node to receive a digital control signal, an output node to output a control current to a resistive heater element to adjust a spacing between a read/write head and a surface of a storage medium, and control circuitry to process the digital control signal and generate the output control current based on the digital control signal. The control circuitry generates a first reference current based at least in part on the control current output from the output node. The control circuitry controls a slew rate of the first reference current to generate a slew rate controlled reference current. The control circuitry generates a second reference current based on a feedback voltage at the output node. The control circuitry compares the slew rate controlled reference current with the second reference current to adjust the control current output from the output node. |
| US08830617B1 |
Disk drive adjusting state estimator to compensate for unreliable servo data
A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk comprising tracks defined by servo sectors, a head, and control circuitry comprising a servo control system operable to actuate the head over the disk based on the servo sectors. An estimated acceleration EstAccel of the head over the disk is generated based on at least one of the servo sectors. When the EstAccel is determined to be reliable, an estimated velocity EstVel of the head over the disk is generated based on the EstAccel. When the EstAccel is determined to be unreliable, the EstAccel is adjusted to generate an adjusted acceleration AdjAccel and the EstVel of the head over the disk is generated based on the AdjAccel. |
| US08830614B2 |
Balanced embedded contact sensor with low noise architecture
Approaches for a hard-disk drive (HDD) having a balanced resistive temperature detector (RTD). A HDD includes a head slider comprising a single RTD. A read/write IC comprises a balance resistor having the same resistance as the single RTD when the head slider is not in physical contact with the disk. The same amount of current flows through the single RTD and the balance resistor except when the head slider is in physical contact with the disk. Detecting a voltage change across the single RTD enables physical contact between the head slider and the disk to be accurately detected using a circuit with low noise. Alternately, the head slider may include two RTDs connected in sequence, and the balance resistor may possess the same resistance as the two RTDs. The two RTDs may vary inversely with environmental changes to avoid the need to recalibrate the balance resistor after any environmental change. |
| US08830613B2 |
Storage media inter-track interference cancellation
Described embodiments provide a method of cancelling inter-track interference (ITI) from one or more sectors read from a desired track of a storage medium. A read channel reads sectors in a desired track of the storage medium. An iterative decoder of the read channel decodes the read sectors, and if the read sectors are incorrectly recovered from the storage medium, selected sectors of a first adjacent track are read. An ITI canceller of the read channel estimates ITI in the read sectors of the desired track corresponding to the selected sectors of the adjacent track and subtracts the estimated ITI of the adjacent track from the data for the sectors of the desired track, providing updated sector data. The ITI cancelled data is replayed to the iterative decoder, which decodes the ITI cancelled data and provides the decoded ITI cancelled data as output data of the read channel. |
| US08830608B2 |
Image display device
An image display device capable of maintaining continuity of images of adjacent image display elements on a display screen that is composed of a plurality of image display element includes image display elements (1, 2) and a prism (3). The prism (3) is an L-shaped prism having two planar surfaces, and image display elements (1, 2,) are arranged on the portion of the prism that corresponds to the rear side as seen from the viewing direction (9). Image display elements (1, 2) are arranged such that the virtual images (5, 6) of the image display portions of each are optically continuously connected in the prism (3). |
| US08830601B2 |
Optical arrangement with temperature compensation for focal length changes
An optical instrument with temperature-related focal length variations compensation mechanism is provided herein. The optical instrument includes: a housing within a bore of the optical instrument, wherein the bore and the housing have each a distal end and a proximal end; a set of lenses located on a common optical axis and affixed within the housing, wherein the set of lenses is associated with a specified focal length for each specified temperature; and a temperature compensation member connecting the distal end of the housing to the distal end of the bore of the optical instrument, wherein the temperature compensation member comprises one or more sections whose thermal expansion coefficient and length along the optical axis are selected such that for a specified range of temperatures, the expansion of the temperature compensation member along the optical axis compensates for a change of the focal length of the lenses. |
| US08830594B1 |
Imaging lens assembly
An imaging lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element and a sixth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface. The second lens element has refractive power. The third lens element has positive refractive power. The fourth lens element with negative refractive power has a concave object-side surface and a convex image-side surface. The fifth lens element with positive refractive power has a convex object-side surface, wherein the surfaces thereof are aspheric. The sixth lens element with refractive power has a convex object-side surface and a concave image-side surface, wherein the surfaces thereof are aspheric, and the sixth lens element has at least one inflection point on at least one of the surfaces thereof. |
| US08830592B2 |
Zoom lens, imaging apparatus, and method for manufacturing zoom lens
A zoom lens including, from an object: a front group having negative power; and a rear group having positive power, the rear group including, from the object, a positive lens, a negative lens having a concave surface facing the object, a cemented positive lens constructed by a negative lens and a positive lens, and a cemented lens constructed by a positive lens and a negative lens, the rear group further including a focusing group disposed to the object side of the positive lens La for focusing from infinity to a close object by moving from the object side to an image side, a distance between the front group and the rear group being varied thereby zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state, and given condition being satisfied, thereby providing a downsized zoom lens having wide angle of view and excellent optical performance with fewer lenses. |
| US08830590B2 |
Unit magnification large-format catadioptric lens for microlithography
A unit magnification Wynn-Dyson lens for microlithography has an image field sized to accommodate between four and six die of dimensions 26 mm×36 mm. The lens has a positive lens group that consists of either three or four refractive lens elements, with one of the lens elements being most mirror-wise and having a prism-wise concave aspheric surface. Protective windows respectively reside between object and image planes and the corresponding prism faces. The lens is corrected for at least the i-line LED wavelength spectrum or similar LED-generated wavelengths. |
| US08830588B1 |
Reflector and cover glass for substrate guided HUD
A display (for example, a head up display (HUD)) includes a substrate waveguide. The substrate waveguide can act as a combiner. The substrate waveguide receives collimated light an input and provides the collimated light to an output. The collimated light travels from the input to the output within the substrate waveguide by total internal reflection. An input diffraction grating is disposed in the first area at the input and an output diffraction grating is disposed in the second area at the output. A plate covers at least a portion of the second area. The plate can protect the diffraction grating and reflect transmitted order light from the diffraction grating to improve efficiency. |
| US08830585B2 |
Optical element, polarization filter, optical isolator, and optical apparatus
An optical element transmits incident light having a particular polarization direction mainly by 0-order transmission and diffracts incident light having a perpendicular polarization direction. The optical element includes a periodic structure having a period equal to or greater than the wavelength of the incident light. The periodic structure includes first and second subwavelength concave-convex structures formed perpendicularly adjacent to each other in each period of the periodic structure. The first and the second subwavelength concave-convex structures have a period less than the wavelength of the incident light. A filling factor and a groove depth of the first and the second subwavelength concave-convex structures are determined such that they have the same effective refraction index with respect to the incident light having the particular polarization direction and a phase difference π with respect to the incident light having the particular polarization direction. |
| US08830584B2 |
Exit pupil expanders with spherical and aspheric substrates
The specification and drawings present a new apparatus and method for using exit pupil expanders (EPE) with spherical or aspheric non-flat substrates and a plurality of diffractive elements for expanding the exit pupil of a display for viewing in order to reduce image spreading. This can also enable improved image resolution and utilization of shorter focus distances. |
| US08830582B2 |
Viewing glasses and image beam adjustment method thereof
A pair of viewing glasses and an image beam adjustment method are provided, wherein the viewing glasses includes a polarizer. The adjustment method includes the following steps. Detect the transmittance of the image beam from the screen passing through the glasses. Generate an operating signal according to the operating period of the viewing glasses, a corresponding value corresponding to the operating period of the viewing glasses, and the transmittance of the image beam, so as to adjust the polarization direction of the image beam before passing through the polarizer. Maintain the operating signal during the operating period of the viewing glasses. |
| US08830580B2 |
Low thermal stress catadioptric imaging optics
Imaging optics having reduced susceptibility to thermally-induced stress birefringence for imaging an object plane to an image plane; comprising an aperture stop positioned between the object plane and the image plane; a first group of optical elements located on the object plane side of the aperture stop; and a second group of optical elements located on the image plane side of the aperture stop. The optical elements in the first and second groups that are immediately adjacent to the aperture stop are refractive lens elements fabricated using optical materials having a negligible susceptibility to thermal stress birefringence, and the other optical elements are a combination of reflective optical elements and refractive lens elements fabricated using optical materials having at most a moderate susceptibility to thermal stress birefringence. |
| US08830578B2 |
Optical isolator element and optical module using the same
An optical isolator 1 element comprises a Faraday rotator 11 that rotates a polarization plane of light; a first polarizer of optical absorption type 12 arranged on one surface side of the Faraday rotator 11, the first polarizer 12 having a layer in which metal particles are distributed; and a second polarizer of optical absorption type 13 arranged on another surface side of the Faraday rotator 11, the second polarizer 13 having a metal particle layer in which metal particles are distributed in a density higher than the density of metal particles distributed in the metal particle layer of the first polarizer 12. The optical isolator 1 makes it possible to reduce a deterioration of isolation caused by occurring a reflected light reflected between the second polarizer 13 and the first polarizer 12. |
| US08830569B2 |
Night vision glasses
Image-intensifying or night vision glasses are suitable for certain commercial and entertainment applications by virtue of their light weight, small size, and economical production, compared to certain other night vision products. In one embodiment, input light passes through two Amici prisms and a field-flattening lens to reach an image intensifier. The intensified image it produces is reflected off a first folding mirror, passes through a lens, reflects off a curved mirror, and passes back through the lens the other way. The intensified image then passes through two additional, non-doublet lenses, between which an intermediate image exists. The intensified image then reflects off the “lens” or visor of the glasses and proceeds to the pupil of the eye of the wearer. Alternative embodiments use a helmet visor, mirror, or other (at least partially) reflective surface for the final reflection. |
| US08830568B2 |
High beam quality and high average power from large-core-size optical-fiber amplifiers
In some embodiments, the present invention provides an apparatus, method and use for improving and merging two existing techniques (core pumping and cladding pumping) to enable high-power fiber-laser systems having excellent beam quality while using large-core (LMA) step-index gain fibers at very high optical power, wherein the core pumping includes mixing a laser seed optical signal (having a signal wavelength) with optical core-pump light (having a core-pump wavelength that is near the signal wavelength) in a manner that matches the modes of the seed optical signal and the pump light. The combined core light is mode matched to the LMA gain fiber. The core-pump light is substantially all absorbed within a short distance from the entry end of the gain fiber and provides a strong pre-amplified signal for later cladding-pumped amplification. In some embodiments, the signal wavelength and the core-pump wavelength are within a single multiplet of a rare-earth dopant. |
| US08830567B2 |
Fiber lasers for producing amplified laser pulses with reduced non-linearity
A chirped-pulsed amplification laser device includes a fiber laser driver, a laser head, and a delivery fiber that guides amplified stretched laser pulses from the laser driver to the laser head. The fiber laser driver includes a seed pulsed laser, a pulse stretcher, and an optical power amplifier. A chirped fiber Bragg grating compressor in the laser head includes a fiber terminal section configured to minimize broadening of the amplified stretched laser pulses, a chirped fiber Bragg grating section connected to the fiber terminal section and configured to compress and reflect amplified stretched laser pulses to produce reflected laser pulses with compressed pulse durations, and a collimator housing configured to fixedly hold a collimator lens and a ferrule. The ferrule holds the fiber terminal section tilted relative to an optical axis of the collimator lens. |
| US08830566B2 |
Multi-channel fiber laser amplifier combining apparatus including integrated spectral beam combination and a tapered fiber bundle having multiple fiber outputs
A fiber laser amplifier system including a plurality of master oscillators each generating a signal beam at a different wavelength. A splitter for each master oscillator splits the signal beam into a plurality of fiber beams to be separately amplified. A separate tapered fiber bundle receives the amplified beam for each master oscillator, where each tapered fiber bundle includes a plurality of input end fibers, a plurality of output end fibers and a center bundle portion, where each input end fiber is coupled to a separate one of the fiber amplifiers, where the bundle portion combines all of the fiber beams received by the input end fibers into a single combined beam and each output end fiber is capable of receiving the combined beam separately from the other output end fibers. A separate optical output channel receives one of the output end fibers from each tapered fiber bundle. |
| US08830561B2 |
Electrophoretic display
The present invention is directed to an electrophoretic display comprising: (a) microcups comprising partition walls and top-openings; (b) an organic-based electrophoretic fluid filled in the microcups, wherein said fluid comprises charged pigment particles dispersed in a solvent; and (c) a top-sealing layer formed from a sealing composition to enclose the electrophoretic fluid within the microcups. The sealing composition comprises: (i) a water soluble polymer, (ii) a water-based suspension, a water-based dispersion, a water-based emulsion, or a water-based latex, each comprising a polymer; and (iii) water. |
| US08830556B2 |
Metamaterials
One exemplary metamaterial is formed from a plurality of individual unit cells, at least a portion of which have a different permeability than others. The plurality of individual unit cells are arranged to provide a metamaterial having a gradient index along at least one axis. Such metamaterials can be used to form lenses, for example. |
| US08830555B2 |
Device and system for reflective digital light processing (DLP)
Aspects of the present invention include systems for reflective digital light processing (DLP). Embodiments include a light source, a plurality of optically reflective switching devices each having an optically reflective layer in contact with a substrate; a circuit means and power source; controller logic; a projection means; and a display means; wherein each of said plurality of devices is a capable of receiving light from said light source and thereafter reflecting said received light in direct response to a reflective state condition of said each device. |
| US08830551B2 |
Actuator, protective cover for actuator, actuator manufacturing method, and optical deflector incorporating actuator, and two dimensional optical scanner and image projector incorporating optical scanner
An actuator is configured of a frame element, a pair of beam elements, a movable element rotatably supported by the frame element via the beam elements, a driver configured to rotate the movable element relative to the frame element around the beam elements as a rotary shaft; and damper elements provided on the rotary axis of the beam elements. |
| US08830550B2 |
Light deflector, method of manufacturing light deflector, and image display device
A light deflector includes: a movable plate; an elastic support section having a first end coupled to the movable plate and adapted to support the movable plate rotatably around a predetermined axis; a support member coupled to a second end of the elastic support section; and a light absorbing section having a light absorbing property, wherein the elastic support section has an upper surface, a lower surface, and at least one side surfaces, each of the side surfaces being formed of one or more tilted surfaces existing outside either one of the upper surface and the lower surface, and the light absorbing section is disposed on the upper surface and the at least one side surfaces of the elastic support section. |