最新美国发明专利第2015-04-28期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

Document	Document Title
US09021267B2	System and method for using digital signatures to assign permissions According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for setting permission levels is described. First, an application and digital signature is received by logic performing the permission assessment. Then, a determination is made as to what permission level for accessing resources is available to the application based on the particulars of the digital signature. Herein, the digital signature being signed with a private key corresponding to a first public key identifies that the application is assigned a first level of permissions, while the digital signature being signed with a private key corresponding to a second public key identifies the application is assigned a second level of permissions having greater access to the resources of an electronic device than provided by the first level of permissions.
US09021266B2	Validation system and verification method including signature device and verification device to verify contents Provided are methods and a validation system that includes a signature device and a verification device for verifying a content. The signature device may generate verification information for each segment of a divided content and may generate signature information to verify the integrity of each segment and whether a corresponding segment is a part of a content. When a segment is received, the verification device may verify integrity of the segment and whether the segment is a part of the content, based on the verification information and the signature value received from the signature device.
US09021260B1	Malware data item analysis Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a data analysis system that may automatically analyze a suspected malware file, or group of files. Automatic analysis of the suspected malware file(s) may include one or more automatic analysis techniques. Automatic analysis of may include production and gathering of various items of information related to the suspected malware file(s) including, for example, calculated hashes, file properties, academic analysis information, file execution information, third-party analysis information, and/or the like. The analysis information may be automatically associated with the suspected malware file(s), and a user interface may be generated in which the various analysis information items are presented to a human analyst such that the analyst may quickly and efficiently evaluate the suspected malware file(s). For example, the analyst may quickly determine one or more characteristics of the suspected malware file(s), whether or not the file(s) is malware, and/or a threat level of the file(s).
US09021256B2	System and methods to perform public key infrastructure (PKI) operations in vehicle networks using one-way communications infrastructure A set of certificate management methods designed to significantly reduce or eliminate reliance on infrastructure network connectivity after vehicles are sold uses techniques to support certificate management operations in order to reduce the frequency which vehicles need to communicate with the Certificate Authorities (CAs) and the amount of data that needs to be exchanged between vehicles and the CA. These methods include, for example, approaches to use one-way communications and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications to replace expired certificates, approaches to use one-way communications and V2V communications to replace revoked certificates, and use of a small subset of vehicles as proxies to help retrieve and distribute Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) and replacement certificates. The combination of these techniques leads to solutions that can eliminate the need for roadside infrastructure networks completely.
US09021255B1	Techniques for multiple independent verifications for digital certificates A method includes (a) receiving, at a computing device, a first certificate signing request (1CSR) from a certificate authority (CA), the 1CSR including an embedded second certificate signing request (2CSR), the 2CSR having been received by the CA from an entity seeking a signed certificate from the CA that validates an identity claim made by the entity in the 2CSR, the CA having performed a preliminary verification of the 2CSR prior to embedding it in the 1CSR, (b) verifying that the 1CSR came from the CA, (c) performing a verification procedure on the embedded 2CSR independent of the preliminary verification performed by the CA, to validate the identity claim made by the entity in the 2CSR, and (d) upon successfully validating the identity claim made by the entity in the 2CSR, sending a certificate to the CA, the certificate validating the identity claim made by the entity in the 2CSR.
US09021254B2	Multi-platform user device malicious website protection system A security system for defending online users against fraudsters and malicious websites comprises a back-end network server and appropriate apps for each protected user device. An otherwise conventional network server is enhanced with application software instructions for a centralized software-as-a-service (SaaS) to respond to network requests from user devices operating variously under ANDROID-type, APPLE IOS-type, and MICROSOFT WINDOWS-type operating systems. The SaaS investigates, surveys, and watches websites. It calculates confidence scores related to financial fraud and the acceptability and risk to said users of visiting particular websites. It maintains a trusted network database of website URL's calculated to belong to financial websites that can be trusted and present acceptable levels of fraud and financial risk to its visitors. Each user device application provides for secure password management and access via a security browser to websites in the trusted network.
US09021252B2	Encrypted-traffic discrimination device and encrypted-traffic discrimination system An encrypted-traffic discrimination device includes an input interface, a flow discrimination section, a data accumulation section, a selective data calculation section, a calculation result determination section, and an output interface. The flow discrimination section discriminates the input traffic into separate flows based on at least a transmission origin address and a transmission destination address. The data accumulation section accumulates characteristic amount data of the traffic for each of the separate flows. The selective data calculation section executes an evaluation computation utilizing specific data from the characteristic amount data. The calculation result determination section that, based on a calculated evaluation computation value, executes threshold value determination to determine whether or not the traffic is encrypted, and, if the traffic is determined to be encrypted, which encryption format the traffic is encrypted with.
US09021244B2	Secure boot administration in a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)-compliant computing device Firmware in a UEFI-compliant computing device is used to administer and alter a Secure Boot process for the computing device while continuing to provide protection from unauthorized third-party code.
US09021241B2	Combined branch target and predicate prediction for instruction blocks Embodiments provide methods, apparatus, systems, and computer readable media associated with predicting predicates and branch targets during execution of programs using combined branch target and predicate predictions. The predictions may be made using one or more prediction control flow graphs which represent predicates in instruction blocks and branches between blocks in a program. The prediction control flow graphs may be structured as trees such that each node in the graphs is associated with a predicate instruction, and each leaf associated with a branch target which jumps to another block. During execution of a block, a prediction generator may take a control point history and generate a prediction. Following the path suggested by the prediction through the tree, both predicate values and branch targets may be predicted. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US09021240B2	System and method for Controlling restarting of instruction fetching using speculative address computations A system and method for controlling restarting of instruction fetching using speculative address computations in a processor are provided. The system includes a predicted target queue to hold branch prediction logic (BPL) generated target address values. The system also includes target selection logic including a recycle queue. The target selection logic selects a saved branch target value between a previously speculatively calculated branch target value from the recycle queue and an address value from the predicted target queue. The system further includes a compare block to identify a wrong target in response to a mismatch between the saved branch target value and a current calculated branch target, where instruction fetching is restarted in response to the wrong target.
US09021235B2	Data processing device A statue management section of a control section is provided with a corresponding real number storage section that stores a real number converted from a logical number by a configuration number converting section. When the corresponding real number storage section has stored configuration information with a real number of the next transition state, the state management section directly supplies the real number to the configuration information storage section in the next or later processing cycle.
US09021233B2	Interleaving data accesses issued in response to vector access instructions A vector data access unit includes data access ordering circuitry, for issuing data access requests indicated by elements of earlier and a later vector instructions, one being a write instruction. An element indicating the next data access for each of the instructions is determined. The next data accesses for the earlier and the later instructions may be reordered. The next data access of the earlier instruction is selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is less than or equal to the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. The next data access of the later instruction may be selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is higher than the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. Thus data accesses from earlier and later instructions are partially interleaved.
US09021232B2	Multipath storage system and method of operating thereof There is provided a method of operating a multipath storage system, the method comprises: identifying a primary storage control port configured to be responsible for a given LBA range and a secondary storage control port configured to have secondary responsibility for the given LBA range; reducing, in a manner unaffecting respective inbound I/O operation, outbound I/O operation related to the given LBA range and occurring at the primary storage control port, thereby causing a situation requiring switching all respective I/O requests to an alternating path; analyzing responsive changes in outbound I/O operation related to the given LBA range and occurring at the secondary storage control port, and verifying operability of switching to the alternating path in accordance with the obtained results. Outbound I/O operation can be reduced with the help of a routine configured to identify inbound I/O requests directed to the given LBA range and to put these requests on hold for a delay period, thus giving rise to delayed I/O requests, wherein the delay period is configured to be long enough to enable switching to an alternating path.
US09021226B2	Moving blocks of data between main memory and storage class memory An abstraction for storage class memory is provided that hides the details of the implementation of storage class memory from a program, and provides a standard channel programming interface for performing certain actions, such as controlling movement of data between main storage and storage class memory or managing storage class memory.
US09021224B2	Method and apparatus for enhanced computer security A computer system and an access restriction method may be used to enable security and improve reliability. The computer system includes a first storage apparatus and a second storage apparatus. The first storage apparatus provides a first logical volume from/to which a host apparatus reads and writes data, and the second storage apparatus provides a virtual second logical volume obtained by virtualizing the first logical volume of the first storage apparatus to the host apparatus. The first path information relates to a path from the host apparatus to the second logical volume registered in the first storage apparatus in association with the first logical volume of the first storage apparatus. Reservation of and access to the first logical volume is granted only for a reservation request and access request with matching path information from the host apparatus.
US09021223B2	Resilient mirroring An apparatus and associated method including a first storage device and a second storage device, each coupled to a remote server independently of the other via a network. Resilient mirroring logic is stored in each of the storage devices that establishes a peer-to-peer communication connection with the other storage device in response to receiving a data access command from the remote server.
US09021222B1	Managing incremental cache backup and restore A method is used for managing incremental cache backup and restore. I/O operations are quiesced at a cache module. A first snapshot of a storage object and a second snapshot of an SSD cache object are taken. The I/O operations at the cache module are unquiesced. A single backup image comprising the first snapshot and the second snapshot is created.
US09021221B2	Cascaded, point-in-time-copy architecture with data deduplication A method for performing a write to a volume x in a cascaded architecture is described. In one embodiment, such a method includes determining whether the volume x has a child volume, wherein each of the volume x and the child volume have a target bit map (TBM) associated therewith. The method then determines whether the TBMs of both the volume x and the child volume are set. If the TBMs are set, the method finds a higher source (HS) volume from which to copy the desired data to the child volume. Finding the HS volume includes travelling up the cascaded architecture until the source of the data is found. Once the HS volume is found, the method copies the data from the HS volume to the child volume and performs the write to the volume x. A method for performing a read is also disclosed herein.
US09021220B2	Orphan storage release A method, system and computer readable medium that identify orphan storage and release the orphaned storage before application or system outages can result. More specifically, in certain embodiments, a method, system and computer readable medium periodically scan through common memory storage and identifies those areas that are no longer associated with a running task or have been allocated for longer than a running task with a matching task address. These areas are then identified as potentially orphaned storage locations.
US09021217B2	Communication apparatus, load distribution method, and recording medium A first communication apparatus includes a first central processing core; and a first memory. The first communication apparatus executes load distribution based on a first load amount of the first communication apparatus and a second load amount of a second communication apparatus that includes a second central processing core and a second memory. The first communication apparatus executes first load distribution when the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus perform wireless communication. The first communication apparatus executes second load distribution when the first communication apparatus and the second communication apparatus perform wired communication.
US09021216B2	Storage device and controlling method thereof A controlling method of a storage device is provided. The storage device is in communication with a handheld electronic device. Firstly, a connection status is provided to the handheld electronic device from the storage device, so that the connection status is shown on the handheld electronic device. The connection status indicates that a first storage unit is connected with the storage device. Then, a specified file of the first storage unit is selected according to the connection status shown on the handheld electronic device. Then, a read command is issued from the storage device to the first storage unit, and the specified file of the first storage unit is read in response to the read command. Afterwards, the specified file is stored into the storage device, and a storing result is provided to the handheld electronic device.
US09021215B2	Storage system exporting internal storage rules A data storage method includes, in a memory controller that accepts memory access commands from a host for execution in one or more memory units, holding a definition of a policy to be applied by the memory controller in the execution of the memory access commands in the memory units. The policy is reported from the memory controller to the host so as to cause the host to format memory access commands based on the reported policy.
US09021214B2	Storage system and method for controlling memory in storage system According to a storage system of a prior art adopting a cluster structure, various types of large-capacity memories were arranged to enhance the access performance, so that the system required a dedicated control circuit, and there was difficulty in realizing cost reduction and improvement of access performance simultaneously. In order to solve the problems, the present invention provides a storage system in which a group of memories is integrated to MPU memories directly coupled to MPUs in respective controller units, wherein each MPU memory is divided into a duplication information area and a non-duplication information area, and attribute information for controlling accesses thereto are provided. Further, each duplication information area is provided with a double master information area capable of referring to a first memory and a second memory and a single master information area capable of referring only to either the first memory or the second memory, and the accesses thereto are performed based on the attribute information.
US09021208B2	Information processing device, memory management method, and computer-readable recording medium An information processing device includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor executes a process comprising selecting data included in a same file as deletion target data from the memory when deleting the data cached in the memory at the caching from the memory and deleting the deletion target data and the data selected at the selecting, from the memory.
US09021207B2	Management of cache size In response to a processor core exiting a low-power state, a cache is set to a minimum size so that fewer than all of the cache's entries are available to store data, thus reducing the cache's power consumption. Over time, the size of the cache can be increased to account for heightened processor activity, thus ensuring that processing efficiency is not significantly impacted by a reduced cache size. In some embodiments, the cache size is increased based on a measured processor performance metric, such as an eviction rate of the cache. In some embodiments, the cache size is increased at regular intervals until a maximum size is reached.
US09021202B2	Delivering secured media using a portable memory device In some embodiments an interface of a portable memory device is used to store content information in a hidden memory region of the portable memory device. The interface is also used to store information in a visible memory region of the portable memory device. The information stored in the visible memory region allows the content information stored in the hidden memory region to be accessed. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09021200B1	Data storage system with predictive management of physical storage use by virtual disks A computer of a data storage system carries out user input-output requests for data of a set of virtual disks by performing back-end input-output requests to a set of overprovisioned storage devices providing underlying physical storage. A set of time series of utilization measures are continually generated and stored, with each reflecting an amount of a given virtual disk consumed by user data at a given time. The time series are used to generate predicted utilization measures, each being an estimate of an amount of a given virtual disk expected to be consumed by user data at a future time. A fullness probability measure is generated by aggregating the predicted utilization measures, and it reflects a probability that the set of overprovisioned storage devices will be fully consumed by user data at the future time. When the fullness probability measure is above a threshold value, then a system management operation is performed to change operation of the data storage system to avoid full consumption of the overprovisioned storage devices by the virtual disks. For example, the mapping of virtual disks to the overprovisioned storage device is changed in a manner reducing usage of the overprovisioned storage device. The mapping as changed is used for subsequent user input-output requests for data of the virtual disks.
US09021189B2	System and method for performing efficient processing of data stored in a storage node A system and method of providing enhanced data processing and analysis in a storage device, such as a solid state drive (SSD). The SSD includes flash memory and an SSD processing unit capable of executing searches on the data in the flash memory without returning all of the data to be searched to a host CPU outside of the SSD. Other processing capabilities incorporated into the SSD may include encryption and decryption, compression and decompression, and in-line indexing of data.
US09021188B1	Small block write operations in non-volatile memory systems A first portion of an asymmetric memory is configured as temporary storage for application data units with sizes corresponding to a small memory block that is smaller than the size of a logical write unit associated with the asymmetric memory. A portion of the remaining asymmetric memory is configured as a reconciled storage for application data units with varying sizes. A first application data unit is received for writing to the asymmetric memory. Based on computing the size of the first application data unit as corresponding to the small memory block, the first application data unit is written to the temporary storage. Upon determining that a threshold is reached, a memory write operation is performed for writing the application data units from the temporary storage to the reconciled storage. The application data units written to the reconciled storage are removed from the temporary storage.
US09021186B2	Partial allocate paging mechanism using a controller and a buffer A memory system is provided. The system includes a controller that regulates read and write access to one or more FLASH memory devices that are employed for random access memory applications. A buffer component operates in conjunction with the controller to regulate read and write access to the one or more FLASH devices. Wear leveling components along with read and write processing components are provided to facilitate efficient operations of the FLASH memory devices.
US09021182B2	Flash memory for code and data storage A flash memory for code and data storage includes a code memory array having fast read access and suitability for execute in place, a data memory array having the characteristics of low bit cost and high density storage, and a suitable interface to provide access to both the code and data. The code memory array may be a NOR array or a performance-enhanced NAND array. The memory may be implemented in a single chip package or multi-chip package solution.
US09021181B1	Memory management for unifying memory cell conditions by using maximum time intervals A method includes accepting data for storage in a memory that is partitioned into multiple memory regions. A memory region is selected for storing the data. At least part of the data is stored in the selected memory region, subject to verifying that all the storage operations applied to the selected memory region are performed within a predefined maximum time interval.
US09021180B2	Clearing blocks of storage class memory An abstraction for storage class memory is provided that hides the details of the implementation of storage class memory from a program, and provides a standard channel programming interface for performing certain actions, such as controlling movement of data between main storage and storage class memory or managing storage class memory.
US09021177B2	System and method for allocating and using spare blocks in a flash memory A method for using a single spare block pool in flash memory comprising: allocating a plurality of flash memory arrays, wherein each flash memory array comprises a plurality of flash memory blocks; within a main flash memory array: allocating a used block pool comprising a plurality of used blocks and allocating a main spare block pool comprising a plurality of spare blocks; within each of the other flash memory arrays: allocating a used block pool comprising multiple used blocks; allocating a minimum spare block pool comprising a minimum number of spare blocks; allocating the main spare block pool and each of the minimum spare block pools to a single spare block pool; transferring a spare block from the main spare block pool to one of the minimum spare block pools; and transferring a spare block from a first minimum spare block pool to a second minimum spare block pool.
US09021174B2	Interface for bridging out-of-band information from a downstream communication link to an upstream communication link A device includes a first interface to receive a signal from a first communication link, wherein the receive signal includes out-of-band (OOB) information. A detector coupled to the first interface detects the OOB information. An encoder coupled to the detector encodes the OOB information into one or more symbols (e.g., control characters). A second interface is coupled to the encoder and a second communication link (e.g., a serial transport path). The second interface transmits the symbols on the second communication link. The device also includes mechanisms for preventing false presence detection of terminating devices.
US09021173B2	High speed differential wiring strategy for serially attached SCSI systems A serial attached SCSI (SAS) system may include a host bus adaptor, a bus expander, and a multi-layer data transmission medium coupled between the host bus adaptor and the bus expander. The multi-layer data transmission medium may include a first microstrip structure located at a top surface portion of the multi-layer data transmission medium and a first stripline structure located within a first internal portion of the multi-layer data transmission medium. The microstrip structure provides, among other things, a repeaterless high-speed serial communications link between the host bus adaptor and the bus expander.
US09021163B1	Determining whether a data storage is encrypted A method, program and/or system for determining whether a data storage is encrypted. A file is written through a first path to the data storage. The file is read through a second path from the data storage. First data known to have been written in the file is compared to second data that has been read from the file. When the first data matches the second data, the first path is determined not to have encrypted the file when writing to the data storage. When the first data does not match the second data, the first path is determined to have encrypted the file when writing to the data storage.
US09021158B2	Program suspend/resume for memory A memory device includes a memory array with a plurality of memory elements. Each memory element is configured to store data. The device includes an input/output (I/O) buffer coupled to the memory array. The I/O buffer is configured to receive data from an I/O interface of a memory device controller and write the data to the memory array. The device includes a memory control manager coupled to the memory array. The memory control manager is configured to pause a program operation to the memory array in response to receiving a pause command. The memory control manager is also configured to resume the program operation in response to receiving a resume command.
US09021156B2	Integrating intellectual property (IP) blocks into a processor In one embodiment, the present invention includes apparatus that is formed on a single semiconductor die having one or more cores, a memory controller, and a hub coupled to the memory controller. The hub includes multiple fabrics each to communicate with a peripheral controller via a target interface and a master interface according to a first protocol, and where the fabrics are serially coupled via a first plurality of target interfaces in an upstream direction and a second plurality of target interfaces in a downstream direction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09021153B2	Direct memory access system and method using the same The invention discloses a DMA system capable of being adapted to various interfaces. The DMA system includes the following advantages: 1) the software porting effort can be reduced when different interfaces are integrated into a SoC; 2) a flexible DMA that could provide protocol transparency and could be ported into different interfaces easily; 3) a scalable DMA that can support unlimited TX/RX scattering/gathering data segments; 4) a reusable DMA that provides user defined TX information (or RX information) and TX message (or RX message) field; and 5) a high performance DMA that support unaligned segment data pointers and unlimited scattering/gathering data segments, so as to reduce extra memory copies by CPU.
US09021152B2	Methods and systems for determining memory usage ratings for a process configured to run on a device Methods and systems for determining memory usage ratings for system processes and providing for display are described. An example method may include determining, by a processor, a memory usage value for a process configured to run on a computing device over a time period, and the memory usage value is indicative of an amount of memory of the computing device that the process uses while running. The method may also include determining a memory usage rating for the process based on the memory usage value and a run time for the process. The memory usage rating for the process indicates an amount of memory the process uses over the time period and the run time indicates how long the process runs during the time period. The method may also include providing for display, by the processor, a representation of the memory usage rating of the process over the time period.
US09021151B2	Circuit and method of control of DDC data transmission for video display device A video processing device includes a connecting unit that is connected to an external apparatus via an interface including a HPD line and a DDC line, a memory that stores EDID, with the EDID being transmitted via the DDC line; and a control unit that performs a predetermined process for resetting a state of the HPD line if a predetermined error relating to a transmission of EDID is detected. The control unit changes a state of the video processing device to a power off state if a number of times that the predetermined process is performed is not less than a predetermined value.
US09021150B2	Storage device supporting periodic writes while in a low power mode for an electronic device A storage device including a non-volatile memory configured to store data from a host, and a controller. The controller is configured to detect when the host is in a low power periodic update mode, the detecting based at least on part on a timing of a communication from the host, and place the storage device in a power up in standby mode when the host is in the low power periodic update mode.
US09021148B2	Fast path userspace RDMA resource error detection Mechanisms are provided for providing an early warning of an error state of a remote direct memory access (RDMA) resource to a userspace application. The mechanisms detect, using kernelspace logic, an error event having occurred, and perform a write operation to write an error state value to a userspace shared memory state data structure indicating the RDMA resource to be in an error state. The mechanisms detect, using userspace logic, the RDMA resource being in an error state by reading the error state value from the userspace shared memory state data structure in response to a userspace application attempting to perform a RDMA operation using the RDMA resource. In addition, the mechanisms initiate, by the userspace application, an operation to tear down the RDMA resource in response to detecting the RDMA resource being in the error state.
US09021144B2	Buffer status report triggers in wireless communications Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate utilizing timers in conjunction with transmitting buffer status reports (BSR). A prohibit timer can be utilized to determine when BSRs can be transmitted to an eNB. The prohibit timer can be initialized or restarted upon transmitting a BSR to an eNB. A BSR retransmit timer can be used to determine when to retransmit a BSR. The BSR retransmit timer can be initialized upon transmitting a BSR to an eNB and restarted each time an uplink resource allocation is received from the eNB. Once the timer expires, if an uplink transmission buffer contains data (e.g., size>0), the BSR can be retransmitted to the eNB. Control data feedback can additionally be used to determine when to retransmit the BSR. In addition, in either case, the timer duration values can be provided by the eNB.
US09021141B2	Data storage controller and method for exposing information stored in a data storage controller to a host system A data storage controller exposes information stored in a locally managed volatile memory store to a host system. The locally managed volatile memory store is mapped to a corresponding portion of a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) compliant memory space managed by the host system. Backup logic in the data storage controller responds to a power event detected at the interface between the data storage controller and the host system by copying the contents of the volatile memory store to a non-volatile memory store on the data storage controller. Restore logic restores a data storage controller state by copying the contents of the non-volatile memory store to the locally managed volatile memory store upon the application of power such that the data in the volatile memory store is persistent even in the event of a loss of power to the host system and or the data storage controller.
US09021132B2	Address translation method, address translation proxy response method, address translation device, and address translation proxy response device An address translation device includes an address translation part containing information on correspondence between pseudo addresses and real addresses of a first network and a second network having respective address spaces independent of each other, the first network and the second network being connected by multiple address translation devices including the address translation device; an address translation request reception part configured to receive an address translation request with respect to a pseudo IP address contained in the address translation part; an address resolution response determination part configured to determine whether to respond to the address translation request in accordance with a predetermined rule based on the source address of the received address translation request; and a response part configured to respond to the address translation request based on the determination by the address resolution response determination part.
US09021130B1	Photonic line sharing for high-speed routers Embodiments of the present invention present a method and apparatus for photonic line sharing for high-speed routers. Photonic switches receive high-speed optical data streams and produce the data streams to a router operating according to routing logic and produce optical data streams according to destination addresses stored in the data packets. Each photonic switch can be configured as one of a 1:N multiplexer or an M:N cross-connect switch. In one embodiment, optical data is converted to electrical data prior to routing, while an alternate embodiment routes only optical data. Another embodiment transfers large volumes of high-speed data through an optical bypass line in a circuit switched network to bypass the switch fabric thereby routing the data packets directly to the destination. An edge device selects one of the packet switched network or the circuit switched network. The bypass resources are released when the large volume of high-speed data is transferred.
US09021128B2	Request routing using network computing components A system, method and computer-readable medium for request routing. A DNS server at a content delivery network service provider obtains a DNS query corresponding to a resource requested from a client computing device and associated with a first resource identifier. The first resource identifier includes a first portion with DNS information and a second portion with path information. The DNS server selects a network computing component for processing the requested resource based on the DNS portion of the resource identifier and transmits information identifying the selected network computing component to the client computing device.
US09021126B2	Data processing apparatus and method for controlling data processing apparatus A data processing apparatus includes multiple processing means that are connected in a ring shape via corresponding communication means respectively. Each communication means includes a reception means for receiving data from a previous communication means, and a transmission means for transmitting data to a next communication means. Connection information is assigned to each of the reception means and the transmission means. The communication means, when receiving a packet that has same connection information as one assigned to its reception means, causes the corresponding processing means to perform data processing on the packet, sets the connection information assigned to its transmission means to the packet, and transmits the packet to the next communication means, and when receiving a packet that has connection information that is not same as one assigned to its reception means, transmits the packet to the next communication means without changing the connection information of the packet.
US09021124B2	Distributed intelligent network A network appliance (40) includes a processor (48) and a Host Bus Adapter (HBA-44). The processor is configured to execute storage commands in one or more storage devices (28A, 28B). The HBA is coupled to a network (32) so as to receive communication frames sent over the network to the network appliance, and is configured to filter the received communication frames so as to pass through to the processor only a subset of the received communication frames, which correspond to the storage commands that have been sent by one or more applications for processing by the network appliance.
US09021122B2	Monitoring streams buffers for backlogs of data tuples to optimize operator processing Method, system and computer program product for performing an operation, including providing a plurality of processing elements comprising one or more operators, the operators configured to process streaming data tuples, establishing an operator graph of multiple operators, the operator graph defining at least one execution path in which a first operator is configured to receive data tuples from at least one upstream operator and transmit data tuples to at least one downstream operator, providing each operator a buffer configured to hold data tuples requiring processing receiving a plurality of data tuples in a buffer associated with an operator, the data tuples comprising at least one attribute, determining a backlog exists in the first buffer, selecting at least one data tuple from the first buffer, examining an attribute of the selected data tuples to identify a candidate tuple, and performing a second operation on the candidate tuple.
US09021121B2	Setting a rate of data transmission in a peer-to-peer mode An apparatus and method are presented for a maximum speed criterion for a velocity gesture. The apparatus includes a processor, a memory, a determination module and a transmission module. The determination module determines, through a wireless communication infrastructure mode, an amount of wireless network activity. The transmission module sets a rate of data transmission in a peer to peer mode based on the amount of wireless network activity.
US09021114B2	Automatic connection of computing devices In one embodiment, a method of connecting to a client computing device is provided. The method is performed at a computing device, and in this method a connection is made to the client computing device. An inventory of the client computing device is then accessed. This inventory is stored in a storage device accessible by way of a computer network. Here, the storage device is separate from the client computing device and the computing device. A connection failure between the computing device and the client computing device is detected and thereafter, the inventory from the storage device is retrieved by way of the computer network. A reconnection to the client computing device can then be made based on the retrieved inventory.
US09021113B2	Inter-service sharing of content between users from different social networks Sharing content between users of different social networks includes: in a source social network implemented by at least one processor, receiving shared content uploaded by a source user with an indication of a number of recipients of the shared content; establishing a trusted communication link between the source social network and at least one external social network; and allowing the number of recipients to retrieve the shared content from the source social network via the trusted communication link.
US09021108B2	Method, system and apparatus for enabling access of a first mobile electronic device to at least one network accessible by a second mobile electronic device A method, system and apparatus for or automatically enabling access of a first mobile electronic device to at least one network accessible by a second mobile electronic device, the second mobile electronic device storing configuration data for accessing the at least one network. A communication session is automatically established between the first mobile electronic device and the second mobile electronic device via a local link. The configuration data is automatically received at the first mobile electronic device from the second mobile electronic device via the local link in response to establishing the communication session. The configuration data is automatically installed at the first mobile electronic device such that the at least one network is accessible by the first mobile electronic device using the configuration data.
US09021106B2	Peer-to-peer identity management interfaces and methods Peer-to-peer (P2P) application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow an application to create, import, export, manage, enumerate, and delete P2P identities are presented. Further, the management of group identity information is provided. APIs abstract away from low level credential and cryptographic functions required to create and manage P2P identities. This management includes retrieval and setting of a friendly name, generation of a cryptographic public/private key pair, retrieval of security information in the form of an XML fragment, and creation of a new name based on an existing identity.
US09021100B1	Tunneling DHCP options in authentication messages An example network device includes network interfaces and a control unit that receives a network configuration request from a client device and sends a network configuration response to the client device. The control unit comprises a network configuration protocol module that generates an authentication request in accordance with a network authentication protocol such that the authentication request includes a request for a second set of network configuration parameters based on a request for a first set of network configuration parameters in the network configuration request, and generates the network configuration response in accordance with the network configuration protocol, wherein the network configuration response is based on an authentication response generated by a second network device in accordance with the network authentication protocol, wherein the authentication response comprises a third set of network configuration parameters based on the request for the second set of network configuration parameters.
US09021099B2	Load balancing secure FTP connections among multiple FTP servers System and method for load balancing multiple file transfer protocol (FTP) servers to service secure FTP sessions having encrypted signals are disclosed. In one aspect, embodiments of the system include multiple FTP servers coupled to a load balancing agent. Each of the multiple FTP servers is associated with a unique port range and the load balancer receives an encrypted data signal in a secure FTP session on a given port and uses a port range within which the given port falls to identify which of the multiple FTP servers a corresponding control signal of the secure FTP session was previously sent.
US09021098B1	Allocation of interface identifiers within network device having multiple forwarding components In general techniques are described for allocating global identifiers to forwarding units of a network device. A network device having one or more hardware-based microprocessors and an allocation module executable by the microprocessors may implement the techniques. The allocation module may maintain a first map that indicates global identifiers that are allocable to a plurality of forwarding units of the network device, and a second map that indicates local identifiers that are allocated to one of the plurality of forwarding units. The local identifiers may be based at least in part on the global identifiers. The allocation module may allocate to the forwarding unit, a global identifier indicated by the first map that is not allocated to any one of the plurality of forwarding units by comparing the second map to one or more portions of the first map to identify the unallocated global identifier of the first map.
US09021093B2	Managing and securing manageable resources in stateless web server architecture using servlet filters Access is controlled to managed resources in a stateless web server architecture including a stateless web server computing platform; a resource locator map portion of the stateless web server computing platform providing a unique resource locator code representing each managed resource in a stateless web server architecture, wherein the managed resource is assigned to a plurality of application program components; a set of servlet filters disposed in a portion of the stateless web server computing platform, each servlet filter associated with one of the application program components; a resource locator matcher portion of the stateless web server computing platform, responsive to a user request to a unique resource locator, matching a pattern in the user request to one or more of the application program components using a corresponding servlet filter; and a request dispatcher portion of the stateless web server computing platform sending the user request to the matched application program component, wherein the application program component receives and processes the user request.
US09021091B2	Transaction middleware based application level transaction instance tracking across a composite application Responsive to transactional middleware for a particular domain processing a particular transaction instance at a processing point specified in transaction telemetry standards as a tracking point along a flow of the particular transaction, a facility of the middleware accesses correlation data for the particular transaction instance in the particular domain and extracts application level context information about the particular transaction instance from the particular domain, wherein the transaction telemetry standards specify a same set of standards for application by each separate transactional middleware instance of a composite application. At least one facility of the transactional middleware creates a tracking event comprising the correlation data and the application level context information formatted into an event structure defined by the transaction tracking standards. At least one facility of the transactional middleware surfaces the tracking event in compliance with the transaction telemetry standards.
US09021087B1	Method to improve caching accuracy by using snapshot technology Methods and systems for improving caching accuracy utilizing snapshot technology are provided. One or more requests for data are received. When the requests for data return valid data, the valid data is stored within a cache. The response performance of a server device is monitored. When the response performance of the server device is above a predetermined threshold, one or more snapshot versions of a memory block are taken. The memory block may include the current state of the valid data at the time the snapshot version was taken. Upon receiving a warm-up cache signal for the cache, a snapshot version is used to populate the cache and sent to a client device.
US09021085B1	Method and system for web filtering A technique for web filtering includes monitoring and recording completed DNS (domain name service) transactions involving a user computer. The user computer may thereafter issue an HTTP (hypertext transport protocol) request to a remote server computer, with the HTTP request including an IP address of the server computer instead of its domain name. The HTTP request may be correlated with the recorded completed DNS transactions to obtain the domain name of the server computer. The domain name of the server computer may be employed to determine the reputation of the domain name for web filtering purposes.
US09021084B2	Network device discovery A system and method enable a local area network connected mobile device to discover, via an ancillary wireless communication channel, a local area network connected device and install the appropriate driver and network configuration information when the mobile device and network connected device are brought into physical close proximity with each other.
US09021083B2	Service oriented architecture with dynamic policy enforcement points A repository receives a policy enforcement point. The repository is a component of a service oriented architecture. A repository manager identifies a service associated with a service level agreement that specifies the policy enforcement point. The policy enforcement point is transmitted to the service. The policy enforcement point is then installed on the service without interrupting the service.
US09021081B2	System and method for collecting individualized network usage data in a personal hotspot wireless network A method for collecting individualized network usage data includes routing Internet communications between a plurality of local clients and a plurality of remote servers over a common data link between a router device and the Internet. For each of the plurality of clients, characteristics of that client's communications routed over the data link are monitored at the router device. A collection of statistics reflecting the monitored characteristics are maintained. From the router device, the collection of statistics are periodically communicated over the data link to an interested server.
US09021080B2	Method and system to associate geographic location information with a network address using a combination of automated and manual processes A method and a system map a geographic location to a network address. At least one automated process is performed to identify a geographic location for the network address. A determination is made whether the automated process provided satisfactory geographic location information for the network address. If the automated process did not provided satisfactory geographic location information for the network address, then the network address is forwarded for manual resolution.
US09021079B2	Domain name service server A DNS server system provides IP addresses for a host in a computer network. Upon receiving a request from a client for an IP address associated with a domain name, the requested IP address is retrieved from an object oriented database and transmitted to the client. The DNS server system provides configuration access from a client in a computer network. Communicative coupling is established between a client web browser and a DNS server system web server. A user interface adapted to provide configuration access to a DNS server system is requested. The user interface is downloaded from the DNS server system over the computer network.
US09021076B2	Managing inventory data for components of a server system Techniques are disclosed for managing inventory data for components of a server system. In one embodiment, a global management controller is provided, that is operatively connected to a plurality of local management controllers. Each local management controller is configured to manage a subset of the components of the server system. Each local management controller is also configured to generate, for each component, a checksum based on vital product data (VPD) of the component. Each local management controller is also configured to compute a composite checksum based on the checksums generated for the components in the subset. The global management controller is configured to maintain a global view of the VPD in the computer system, based on the checksums and/or composite checksums.
US09021072B2	Localized media offload A method includes receiving, by an Internet Protocol (IP) anchor point, a session request to a network originating from a user equipment (UE); assigning an IP address to the UE; determining whether a reverse IP address registration is permitted to a first network device, wherein the reverse IP address registration permits a media flow associated with the IP address and the UE to omit traversing the IP anchor point; and assigning an ownership of the IP address to the first network device when reverse IP address registration is permitted.
US09021070B2	Dynamically modifying a toolbar The present invention comprises a method of and apparatus for simplifying the process of access to a network for a roaming computer user, divides the responsibility of servicing a given user wanting to access the network between multiple parties and minimizes the possibility of improper dissemination of email header data as well as improper use of network resources (including server systems) by non-clients.
US09021068B2	Managing a networked storage configuration Managing a networked storage system having a host operable to connect through a network fabric to storage apparatus comprises: a configuration component for inputting a configuration change into the networked storage system responsive to change instructions; a monitoring component operable in communication with the host and the network fabric to monitor I/O activity associated with elements of the networked storage system; an activity data storage component responsive to the monitoring component for storing a record of a monitored I/O activity; an analysis component, responsive to the configuration component for inputting configuration changes, for analysing the record of a monitored I/O activity for a recent activity; and an alert component, responsive to the analysis component detecting a recent activity, for alerting the configuration component.
US09021066B1	Providing A-priori information about implication of operator interaction with network device Techniques are described for providing a-priori information about the implication of a network device operator interaction with a network device, e.g., a software configuration or hardware change, to be performed on the network device before the interaction actually takes place. The network device operator is provided with information that may be used to make a decision whether to proceed with the interaction. For each logically distinct feature of a network device, the techniques generate a trigger outcome domain (TOD). Each TOD is defined to include a list of operator interactions that defines relevant events in the network device that may be triggerable by the operator interactions, a list of potential outcomes in the network based on the potential events in the network device, and a user interface to display the list of potential outcomes for the operator interactions prior to performing any of the interactions.
US09021059B2	Data hub server Apparatus and methods to engage in accessing informational content in a data hub server, where the informational content is identified as public or partially public to a group registered in the data hub server with permission to access the informational content made public or partially public in the data hub server by another entity, provide a mechanism to enhance the communication capabilities among mobile electronic devices. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09021054B2	Electronic information caching Electronic information is made more readily available to one or more access requestors based on an anticipated demand for the electronic information using a process, system or computer software. For instance, electronic information stored on a first storage medium is identified for transport (e.g., in response to a request of at least one of the access requestors), and the electronic information is transported accordingly. Afterwards, a determination is made to store the electronic information on a second storage medium that is more accessible to the access requestors than the first storage medium. The determination is based on an anticipated demand of the access requestors for the electronic information. The anticipated demand is determined based at least on information that is not particular to any single access requestor. The electronic information then is stored on the second storage medium and the access requestors are provided access to the electronic information from the second storage medium.
US09021053B2	Method and device for writing data to a data storage system comprising a plurality of data storage nodes There is disclosed a method for writing data in a data storage system comprising a plurality of data storage nodes, the method being employed in a server running an application which accesses data in the data storage system, and comprising: sending a multicast storage query to a plurality of said storage nodes; receiving a plurality of responses from a subset of said storage nodes, said responses including a storage node property; selecting at least two storage nodes in the subset for storing said data, based on said responses, wherein the selecting is based on a data property of the data to be stored and a storage node property.
US09021050B2	Network service system and method with off-heap caching A method for providing data over a network using an application server having off-heap caching includes receiving at an application server coupled to a network a request for requested data, using an key index stored on the application server to locate where the requested data is stored in oil-heap memory of the application server, retrieving the requested data from the off-heap memory of the application server, and resolving the request.
US09021047B2	Method and system for delivering embedded objects in a webpage to a user agent using a network device A method and system for delivering embedded objects in a webpage to a user agent using a network device is described. In one embodiment, a method for delivering embedded objects in a webpage to a user agent using a network device is described. The method for delivering embedded objects in a webpage to a user agent using a network device involves intercepting a webpage at a network device, where the webpage is transmitted from a web server and is destined to a user agent, scanning the webpage at the network device to discover links that are embedded in the webpage, obtaining an object that is identified by one of the links at the network device, and transmitting the object from the network device to the user agent as soon as the object is obtained at the network device. Other embodiments are also described.
US09021045B2	Sharing images in a social network Embodiments of the present invention provide for a shared photo space that is synchronized among members of a social network or group. In some embodiments, users of a social group automatically pull photos directly from all registered hard drives of clients and online services and mirror them around the group, thus making the collection available to the social network of users.
US09021044B2	Modular intelligent power system A system for monitoring or controlling conditions or apparatuses in a home, business or other suitable place is provided. The system includes a first master module that is operative to communicate with a device over an Internet network. The system further includes a server that is operatively connected to the device and the first master module. The server is operative to allow communication between the first master module and the device. The system also includes a first slave module operatively connected to the first master module. The first master module is operative to direct data between the first slave module and the server. The first slave module is operative to establish communication with the first master module through a plug and play connection. The device is operative to allow at least one of controlling and monitoring the first slave module through the server and the first master module.
US09021038B2	Message delivery in messaging networks In response to receipt of a request message from a requester, a reply message is created. The reply message includes a message identifier of the request message copied from the received request message. The reply message is published to each of a group of replicated message queues. The reply message is identifiable by the requester using the copied message identifier of the request message on any one of the group of replicated message queues prior to being consumed by the requester.
US09021037B2	Systems and methods for controlling email access Embodiments of the disclosure relate to proxying at least one email resource from at least one email service to at least one client device, determining whether the email resources are accessible to the client devices via at least one unauthorized application on the client devices, and modifying the email resources to be inaccessible via the unauthorized applications on the client devices in response to a determination that the email resources are accessible via the unauthorized applications on the client devices.
US09021033B2	Method to change instant messaging status based on text entered during conversation An embodiment of the invention provides a method for communication within a system, wherein an instant messaging conversation is initiated between a first user and a second user. An indicator and a text entry are received from the first user during the instant messaging conversation. The status of the first user is changed, including automatically setting the text entry as the status of the first user, and automatically including the name of the second user in the status of the first user if preferences of the first user indicate that the name of the second user is to be included in the status of the first user. Further, the text entry is automatically sent to the second user if the preferences of the first user indicate that a text entry following the indicator is to be automatically sent to the second user.
US09021028B2	Systems and methods for spam filtering Systems and methods to reduce false positives in spam filtering. In one aspect, a method includes automatically generating profiles for persons identified in messages, such as incoming and outgoing emails. Messages flagged as spam can be checked against the profile to identify false positives.
US09021026B2	System and method for enhanced experience with a peer to peer network A system and method for implementing a peer to peer (P2P) network that includes a plurality of nodes, wherein each of a majority of the nodes has less than a threshold number of P2P connections to other nodes in the network. A P2P network connection is established between a first node from the majority and an enhanced connection node in the network, wherein the enhanced connection node has more than the threshold number of P2P connections to other nodes in the network. A search request is issued from the first node by transmitting the search request from the first node to the enhanced connection node, and then forwarding the search request from the enhanced connection node to other nodes in the network. Responses to the search request are collected at the enhanced connection node, which filters, ranks or adds additional content to the responses prior to forwarding the responses back to the first node.
US09021025B1	System and method of analyzing user engagement activity in social media campaigns A server-based system is provided for analyzing and valuating social media campaign performance. The system collects online traffic data from member users of a social media channel, and tracks engagement activity with respect to a social media campaign operating on the channel according to parameters defined with respect to specific activities including: user interactions with media content of the campaign; user transactions as non-commercial data exchanges or commercial purchases conducted via the campaign; and user sharing of the campaign with other member users of the social media channel. The system establishes baseline performance thresholds and aggregates the tracked engagement activity with respect to the defined parameters. A graphical user interface is generated to display client feedback related to a comparison of the aggregated engagement activity with the established baseline performance thresholds for each of the defined parameters.
US09021019B2	Business application platform with embedded business intelligence server A system is provided in which at least one first server comprises at least one data processor executing a business application platform providing various business applications for access by at least one remote client. In addition, at least one second server comprises at least one data processor executing an embedded business intelligence server (EBIS). The EBIS provides an interface to the platform to at least one business intelligence applications providing business intelligence functionality. With such a system, a unified interface can be rendered on the at least one remote client concurrently provides functionality from the platform and the at least one business intelligence client. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.
US09021016B2	Method, apparatus and system for managing communications between a computing device and a client machine A method, apparatus and system for managing communications between a client machine and a mobile computing device. The mobile computing device comprising: a storage configured to maintain a host application; a processor configured to execute the host application; an interface configured to connect to the client machine, the interface further configured to carry a web request from the client machine to the processor, the host application configured to respond to the web request.
US09021013B2	Ubiquitous web service gateway and method There is provided a method for providing ubiquitous web services including receiving, at a ubiquitous web service gateway, a request for web service from a web service requester, and sending, at the ubiquitous web service gateway, the request for web service to a web service provider dynamically selected from among web service providers that provide the requested web service, depending on a change in interface information of the web service providers. The method further includes receiving, at the ubiquitous web service gateway, the result of requested web service from the web service provider that received the request for web service, and providing, at the ubiquitous web service gateway, the web service result to the web service requester.
US09021011B2	Computer or microchip including a network portion with RAM memory erasable by a firewall-protected master controller A computer or microchip including a master controlling device, network communication components, one or more microprocessors and RAM, an internal hardware firewall located between a protected portion that is protected by the internal hardware firewall and a network portion. The internal hardware firewall denies access to at least the protected portion of the computer or microchip from the network. The firewall permits unrestricted access by the network to the network portion so that processing operations other than network communications and firewall operations conducted with the network are executed by microprocessors and RAM in the network portion. The master controlling device has preemptive control of the microprocessors and RAM in the network portion including erasure of at least a part of the random access memory (RAM) prior to the use of the network portion of the computer or microchip by the user or the operating system.
US09021010B1	Configuration of applications for distributed computing systems A distributed computing system includes a primary device and one or more backend devices. The primary device provides a management interface for the distributed computing system. A plurality of applications may be installed on the backend devices for execution. The primary device generates registration data that associates the applications with management interface commands or configuration parameters in response to messages received from the applications. Subsequently, when the primary device receives a particular command at the management interface, the primary device identifies, based on the registration data, a particular application from among the plurality of applications. In response to identifying the application, the primary device may send to the application an outgoing message.
US09021008B1	Managing targeted scripts Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate the evaluation of the operation of host computing devices by utilization of targeted scripts. Each host computing device includes a local targeted script management component that interfaces with a centralized or master targeted script management component. The local targeted script management component obtains targeted scripts, causes the execution of the targeted script and can terminate the targeted script. Additionally, the local targeted script management component can collect information associated with the execution of the targeted scripts and initiate the restoration of previous state in the event that the execution of the targeted script modifies or otherwise affects the host computing device.
US09021007B2	Enabling interoperability between participants in a network Interoperability is enabled between participants in a network by determining values associated with a value metric defined for at least a portion of the network. Information flow is directed between two or more of the participants based at least in part on semantic models corresponding to the participants and on the values associated with the value metric. The semantic models may define interactions between the participants and define at least a portion of information produced or consumed by the participants. The determination of the values and the direction of the information flow may be performed multiple times in order to modify the one or more value metrics. The direction of information flow may allow participants to be deleted from the network, may allow participants to be added to the network, or may allow behavior of the participants to be modified.
US09021003B2	Processor and operating method Disclosed is a processor that is able to efficiently execute DFT operations without having part of a basic operational circuit idle even during non-DFT-operation processing. The processor (1) has an operational means (operation unit) (2) and a control means (control unit) (3). The operation means (2) has a plurality of shift addition-and-subtraction means connected such that CORDIC (COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer) operations can be executed. The shift adding-and-subtracting means also execute shift addition-and-subtraction processing of butterfly operations that process shift addition-and-subtraction for one stage or more. The control means (3) instructs the operation means (2) to execute either CORDIC operations or butterfly operations, based on a plurality of data received from the outside.
US09021002B2	Phase-to-amplitude converter for direct digital synthesizer (DDS) with reduced AND and reconstructed ADD logic arrays A sine wave generator for a Direct Digital Synthesizer (DDS) converts a digital phase input into a digital sine wave output. Sine values and slopes are stored in read-only memory (ROM) for coarse upper phase bits in a first quadrant. A quadrant folder and phase splitter reflects and inverts values from the first quadrant to generate amplitudes for all four quadrants. Each sine value and slope is stored for a range of lower phase bits. A Delta bit separates upper and lower phase bits. Delta conditionally inverts the lower phase bits, the sine value, and the final polarity. A reduced AND logic array multiplies the slope by the conditionally inverted lower phase bits. A reconstructed ADD logic array then adds the conditionally inverted sine value. The conditionally inverted polarity is added to generate the final sine value. Sine generation logic is streamlined with conditional inversion based on the Delta bit.
US09020999B2	Computing device with automated conversion of units A method for computer-implemented unit-conversion method, the method comprising identifying a first numerical value in a first system of units displayed on a computing device, converting the first numerical value in the first system of units into a second numerical value, and displaying the second numerical value and the second system of units on the computing device.
US09020994B1	Client-based migrating of data from content-addressed storage to file-based storage A client computer migrates data objects from a first data store employing a flat namespace to a second data store employing a hierarchical directory-based file system. File storing includes (1) generating a data object (for user data file) and an object identifier which is returned to an application for use in retrieving the user data file; (2) mapping the object identifier to originate a subdirectory name; and (3) sending a write request to the file system to create the named subdirectory and store the data object therein. File retrieving includes (4) sending a read request including the object identifier to the first data store; (5) extracting a user data file from a received data object and returning it to the application; and (6) performing the steps of the file storing to store the data object at the second data store, completing the migration of the data object.
US09020984B1	Methods and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization in distributed storage systems Methods and apparatus for optimizing resource utilization in distributed storage systems. A data migration technique is described that may operate in the background in a distributed storage data center to migrate data among a fleet of storage units to achieve a substantially even and randomized data storage distribution among all storage units in the fleet. When new storage units are added to the fleet and coupled to the data center network, the new storage units are detected. Instead of processing and storing new data to the newly added storage units, as in conventional distributed storage systems, the new units are blocked from general client I/O to allow the data migration technique to migrate data from other, previously installed storage hardware in the data center onto the new storage hardware. Once the storage load on the new storage units is balanced with the rest of the fleet, the new storage units are released for general client I/O.
US09020982B2	Detection of planar targets under steep angles Systems, apparatus and methods to create a database by a device (such as a server) and to use the database by a mobile device for detecting a planar target are presented. The database allows recognition of a planar target by a mobile device from steeper angles with minimum impact on runtime. The database is created from at least one warped view of the planar target. For example, a database may contain keypoints and descriptors from a non-warped view and also from one or more warped views. The database may be pruned by removing keypoints and corresponding descriptors of one image (e.g., a warped image) overlapping with similar or identical keypoints and descriptors of another image (e.g., a non-warped image).
US09020980B2	Method and system of content distribution and broadcast Methods and systems allowing content owners to make their content available to broadcasters over a network or communications medium such as via the Internet.
US09020976B2	System and method for processing data in diverse storage systems In an exemplary embodiment, a system includes a memory and a processor communicatively couple to the memory. The processor is operable to receive a first indication that a first database table is selected from a plurality of database tables, wherein each database table is comprised of rows and columns, and retrieve a first plurality of columns, wherein each column is associated with the first database table. The processor is further operable to facilitate the display of the first plurality of columns, receive a second indication that a first column is selected from the first plurality of columns, and receive a third indication that at least one cell in the first column is selected. The processor is further operable to receive an expected data set, store the expected data set in the at least one cell, and compare a sample data set to the expected data set.
US09020972B1	System and method for constructing a database instruction A system and method of the subject technology automatically constructs a database instruction from a template instruction, including one or more variable tokens, and one or more document object representations, each including an object type and a user-generated parameter. The one or more variable tokens in the template instruction are substituted by the user-generated parameter of a corresponding document object representation when the type of a respective variable token is matched to the type of the corresponding document object representation.
US09020969B2	Tracking queries and retrieved results Various embodiments of systems and methods for tracking queries and retrieved results are described herein. In one aspect, a first query is associated with a first result set in a first tuple and a second query is associated with a second result set in a second tuple. The first result set is retrieved based on the execution of the first query and the second result set is retrieved based on the execution of the second query. The first and the second tuples are retained in a data structure in the order of execution of the respective queries. The retrieved result sets may be accessed forwards or backwards along the data structure without re-execution of the queries.
US09020965B1	Social networking relationship ranking and decay Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for retrieving connection score data for a user, the user being a user of a computer-implemented social networking service, the connection score data comprising one or more connections scores, each connection score reflecting a degree of interaction between the user and a respective contact, determining that a first connection score is less than or equal to a minimum connection score, the first connection score being associated with a first contact of the user within the social networking service, and, in response to determining that the first connection score is less than or equal to the minimum connection score, removing the first contact as a contact of the user within the social networking service.
US09020961B2	Method or system for transforming between trees and arrays Embodiments of articles, apparatuses, devices and/or systems for manipulating hierarchical sets of data are disclosed herein including, for example, an apparatus that includes a computing platform to transform between a tree and a condensed array of numerals.
US09020960B2	System and method for modeling relationships between entities The disclosure describes systems and methods for modeling relationships between entities on a network using data collected from a plurality of communication channels including social data, spatial data, temporal data and logical data within a W4 Network. The W4 Network personalizes and automates sorting, filtering and processing of W4COMN communications delivered or requested to be delivered using personalized value-based ranking and encoding of data, which is modeled from the point-of-view (POV) of any specific user, topic or node in the W4 Distributed graph. POV modeling supplies comparative value services to users which entails individuated data models to be aggregated and used in customization and personalization forecasting for each user and their associated data management needs.
US09020953B1	Search table for data networking matching A high efficiency search table is implemented with a multiple hash algorithm. The search table allows for exact match searching of arbitrary data sets with fixed latency. The probability of collisions from the hash algorithms is reduced through the use of oversized pointer tables allowing for a level of indirection between hash values and table entries. In the event of a collision in all hash functions, a firmware assisted cuckoo algorithm is employed to resolve the collision.
US09020949B2	Method and system for centralized issue tracking In one example, a method for facilitating centralized issue tracking. The method includes receiving information on a case from an issue tracking system (case information). The method facilitates executing a tagging method stored in a memory device that reads the case information, determines whether a part of the case information is desired information, and then tags the desired information. Finally, the method facilitates communicating the tagged information to a centralized database, where the centralized database stores the tagged information, and where the tagged information is accessible to the issue tracking system and at least one other issue tracking system.
US09020943B2	Methods, systems, and computer program product for automatically categorizing defects Disclosed are method(s), system(s), and computer program product(s) for automatically categorizing a defect into a category based at least on a keyword related to the defect. The method identifies information regarding the defect and identifies additional information related to categorizing the defect. The method identifies a keyword and determines whether the defect may be categorized into a category using the keyword. The method further comprises determining if the result of categorization is deterministic. In some embodiments, the method or the system further comprises associating a first score for categorizing the defect into the category based on the keyword and a second score for categorizing the defect into the category based on another keyword. In some embodiments, the method or the system further comprises identifying or determining a relationship between the first score and the second score with respect to the first category for the defect.
US09020939B2	Correlating queries issued by applications with their source lines and analyzing applications for problem determination and where used analysis Provided are techniques for invoking with a processor executing on a computer a source code parser to obtain source information that includes a first location of an Application Programming Interface (API) call and parameters of the API call in source code of a client application, where the parameters the API call do not include query text for a query that is to be used to access a database; examining a stack trace to determine a second location of the API call in the stack trace; and deriving the query of the API call and a third location of the query in the source code by identifying the query in the stack trace at the location of the API call in the stack trace.
US09020935B2	Systems and methods of building and using custom word lists Standard word lists that are often used for such operations as predictive text, spell checking, and word completion are based on general linguistic data that might not accurately reflect actual text usage patterns of particular users. Systems and methods of building and using a custom word list for use in text operations on an electronic device are provided. A collection of text items associated with a user of the electronic device is scanned to identify words in the text items. A weighting is then assigned to each identified word, and the words and corresponding weightings are stored.
US09020933B2	Identifying inadequate search content Systems and methods for identifying inadequate search content are provided. Inadequate search content, for example, can be identified based on statistics associated with the search queries related to the content.
US09020926B1	Refining search queries Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for refining search queries. In one implementation, a method includes obtaining a submitted search query, and in response to obtaining the search query: obtaining search results responsive to the search query; selecting a document from a group of documents identified by the search results; generating from a subset of one or more entities associated with the document one or more candidates for refined search queries, including: identifying one or more terms in the search query, where the one or more terms occur in the search query in a particular order relative to each other, and combining the one or more terms with the entity to generate a candidate, where the one or more terms occur in the particular order relative to each other; and identifying one or more of the candidates as being refined search queries for providing with the search results.
US09020923B2	Systems and methods to facilitate media search Graphical user interfaces for searching music. A computer provides a window of a first webpage providing a user interface to search music, comprising search tools including filter tools and a keyword search tool. In response to a user search request for music via the filter tools and/or the keyword search tool, the computer provides, within the window, music search results. When a search result is selected by the user, the selected search result expands within the window. The expanded search result includes one or more of: a grab button, a download button, a share button, a license button, an audio player showing an audio waveform of the selected music search result, a description of the selected music search result, artwork associated with the search result, and an explore-more button, that when selected provides additional music related to the selected music based on acoustic similarity.
US09020915B2	Techniques for administering commingled content items Techniques for assisting owners to remotely administer their digital content items stored at non-owners' personal computing devices. The techniques involve identifying owned content items from among content items stored in a synchronization replica that is synchronized with synchronization replicas at the non-owners' personal computing devices. The techniques further involve allowing owners to remotely perform certain administrative actions on owned content items. For example, in response to a command initiated at an owner's personal computing device, a network signal or signals can be sent to a synchronization agent installed on the non-owners' personal computing devices to automatically remove all owned content items from the synchronization replicas at the non-owners' personal computing devices. For example, the generation and sending of such signal can be performed by an online content item storage and synchronization service that synchronizes a server-stored synchronization replica with the synchronization replicas at the non-owners' personal computing devices.
US09020914B2	Automatic song selection A method for automatically selecting a plurality of media for rendering on an electronic device includes identifying at least first and second characteristics of media to be selected, wherein the first and second characteristics are different from one another. Further, an initial media corresponding to the first characteristic and an end media corresponding to the second characteristic are selected. Then, at least one intermediate media is selected based on a trend from the first characteristic to the second characteristic.
US09020912B1	Methods for accessing data in a compressed file system and devices thereof A method, computer readable medium, and network traffic management apparatus that accesses data in a compressed file system includes obtaining an original write request from a client computing device including at least object data. The object data is compressed into a plurality of compressed blocks. A mapping of each compressed block to a portion of the object data compressed therein is generated, wherein the portion of the object data compressed therein is represented in the mapping by a unique object identifier, a start offset, and a length. The compressed blocks and the mapping are stored in at least one data storage device. At least one data access request for at least a portion of the object data is serviced based on the mapping.
US09020910B2	Storing tables in a database system A method for processing data contained in tables in a relational database includes joining a first table and a second table into a joined table determining metadata for at least one column of a table of the following tables: the first table, the second table, and the joined table. The metadata is used for processing data in the at least one column of the table, and for processing data in at least one column of at least one other table of the following tables: the first table, the second table, and the joined table.
US09020909B2	Active file Instant Cloning Techniques and mechanisms are provided to instantly clone active files including active optimized files. When a new instance of an active file is created, a new stub is generated in the user namespace and a block map file is cloned. The block map file includes the same offsets and location pointers that existed in the original block map file. No user file data needs to be copied. If the cloned file is later modified, the behavior can be same as what happens when a de-duplicated file is modified.
US09020907B2	Method and system for ranking affinity degree among functional blocks A methodology for assisting a user in a combination of functional blocks by defining a value representative of an affinity degree among the functional blocks. Such affinity degree is influenced by available historic data derived by previous uses of the functional blocks which had been recorded into a repository.
US09020893B2	Asynchronous namespace maintenance Asynchronous namespace maintenance in a distributed replicated data storage system is disclosed. An access device/program serving as a front end to the distributed replicated data storage system updates a batch of updated meta data about stored data items when data items are stored in the distributed replicated data storage system. When the elapsed time since the last batch of data item meta data was stored exceeds a first threshold value or the current batch size exceeds a second threshold value, the access device/program stores the current batch of updated meta data as an object in the distributed replicated data storage system, receiving a batch object identifier for the stored batch of updated meta data, and distributes the batch object identifier to other access devices and/or access programs which retrieve the batch of updated meta data and update their namespaces.
US09020892B2	Efficient metadata storage One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for efficiently storing metadata of partitioned data (e.g., directed to a specific individual/user). A first subset of data is identified from the set of partitioned data. The first subset of data comprises data that has a high frequency of access, and may be identified, at least in part, by frequency of access metadata that is associated with the data in the set. Metadata, such as discovery information, permissions, version info, etc., that is associated with the data in the first subset can be stored in low latency (e.g., fast) storage, proving more efficient access. Metadata associated with data from the set of partitioned data that is not in the first subset (e.g., that is not accessed frequently) can be stored in higher latency (e.g., slower, less expensive) storage.
US09020888B1	Data replicating systems and data replication methods Methods and systems for synchronizing data may enable a computer to synchronize data by connecting to a peer computer via a network connection. The computer may receive a remote table from the peer computer, wherein the remote table comprises an object comprising a vector. The computer may determine whether the object is present in a local table. When the object is present in the local table, the computer may determine whether the vector in the remote table and the vector in the local table match. When the vectors do not match, the computer may determine whether a record of a change to the object is present in a local transaction log. The computer may receive data from the peer computer indicating whether a record of a change to the object is present in a remote transaction log when the vectors do not match. The computer may replace the vector in the local table with the vector in the remote table and record a change to the object in the local transaction log when the record of the change to the object in the local transaction log is less recent than the record of the change to the object in the remote transaction log.
US09020879B2	Intelligent data agent for a knowledge management system A system includes a memory operable to store one or more classification rules. The system also includes a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The processor is operable to retrieve one or more data elements from a data source. The processor is further operable to identify a structured data element among the one or more data elements. The processor is further operable to parse the structured data element using one or more filter processes to produce a plurality of tokens. The processor is further operable to classify the plurality of tokens based at least in part on the one or more classification rules and an ontology, which includes a plurality of concepts and a plurality of relationships between the concepts. The processor is further operable to generate a knowledge assertion, which includes the plurality of classified tokens and one or more relationships between the classified tokens.
US09020878B2	Intelligent airfoil component surface inspection An apparatus includes a positioning system; a surface indicator system to collect an indication data set from a surface of a component utilizing a fluorescent penetration process; an indication data processing system to create an output data set in response to the indication data set utilizing a fuzzy logic algorithm; and a microprocessor to provide at least one surface variance in response to the indication data set and the output data set. A method including conducting a surface indication technique for a component; utilizing a positioning algorithm to manipulate positioning equipment in response to the component; directing an indication source to a surface of the component; collecting an indication data set in response to directing the indication source; applying a fuzzy logic analysis in response to the indication data set to provide an output data set; and providing at least one surface variance in response to the output data set.
US09020877B2	Method and system for managing computer systems A management system for a computer system is disclosed. The computer system operates or includes various products (e.g., software products) that can be managed in a management system or collectively by a group of management systems. Typically, the management system operates on a computer separate from the computer system being managed. The management system can make use of a knowledge base of causing symptoms for previously observed problems at other sites or computer systems. In other words, the knowledge base can built from and shared by different users across different products to leverage knowledge that is otherwise disparate. The knowledge base typically grows over time. The management system can use its ability to request information from the computer system being managed together with the knowledge base to infer a problem root cause in the computer system being managed. The computer system being managed can also request the management system to process its knowledge base for possible problem cause analysis. The management system can also continually identify persisting problem causing symptoms.
US09020876B2	On-demand suggestion for vehicle driving A method of on-demand suggestion for vehicle driving which includes: providing a centralized vehicle driving knowledgebase containing previously-stored information pertaining to vehicle driving situations; responsive to a request for information pertaining to navigating a particular road situation, collecting current parameters pertaining to a current vehicle driving situation; providing the current parameters to the centralized vehicle driving knowledgebase; evaluating the current parameters with respect to the information previously stored in the centralized vehicle driving knowledgebase; and providing at least one suggestion to a vehicle for navigating the particular road situation. Also included is a computer program product for providing an on-demand suggestion for vehicle driving and a vehicle helping system.
US09020875B1	Catastrophe prediction via estimated network autocorrelation Described is a system for catastrophe prediction. The system generates a time series of observables at multiple time steps from data observed from a complex system. A surrogate time series based on the time series of observables is then generated. Inferred network structures for both the time series of observables and the surrogate time series are reconstructed. Next, spatial autocorrelation for each inferred network structure in both the time series of observables and the surrogate time series is computed. A statistical test of a detected trend between the time series of observables and the surrogate time series is computed to determine if the detected trend occurred by chance. Finally, an early warning signal of the detected trend occurring by chance is generated.
US09020873B1	Decision engine using a finite state machine for conducting randomized experiments Systems, apparatus, methods and articles of manufacture provide for implementing a decision engine using a finite state machine for conducting randomized experiments. According to some embodiments, methods may include initializing a decision engine comprising at least one state machine, receiving information defining for the at least one state machine, states and transitions between the states, receiving information defining at least one set of weighted choices, receiving an indication of an occurrence of an event, executing the decision engine to select randomly using the at least one state machine a weighted choice based on the event, and transmitting to the application an indication of the identified random choice.
US09020872B2	Detecting missing rules with most general conditions A technique for detecting missing rules (mr) with most general conditions in a rule project (1) having a given scope with a fixed number of objects of a given type, wherein each rule (r) is defined by at least one test (t) in respect to at least one condition of at least one attribute (age, value) of the object, the method comprising the steps of finding at least one missing case not covered by the rules (r), identifying a list of tests (t) that occur in the rules (r), generalizing the missing case into a family of missing cases (mc) in terms of the tests (t) occurring in the rules (r), generalizing the family of missing cases (mc) into a missing rule (mr), and generating missing rules (mr) with most general conditions.
US09020870B1	Recall system using spiking neuron networks Described is a recall system that uses spiking neuron networks to identify an unknown external stimulus. The system operates by receiving a first input signal (having spatial-temporal data) that originates from a known external stimulus. The spatial-temporal data is converted into a first spike train. A first set of polychronous groups (PCGs) are generated as a result of the first spike train. Thereafter, a second input signal originating from an unknown external stimulus is received. The spatial-temporal data of the second input signal is converted into a second spike train. A second set of PCGs are then generated as a result of the second spike train. Finally, the second set of PCGs is recognized as being sufficiently similar to the first set of PCGs to identify the unknown external stimulus as the known external stimulus.
US09020862B2	Method and system for computer question-answering A method and system for computer question-answering. The method includes: receiving a plurality of the questions to be trained, and obtaining a candidate answer set for each question; determining part of the questions to which the candidate answer sets include correct answers, and using first feature sets of the candidate; obtaining a first mathematical model, which is used to compute a first confidence degree that the candidate answer is a correct answer; computing first confidence degrees of the candidate answers of all the questions to be trained, and for each question, extracting a second feature set related to the first confidence degrees and the first feature set; and obtaining a second mathematic model, which is used to compute a second confidence degree that the candidate answer is a correct answer based on the second feature set.
US09020861B2	Predictive model application programming interface Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for utilizing predictive models from an application scripting language.
US09020860B2	Automated mail creation and processing system A system and method for preparing mail packages to be sent to recipients includes a carrier envelope with a front address window and a back window. A content document having a style code printed on it is positioned at the back of the carrier envelope. The content style code is positioned to be visible through the back window of the carrier envelope. A reply envelope is enclosed with an address area aligned with the front window of the carrier envelope. Mail packages are prepared by storing a corresponding content style for the recipient. While transported, the content style code is scanned. From the style code, a recipient having the corresponding content style is selected from the stored list. That recipients name and address are printed onto the address area of the reply envelope.
US09020857B2	Integrated risk management process A method and system allowing the analysis of risk through the use of Monte Carlo simulation, statistical and data analysis, stochastic forecasting, and optimization. The present invention includes novel methods such as the detailed reporting capabilities coupled with advanced analytical techniques, an integrated risk management process and procedures, adaptive licensing technology, and model profiling and storage procedures.
US09020856B2	License compliance management Methods, computer program products and systems for determining the level of use of a program associated with a license, by one or more agents, for comparison with a predetermined licensed level of use. In one embodiment of the invention, the method comprises the steps of collecting initial data from the one or more agents associated with a metric indicative of use of the program during a first predetermined time period, calculating the metric to determine a level use of the program for the first predetermined time period, receiving new data from one or more agents associated with the metric of usage of the program, where the new data arrives after the first predetermined time period, estimating a new value of the metric to determine a approximate level of use for a second predetermined time period from the original data, the metric and the new data and in response to a trigger event, recalculating the metric to produce a final value of the metric based on the original data and the new data to provide an indication of the level of use of the program.
US09020854B2	Linked account system using personal digital key (PDK-LAS) One embodiment of the invention includes a system comprising: a personal digital key and a computer readable medium that is accessible when authenticated by the personal digital key.
US09020852B2	Systems and methods for activation and deactivation of appliances Systems and methods are provided for an appliance system. The system includes an appliance, and a processor connected to the appliance such that the processor places the appliance in one of an enabled state and a disabled state. The processor is configured to track usage of the appliance and to place the appliance in a disabled state when the usage of the appliance exceeds a threshold amount. The system also includes a data receiving device configured to receive a code, wherein upon receipt of a valid code, the processor is configured to adjust the threshold amount to allow additional usage of the appliance.
US09020851B2	Apparatus and method of a distributed capital system Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention provide for conducting financial transactions over a network. A user requests to execute at least one financial transaction with at least one of a number of parties, each of the parties corresponding to a data processing system on the network. Real-time financial information relating to the financial transaction is obtained, and the user can test and confirm that the financial transaction with the at least one party can take place prior to execution of the financial transaction.
US09020848B1	Method and system for time and location tracking A method for tracking time and location of an employee based on a predefined schedule. This method may uses time tracking software installed on a mobile device to detect the presence (or lack of presence) of an electronic signal emitted by a NFC (near field communication), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), or other wireless device. The detection may trigger the mobile application to communicate to a server to determine if the employee is scheduled to work at a work zone, which may result in the mobile application clocking in/out the employee. Also, geofencing may be used in combination with scheduling to clock in/out employees when entering a geofenced area determined by the employer. These location detection embodiments of the present invention may be used individually or in combination to improve location accuracy. A supervisor may also use this system to review the timesheets, make changes and integrate the data into a Payroll system.
US09020846B2	Trailer utilization systems, methods, computer programs embodied on computer-readable media, and apparatuses The disclosed systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer programs embodied on computer-readable media may enable a shipping carrier to determine the utilization of a trailer in a delivery network by receiving and aggregating disparate types and sources of shipping information, including, for example, package billing data from a customer order, scan data from the loading and unloading of packages transported by the trailer, dimensional data received from dimensional scans of packages at carrier shipping hubs, and/or trailer data including the volume of the trailer. Utilization may be determined for each trailer in a carrier delivery network or for a subset of trailers in the network. The determined utilizations may be used to determine the parameters for an optimized delivery network, which may include the addition, elimination, and/or modification of the delivery schedule. Network optimization may be an iterative process that may be continually performed using continually updated trailer utilization statistics.
US09020844B2	System and method for calculating and displaying price distributions based on analysis of transactions Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
US09020843B2	System and method for aggregation, analysis, presentation and monetization of pricing data for vehicles and other commodities Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
US09020842B2	System and method for facilitating a transaction between a buyer and a seller where the seller is one of multiple available providers The present invention provides a computer system and method for facilitating a transaction between a buyer and a seller. The seller is one of multiple available providers of a product and/or service. Initially, the buyer sends out an order, and the order is automatically verified. A seller is then determined based on at least one desirable characteristic of that particular seller. Then, the order is automatically translated into a format understandable by the desired seller. The order is communicated to the desired seller and the status of the order is later communicated to the buyer.
US09020841B2	System and method for custom-fitting services to consumer requirements Systems and methods for custom-fitting a service solution to consumer requirements are provided. A method for custom-fitting a service solution to consumer requirements, comprises acquiring a request for the service solution from a consumer via a conversational interface, and issuing a query to a service knowledge base to obtain a set of service knowledge representation items from the service knowledge base and analyzing each service knowledge representation item to determine whether a custom-fit service solution can be developed.
US09020836B2	Method and system for mobile banking using a mobile application A method for transmitting data between a mobile communication device and a server. The method includes running a mobile application on the mobile communication device. The mobile application is hosted on the mobile communication device through the server as a Software as a Service (SaaS). The method further includes transmitting data associated with the mobile application between the mobile communication device and the server, in which transmission of the data between the mobile communication device and the server is monitored through the server.
US09020835B2	Search-powered connection targeting A social networking system extends the reach of an ad by allowing an advertiser to seed a search for suggesting targeting criteria for an ad. Using the seeds, the social networking system identifies a set of seed objects from a social graph. The social networking system traverses the social graph to compute the similarity between the seed objects and candidate objects related to the seed objects. Based on the computed similarity, the social networking system suggests a set of target objects to the advertiser. The social networking system receives a selection of one or more target objects from the advertiser. From the selected target objects the social networking system determines one or more targeting criteria for the ad, so users with an edge in the social graph to any of the selected target objects are eligible to receive the ad.
US09020830B2	Hierarchy based dependent object relationships Embodiments are directed towards employing a plurality of object relationships to dynamically generate a hierarchical structure of dependent object relationships (“HSDOR”). Each object relationship may include a plurality of information, including, but not limited to, a consumer object, a provider object, a one or more direct values, a quantity of units consumed by the consumer object, or the like. Dependencies between the plurality of object relationships may be utilized to dynamically generate an HSDOR. In some embodiments, the HSDOR may be modified by resolving detected circularity relationships within the HSDOR and/or dynamically modifying object relationship dependencies affected by a new and/or modified object relationship. In some embodiments, the HSDOR may be utilized to iteratively determine a total value of an object as a function of total loaded values of object relationships from which the object depends.
US09020822B2	Emotion recognition using auditory attention cues extracted from users voice Emotion recognition may be implemented on an input window of sound. One or more auditory attention features may be extracted from an auditory spectrum for the window using one or more two-dimensional spectro-temporal receptive filters. One or more feature maps corresponding to the one or more auditory attention features may be generated. Auditory gist features may be extracted from feature maps, and the auditory gist features may be analyzed to determine one or more emotion classes corresponding to the input window of sound. In addition, a bottom-up auditory attention model may be used to select emotionally salient parts of speech and execute emotion recognition only on the salient parts of speech while ignoring the rest of the speech signal.
US09020820B2	State detecting apparatus, communication apparatus, and storage medium storing state detecting program A state detecting apparatus includes: a processor to execute acquiring utterance data related to uttered speech, computing a plurality of statistical quantities for feature parameters regarding features of the utterance data, creating, on the basis of the plurality of statistical quantities regarding the utterance data and another plurality of statistical quantities regarding reference utterance data based on other uttered speech, pseudo-utterance data having at least one statistical quantity equal to a statistical quantity in the other plurality of statistical quantities, computing a plurality of statistical quantities for synthetic utterance data synthesized on the basis of the pseudo-utterance data and the utterance data, and determining, on the basis of a comparison between statistical quantities of the synthetic utterance data and statistical quantities of the reference utterance data, whether the speaker who produced the uttered speech is in a first state or a second state; and a memory.
US09020814B2	Pulse encoding and decoding method and pulse codec In a pulse encoding and decoding method and a pulse codec, more than two tracks are jointly encoded, so that free codebook space in the situation of single track encoding can be combined during joint encoding to become code bits that may be saved. Furthermore, a pulse that is on each track and required to be encoded is combined according to positions, and the number of positions having pulses, distribution of the positions that have pulses on the track, and the number of pulses on each position that has a pulse are encoded separately, so as to avoid separate encoding performed on multiple pulses of a same position, thereby further saving code bits.
US09020809B1	Increasing semantic coverage with semantically irrelevant insertions A method includes accessing data specifying a set of actions, each action defining a user device operation and for each action: accessing a corresponding set of command sentences for the action, determining first n-grams in the set of command sentences that are semantically relevant for the action, determining second n-grams in the set of command sentences that are semantically irrelevant for the action, generating a training set of command sentences from the corresponding set of command sentences, the generating the training set of command sentences including removing each second n-gram from each sentence in the corresponding set of command sentences for the action, and generating a command model from the training set of command sentences configured to generate an action score for the action for an input sentence based on: first n-grams for the action, and second n-grams for the action that are also second n-grams for all other actions.
US09020807B2	Format for displaying text analytics results A system can receive text. The text can be divided into various portions. One or more significance indicators can be associated with each portion of text: these significance indicators can also be received by the system. The system can then display a portion of text and the associated significance indicators to the user.
US09020806B2	Generating sentence completion questions The subject disclosure is directed towards automated processes for generating sentence completion questions based at least in part on a language model. Using the language model, a sentence is located, and alternates for a focus word (or words) in the sentence are automatically provided. Also described is automated filtering candidate sentences to locate the sentence, filtering the alternates based upon elimination criteria, scoring sentences with the correct word and as modified the alternates, and ranking the alternates. Manual selection may be used along with the automated processes.
US09020805B2	Context-based disambiguation of acronyms and abbreviations Context-based disambiguation of acronyms and/or abbreviations may determine a target abbreviation and one or more keywords appearing in context with the target abbreviation in a received passage, the target abbreviation representing a shortened form of one or more word. A contextual search query including the target abbreviation and said one or more keywords may be generated. A pseudo document index may be searched for one or more expansions of the target abbreviation by invoking the contextual search query, the pseudo document index containing index of one or more pseudo documents, associated one or more abbreviations and associated context keywords. One or more pseudo documents associated with the target abbreviation may be returned based on the searching of the pseudo document index.
US09020804B2	Method for aligning sentences at the word level enforcing selective contiguity constraints An alignment method includes, for a source sentence in a source language, identifying whether the sentence includes at least one candidate term comprising a contiguous subsequence of words of the source sentence. A target sentence in a target language is aligned with the source sentence. This includes developing a probabilistic model which models conditional probability distributions for alignments between words of the source sentence and words of the target sentence and generating an optimal alignment based on the probabilistic model, including, where the source sentence includes the at least one candidate term, enforcing a contiguity constraint which requires that all the words of the target sentence which are aligned with an identified candidate term form a contiguous subsequence of the target sentence.
US09020801B2	Cluster-based operating system-agnostic virtual computing system According to a disclosed embodiment of the invention, an improved cluster-based collection of computers (nodes) is realized using conventional computer hardware. Software is provided that enables at least one virtual machine to be presented to guest operating systems, wherein each node participating with the virtual machine has its own emulator or virtual machine monitor. VM memory coherency and I/O coherency are provided by hooks, which result in the manipulation of internal processor structures. A private network provides communication among the nodes.
US09020798B2	Real-time capable battery cell simulation A system for real-time simulation of a battery comprising simulating a cell array by an overall computer model is disclosed. The model includes a plurality of single cells. A computer is connected via a cell voltage emulator to a control unit calculating terminal voltages of single cells by using the overall model and supplying the calculated terminal cell voltages to the control unit by the cell voltage emulator. The overall model comprises a first model which models a first single reference cell having cell parameters typical of the cell array and sending the total input current of the cell array to the first model as an input variable. The terminal voltage of the reference cell is calculated by the first model. The overall model further comprises a second model which calculates a deviation in the terminal voltage of an additional single cell from the terminal voltage of the reference cell.
US09020794B2	Enabling real-time testing of on-demand infrastructure Provided are techniques for demonstrating the efficiency and effectiveness of a customer's information technology (IT) system and applications operating in a shared IT, or electronic business on-demand, environment. A test suite mimics hypothetical settings in an on-demand services environment (129) and then determines how the settings affect the allocation of resources in the on-demand services environment (129). The calculated allocation of resources is then compared to one or more service level agreements (SLAs) in order to determine compliance with a particular SLA.
US09020792B2	Coupling architectural and implementation/behavioral models of a computer-based system Coupling architectural and implementation/behavioral models of a computer-based system by creating a bridge element, defining a port of the bridge element, associating the port of the bridge element with a port of an implementable element of an architectural model of a computer-based system and a port of an implementation element of an implementation/behavioral model of the computer-based system, mapping an interface member of the implementation element port to an interface member of the implementable element port, generating, from a template, skeleton source code applicable for the mapped interface member, generating a usage description element for the architectural model corresponding to the mapped interface member, generating an architectural description document from the architectural model, generating implementation code from the implementation/behavioral model and the generated skeleton source code, and generating a declaration file for an operating system service for use by the implementation code.
US09020789B2	Systems and methods for determining volume of activation for deep brain stimulation This document discusses, among other things, systems and methods for determining volume of activation for deep brain stimulation (“DBS”) using a finite element model (FEM) circuit to determine a FEM of an implanted electrode and a tissue medium in which the electrode is implanted, a Fourier FEM solver circuit to calculate a potential distribution in the tissue medium using information from the FEM circuit and a capacitive component of at least one of the implanted electrode and the tissue medium, and a volume of activation (VOA) circuit to predict a VOA using the potential distribution and a neuron model.
US09020787B2	Methods, systems and media for simulating contact scenarios Embodiments of the invention provide methods enabling reliable simulation of objects in contact scenarios. Embodiments of the invention utilize methods providing three parameter-independent guarantees. According to embodiments of the invention, simulations of well-posed problems: have no interpenetrations; obey causality, momentum and energy conservation laws; and complete in finite time.
US09020786B2	Analyzing structural durability in the frequency domain A method of analyzing the durability of a structure. Load-controlled testing is performed on samples of a composite material of the structure to relate critical strain invariants of the material to cyclic rates of strain invariant accumulation and frequencies associated with the cyclic rates. The material is characterized based on effective properties of the material, including the cyclic rates of strain invariant accumulation. Laminate properties and a geometrical definition of the structure are used to obtain a parametric model. Material characterizations are used to determine model element frequency responses to applied load conditions. Each element's frequency responses and critical strain invariants are used to determine whether damage is indicated at the element. Progression of damage is tracked and accounted for in the model.
US09020785B2	Identifying and routing poison tuples in a streaming application A method for processing a stream of tuples may comprise receiving a stream of tuples to be processed by a plurality of processing elements operating on one or more computer processors. In addition, the method may include generating a model of performance for processing the stream of tuples at runtime, wherein one or more tuples from the stream of tuples potentially cause adverse performance. Further, the method may comprise predicting a parameter for a tuple from the stream of tuples, the parameter indicating a potential for adverse performance, the predicting including using the model. The method may also include modifying processing of the tuple if the parameter falls outside a threshold.
US09020783B2	Direct manipulation of composite terrain objects with intuitive user interaction A method, apparatus, system, and computer readable medium provide the ability to manipulate a terrain in a drawing. A composite object of the terrain is obtained in a CAD BIM application. The composite object is a combination of sub-objects that each define a geometry that is part of the terrain. Each of the sub-objects is drawn on a separate corresponding drawable interface instance. A sub-object is selected and in response, the selected sub-object is displayed in its corresponding drawable interface instance. The selected sub-object is directly modified, in canvas, using the drawable interface instance. In response to the modification, the terrain is dynamically updated and displayed.
US09020781B2	Monitoring memory module parameters in high performance computers Monitoring parameters of memory modules is described. According to certain embodiments, one or more parameters on respective memory modules are monitored. Corresponding parameter information is transmitted from the respective memory module to a device that is external to the respective memory modules.
US09020780B2	Motion detector module In a data acquisition system a sensor module includes a motion sensor and a communication controller. The motion sensor and communication controller are prepared in a form factor adapted to be received within, or otherwise readily used with, the user appliance. A data signal produced by the motion sensor is adaptable for compliance validation.
US09020777B2	Method for locating and detecting the position of the wheels of a vehicle A method for locating the position of the wheels of a vehicle, each wheel being equipped with a sensor capable of emitting a location signal and the vehicle being equipped with a receiver capable of receiving the location signals emitted by the sensors. The method includes the step of determining a signature of the location signal emitted by the sensor of each wheel as a function of the position of the wheel on the vehicle, and the step of storing in the receiver the signature and the corresponding position of each of the wheels. The receiver is equipped with at two least two antennas, called first and second antennas, the signature of the location signal emitted by the sensor of each wheel being determined from the strength difference between the strength of the signal received by the first antenna and the strength of the signal received by the second antenna.
US09020776B2	Inclination angle compensation systems and methods An inclination angle compensation system for determining an inclination angle of a machine is disclosed. The inclination angle compensation system may have a non-gravitational acceleration estimator configured to estimate a non-gravitational acceleration of a machine based on an estimated inclination angle and an acceleration output from a forward acceleration sensor. The inclination angle compensation system may also have an inclination angle sensor corrector configured to receive an inclination angle output from an inclination angle sensor, determine an inclination angle sensor acceleration based on the inclination angle output, and calculate a corrected inclination angle of the machine based on the non-gravitational acceleration and the inclination angle sensor acceleration.
US09020767B2	Wireless fuel monitoring system A monitoring system includes a transducer coupled to an outer surface of a tank wall. The transducer is oriented to transmit a first signal through the tank wall. An intermediate reflective surface is positioned within the fuel storage tank. The intermediate reflective surface is oriented to produce a first reflected signal associated with the first signal. A controller is programmed to calculate a fuel level based on at least the first signal and the first reflected signal.
US09020765B2	Safety system in and method for the operation of a combustion device A system and a method for safe operations of a mass flow sensor in a combustion device, with a gas supply, an air supply, a fan with an electric motor, a burner, and a communication micro processor, wherein the mass flow sensor includes a microprocessor used for communications, the communication micro processor communicates with the micro processor of the one mass flow sensor, and the communications include safety-relevant interrogations of the mass flow sensor in order to secure the mass flow sensor.
US09020762B2	Method for providing road data in a motor vehicle, and ground-based device Ground-based devices are provided which each have a transceiver apparatus and a data memory. Route data are stored in the data memory. This route data can be transmitted in a wireless fashion from the ground-based device to motor vehicles so that information relating to such a route is made available in the motor vehicles which are located outside the sensing range of a sensing apparatus of the motor vehicle.
US09020760B2	System for classifying streets for vehicle navigation Vehicle management systems and associated processes can determine and consider street classifications when selecting routes for fleet vehicles. In one embodiment, a system for calculating routes for a plurality of vehicles in a vehicle fleet includes a computer system. The computer system is configured to receive custom data to classify streets of a network of streets in a geographic region for use in calculating routes. Based at least in part on the received custom data, the computer system can calculate custom routes on the network of streets between waypoint locations. In addition, the computer system can determine a classification for each street of the network of streets based at least in part on the calculated custom routes. The classification can include a score indicative of a hierarchical ranking of each street for calculating routes for the fleet vehicles on the network of streets in the geographic region.
US09020757B2	Path planning autopilot A path planning autopilot guides vehicles efficiently even when they are far from a desired path.
US09020752B2	Method and device for indoor positioning using magnetic field properties The present invention relates to a method for positioning a user inside a building, wherein the user has a user carried device and the device is provided with a direction sensor and a movement sensor. The method includes providing the user carried device with a vector map of the building, wherein the vector map includes vectors and nodes representing possible movement paths for the user in the building; determining a starting point in the vector map, receiving movement information from the movement sensor, receiving direction information from the direction sensor, receiving a magnetic field map at the user carried device, wherein the magnetic field is detectable by the user carried device, and estimating a new position of the user based on the vector map, the movement information, the direction information and the property map.
US09020741B2	Driving support system, driving support method, and in-vehicle unit Traffic information is provided to an in-vehicle unit of a vehicle located in a shadow portion of a large-sized vehicle and to an in-vehicle unit of a vehicle at a location separated from an intersection 193. A UHF beacon unit 112 is installed at the intersection 193, thereby distributing the traffic information using a UHF beacon signal having a diffraction characteristic. This arrangement can allow the in-vehicle unit of the vehicle located in the shadow portion of the large-sized vehicle as well to receive the traffic information. Further, since the UHF signal propagates far, this arrangement can allow the in-vehicle unit of the vehicle at the location separated from the intersection 193 as well to receive the traffic information. The UHF beacon unit 112 transmits, to a plurality of concentric zones, UHF beacon signals with different traffic information set therein for the different zones, by time division. At this time, the UHF beacon unit 112 transmits the UHF beacon signals with the different traffic information set therein, with different transmission output powers.
US09020735B2	Skip fire internal combustion engine control A variety of methods and arrangements for controlling the operation of an internal combustion engine in a skip fire variable displacement mode are described. In one aspect, the working chamber firing that are selected to deliver the desired engine output are determined at least in part based on torque feedback. The torque feedback may be an indication of the torque output of the engine or the torque experienced at some other location in the drive train. In some embodiments, the torque feedback signal is filtered to remove high frequency components of the torque feedback signal in order to help stabilize the system. In another aspect, other operational parameters are used as feedback in the determination of the firing sequence. In yet another aspect, a filter is arranged to filter a feedback signal to provide a filtered feedback signal that is used in the determination of the working chamber firings.
US09020730B2	Safety interlock system with side area detection A safety interlock system for a motor vehicle has a plurality of object sensors capable of detecting the presence of an object such as a pedestrian in the danger zone at the front of the vehicle, rear the vehicle or proximate to the wheels. A door sensor is capable of detecting the open or closed state of the vehicle doors. An interlock override switch and a control circuit are also connected to the safety interlock system. The control circuit is capable of activating the safety interlock system when a door open signal is received. When the safety interlock system is activated the control circuit may engage the brakes to prevent motion of the vehicle if an object signal is received from the object sensor.
US09020727B2	Vehicle braking assist device and vehicle braking assist method A vehicle braking assist device for a host vehicle includes a risk potential computing part that computes a risk potential of the host vehicle with respect to an obstacle in the travelling direction of the host vehicle, an accelerator operation state sensor that detects the operation state of an accelerator, and a braking force application device that applies a first braking force on the host vehicle when the risk potential is higher than a predetermined first threshold and the detected operation state of the accelerator indicates that the accelerator is not being operated, and that applies a second braking force on the host vehicle irrespective of the operation state of the accelerator when the risk potential is higher than a predetermined second threshold, the risk potential represented by the second threshold being higher than the risk potential represented by the first threshold.
US09020717B2	Method for controlling an automated motor vehicle transmission A method of controlling an automated motor vehicle transmission. A current driving resistance is taken into account when selecting a target gear to be engaged as part of a shifting process. In order to be able to regulate shifting processes in a driving-resistance-dependent manner so as to ensure that the motor vehicle can always able to continue driving on, during selection of the target gear, disregarding gears for shifting from a currently engaged gear, in a driving-resistance-dependent manner, when the required associated shifting times are longer than a respective permitted maximum shifting time. In connection with the above, the method is incorporated in an automated motor vehicle transmission, a computer program product and a data carrier, containing the computer program product.
US09020716B2	Control device for vehicle drive device and control method for vehicle drive device A control device for a vehicle drive device that includes a drive source that outputs a drive force for running and an automatic transmission that has multiple speeds, the control device includes: a blipping control device that performs blipping control in which an output torque of the drive source is changed irrespective of an accelerator operation when a manual downshift of the automatic transmission is performed, and that changes a timing to perform next blipping control in a learning manner on the basis of an undershoot amount of a turbine speed at start of shifting of the automatic transmission.
US09020714B2	Control device for automatic transmission For each engine operation state to which a variable cylinder engine can be switched, a fuel consumption amount to be consumed to generate a driving force required to maintain a current traveling state of a vehicle for each of a current gear and a new gear after a possible shift-up is calculated. An automatic shift control of shifting up to the new gear is performed in a condition that a calculated fuel consumption amount of the new gear after the possible shift-up is smaller than a calculated fuel consumption amount of the current gear. In this way, the fuel consumption amount can be optimally reduced and the shift control can be performed without degrading the traveling performance, even in the vehicle equipped with the variable cylinder engine.
US09020713B1	Temperature determination for transmission fluid in a vehicle A transmission assembly in a vehicle includes a transmission configured to receive a transmission fluid. A controller operatively connected to the transmission and configured to store a first look-up table defining respective warm-up calibration factors (Fw) for a respective first set of ambient temperatures. The controller has a processor and tangible, non-transitory memory on which is recorded instructions for executing a method for determining a current temperature (TTF) of the transmission fluid. The vehicle is keyed off and then keyed on after a key-off time duration (te), the controller being deactivated when the vehicle is keyed off and activated when the vehicle is keyed on. The controller is configured to determine the current temperature of the transmission fluid (TTF) based at least partially on the first look-up table and a key-on temperature (TTFkey-on) of the transmission fluid.
US09020708B2	Drive control method of operating machine In drive control of an operating machine configured to drive a structure by a hydraulic motor configured to be driven by operating oil supplied from a hydraulic pump through a control valve and an electric motor configured to cooperate with the hydraulic motor, a speed command generated based on a manipulation amount of a remote control valve configured to determine an operation amount of the structure is subjected to speed feedback control performed based on an actual rotation speed of the hydraulic motor and pressure difference feedback control performed based on an operating oil pressure difference between a suction port and discharge port of the hydraulic motor.
US09020706B2	Vehicle motion control apparatus A vehicle motion control apparatus configured to control a plurality of control objects in a same direction of vehicle motion control to achieve a requested control amount is provided. The vehicle motion control apparatus includes a control object selection unit which is configured to determine priority of the control objects used for the vehicle motion control based on a priority determination condition, to select a control object from among the plurality of control objects. The control object selection unit includes a control object selection timing determination section configured to detect a change in the priority determination condition, and cause the control object selection unit to reselect a control object at a timing of the change detection as a selection timing.
US09020702B2	Steering control apparatus of vehicle and steering control method of the same A steering control apparatus of a vehicle includes a steering motor configured to output a steering torque for steering turning wheel, a steering motor angle sensor configured to detect a rotation angle of the steering motor, a steering motor drive current supply unit configured to supply the steering motor with a steering motor drive current for setting a turning angle of the turning wheel to an angle corresponding to an operation of a steering wheel, a set rotation angle storage unit configured to store beforehand a set rotation angle which is the rotation angle of the steering motor and which corresponds to the set turning angle that is set to an angle smaller than a limit turning angle to which the turning wheel is steerable, and a current supply quantity limiting unit configured to limit a supply quantity of the steering motor drive current.
US09020694B2	Bicycle-use measuring apparatus and control method A bicycle-use measuring apparatus includes a sensor and a controller. The sensor is configured to be installed on a bicycle having a rotating part. The controller is operatively connected to the sensor. The controller adjusts a detection frequency of the sensor in accordance with changes in a rotational state of the rotating part.
US09020693B2	Hydraulic shovel calibration device and hydraulic shovel calibration method A hydraulic shovel calibration device includes an input unit, a first calibration computation unit, and a second calibration computation unit. The input unit is a unit where working point position information and antenna position information are input. The working point position information indicates coordinates of the working point at a plurality of positions which are measured by an external measurement device. The antenna position information indicates coordinates of the position of the antenna which are measured by the external measurement device. The first calibration computation unit computes calibration values of the work implement parameters by numerical analysis based on the working point position information input into the input unit. The second calibration computation unit calibrates the antenna parameters based on the antenna position information input into the input unit.
US09020692B2	Diagnostic apparatus and diagnostic method of hybrid vehicle A diagnostic apparatus of a hybrid vehicle includes an internal combustion engine, an electricity storage device, a motor generating a driving force for a vehicle travel using at least electricity from the electricity storage device, a diagnostic unit diagnosing a vehicle state when an output of the internal combustion engine is zero, a state detection unit detecting a state of the electricity storage device, a remaining time acquisition unit acquiring a remaining time required until diagnostic completion, when the vehicle state is diagnosed by the diagnostic unit, a determination unit determining whether or not the diagnosis of the vehicle state is continued by the diagnostic unit, based on the state of the electricity storage device and the remaining time when the vehicle state is diagnosed by the diagnostic unit, and a control unit that controls continuation or stop of the vehicle state diagnosis according to the determination result.
US09020689B2	Method for real-time model based structural anomaly detection A system and methods for real-time model based vehicle structural anomaly detection are disclosed. A real-time measurement corresponding to a location on a vehicle structure during an operation of the vehicle is received, and the real-time measurement is compared to expected operation data for the location to provide a modeling error signal. A statistical significance of the modeling error signal to provide an error significance is calculated, and a persistence of the error significance is determined. A structural anomaly is indicated, if the persistence exceeds a persistence threshold value.
US09020680B2	Travel direction determination method and system A method for determining a direction of travel for a following vehicle ensures that the following vehicle follows a path indicative of that of a target vehicle. The target vehicle extends in longitudinal (X) and lateral (Y) directions, the longitudinal direction (X) corresponding to an intended direction of travel of the following vehicle. The method may include determining a measured lateral offset (ΔYmeasure) between the following and target vehicles. The method may also include measuring a lateral position change parameter corresponding to an actual performed, ongoing and/or impending lateral position change of the following vehicle, an actual performed, ongoing and/or impending lateral position change of the target vehicle, or a combination thereof. The method may further include determining a lateral offset modification measure (OY) using the lateral position change parameter, and using the measured lateral offset (ΔYmeasure) and lateral offset modification measure (OY) when determining the direction of travel.
US09020679B2	Robotic ordering and delivery system software and methods Systems, methods and devices for the automated delivery of goods form one to another using a robotic tug and accompanying cart. A computer within the tug or cart stores an electronic map of the building floor plan and intended paths for the tug to take when traversing from one location to the next. During the delivery, a variety of different sensors and scanners gather data that is used to avoid obstacles and/or adjust the movement of the tug in order to more closely follow the intended path. The system preferably includes both wired and wireless networks that allow one or more tugs to communicate with a tug base station, a primary network located at the site of the delivery and a remote host center that monitors the status and data collected by the tugs.
US09020675B2	Hybrid vehicle transmission and method of controlling starting of hybrid vehicle Disclosed herein is a vehicle transmission and a method of controlling the starting of the vehicle. The method includes: starting, by a controller, the engine by a starter; adjusting, by the controller, an input shaft speed of a transmission to a predetermined speed range to engage a coupling element of a torque transfer mechanism; and determining, by the controller, after the coupling element of the torque transfer mechanism is engaged, the input shaft speed of the transmission according to the engine speed and driving efficiency of at least two motor generators, in response to a request for engine power.
US09020674B2	Diversion of energy from regenerative braking A regenerative braking system for a vehicle utilizing diversion of energy for efficient use or maintaining consistent vehicle performance. The regenerative braking system includes a generator for producing regenerative energy during slowing and includes switches connected to a battery and a plurality of devices. A processor is connected with the battery and the switches for controlling the configuration of the switches based on a characteristic of the battery. If the battery has a state of charge exceeding a predetermined threshold, the processor controls the switches to route the regenerative energy to the other devices. The processor also controls the switches to provide regenerative energy to specific devices where it may most desirably be utilized. Heating and cooling units of the vehicle may be alternatively or simultaneously connected to receive the regenerative energy for providing consistent vehicle slowing performance when the battery state of charge exceeds the predetermined threshold.
US09020673B2	Hybrid vehicle and control method for the same A hybrid vehicle includes an internal combustion engine (22), a motor (MG2), and a secondary battery (50), and travels in an electric-powered travel mode and in a hybrid travel mode. In the hybrid vehicle, an execution travel mode is set to one of two travel modes including an electric-powered travel priority mode where the hybrid vehicle travels with priority being given to the electric-powered travel mode over the hybrid travel mode, and a hybrid travel priority mode where the hybrid vehicle travels with priority being given to the hybrid travel mode over the electric-powered travel mode. When the execution travel mode is switched while the internal combustion engine (22) is being operated, the internal combustion engine (22) and the motor (MG2) are controlled so that charging/discharging electric power for charging or discharging the secondary battery (50) is gradually changed and the hybrid vehicle travels in the switched execution travel mode (S750 to S800).
US09020672B2	Automatic gear shifting system for two-wheel electric vehicles The automatic gear shifting system for two-wheel electric vehicles includes a detection unit for detecting the status of operation of the two-wheel electric vehicle, a processing unit connected with the detection unit for receiving, analyzing and filtering the detected signals so as to generate a speed-changing signal that is correspondent to the detected signal, and a driving device having a low-power motor unit and control member with multiple nodes. The driving device is connected to the operation cable of the speed changing device. The driving device receives the signals of changing speed so as to change the gears according to the signals of changing speed. A motor unit located at the mediate portion of the vehicle is coupled to the processing unit and the front chainwheel. The gears are automatically changed according to the statuses of the two-wheel electric vehicle to provide sufficient power for climbing, low-speed and high-speed operations.
US09020670B2	Hybrid electric vehicle and method for smooth engine operation with fixed throttle position A torque management strategy for an HEV having an engine operating with a fixed throttle position to better manage NVH while the vehicle is stationary or decelerating and the engine is generating more torque than a requested torque uses excess engine torque to charge the battery until the requested torque is below a torque loss threshold. Partial fuel injector cut off is avoided to reduce or eliminate associated NVH by adjusting a misfire torque limit to the expected or estimated engine torque produced during operation at the fixed throttle position until the requested torque results in complete fuel cut off to all cylinders.
US09020668B2	Apparatus and method for air conditioning vehicle interior using battery charge control of electric vehicle The present invention provides an apparatus and method for air conditioning a vehicle interior using a battery charge control of an electric vehicle, which can improve the cooling/heating performance by setting a start-up time of the electric vehicle and supplying heat generated from a battery during charge and its latent heat to the vehicle interior during initial start-up of the vehicle.
US09020667B2	Empty-load device feedback arrangement An empty-load device feedback arrangement for a train with the railcar having an air brake arrangement with an one air-operable braking assembly, the arrangement including: an empty-load device having: at least one sensor arrangement to sense a load associated with the railcar; a braking assembly input exhibiting a delivered air pressure; a regulation arrangement to regulate air pressure; and a braking assembly output exhibiting a regulated air pressure; and a pressure sensor to: sense the regulated air pressure of the air being delivered to the air-operable braking assembly; and generate a regulated air pressure signal. An air brake arrangement is also disclosed.
US09020664B2	Methods and systems for displaying procedure information on an aircraft display A method for displaying a flight path navigational procedure includes, but is not limited to, detecting with a position detecting system a current location of the aircraft, obtaining from an electronic storage device a plurality of flight path navigation procedures available for a geographic location, determining with a flight path analysis system a preferred flight path that will be taken by the aircraft, and displaying on a display unit a moving map corresponding with the current location of the aircraft and further displaying a depiction of the plurality of flight path navigation procedures on the moving map. The preferred flight path is displayed with a visual cue that visually differentiates the preferred flight path from the other flight paths of the plurality of flight path navigation procedures.
US09020662B2	Predicting aircraft trajectory The present invention provides a computer-implemented method of producing a description of aircraft intent expressed using a formal language. The description may be used to predict aircraft trajectory, for example by air traffic management. Rules are used in association with information provided to generate a set of instructions describing both the aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft and the motion of the aircraft. These instructions are checked to ensure that they describe unambiguously the aircraft's trajectory. The instructions are then expressed using a formal language.
US09020660B2	Efficient intersection autonomous driving protocol A system and method for efficiently and continuously allowing vehicles to travel through an intersection. The method includes broadcasting a synchronization signal to all vehicles that will be entering the intersection and broadcasting an intersection flow time to all of the vehicles that will be entering the intersection that identifies which travel lanes travel in what direction. The method also includes identifying an arrival synchronization pattern for all of the vehicles that will be entering the intersection and controlling a speed of the vehicles traveling through the intersection and a time for the vehicles entering the intersection so that vehicles traveling in perpendicular or cross directions to the intersection will simultaneously travel through the intersection without colliding with each other.
US09020658B2	System and method for monitoring vehicle mass tamper events A system for detecting a mass tamper event affecting a vehicle mass record for a vehicle being monitored includes a body bounce frequency estimator configured to estimate body bounce frequency for the vehicle and a mass estimator configured to estimate a vehicle mass, m, according to the equation (I), where k is a constant relating to a suspension system in the vehicle and ωb is the estimated body bounce frequency. A first comparator compares the estimated vehicle mass value with an alternative vehicle mass value and identifies a mass tamper event when the estimated vehicle mass value differs from the alternative vehicle mass value by more than a pre-determined amount. An interface communicates mass tamper event data to a remote device. A system and method for recording vehicle mass data are also provided. m = k ω b 2 ( I )
US09020656B2	Information handling system thermal control by energy conservation A thermal state within an information handling system enclosure is managed within predetermined constraints by estimating thermal energy introduced to the enclosure by power dissipation to electronic components and thermal energy removed from the enclosure by a cooling airflow generated by a fan. A desired bulk temperature of a cooling airflow is attained at a predetermined position in an enclosure by selecting a fan speed and power allocation to the components that conserves energy within the enclosure at a predetermined thermal state.
US09020650B2	Utility grid, controller, and method for controlling the power generation in a utility grid A utility grid is provided, the utility grid including a centralized controller; an intermittent renewable energy source for generating electrical power; at least one further power generation system; and a local controller for controlling the total power output of the intermittent renewable energy source and the at least one further power generation system, wherein the centralized controller is connected with the local controller and adapted to request a desired total power output from the local controller.
US09020646B2	Automated control-schedule acquisition within an intelligent controller The current application is directed to intelligent controllers that initially aggressively learn, and then continue, in a steady-state mode, to monitor, learn, and modify one or more control schedules that specify a desired operational behavior of a device, machine, system, or organization controlled by the intelligent controller. An intelligent controller generally acquires one or more initial control schedules through schedule-creation and schedule-modification interfaces or by accessing a default control schedule stored locally or remotely in a memory or mass-storage device. The intelligent controller then proceeds to learn, over time, a desired operational behavior for the device, machine, system, or organization controlled by the intelligent controller based on immediate-control inputs, schedule-modification inputs, and previous and current control schedules, encoding the desired operational behavior in one or more control schedules and/or sub-schedules.
US09020643B2	Robot apparatus, control method thereof, and computer program A robot apparatus includes a reception arm determination unit that determines from a left arm or a right arm of a user a reception arm which is used in handing of an object; a hand location calculation unit that calculates a current location of a hand of the reception arm; and a handing operation unit that performs an object handing operation at the location of the hand of the reception arm which is calculated using the hand location calculation unit.
US09020642B2	Robot controller, robot system, robot control method A robot controller includes a force control unit that outputs a correction value of a target track of a robot based on a detected sensor value acquired from a force sensor, a target value output unit that obtains a target value by performing correction processing on the target track based on the correction value and outputs the obtained target value, and a robot control unit that performs feedback control of the robot based on the target value. The force control unit includes an impedance processor that obtains a solution of a differential equation in force control as the correction value before the conversion processing, and a nonlinear convertor that obtains the correction value after the conversion processing by performing nonlinear conversion processing on the correction value before the conversion processing acquired from the impedance processor and outputs the obtained correction value after the conversion processing.
US09020641B2	Obstacle sensing module and cleaning robot including the same Disclosed herein are an obstacle sensing module and a cleaning robot including the same. The cleaning robot includes a body, a driver to drive the body, an obstacle sensing module to sense an obstacle present around the body, and a control unit to control the driver, based on sensed results of the obstacle sensing module. The obstacle sensing module includes at least one light emitter including a light source, and a wide-angle lens to refract or reflect light from the light source so as to diffuse the incident light in the form of planar light, and a light receiver including a reflection mirror to again reflect reflection light reflected by the obstacle so as to generate reflection light, an optical lens spaced from the reflection mirror by a predetermined distance, to allow the reflection light to pass through the optical lens, and an image sensor, and an image processing circuit.
US09020637B2	Simultaneous localization and mapping for a mobile robot A method of simultaneous localization and mapping includes initializing a robot pose and a particle model of a particle filter. The particle model includes particles, each having an associated map, robot pose, and weight. The method includes receiving sparse sensor data from a sensor system of the robot, synchronizing the received sensor data with a change in robot pose, accumulating the synchronized sensor data over time, and determining a robot localization quality. When the accumulated sensor data exceeds a threshold accumulation and the robot localization quality is greater than a threshold localization quality, the method includes updating particles with accumulated synchronized sensor data. The method includes determining a weight for each updated particle of the particle model and setting a robot pose belief to the robot pose of the particle having the highest weight when a mean weight of the particles is greater than a threshold particle weight.
US09020635B2	Beverage dispensing system with user customizable inputs A refrigerator includes a cabinet, a first compartment, a second compartment, a first door providing access to the first compartment, a second door providing access to the second compartment, and a beverage dispensing system operatively connected the cabinet. The refrigerator further includes a user interface operatively connected to the cabinet, the user interface having a display and being configured to identify a user of the beverage dispensing system and customize beverage settings and preferences associated with the user.
US09020634B2	Facility wide mixed mail sorting and/or sequencing system and components and methods thereof The invention generally relates to a facility wide sorting and/or sequencing system for improving product processing operations and, more particularly, to a facility wide system and related functionality for simultaneously sorting and sequencing mixed mail pieces such as, for example, flats and letter mail pieces. The flats and letter mail pieces are placed in frames so that all types of mail pieces can be sorted and/or sequenced simultaneously through merging and diverting a stream of filled trays into and out of different streams at a full or substantially full transport speed.
US09020629B2	Main spindle device of machine tool Loads that act on all the bearings that support a main spindle are derived from a variation in the state of the main spindle and, in addition, raceway surface contact pressures of the respective bearings are analyzed, so it is possible to accurately keep track of the state of each bearing. Then, when the raceway surface contact pressure exceeds a corresponding threshold, a machining condition is changed to execute control such that the raceway surface contact pressure does not exceed the corresponding threshold, and, furthermore, when the raceway surface contact pressure exceeds the corresponding threshold even when the machining condition is changed, the main spindle is controlled to stop, so it is possible to prevent a seizure of each bearing. Thus, it is possible to improve machining accuracy by controlling the main spindle with high accuracy.
US09020625B2	Process cost analysis system A method of process cost analysis that includes determining a per-unit cost function for executing a process step, determining a percentage-of-acceptable-parts function for executing a process step, and receiving production data into memory. The production data corresponds to a measured quality metric of the executed process step. The method further includes determining a probability density function for the received production data, executing on a processor a correlation routine for cross-correlating the cost function with the probability density function of the production data to provide a first cross-correlation, and executing on the processor the correlation routine for cross-correlating the percentage-of-acceptable-parts function with the probability density function of the production data to provide a second cross-correlation. The method includes determining an average effective per-unit cost to produce a resultant of the process step by dividing the first cross-correlation by the second cross-correlation.
US09020618B2	Accelerometer based controller and/or controlled device The present disclosure generally relates to techniques for controlling a device to perform a function, for example, window washing. A controller device may be adapted to control a controlled device. In response to hand movement, an accelerometer in the controller may obtain acceleration and/or angle signals. The signals may be processed in order to identify a command that may be used to control the controlled device. The controlled device may be secured to, for example, a window. Upon identifying command(s) initiated from the controller device, the controlled device may respond to the commands. The controlled device may include, for example, a cleaning unit. The command(s) may be instructions for the controlled device to move about the window and activate the cleaning system.
US09020617B2	Scalable motion control system A control system includes a clustered architecture having a master controller, a central control section including one or more first remote controllers under direct control of the master controller, and a distributed control section including a cluster controller controlled by the master controller. The cluster controller controls the activities of one or more second remote controllers. Each of the first and second remote controllers are utilized to drive one or more axes.
US09020616B2	Control apparatus and control method of performing operation control of actuators In a microcomputer, by virtue of the function of one input signal judgment module in the application layer, with respect to whether the situation is such that operation is to be requested to a controlled object from each of a plurality of applications, judgment processing onto input signals representing status information of controlled objects or detection information from sensors or the like is made common. The object-oriented architecture is introduced into an embedded computer program so that the memory is saved and the apparatus is simplified.
US09020615B2	Stability control system In embodiments of a stability control system, a computing device includes a device housing that is integrated with a display device, and the device housing tilts for multiple display positions. Pivotable components are mechanically-linked and pivot in coordination to position the device housing in a display position, and sensors detect positioning inputs that are received to re-position the device housing. Clutch mechanisms are implemented to limit and/or resist movement of the pivotable components based on the positioning inputs. A stability controller can be implemented to control the clutch mechanisms based on sensor data from the sensors to position the device housing in a display position.
US09020614B2	Plant control system A plant control system carrying out a single shot output without adding a program concerning signal transfer between a supervisory control device and a programmable logic controller to the supervisory control device and the programmable logic controller. The plant control system includes a single shot output functioning section which causes a SCADA system connected to a programmable controller for controlling the plant to send a control signal corresponding to control content of a selected plant to the programmable controller, and, thereafter, to send an erasure signal for erasing the control signal held in the programmable controller to the programmable controller. The single shot output functioning section is outside of the SCADA system and outside of the programmable controller.
US09020609B2	Electrode lead of pacemaker and pacemaker using the same An electrode lead of a pacemaker includes at least one lead wire including at least one composite conductive core. The at least one composite conductive core includes at least one conductive core and at least one carbon nanotube yarn spirally wound on an outer surface of the at least one conductive core. The at least one carbon nanotube yarn includes a number of carbon nanotubes joined end to end by van der Waals attractive forces. The pacemaker includes a pulse generator and the electrode lead electrically connected to the pulse generator.
US09020608B2	Implantable paddle lead comprising stretching electrical traces and method of fabrication In one embodiment, a paddle-style lead for implantation in the epidural space through an insertion tool, the paddle-style lead comprises: a paddle structure that comprises: (i) a frame of rigid material, the frame comprising a spring member adapted to bias the frame to assume a first width and a first length, the frame being adapted to elongate to assume a second width and a second length under application of a compressive force; and (ii) elastic material disposed across an interior surface area defined the frame, wherein a plurality of electrodes and a plurality of electrical traces are provided on the elastic material, wherein the plurality of electrical traces are electrically coupled to a plurality of lead conductors and the plurality of electrodes; wherein the plurality of electrical traces comprises a plurality of alternating curves that elongate when the elastic material is stretched.
US09020607B2	Implantable multi-electrode device The invention provides an implantable multi-electrode device (300) and related methods and apparatuses. In one embodiment, the invention includes an implantable device (300) comprising: an assembly block (320); and a plurality of leads (340 . . . 348) radiating from the assembly block (320), each of the plurality of leads (340 . . . 348) containing at least one electrode (342A), such that the electrodes are distributed within a three-dimensional space, wherein the assembly block (320) includes a barb (350) for anchoring the assembly block (320) within implanted tissue.
US09020606B2	Brain electrode lead anchoring device Disclosed is a device for anchoring a brain lead that includes an anchoring ring with a circular base and a flange joining together where the inner walls form an aperture define a passage of a lead. Outer walls engage with a burr hole to secure the ring to the cranium, and a septum is contained within the aperture of the anchoring ring. Because the septum is already placed in the aperture when the trocar is removed from the brain, the body of the brain lead is immediately clamped by the elastic material of the septum while the tip of trocar is removed from the slit of septum. Friction between the lead body and the elastic material prohibits any movement of the lead caused by handling.
US09020604B2	Multi-electrode neurostimulation device A neurostimulation device is provided comprising an input, a neurostimulation probe, a stimulation unit and a distribution calculation module. At the input stimulation data is received comprising information relating to a stimulation preferability and an orientation of at least one fiber bundle. The neurostimulation probe comprises an array of stimulation electrodes which are coupled to the stimulation unit. The stimulation unit, in accordance with a specified current distribution, provides currents to the respective stimulation electrodes for generating an electric field gradient. The distribution calculation module is coupled to the input and the stimulation unit for based on the stimulation data determining a preferred position and orientation for the electric field gradient, and based on the preferred position and orientation for the electric field gradient, calculating the specified current distribution.
US09020601B2	Hearing prosthesis with a standard wire interface Methods, systems, and devices for receiving a data signal and a power signal by a hearing prosthesis are disclosed. An input signal is received at a first unit of a hearing prosthesis. The first unit receives the input signal at a wired interface module that conforms to a standardized interface. The first unit identifies a data signal and a power signal included in the input signal. The first unit transfers at least a portion of the power signal to a second unit of the hearing prosthesis. The second unit is implanted in a body and is configured to stimulate an auditory organ, allowing a user to perceive at least a portion of a sound.
US09020590B1	Apparatus to transcutaneously stimulate resonant frequencies of mammals An apparatus to stimulate resonant frequencies of mammals, including humans, through transcutaneously applied bipolar micro-current therapeutic frequencies eXclusive OR (XOR) modulated over a variable duty cycle carrier square wave. A Fibonacci number clocked stored-program microcontroller generates a variable duty cycle higher frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) carrier square wave output which is XOR modulated with a lower therapeutic frequency square wave output to control an H-Bridge driver capacitive coupled to an isolation transformer. The preferred embodiment supports one or more user inputs and displaying program and operational information on a suitable display. Further, using an H-Bridge to drive an inductive load with bi-polar pulses creates scalar waves when the H-Bridge's output is switched from one polarity to the opposite each time the therapeutic low frequency square wave output XOR modulates the higher frequency PWM square wave.
US09020588B2	Body composition analyzer for animals A body composition analyzer for animals is provided. A movement of an animal may be restrained by controlling a physical motion of a plurality of electrode units that come into contact with feet of the animal and thus, it is possible to effectively restrict the movement of the animal during measuring of a body composition of the animal, thereby more accurately measuring the body composition.
US09020587B2	Method and apparatus of neurological feedback systems to control physical objects for therapeutic and other reasons A method and apparatus using brainwaves to control real objects is provided. The method and apparatus comprise using sensors to detect the brain's electrical signals and transmit at least two brainwaves to an apparatus that converts the brainwaves into a format usable by a signal processor. The signal processor determines a coherence between portions of the brainwaves, typically in the frequency domain, and compares the coherence values, which change rapidly from moment to moment, to thresholds. Based on the comparison of the coherence value to the thresholds, which are adjusted over time based on feedback relating to success, a control signal is developed that can be sent to a real object to control 3 dimensional motion of the control object.
US09020585B2	Electronic identity card A method comprises the steps of obtaining a baseline measurement corresponding to a representation of brain activity from a living body and storing the baseline measurements on a storage device configured to be wearable on the living body in combination with obtaining, at a time subsequent to the baseline measurement, a second measurement representing brain activity from the living body, reading the baseline measurement from the storage device and evaluating the living body based on a comparison of the second measurement to the baseline measurement. A system for analyzing electrical brain activity, the system comprises a component for reading, from a storage medium, data corresponding to a baseline measurement of brain activity of a living body and a component for determining data representing a current brain activity of the living body in combination with a component for evaluating the living body by comparing the baseline measurement data and the current brain activity data.
US09020582B2	Detecting or validating a detection of a state change from a template of heart rate derivative shape or heart beat wave complex Methods, systems, and apparatus for detecting and/or validating a detection of a state change by matching the shape of one or more of an cardiac data series, a heart rate variability data series, or at least a portion of a heart beat complex, derived from cardiac data, to an appropriate template.
US09020581B2	Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy of layered soft tissues and applications of same The present invention in one aspect relates to a method for surgical margin evaluation of tissues during breast conserving therapy at a surgical site of interest. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of acquiring a plurality of spatially offset Raman spectra from the surgical site of interest, identifying tissue signatures from the plurality of spatially offset Raman spectra, and determining surgical margins of the surgical site from the identified tissue signatures.
US09020580B2	Systems and methods for monitoring time based photo active agent delivery or photo active marker presence Devices and approaches for monitoring time based photo active agent delivery or photo active marker presence in an eye. A monitoring system is provided for measuring the presence of a photo active marker by illuminating the eye so as to excite the photo-active marker and then observing characteristic emission from the photo active marker. Example systems incorporate Scheimpflug optical systems or slit lamp optical systems to observe cross sectional images of an eye to monitor instantaneous distribution, diffusion pattern, and rate of uptake of a photo active agent applied to an eye. Systems and methods further allow for utilizing the monitored distribution of photo active agent in the eye as feedback for a cross-linking system.
US09020577B2	Systems, devices and methods for cartilage and bone grafting Disclosed are systems, methods, devices and products to identify suitable donor sites for harvesting bone-cartilage grafts and to implant such bone-cartilage grafts. In some embodiments, a method includes providing a computer having access to a donor database, the donor database comprising information on each of a plurality of donor joint sites of the body, receiving first data relating to a defect of a joint of a patient, the defect comprising an area of bone, a portion of which includes at least one of, for example, missing and/or damaged cartilage, and identifying, based on the first data, at least one donor site from the donor database of joints for harvesting a graft of bone and cartilage to repair the defect.
US09020576B2	Biological measurement apparatus and biological stimulation apparatus A biological measurement apparatus of this invention includes (i) a micro piezoelectric element for vibrating a nerve cell of a subject without coming in contact with the nerve cell, (ii) an electromagnetic wave antenna for receiving an electromagnetic wave generated by the nerve cell vibrated by the micro piezoelectric element, and (iii) a computer for measuring an electric charge of the nerve cell based on the electromagnetic wave received by the electromagnetic wave antenna. Further, this biological measurement apparatus includes an electromagnetic wave antenna for emitting an electromagnetic wave to a nerve cell. This configuration provides an apparatus capable of measuring an electrical activity of a nerve cell in a living organism in real time and three-dimensionally at a spatial resolution of a nerve cell size. Moreover, this configuration provides an apparatus capable of individually giving electrical stimulations to any desired cells in the subject.
US09020572B2	Systems and methods for processing, transmitting and displaying sensor data Systems and methods for continuous measurement of an analyte in a host are provided. The system generally includes a continuous analyte sensor configured to continuously measure a concentration of analyte in a host and a sensor electronics module physically connected to the continuous analyte sensor during sensor use, wherein the sensor electronics module is further configured to directly wirelessly communicate displayable sensor information to a plurality of different types of display devices.
US09020570B2	Portable electronic device with auxiliary input device and flex connector therefor A portable electronic device includes a lower housing and an upper housing slidable relative to the lower housing between closed and open positions. The upper housing includes an auxiliary input device and a display. A primary flex connector electrically connects the lower and upper housings. At least one secondary flex connector may electrically connect the primary flex connector to the auxiliary input device or the display. The upper housing may include a cover plate that is removable to allow access to at least a portion of the flex connectors.
US09020569B2	Mobile phone A main processor of mobile phone changes from power saving state to active state for changing display in response to a sub processor for sensors, the main processor returning to the power saving state after changing the display. The main processor changes from power saving state to active state for storing information from the sub processor, the main processor returning to the power saving state after the storing function. The main processor selects the stored display data on the basis of the information from the sub processor to change display. The main processor receives and stores information from the sub processor in the boot up process or before finishing the operation. The sub processor is in the active state so as to control the sensor even in a case where the main processor is in the power saving state.
US09020568B2	Mobile device A mobile device and a display control method can be provided having good operability and enabling selection of a screen display for the mobile device from a mode displaying a plurality of kinds of screens to suit a user's preferences. An aspect of the mobile device includes a touch screen, a display, and a menu screen generator. The touch screen receives input from a user. The display displays a menu screen and is provided such that the touch screen is overlaid on the display. The menu screen generator generates the menu screen displayed on the display. The menu screen can be selected from a plurality of user interfaces.
US09020567B2	Authentication using fingerprint sensor in gesture path Methods and devices for obtaining a fingerprint sample due to incidental contact with a fingerprint sensor when performing a gesture are described. In one aspect, an electronic device includes a touchscreen display and a fingerprint sensor adjacent the touchscreen display. One or more processors are associated with instructions that cause a fingerprint sample to be obtained and that cause a gesture to be detected. The gesture is characterized by input representing movement that is directed at or from the fingerprint sensor. The input is received, at least in part, at an end of the touchscreen display that is nearest the fingerprint sensor.
US09020565B2	Tile space user interface for mobile devices Systems and methods for providing a user interface for mobile devices enable data and services available through the mobile device to be represented as a set of tiles maintained in a display space. The tiles provide a snapshot of the current state of content available through the mobile device without requiring any interaction by the user. The tiles and display space are customizable and can be dynamically updated to display content to a user. In addition, tiles can provide functionality, including simple tasks to a user without requiring the user to navigate away from the tile display space. Tiles can also provide quick access to start software applications. Tiles can be organized in the display space by the user or the tiles can be automatically grouped based upon associated metadata.
US09020556B2	Methods, apparatus and systems for handling additional power backoff Methods, apparatus and systems are described for a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) to manage its transmission power. A power headroom report (PHR) may be triggered based on changes to backoff or the impacts of backoff. Additional backoff may be used to calculate a maximum output power of the WTRU and may be indicated by a domination indicator to network resources. The WTRU may be configured to eliminate triggers caused by virtual PHRs. Furthermore, the WTRU may be configured to respond to rapid changes to backoff.
US09020555B2	System and method for performance enhancement in heterogeneous wireless access network employing distributed antenna system A system and method for dynamically optimizing the performance of indoor distributed antenna systems communicate to user equipment is disclosed. The user equipment measures information describing the downlink signals such as the downlink data rates, the quality of the received signal, and the location of the user equipment. A service module collects this information and determines an optimized power level for each of the antenna units. The service module may optimize only one antenna unit power level or a subset of the antenna units within the distributed antenna system in a preferred embodiment. One or more of the antenna units then transmits downlink signals with the optimized power levels. The optimized power level may be less than the initial power level in a preferred embodiment. As a result, the performance of the indoor distributed antenna systems is enhanced.
US09020554B2	System and method for supporting multi-user antenna beamforming in a cellular network The present invention is a method and system for supporting a beamforming antenna system in a multiple user mobile broadband communication network including a process for setting and adjusting the magnitude and phase of the signal to user equipment from each antenna. Namely, the present invention supports the communication of power signal values or levels to user equipment in a manner that keeps pace with the rapid variations of the power levels that occur in the dynamic scheduling of transmissions on the cell site. The present invention satisfies this need for an improved signal strength signaling to user equipment for the situation where multiple users are located on the cell site.
US09020551B2	Communication apparatus and communication method A communication apparatus for performing communication of a plurality of pieces of data includes a plurality of communication units configured to perform communication at frequencies different from each other; and a selection unit configured to select a physical position of electromagnetic wave radiation for each of the communication units, and switch the physical position to be selected to another one of the physical positions of the communication units at predetermined intervals.
US09020548B2	Other cell interference estimation Mobile broadband traffic has been exploding in wireless networks resulting in an increase of interferences and reduced operator control. Networks are also becoming more heterogeneous putting additional demand in interference management. Scheduler schedules uplink transmissions from UEs based on a load prediction algorithm that typically assumes worst case. However, UEs do not always use full power granted, and thus, much of granted radio resources are wasted. To address these and other issues, technique(s) to accurately predict/estimate other cell interferences and thermal noise separately and to accurately predict/estimate load utilization probability and variance is(are) described. Inventive estimation technique(s) can be used to schedule UEs to more fully utilize available radio resources. Extended Kalman filtering can be adapted for use in estimation providing low order computational complexity.
US09020545B2	Link adaptation method, base station and terminal in LTE system The present invention discloses a link adaptation method, a base station and a terminal in a LTE system, wherein the method comprises: a terminal respectively calculating differences between a measured reference signal received power (RSRP) of a home service cell and the RSRPs of multiple adjacent cells; the terminal reporting the maximum difference in the differences to a base station; and the base station determining a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) for the terminal according to the maximum difference. The present invention does not introduce new overhead of the system, simplifies the flow of the AMC, and therefore improves the frequency spectrum efficiency of the system.
US09020542B2	Systems and methods for user-initiated location-based services through messaging Systems and methods for user-initiated location-based services through messaging. Using a messaging client running on a communication device, a user transmits location information via a text and/or instant message to a recipient. The location information may be obtained from a GPS program or other location determining program accessible or installed on the user's communication device. A network identifier such as a URL is created based on the location information and is appended into the message. When the recipient selects the network identifier, electronic content such as a graphic map including the sender's location is displayed on the recipient's communication device.
US09020536B1	Method and apparatus for tracking a transported item while accommodating communication gaps A method and apparatus is provided for minimizing potential security problems and battery power usage in a tracking device used in tracking an associated product while being transported along a route wherein wireless communication may be nonexistent or intermittent. This is accomplished in part by having an accessible database of signal quality and strength at a large plurality of locations along given transportation routes whereby adjustments can be made as to the times for the tracking device to obtain GPS location information as well as for times to report any location and or product status data to a remotely located central station. The ability to predict when, along a transportation route communication problems may occur provides the opportunity to notify appropriate authorities in advance of arriving at the communication gap zones whereby arrangements can be made to alleviate potential problems during transportation through wireless communication “gap or dead” zones.
US09020535B2	Method and system for providing a radio station locator service An approach is provided to present station location information to one or more mobile devices. A request is received to provide station location information to a mobile device. Station location information is generated, in response to the request, the station location information including station location information of one or more radio stations that correspond to the location of the mobile device. The station location information is transmitted to the mobile device.
US09020534B2	Location-based mobile device profile aggregation Systems, methods, devices, and computer program products are described for generating an aggregated group profile of access terminal users in an identified geographic region (e.g., at an entertainment venue). A group profile request may be received for a set of mobile access terminal users in the identified geographic region. User profile information may be requested for each of the users. User profiles may be aggregated to generate an aggregated group profile. The aggregated group profile may be distributed (e.g., for use in selecting advertisements at an entertainment venue to reflect the users currently in attendance).
US09020533B1	Location services In various embodiments, methods, systems, and software are provided to provide location services to a mobile device. In an embodiment, a method comprises receiving a call request (including a caller identification) for a call from a mobile device, and determining if the call qualifies for a status update based on the caller identification. In response to determining that the call qualifies for a status update, the method also comprises receiving a location of the mobile device, determining the identity of a mobile unit that is in progress to the location of the mobile device, and initiating a location request of the mobile unit, receiving a location of the mobile unit in response to the location request, and providing status information based on the location of the mobile unit and the location of the mobile device to a user of the mobile device.
US09020527B2	Asset tracking system with data ping based on asset movement An asset tracking system that optimizes the value per ping by tying the ping to movement of the asset. The asset tracking device will send a ping to a remote host (i.e., receiver) when pre-determined condition(s) regarding the movement are met, conditions such as time between movements, the pattern of movement, and number of movements within a time period. In such a manner, the value per ping is optimized, leading to increased battery life and decreased operational cost. To satisfy these conditions and exception events, the asset tracking device is equipped with appropriate sensors, actuators, and trigger mechanism(s). The sensors and actuators detect movements and/or confirm or recognize a sequence of movements. When the detected movements and/or sequence of movements match a predetermined, recognized pattern or condition, the trigger mechanism is activated, after which a data ping is sent.
US09020523B2	Position estimating for a mobile device Disclosed are methods, techniques and/or systems for selecting and/or determining a strategy and/or approach for searching for signals at a mobile device. Characteristics of and/or information obtained from such searched signals may be used in estimating a location of the mobile device. In one particular example, a strategy and/or approach for searching for wireless signals may be based, at least in part, on an availability of resources at a mobile device.
US09020521B2	Apparatus and method for signal detection A communications apparatus capable of detecting a signal transmitted by another apparatus in a first band of spectrum is described. The apparatus identifies at least one second band of spectrum, different from the first band of spectrum, in which no signal is detected and then determines a noise characteristic for the at least one second band of spectrum. The determined noise characteristic may then be used by an energy detector operating in the first band of spectrum to ensure reliable detection of signals transmitted by the other apparatus.
US09020520B2	Reducing interference in a radio access network A method and apparatus for reducing an effect of user interference on other users in an uplink of a radio access network using interference suppression. A user, for example, the user experiencing the highest interference, is selected from a plurality of users using the radio access cell. A perceived Rise over Thermal value for the user after interference suppression is predicted in the event that scheduling grants to an interfering user in the radio access network are altered. On the basis of the prediction, scheduling grants to the interfering user are altered, thereby reducing the interference for the selected user.
US09020517B2	Method and apparatus for allocating and acquiring ACK/NACK resources in a mobile communication system A method and apparatus are provided for receiving ACK/NACK information by a base station. The method includes transmitting data and control information to at least one UE, the control information being transmitted through a downlink control channel including at least one CCE; checking a resource for reception of an ACK/NACK mapped to the at least one CCE based on a mapping rule between CCEs and resources for reception of the ACK/NACK, the resource for reception of the ACK/NACK identified by a cyclic shift index, an orthogonal sequence index, and a resource block index; and receiving the ACK/NACK information for the transmitted data using the checked resource.
US09020512B2	Method and system for transmitting radio signal, and a base station using the same A radio signal transmission method is used in a radio signal transmission system having a core network (CN), at least one base station and at least one user equipment (UE). After the UE initiates a circuit switch (CS) call, the base station determines whether to activate CS off-loading. If to activate CS off-loading, the base station determines whether identification (ID) codes of all call parties reside on the same base station or on the same group of base stations of the system. If yes, the base station determines whether to off-load only the user-plane data. If yes, the CN controls the signaling and the user-plane data is directly forwarded to another call party; otherwise, the base station processes a signaling and the user-plane data is directly forwarded to another call party via the base station.
US09020510B2	Method and device for initiating cell measurement This document discusses a method and device for initiating cell measurement. An initiating condition for initiating the measurement of a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) cell and/or a Hybrid cell is preset by the network side. The measurement of the CSG cells and/or Hybrid cells is initiated by a User Equipment (UE) when the initiating condition is satisfied. The UE automatically initiates the measurement of the CSG cell and/or Hybrid cell when the UE is close to its own footprint area or fingerprint area.
US09020508B2	Mobile communication system, base station, higher-order apparatus, gateway apparatus, communication method, and program A mobile communication system including: a terminal, a movement-origin base station to which the terminal connects before movement of the terminal; a movement-destination base station to which the terminal connects after movement of the terminal; and a higher-order apparatus that has the movement-origin base station and the movement-destination base station under its control. Control information for voice encoding is set in advance in the movement-origin base station and the movement-destination base station, the movement-origin base station includes the control information of its own station in a first message and transmits the first message to the higher-order apparatus, and the higher-order apparatus includes the control information of the movement-origin base station in a second message and transmits the second message to the movement-destination base station.
US09020503B2	Connection establishment system and method A method of determining whether to accept a connection request from a user device requesting connection to a communications network is described. The method includes receiving a connection request from the user device, the connection request including a predefined identifier. A message requesting capability information associated with the user device is then generated and transmitted and the capability information is received in response. The method further includes determining whether to permit a connection to the user device based on the capability information and transmitting a message to release or reject or to establish the connection based on the determining. Apparatus for performing the method, including an eNodeB, gateway and user device are also described and corresponding methods of operation these components are provided.
US09020500B2	Network selection in a mobile communication terminal A contract operator information acquisition section (110) acquires contract network operator identification information and availability/unavailability information from a service operator with which a mobile communication terminal (100) has a communication contract; an operator search section (130) searches for network operators; a comparison section (140) compares network operator identification information about the retrieved network operators with contract network operator identification information based on which the availability/unavailability information shows “available”, from among the acquired contract network operator identification information; and a display section (150) displays matching network operator identification information as a result of the comparison.
US09020498B2	Systems and methods for intelligent discard in a communication network Systems and methods for optimizing system performance of capacity and spectrum constrained, multiple-access communication systems by selectively discarding packets are provided. The systems and methods provided herein can drive changes in the communication system using control responses. One such control responses includes the optimal discard (also referred to herein as “intelligent discard”) of network packets under capacity constrained conditions. Some embodiments provide an interactive response by selectively discarding packets to enhance perceived and actual system throughput, other embodiments provide a reactive response by selectively discarding data packets based on their relative impact to service quality to mitigate oversubscription, others provide a proactive response by discarding packets based on predicted oversubscription, and others provide a combination thereof.
US09020497B2	Method of routing a call to one of a plurality of user equipment Method of routing a call to one of a plurality of user equipment of a UMA/GAN-subscriber in a telecommunications network. The telecommunications network comprises a service control entity. Said service control entity determines whether said UMA/GAN-subscriber is within or outside a home area. The service control entity comprises a first indicator indicating at least one network address of a user equipment comprised by the plurality of user equipment to which the call is to be routed in case the UMA/GAN-subscriber is within the home area, and a second indicator indicating at least one network address of a user equipment comprised by the plurality of user equipment to which the call is to be routed in case the UMA/GAN-subscriber is outside the home area.
US09020495B2	Method and arrangement in a communication system Method and arrangement in a base station, a user equipment and a positioning node, for sending, and obtaining, respectively, a value of a propagation delay of a signal. The signal is sent to the base station from a user equipment. The base station and the user equipment are comprised within a wireless communication system. Also, the base station and the user equipment are adapted to exchange wireless signals. The method is characterized by the step of receiving a signal sent from the user equipment. The method is further characterized by the step of measuring the value of the signal propagation delay of the received signal. Still further, the method is characterized by the step of sending the measured value to the equipment and/or to a positioning node comprised within the wireless communication system.
US09020493B2	Validity time configuration for immediate MDT reporting The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and a computer program product for performing one or more minimizing drive test (MDT) measurements, defining a validity time threshold for each kind of MDT measurement, verifying, prior to reporting one of the MDT measurement results, whether the validity time threshold defined for the respective MDT measurement result to be reported, is exceeded, and, if the validity time threshold is not exceeded, reporting the MDT measurement result.
US09020490B2	Method and apparatus for caching A method and caching server for enabling caching of a portion of a media file in a User Equipment (UE) in a mobile telecommunications network. The caching server selects the media file and determines a size of the portion to be cached in the UE. The size may be determined depending on radio network conditions for the UE and/or characteristics of the media file. The caching server sends an instruction to the UE to cache the determined size of the portion of the media file in the UE.
US09020480B2	Method, system and apparatus for configuring a mobile electronic device According to embodiments described in the specification, a method, system and apparatus for configuring a mobile electronic device are provided. The method comprises storing, in a memory of a provisioning server, a plurality of service records and one of a plurality of operation type parameters in association with each service record; receiving, at the provisioning server, a registration request for the mobile electronic device, the registration request including one or more identifiers identifying ones of the service records that are maintained in the mobile electronic device; selecting, based on the received identifiers and the operation type parameters, at least one service record for transmission; and, transmitting the at least one selected service record.
US09020478B2	Systems and methods for terminating telephony communications to mobile telephony devices Systems and methods for terminating telephony communications to a mobile telephony device that is roaming outside of its native service area make use of a forwarding termination service. The forwarding termination service causes the native mobile telephony service provider that provides service to the mobile telephony device to forward incoming telephony communications directed the native telephone number of the mobile telephony device to a forwarding access number. The forwarding termination service receives telephony communications directed to the forwarding access number, and then terminates the telephony communication to the mobile telephony device via any one of multiple different methods. The mobile telephony service provider can be instructed to implement and cancel call forwarding instructions by dialing a special character string on the mobile telephony device.
US09020476B2	System and method for remote care and monitoring using a mobile device A system and method for remote care and monitoring of the user of a mobile device, such as a smartphone, and for simplifying use of the mobile device by the user. The system and method comprises software, operable on the mobile device and/or a remote device (such as another smartphone, a computer (including, for example, a web-based application system) or other device), for facilitating the use of a mobile smartphone device while also enabling authorized users (e.g. care providers) to remotely interact with the mobile user, provide them medical care information, daily care instruction, immediate connectivity, mobile phone control and tracking functions, general assistance as well as remotely updating and maintaining the mobile user's mobile device.
US09020475B2	Method and system for passing information through a network during overload A method is provided for passing information through a network during overload and subsequent actions to reduce congestion. An exemplary method includes receiving an origination request from a mobile device of a calling party, detecting an overload condition, transmitting a message request to a terminating network element associated with a called party in response to the origination request during the overload condition, receiving an acknowledgement of receipt of the message request, and denying the origination request. In this manner, high resource requests (e.g. a voice call) may be converted into lower resource requests (e.g. text or voicemail messages), or the resource request may be deferred to a more appropriate time.
US09020473B2	Content sharing system, mobile terminal, protocol switching method and program A content sharing system in which a plurality of terminal devices that enable voice calls and data communication to each other, switching equipment that mediates the voice calls, and a content sharing server that mediates the data communication are connected to each other, each mobile device comprising: a voice call module, a content sharing application that generates incremental update commands in response to one user operation and sends the incremental update commands to another mobile device with respect to the same content; first and second communication control units that perform data communication according to first and second communication protocols; and a protocol selection unit that sends a desired protocol to the content sharing server according to the status of the terminal device, receives the determined protocol and switches the communication protocol to this protocol.
US09020467B2	Method of and system for extending the WISPr authentication procedure A method and system for completing the authentication process of a user device in a second communication network (such as Wi-Fi or WiMAX) utilizes the user credential (such as a SIM card, a USIM card, or a RUIM card) of a first communication network (such as GSM, CDMA, EDGE, or LTE). A client, such as a software module, executes on the wireless device. An authentication platform retrieves the SIM card credential information in the first communication network and passes the information to the authentication platform of the second communication network, thereby granting the client access to the second communication after the authentication platform validates with the first communication network.
US09020465B2	Sharing network capacity with another device There is provided a cause a reception of information from a second device, wherein the information indicates a need to utilize the network capacity of the apparatus by the second device; detect an identifier of the second device in order to enable identification of the second device; determine whether or not to allow the second device to utilize the network capacity on the basis of the identification; upon deciding to allow the second device to utilize the network capacity of the apparatus, cause transfer of data between the second device and an accessed network, wherein the network is accessible with a specific subscriber identity module, SIM, of the apparatus; determine predetermined at least one characteristic related to the data transfer of the second device; cause transmission of information indicating the at least one characteristic to an entity responsible of invoicing data transfers with respect to the specific SIM.
US09020463B2	Systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure mobile device usage Systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure mobile device usage are disclosed. An example method to determine mobile device usage includes filtering, with a processor, a debug log file stored in the device to obtain debug file entries representative of device usage information, the debug log file having been modified by at least one of an operating system of the device or a device application, and sending, to a server, a filtered log file based on filtering the debug log file.
US09020462B2	Enhanced handling of duress situations A wireless communications device can be triggered by a user in a duress situation to provide to a predetermined recipient, or to a monitoring service, a duress message containing emergency-response information, such as GPS coordinates, a photograph and/or an audio clip to facilitate an emergency response to the duress situation. The wireless device can periodically send follow-up duress messages to provide updated GPS data, photos or other information. The wireless device monitoring can also reply to specific queries from the monitoring service to provide requested information that would be most useful to the recipient attempting to coordinate an emergency response. In the event that the device is outside data packet coverage, the duress message can be transmitted using an alternate mode of communication such as SMS or MMS. If no mode of communication is available, the device stores the duress message until communications are possible.
US09020460B2	Smart alarm providing terminal and alarm providing method thereof Disclosed are a smart alarm providing terminal and an alarm proving method thereof. The smart alarm providing terminal includes an alarm unit to drive an alarm of the terminal, a voice conversation unit to perform a voice conversation function between a user and the terminal, a user information provision unit to provide different personalized information according to respective users, a memory unit to store data to perform the voice conversation function and to provide the personalized information, and a controller to control the voice conversation unit and the user information provision unit so as to enable the voice conversation function and provision of the personalized information when the alarm of the terminal is driven.
US09020458B2	Mixer with channel impedance equalization A passive mixer with channel impedance equalization is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, an apparatus includes replica devices configured to generate replica output signals and an error amplifier configured to generate bias signals based on the replica output signals. The bias signals are configured to equalize on-state channel impedances associated with a mixer.
US09020457B2	Phased-array receiver for mm-wave applications The present disclosure relates to a circuit for providing a signal gain, comprising: a first stage comprising a first set of variable gain transconductors arranged for receiving an input signal and for performing phase-shifting of the input signal, thereby producing an intermediate signal, and a second stage, comprising a second set of transconductors and a plurality of capacitors arranged for receiving the intermediate signal and for providing an output signal to a combiner, wherein the first stage and second stage together form a filter, and wherein the first set of variable gain transconductors and at least one of the transconductors of the second set define the signal gain of the circuit.
US09020454B2	Linearization and calibration predistortion of a digitally controlled power amplifier An apparatus and method of linearization of a digitally-controlled pre-power amplifier (DPA) and RF power amplifier (PA) for performing predistortion calibration to compensate for nonlinearlities in the DPA and PA circuits. A predistortion look up table (LUT) stores measured distortion compensation data that is applied to the TX data before being input to the digital-to-frequency converter (DFC), DPA and PA. The on-chip receiver, which is normally inactive during the TX burst in a half-duplex operation, demodulates the RF PA output and uses the digital I/Q RX outputs to perform calibration of the TX pre-distortion tables. A sample of the RF output signal is provided to the receiver chain. While the PA (DPA) code is increasing (or decreasing), the amplitude and phase of the recovered I/Q samples are used to determine the instantaneous value of the AM/AM and AM/PM pre-distortion from which an update to the predistortion tables may be computed.
US09020450B2	Output stage for wireless transmitter In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a first block configured to decompose an input signal into a positive component and a negative component. The apparatus further includes a second block configured to generate a mixer positive driver component from the positive component and a mixer negative driver component from the negative component and input the mixer positive driver component and the negative driver component into a mixer for a wireless transmitter.
US09020449B2	Software-defined radio with broadband amplifiers and antenna matching Mobile phone handsets include a CMOS front end configured for operating across multiple transmit and receive frequencies. The front end typically includes multiple receivers, each covering a different band allocated for cellular service, and requires large, expensive and power-intensive A/D converters and DSPs. Front-end circuits disclosed herein operate with a broadband software-defined radio (SDR), and include a receive Low Noise Amplifier (LNA), transmit Power Amplifier (PA), and an antenna matching network. The front-end provides broadband operation using relatively low power, and minimizes noise in the received signal.
US09020445B2	Mobile phone interconnect to telephone An interface for connects a mobile phone and a plain old telephone service (POTS) phone. The interface detects a ring tone from a speaker output of the mobile phone and in response places a POTS ring signal on a ring line of the POTS phone. Upon a change in state of a hook signal, a hook state detector places a predetermined signal on a microphone input of the mobile phone.
US09020443B1	Systems, apparatus, and methods for controlling the color of a skin of a mobile communication device A measure of signal strength is determined based on a signal received within a communication network. For example, a communication device, such as a mobile telephone, may determine the measure of signal strength within the communication network. A reception status is determined based on the measure of signal strength. A color of a skin of a communication device is caused to change from a first color to a second color, based on the reception status.
US09020442B1	Ranging method, ranging device, location device and location method A ranging method, executed in a ranging device, comprising steps of: obtaining a trip time of a received wireless signal, wherein the received wireless signal is a wireless signal from an object; calculating a statistical value of a rising time of the received wireless signal; when the statistical value of the rising time of the received wireless signal is smaller than the specific value, estimating a distance between the object and the ranging device according to a corrected trip time, wherein the statistical value of the rising time of the received wireless signal corrects the trip time of the received wireless signal to generate the corrected trip time.
US09020440B2	Radio channel data and the use thereof An apparatus comprises a receiver receiving wireless transmission of a real radio system from at least one base station of a radio system as a function of reception direction. The transmission comprises predetermined data. The apparatus comprises also a processing unit that forms taps of a delay profile on the basis of comparison between the data that is received and corresponding predetermined data. The processing unit estimates direction for the taps of the delay profile on the basis of a reception direction of the transmission, and forms radio channel data by associating the taps of the delay profile with the estimated direction. The radio channel data is for a radio channel model of a MIMO emulation in an OTA chamber having a plurality of antennas around a test zone where a device-under-test may be placed.
US09020437B2	Un-tethered wireless audio system A wireless speaker audio system configured to receive audio information wirelessly transmitted by an audio source including first and second wireless transceivers. The first wireless transceiver establishes a bidirectional secondary wireless link with the audio source for receiving and acknowledging receipt of the audio information. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate with each other via a primary wireless link. A wireless audio system including an audio source and first and second wireless transceivers. The first and second wireless transceivers communicate via a primary wireless link. The audio source communicates audio information to the first wireless transceiver via a secondary wireless link which is configured according to a standard wireless protocol. The first wireless transceiver is configured to acknowledge successful reception of audio information via the secondary wireless link.
US09020432B2	Mobile communication device, communication method, integrated circuit, and program A mobile communication device (98b) includes: an appliance information obtainment unit (98n) that obtains appliance information (98n1) by proximity wireless communication (98c1) with an appliance (98a) installed in a home (99), the appliance information specifying the appliance (98a); a position information obtainment unit (98j) that obtains position information (98j1) of the mobile communication device when the proximity wireless communication (98c1) is performed; and a transmission unit (98o) that transmits transmission information (98o1) to a server (98c) in the case where the proximity wireless communication (98c1) is performed, the transmission information including the appliance information (98n1) and the position information (98j1).
US09020428B2	Methods and systems for controlling NFC-capable mobile communications devices NFC-capable systems and devices, and related methods, for controlling operation of an NFC-capable mobile device are disclosed. Through NFC communication, the NFC-capable mobile device detects a load associated with a surface proximate the NFC-capable mobile device. Based at least partly on a determined sustained intensity of the load, the NFC-capable mobile device triggers operation of a camera of the NFC-capable mobile device to capture an image of the surface proximate the NFC-capable mobile device. Based at least partly on a determined correspondence of the captured image with stored image data, the NFC-capable mobile device executes a device control command, such as to control some aspect of the NFC-capable mobile device based on the detected surface, which may be part of a holster for holstering the NFC-capable mobile device.
US09020419B2	Wireless relay module for remote monitoring systems having power and medical device proximity monitoring functionality Wireless relay modules for networked communications between a medical device and a remote monitoring device via wireless relay networks and/or internet-accessible wireless communications networks. The wireless relay module includes a receiver, a first transmitter coupled to the wireless relay network, a second transmitter coupled to the internet-accessible wireless communication network, a controller and a display. The controller is coupled to the first and second transmitters, and controls the wireless relay module to select one of the transmitters for transmitting medical device data over one of the two respective networks. The controller generates an alarm signal and stores storing wirelessly-received medical device data in a memory of the wireless relay module upon detecting a changed characteristic for a power source of the wireless relay module. The controller also generates an alarm upon detecting a change in a characteristic of a signal transmitted by the medical device.
US09020416B2	Method and appartus to measure size of trophy game The instant invention is a ribbon for use with sport fishing in conjunction with a GPS-enabled smart-phone. The ribbon tape is calculated in terms of estimated weight allowing an ocean weigh-in, versus a dock located weigh-in, to meet the fishing tournament requirements and/or a recreational angler's requirements, and the GPS-enabled smart-phone allows accurate documentation of the catch for competition or recreational purposes. The ribbon tape of the instant invention provides an estimate of fish weights based upon fish length, the fish weights based upon a statistical averaging of a particular fish species. The objective of the invention is to eliminate the destruction of fish caught only for the purpose of determining fish size and weight, and to eliminate the risk caused by tournament fishing boats racing back to weigh-in stations.
US09020415B2	Bonus and experience enhancement system for receivers of broadcast media According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a method for awarding incentives, the method comprising receiving, via a first interface of a server, audio signals from a user over a communication network, receiving, via a second interface of the server, audio signals from a plurality of broadcast channels over the communication network, comparing, by a processor in the server, the audio signals received from the user and the audio signals received from the plurality of broadcast channels, determining, by the processor, based on the act of comparing, that the audio signals from the user correspond to a program currently being broadcast on one of the plurality of broadcast channels, and in response to the act of determining, automatically awarding, by the processor, the user at least one incentive.
US09020410B2	Image heating apparatus An image heating apparatus includes first and second rotatable members for forming a nip for heating therein a toner image on a sheet; an endless belt for contacting an outer surface of the first rotatable member and heat the first rotatable member; first and second rollers provided inside the endless belt and to rotatably support the endless belt; first and second bearings for rotatably supporting the first and second rollers; an elastic member contactable to the first bearing and to the second bearing and for urging the first roller and the second roller in directions away from each other; and a preventing member for preventing the elastic member from moving in directions of expansion and contraction thereof when the elastic member is out of contact with the first bearing and the second bearing.
US09020409B2	Belt unit, fixing device and image forming apparatus A belt unit includes an endless belt member, a first roller provided on an inner circumferential surface side of the belt member, and a stretching member provided on the inner circumferential surface side of the belt member. The stretching member is configured to stretch the belt member. A circumferential length of the belt member at a center portion in a widthwise direction of the belt member is shorter than a circumferential length of the belt member at an end portion in the widthwise direction of the belt member.
US09020406B2	Image forming apparatus and method of correcting color registration error An image forming apparatus includes a color registration error amount calculation unit that calculates a color registration error amount from a first test pattern; a correction information obtaining unit that obtains a correction information for correcting an image on a back surface based on previously obtained contraction information of a printing paper after printing an image on a front surface when printing on both surfaces; and an image data correction unit that corrects the image on the back surface based on the color registration error amount calculated by the color registration error amount and the correction information obtained by the correction information obtaining unit.
US09020402B2	Method and apparatus for reducing residual toner in a rotating container An approach is provided for reducing an amount of residual toner remaining in a rotating container. The approach involves causing a rotatable vessel configured to contain a toner to be rotated by way of a drive train. The rotatable vessel includes a body section having a substantially round cross-section, a first end at one axial end of the body section, a second end axially distal the first end, and helical features on an internal surface of the body section configured to transport at least a portion of the toner in an axial direction between the first end and the second end as the rotatable vessel is rotated. The approach also involves causing the drive train to impart a periodic pulse to the rotatable vessel. The periodic pulse causes at least a portion of the toner contained by the rotatable vessel to be agitated.
US09020401B2	Apparatus, printers, and charge roller assemblies Apparatus, printers, and charge roller assemblies are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a roller to charge a printer surface when closer to the printer surface than an upper threshold, and a damper to reduce movement of the roller and to keep the roller closer to the printer surface than the upper threshold.
US09020399B2	Developing cartridge including developing gear cover A developing cartridge includes: a housing having first and second sidewalls through which respective end portions of a developing roller shaft are rotatably inserted; a developing gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which is fixed to the end portion of the developing roller shaft; a transmission gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which transmits driving force to the developing gear; a first cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the transmission gear; and a second cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the developing gear from an outer side in the axis line direction. The second cover member is formed separately from the first cover member and is arranged side by side with the first cover member outside of the first sidewall.
US09020397B2	Developing cartridge including developing gear cover A developing cartridge includes: a housing having first and second sidewalls through which respective end portions of a developing roller shaft are rotatably inserted; a developing gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which is fixed to the end portion of the developing roller shaft; a transmission gear, which is arranged outside of the first sidewall, and which transmits driving force to the developing gear; a first cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the transmission gear; and a second cover member, which is attached to the first sidewall, and which covers the developing gear from an outer side in the axis line direction. The second cover member is formed separately from the first cover member and is arranged side by side with the first cover member outside of the first sidewall.
US09020395B2	Developing cartridge and process cartridge for stably rotating developing roller A developing cartridge includes: a developing roller main body; a developing roller shaft, which is arranged along a central axis line of the developing roller main body, and which protrudes from both end portions of the developing roller main body along the central axis line, wherein the developing roller shaft includes a small diameter part located at a first end portion in the axis line direction, the small diameter part having an outer diameter smaller than an outer diameter of a second end portion opposite to the first end portion; and a developing gear that is fixed to the first end portion of the developing roller shaft.
US09020394B2	Image forming apparatus including black photosensitive drum replaceable independently from color photosensitive drums An image forming apparatus includes a main body, a plurality of photosensitive drums, a process frame, and a process unit. The plurality of photosensitive drums includes a black photosensitive drum and color photosensitive drums. Black toner is used in the black photosensitive drum. Each of yellow, magenta, and cyan toner is used in one of the color photosensitive drums. The black and color photosensitive drums are arranged in a first direction. Each photosensitive drum has an axis extending in a direction perpendicular to the first direction. The process frame supports the color photosensitive drums in fixed positions and is detachably mounted on the main body. The process frame is inserted in a mounting direction to be mounted on the main body. The process unit is detachably mounted in the process frame and supports the black photosensitive drum.
US09020392B2	Image forming apparatus provided with cartridge support unit An image forming apparatus includes: a cartridge support unit in which a plurality of cartridges are supported; an abutment portion; and a first applying portion. The cartridge support unit moves in a mounting direction from a withdrawn position to a mounted position. The abutment portion is disposed at one of the main casing and the cartridge support unit. The first applying portion is disposed at the other of the main casing and the cartridge support unit. The first applying portion abuts on the abutment portion to apply a first resistance force in a direction opposite to the mounting direction to the cartridge support unit when the cartridge support unit moves in the mounting direction. The first applying portion and the abutment portion are configured such that the first resistance force continuously increases and then continuously decreases.
US09020389B2	Developing device for preventing toner leakage A developing device is capable of preventing developing agent from leaking from a developing frame of a developer cartridge. The developer cartridge includes a developing agent carrying member including a rubber roller, a first seal including a first fluffing member, and a second seal including a second base member and a second fluffing member fixed thereto. The second base member and the second fluffing member have downstream end portions in a rotational direction of the developing agent carrying member. The downstream end portion of the second base member is positioned upstream of the downstream end portion of the second fluffing member. The downstream end portion of the second fluffing member is nipped between the first fluffing member and the rubber roller.
US09020383B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus has an image forming section having a photoreceptor on which a toner image is formed, an endless belt that revolves with its outer surface facing the photoreceptor, a steering roller adapted to provide a tension to the belt and adjust the position of the belt in the width direction, a transfer roller that presses the belt toward the photoreceptor so as to form a transfer nip where the toner image is transferred, a transfer pressure adjusting mechanism adapted to adjust pressing force when the transfer roller presses the belt toward the photoreceptor, and a controller adapted to control the pressing force adjusted by the transfer pressure adjusting mechanism, according to the adjustment state of the steering roller.
US09020382B2	Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a nip forming member and a transfer bias output device that outputs a transfer bias to form a transfer electric field in a transfer nip between the nip forming member and an intermediate transfer member. Upon transfer of a composite toner image including a particular toner image onto a recording medium in the transfer nip, the transfer bias output device outputs the transfer bias including a first superimposed bias in which a direct current (DC) component is superimposed on an alternating current (AC) component. Upon transfer of the composite toner image without the particular toner image onto the recording medium in the transfer nip, the transfer bias output device outputs one of the transfer bias including a second superimposed bias having a peak-to-peak value of the AC component smaller than that of the first superimposed bias and the transfer bias including only the DC component.
US09020381B2	Image forming apparatus Image forming apparatus is disclosed. The developing portion is replenished with toner from a toner containing body by operating a toner feeding mechanism. The receiving portion receives a designation of switching to a low speed i.e. switching the rotation speed of the motor from the first speed to the second speed lower than the first speed. The measuring portion measures a value of a counter electromotive voltage generated in the motor by causing the motor to operate the toner feeding mechanism. The motor control portion causes the motor to rotate at the first speed until an absolute value of the value measured by the measuring portion is not larger than a predetermined first value, and causes the motor to rotate at the second speed after an absolute value of the measured value is smaller than the first value, in the case where the switching to a low speed is designated.
US09020380B2	Image forming apparatus for performing control of image forming condition and density detection apparatus for detecting the density of test pattern An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, which forms a test pattern for density control on the image carrier; and first and second light receiving elements, which receive reflected light irradiated by a light emitting element. A spot diameter of a reflected light received by the first light receiving element is smaller than a spot diameter of a reflected light received by the second light receiving element, and a number of sampling of the test pattern in line with a movement direction of a surface of the image carrier by the first light receiving element is greater than that of the test pattern in line with the moving direction by the second light receiving element.
US09020379B2	Image forming apparatus controlling light exposure based on applied bias When a toner image formed on the surface of a photosensitive drum is transferred onto an intermediate transfer belt, a transfer bias is applied to a primary transfer portion. When a patch formed in an upstream image forming station and transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt and a patch formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum pass through the primary transfer portion, a passing bias different from the transfer bias is applied to the primary transfer portion. A control section controls a laser beam scanner as an exposure member not to expose the surface of the photosensitive drum to which the passing bias is applied.
US09020375B2	Toner resupply device including a detector plate, a douser, and a fixing plate fixing the detector plate and the douser, and image forming apparatus A toner resupply device includes a detector plate for detecting a surface of toner stored in a hopper; a douser that moves together with the detector plate; a fixing plate for fixing the detector plate and the douser integrally; and a toner sensor for detecting a phase of the douser. The douser has a light-blocking surface that blocks light to be detected by the toner sensor, and a shaft extending in an axial direction crossing the light-blocking surface, the shaft being inserted in a hole made in the detector plate. The shaft has a groove in which the fixing plate is locked, the groove extending in a direction crossing the axial direction. The fixing plate in a state of being locked in the groove pushes the shaft in the axial direction, thereby fixing the detector plate and the douser to each other.
US09020374B2	Developer transport unit, image forming apparatus, method of transporting developer, program for transporting developer, and storage medium storing the program A developer transport unit which includes an intra-vessel transporting device to transport developer in a developer storage vessel to an ejection unit. The developer storage vessel is detachably attached at one end to an ejection unit. There is a transport/supply device to transport the developer from the ejection unit to a sub-storage vessel, and an intermediate-developer amount detector to obtain an amount of developer present in the sub-storage vessel. Further, there is a control unit to control driving of the intra-vessel transporting device and the transport/supply device.
US09020365B2	Method and apparatus for compensating for polarization mode dispersion (PMD) Current optical networks are engineered to handle amplifier noise and chromatic dispersion. Polarization mode dispersion occurs in optical networks due splitting of the light energy of a pulse propagating in a fiber into two modes. Compensating for polarization mode dispersion is a difficult and expensive task and hence only few commercial systems have been deployed to deal with this issue. A polarization mode dispersion compensation module according to an example embodiment of the present invention compensates for polarization mode dispersion by determining a performance metric related to an error rate of an optical signal in at least one polarization mode in a filtered state. Based on the performance metric, a control vector is determined to control the optical signal in the at least one polarization mode in the filtered state. The control vector is then applied to a polarization effecting device to compensate for polarization mode dispersion.
US09020362B2	Digital radio frequency transceiver system and method A transceiver architecture for wireless base stations wherein a broadband radio frequency signal is carried between at least one tower-mounted unit and a ground-based unit via optical fibers, or other non-distortive media, in either digital or analog format. Each tower-mounted unit (for both reception and transmission) has an antenna, analog amplifier and an electro-optical converter. The ground unit has ultrafast data converters and digital frequency translators, as well as signal linearizers, to compensate for nonlinear distortion in the amplifiers and optical links in both directions. In one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the digital data converters, frequency translators, and linearizers includes superconducting elements mounted on a cryocooler.
US09020358B2	Wavelength division multiplexing transmission equipment An optical transmission network comprises a multi-wavelength source (7) shared between multiple sets of client side equipment for manipulating electrical signals. A first wavelength selective routing element (5) is connected to the multi-wavelength source (7). Each set of client-side equipment (1) comprises an optical modulator (3) connected to the first wavelength selective routing element (5) and an optical receiver (2). A second wavelength selective routing element (6) is connected to the optical receiver (2) and is operative to direct incoming signals from one or more remote locations to the optical receiver (2). The network provides a WDM architecture solution for networks whereby the cost of implementing and running client side equipment (1) is reduced by not having the WDM source (7) within the client side equipment (1).
US09020352B2	Optical communication module The present invention relates to an optical communication module, which includes: a first bidirectional multiplexer; a second bidirectional multiplexer; an optical fiber for connecting the first bidirectional multiplexer and the second bidirectional multiplexer to each other; one or more first light emitting devices connecting to the first bidirectional multiplexer, and operating in a first light emitting wavelength band; one or more first light receiving devices connecting to the first bidirectional multiplexer, and operating in a first light receiving wavelength band; one or more second light receiving devices connecting to the second bidirectional multiplexer, and operating in a second light receiving wavelength band; and one or more second light emitting devices connecting to the second bidirectional multiplexer, and operating in a second light emitting wavelength band. The second light emitting wavelength band includes the first light receiving wavelength band, and the first light emitting wavelength band includes the second light receiving wavelength band. The first light receiving wavelength band is different from the second light receiving wavelength band.
US09020351B1	Method and system for multiplexing optical communication signals An optical waveguide can transmit multiple optical signals imprinted or encoded with different information, thereby increasing the waveguide's information carrying capability or bandwidth. Each optical signal can comprise multiple longitudinal modes that are energized and that are modulated substantially in unison. Thus, the photonic energy of each optical signal can be spread across a wavelength region in a substantially discrete or substantially discontinuous pattern. The respective wavelength regions of the optical signals can overlap or substantially overlay one another. Modes of one of the optical signals can be substantially interleaved, interspersed, or intermingled with modes of other optical signals. Systems at ends of the optical waveguide can feed the optical signals onto and off of the optical waveguide and discriminate the optical signals from one another. The systems can comprise ring resonators. The waveguide can support an on-chip network, such as for a multicore processor of a computer.
US09020344B2	Unified switching fabric architecture A unified network and elements thereof, including a switch fabric, is provided. The switch fabric may include a plurality of transport elements and a first signal-communication media. The transport elements may be adapted to communicatively couple and to communicate, via the first signal-communication media, transport signals adapted for communication among any of the plurality of transport elements. At least one transport element may be further adapted to communicate, via a second signal-communication media, signals and/or sets of signal originating from and/or terminating to one or more network nodes. Each of the electrical signals may be formatted in accordance with a protocol for electrical signals. And one or more of the transport signals may include the electrical signals in adapted form. Additionally and/or alternatively, one or more of the transport signals may be formed from, or as a function of, the electrical signals.
US09020343B1	Pre-jam waveforms for enhanced optical break lock jamming effects Various embodiments of the present invention relate to pre-jam waveforms for enhanced optical break lock jamming effects. In various examples, pre-jam waveforms for enhanced optical break lock jamming effects may be implemented in the context of systems, methods, computer program products and/or algorithms.
US09020336B1	Digital streak camera with rotating mirror A rotating mirror digital streak camera including means to convert an image presented to a roughly cylindrical image plane into a plurality of discrete zones, a sensor being adapted to capture the image data associated with each such zone, and a means to assemble the collected data to reconstruct the original image that is swept across the image plane as an essentially uninterrupted image.
US09020332B2	Center rod for use in the carburetor or carburetor for MOCVD Provided is a vaporizer that can efficiently cool a carrier gas, improve the effect of preventing a material from being clogged near the outlet port of a gas passage, contribute to prolonging the timing of maintenance and improving operating efficiency, and exert more uniform dispersing effect. A vaporizer includes: a center rod inserted into a carrier gas introduction hole formed in a disperser to form the gas passage in cooperation with the inner wall of the carrier gas introduction hole; a cooling part disposed on the outer circumferential side of the carrier gas introduction hole in the disperser to cool the inside of the gas passage; a cooling member insertion hole formed across almost the entire length of the center rod along the axial direction of the center rod; and a cooling member disposed in the inside of the cooling member insertion hole to cool the center rod.
US09020331B2	Video image information playback method and video image information playback device A video image information playback method and a video image information playback device with which user convenience can be obtained at the start of resume playback. The video image information playback method is a method of playback of a recording medium on which virtual-machine-based content has been recorded. During normal playback of the virtual-machine-based content, a program running on a virtual machine and a decryption program that decrypts encrypted virtual-machine-based content perform decryption processing for the virtual-machine-based content while exchanging data. After suspension of playback of the virtual-machine-based content, at the start of resume playback, which is executed following an instruction to resume playback, a proxy program is launched in place of the program that runs on the virtual machine. The proxy program and the decryption program perform playback of the video image of the virtual-machine-based content while exchanging data.
US09020330B2	Receiving apparatus, receiving method, recording apparatus, recording method, program, recording medium, and network system Disclosed herein is a receiving apparatus for sending received contents to a recording apparatus and for getting the recording apparatus to record the contents in accordance with preset recording reservations, the receiving apparatus including: a recording ready time information acquisition section configured to acquire from the recording apparatus information about a recording ready time; a continuous recording determination section configured to determine whether two chronologically successive broadcast contents are reserved for recording based on the preset recording reservations; and an end time setting section configured such that if the two chronologically successive broadcast contents are found reserved for recording, then the end time setting section sets the time at which to end processing for recording the earlier of the two contents based on a broadcast start time of the latter of the two contents and on the acquired information about the recording ready time.
US09020329B2	Signal processing device The present signal processing device includes an operating unit, an editing database, a conflict detection unit and a conflict display unit. The operating unit is configured to output a plurality of pieces of editing result information and a single or plurality of editing IDs identifying pieces of result information in association with each other. The editing database holds the plurality of pieces of editing result information and the single or plurality of editing IDs in association with each other. The conflict detection unit detects a difference between or differences among the plurality of pieces of editing result information associated with the same editing ID as a single or plurality of conflict states based on the plurality of pieces of editing result information and the single or plurality of editing IDs to be obtained from the editing database. The conflict display unit displays the single or plurality of conflict states.
US09020323B2	Communication apparatus and storage medium Provided are a communication apparatus and program which improve the operability for a user before and during data communication. The communication apparatus includes a plurality of communication units that establish electric field coupling or magnetic field coupling with a communication device located within a predetermined distance, a storage unit storing control information indicative of predetermined control contents in association with the respective communication units, a control information acquisition section that acquires, from the storage unit, control information associated with that communication unit which has established the electric field coupling or the magnetic field coupling, and a control unit that controls communication of that of the communication units which has established the electric field coupling or the magnetic field coupling by using the control information acquired by the control information acquisition section.
US09020321B2	Wall outlet having enclosed service connection The present disclosure relates to an access box including a pivotal mounting panel to which a fiber optic adapter is mounted. The access box also includes a removable faceplate and a cover panel pivotable relative to the faceplate such that when the cover panel is in a closed position, the cover panel is substantially parallel to the faceplate, and wherein when the cover panel is in an open position, the cover panel is at an angle to the faceplate. The access box further includes an access panel pivotably secured to the cover panel. The access panel is movable between a first access panel position where the access panel blocks access to the adapter, and a second access panel position where the access panel allows access to the adapter.
US09020319B2	Communications bladed panel systems A fiber panel system includes a chassis and at least a first blade configured to moveably mount to the chassis. Each blade includes a base, a frame, and front couplers. The base of each blade defines at least one opening at a location spaced rearwardly from the front couplers. The front couplers may be smart or passive.
US09020317B2	Surface waveguide having a tapered region and method of forming A method for forming a waveguide having a thin-core region, a thick-core region, and a transition region of tapered thickness between them is disclosed. The method comprises forming a lower core layer of a first material on a lower cladding, forming a thin central core layer of a second material on the first core layer, forming an upper core layer of the first material on the central core layer, and etching the upper core layer in an etchant such that it is removed from the thin-core region and its thickness monotonically changes from its as-deposited thickness to extinction across the transition region, where the central core layer protects the lower core layer from exposure to the etchant.
US09020316B2	Low attenuation optical fibers with an F-graded index core An optical fiber is provided that includes a fiber configured to transmit optical data in a plurality of modes or in a single mode; a core region in the fiber that comprises fluorine-doped silica; and a cladding in the fiber that surrounds the core region and that comprises fluorine-doped silica. The core region has a graded refractive index profile with an alpha of about 0.5 to 5. The core of the fiber may be set with a radius of approximately 6 to 50 microns. The cladding may also comprise one or a plurality of layers, including trench or moat regions of a relatively lower refractive index. Still further, an inner cladding may be doped with fluorine at a concentration greater than that in the core region. An outer cladding can comprise silica with fluorine at a concentration below or equal to that in the inner cladding.
US09020308B2	Multi-channel optical module with polyhedral mirror The multi-channel optical module in accordance with some embodiments of the inventive may comprise a housing; an optical fiber disposed on one side of the housing; a plurality of optical devices disposed on the other side of the housing separated from the optical fiber; and a polyhedral mirror disposed between the optical devices and having mirror sides reflecting an optical signal between the optical fiber and the optical devices.
US09020303B2	Image magnification device and method An interpolation computation unit (3B) treats, as positions of interest, positions where pixels within a high-resolution image (D30) occupy when the high-resolution image (D30) is superimposed on a low-resolution image (D01), and for each position of interest, obtains a pixel value for a pixel assumed to exist at the position of interest by performing an interpolation computation using pixel values of a plurality of pixels within the low-resolution image (D01). An interpolation coefficient calculation unit (3A) obtains interpolation coefficients (D3A) having values that increase with increasing strength of correlation of the pixels in the plurality of pixels in the low-resolution image with the pixel of interest, and outputs the interpolation coefficients to the interpolation computation unit (3B). Angles of edges and shapes of edges are not classified into any predetermined patterns; therefore, it is possible to perform suitable interpolation computations regardless of edge shape.
US09020301B2	Method and system for three dimensional mapping of an environment A three-dimensional modeling system includes a multi-axis range sensor configured to capture a first set of three-dimensional data representing characteristics of objects in an environment; a data sensor configured to capture a first set of sensor data representing distances between at least a subset of the objects and the data sensor; a computer-readable memory configured to store each of the first set of three-dimensional data and the first set of sensor data; a mobile base; a processor; and a computer-readable medium containing programming instructions configured to, when executed, instruct the processor to process the first set of three-dimensional data and the first set of sensor data to generate a three-dimensional model of the environment.
US09020298B2	Automated image cropping to include particular subjects A digital image is automatically cropped to fit within a desired frame. The cropping is based on one or more of two identified portions of the image. One of the portions is an all-subjects portion that includes all the identified subjects of a particular type in the image. The other portion is an attention portion that identifies an intended focus of the image. An attempt to crop the image to include both of these portions is made, and if unsuccessful then an attempt to crop the image to include at least the all-subjects portion is made. If neither of these attempts is successful, then the image is cropped to include one or more, but less than all, of the identified subjects of the particular type in the image.
US09020293B2	Integration of filters and phase unwrapping algorithms for removing noise in image reconstruction A method to detect and remove noise in image reconstruction. The method includes integration of filters and phase unwrapping algorithms for removing speckle noise, residual noise and noise at the lateral surface of height discontinuities. The method is used for generating a noise-free unwrapped phase map and hence, a successful image reconstruction of an object image.
US09020292B2	Method for correcting rolling shutter effect and image processing device using the same A method for correcting a rolling shutter effect is provided. The method includes: obtaining feature point pairs in images, wherein each of the feature point pairs corresponds to a motion vector; obtaining sampling points between two consecutive images in time; setting a moving velocity and an angular velocity of an image capturing unit at each of the sampling points as variables; obtaining estimating motion vectors according to the variables, a focal length of the image capturing unit, and row locations where the feature point pairs are located; executing an optimization algorithm according to a difference between the motion vectors and the estimating motion vectors, to calculate the moving velocity and the angular velocity corresponding to the variables; varying locations of pixels in an image according to the moving velocity and the angular velocity, to generate a first corrected image. Thereby, the rolling shutter effect in an image is removed.
US09020287B2	Methods and apparatus for filter parameter determination and selection responsive to variable transforms in sparsity-based de-artifact filtering There are provided method and apparatus for filter parameter determination and selection responsive to variable transforms in sparsity-based de-artifact filtering. An apparatus includes an encoder for encoding picture data for at least a portion of a picture. The encoder includes a sparsity-based de-artifact filter for performing sparsity-based de-artifact filtering on the portion. One or more filter parameters for the sparsity-based de-artifact filtering are determined and selected responsive to variable transforms.
US09020284B2	Image encoding apparatus An image encoding apparatus is provided which realizes an encoding process at a high bit rate without degradation in image quality at boundary parts within a picture. The image encoding apparatus 1 includes: a plurality of entropy encoding sections 105 and 106 for generating bit streams by entropy-encoding intermediate data generated from syntax elements of image data; and an encoding control section 104 for supplying the intermediate data to any of the entropy encoding sections. The encoding control section 104 determines the entropy encoding section that performs an entropy encoding process by a frame in accordance with the processing status of each of the entropy encoding sections.
US09020283B2	Electronic device and method for splitting image In a method for splitting an image for encoding purposes, a largest coding unit (LCU) of the image is obtained, the LCU divided into a plurality of 2N×2N blocks, the 2N×2N blocks examined sequentially, and a determination made as to whether or not the current 2N×2N block needs to be split according to a pixel variance of the current 2N×2N block. The method further determines whether a block merging operation needs to be executed for the LCUs according to an average value of pixels of each of the 2N×2N blocks if the current 2N×2N block does not need to be split.
US09020280B2	System and method for evaluating focus direction under various lighting conditions A system and method for generating a direction confidence measure includes a camera sensor device that captures blur images of a photographic target. A depth estimator calculates matching errors for the blur images. The depth estimator then generates the direction confidence measure by utilizing the matching errors and a dynamic optimization constant that is selected depending upon image characteristics of the blur images.
US09020279B2	Image processing methods and apparatuses Provided are image processing method and apparatus. The method includes selecting one of a plurality of images matched in structure as reference image, and select another of the images as subject image; for a subject pixel in the subject image, determining a pixel corresponding to the subject pixel in the reference image; calculating similarity values of at least part of pixels in the reference image with respect to the pixel corresponding to the subject pixel; establishing weight coefficients based on the similarity values, and weighted averaging the subject pixel in the subject image to obtain a processed pixel value. With the above solutions, it is possible to use structure information of a higher-quality image in processing another image, and thus improve quality of the other image.
US09020277B1	Image-based stimulus for circuit simulation Certain embodiments enable image-based stimulus for circuit simulations by extracting a waveform from an image and using that waveform to simulate a circuit. Image-processing aspects may include edge-detection processes to identify a boundary of the waveform in the image.
US09020273B2	Image processing method, image processor, integrated circuit, and program An image processing method capable of appropriately increasing a resolution of an input image in which an edge direction that is a direction along an edge included in the input image is identified; a shape of an application region that is a region including at least a part of the edge is determined according to the identified edge direction; an image similar to an image within the application region having the determined shape is searched for; and an output image is generated by performing a resolution conversion process on the input image using the similar image so that the input image includes high-frequency components.
US09020272B1	Sampling vector signed distance field using arc approximation In one aspect, the present disclosure can be embodied in a method that includes approximating an outline of a vector image using a set of circular arcs. A signed distance value is computed for a selected group of points in a two-dimensional grid associated with the vector image based on a location of each point relative to the approximated outline of the vector image. The nearest are from the respective location of each point in the selected group is identified and the corresponding signed distance value is assigned to each point. The vector image is reproduced based on the signed distance value assigned to each point in the selected group.
US09020267B2	Information processing apparatus and handwritten document search method According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a storage processor and a search module. The storage processor stores document data and character codes, the document data including stroke data corresponding to strokes input by a handwriting operation and the character codes corresponding to the stroke data. The search module performs at least one of a handwriting search according to strokes of a first search key and a character search according to a character code of a second search key, stroke data corresponding to the strokes of the first search key retrieved from the document data in the handwriting search and stroke data corresponding to the character code of the second search key retrieved from the character codes in the character search.
US09020265B2	System and method of determining building numbers A system and method is provided for automatically recognizing building numbers in street level images. In one aspect, a processor selects a street level image that is likely to be near an address of interest. The processor identifies those portions of the image that are visually similar to street numbers, and then extracts the numeric values of the characters displayed in such portions. If an extracted value corresponds with the building number of the address of interest such as being substantially equal to the address of interest, the extracted value and the image portion are displayed to a human operator. The human operator confirms, by looking at the image portion, whether the image portion appears to be a building number that matches the extracted value. If so, the processor stores a value that associates that building number with the street level image.
US09020264B2	Image management device, image management method, program, recording medium, and integrated circuit An image management device clusters acquired images (S201) and generates blocks by grouping the images (S202). Next, the image management device calculates an intra-block importance degree of each cluster in each generated block (S204), calculates cluster importance degrees by accumulating the calculated intra-block importance degrees of each cluster (S205), and calculates an image importance degree based on the calculated cluster importance degrees (S206).
US09020263B2	Systems and methods for semantically classifying and extracting shots in video The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for classifying videos based on video content. For a given video file including a plurality of frames, a subset of frames is extracted for processing. Frames that are too dark, blurry, or otherwise poor classification candidates are discarded from the subset. Generally, material classification scores that describe type of material content likely included in each frame are calculated for the remaining frames in the subset. The material classification scores are used to generate material arrangement vectors that represent the spatial arrangement of material content in each frame. The material arrangement vectors are subsequently classified to generate a scene classification score vector for each frame. The scene classification results are averaged (or otherwise processed) across all frames in the subset to associate the video file with one or more predefined scene categories related to overall types of scene content of the video file.
US09020254B2	Dynamic image quality checker for use in image transcoding Described is a technology by which an image is transcoded to a desired quality measure (e.g., PSNR). A quality measure of transcoded image data is checked against a desired quality measure, and if a desired quality measure is not achieved, a different quality level is iteratively provided to attempt to re-transcode the image until the desired quality measure is achieved.
US09020253B1	Systems and methods for identifying a colorbar/non-colorbar frame attribute Presently disclosed are systems and methods for identifying a colorbar/non-colorbar attribute of a current frame. One example embodiment takes the form of a frame-processing device including a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause a set of steps to be carried out, the set of steps including: (i) receiving a frame of video from a video source device; (ii) defining a region of the received frame, wherein the region is associated with a plurality of pixels of the received frame; (iii) using a plurality of luma values associated with the plurality of pixels as a basis to identify the received frame as having a particular colorbar/non-colorbar attribute; and (iv) storing in a memory an indication that the received frame has the identified particular colorbar/non-colorbar attribute.
US09020251B2	Image processing apparatus and method Provided is a method and apparatus for modeling a human body using a depth image and a color image. An image processing apparatus may extract a body area from a color image based on a depth value of a depth image, may match a boundary of the extracted body area and a boundary of a generic body mesh model, and may deform a mesh of the generic body mesh model based on a depth value of a pixel positioned within the boundary of the extracted body area.
US09020248B2	Window dependent feature regions and strict spatial layout for object detection Systems and methods for object detection by receiving an image; segmenting the image and identifying candidate bounding boxes which may contain an object; for each candidate bounding box, dividing the box into overlapped small patches, and extracting dense features from the patches; during a training phase, applying a learning process to learn one or more discriminative classification models to classify negative boxes and positive boxes; and during an operational phase, for a new box generated from the image, applying the learned classification model to classify whether the box contains an object.
US09020244B2	Ranking and selecting representative video images Techniques are described herein for selecting representative images for video items using a trained machine learning engine. A training set is fed to a machine learning engine. The training set includes, for each image in the training set, input parameter values and an externally-generated score. Once a machine learning model has been generated based on the training set, input parameters for unscored images are fed to the trained machine learning engine. Based on the machine learning model, the trained machine learning engine generates scores for the images. To select a representative image for a particular video item, candidate images for that particular video item may be ranked based on their scores, and the candidate image with the top score may be selected as the representative image for the video item.
US09020243B2	Image adjustment Techniques are disclosed relating to automatically adjusting images. In one embodiment, an image may be automatically adjusted based on a regression model trained with a database of raw and adjusted images. In one embodiment, an image may be automatically adjusted based on a model trained by both a database of raw and adjusted images and a small set of images adjusted by a different user. In one embodiment, an image may be automatically adjusted based on a model trained by a database of raw and adjusted images and predicted differences between a user's adjustment to a small set of images and a predicted adjustment based on the database of raw and adjusted images.
US09020241B2	Image providing device, image providing method, and image providing program for providing past-experience images A image providing device provides a user with realistic and natural past-experience simulation through stereoscopic photographs. Specifically, feature-point extractors extract feature points from a foreground image and a background image, respectively. A stereoscopic matching module searches for pairs of feature points matching between the foreground image and the background image and obtains using the feature point pairs a transformation matrix for projecting the foreground image onto the background image. The transformation by the transformation matrix obtained by the matching unit is applied to foreground depth data, which is depth data of the foreground image. Lastly, depth based rendering is performed based on the transformed foreground depth data to obtain two or more viewpoint images corresponding to the foreground image.
US09020234B2	Contour delineation for radiation therapy planning with real-time contour segment impact rendering A contouring module (22, 24) iteratively adjusts contours delineating a radiation target region and risk regions in a planning image. An intensity modulation optimization module (30) generates a radiation therapy plan conforming with dosage or dosage constraints (26) for the radiation target region and the risk regions delineated by the contours. A differential analysis module (40) is configured to invoke the intensity modulation optimization module (30) to estimate partial derivatives of an output of the intensity modulation optimization respective to the contours. The contouring module (22, 24) is configured to invoke the differential analysis module (40) after each iterative contour adjustment to estimate the partial derivatives respective to the contour segments and to render the contour segments on a display of the planning image with the contour segments coded based on the estimated partial derivatives to indicate impact of the contour segments on the intensity modulation optimization.
US09020233B2	Method and system for up-vector detection for ribs in computed tomography volumes A method and system for up-vector detection for ribs in a 3D medical image volume, such as a computed tomography (CT) volume is disclosed. A rib centerline of at least one rib is extracted in a 3D medical image volume. An up-vector is automatically detected at each of a plurality of centerline points of the rib centerline of the at least one rib. The up-vector at each centerline point can be detected using a trained regression function. Alternatively, the up-vector at each centerline point can be detected by detecting an ellipse shape in a cross-sectional rib image generated at each centerline point.
US09020228B2	Method for identifying a tooth region A method for identifying tooth regions. The method includes generating a first threshold image from a first tooth image by selecting intensity data values higher than a first predetermined threshold value c1; generating a second threshold image from a second tooth image by selecting intensity data values higher than a second predetermined threshold value c2; generating a preliminary tooth regions image that defines at least a first tooth region from the intersection of the first and second threshold images; generating a reference binary image from the first image by selecting intensity data values higher than a third predetermined threshold value c3, wherein threshold value c3 exceeds c1; and generating a refined tooth regions image from at least the first tooth region in the preliminary tooth regions image. The first tooth region is connected to objects in the reference binary image.
US09020224B2	Volume of efficacy model capture A system and method for determining, planning, and/or administering a therapy of a selected material from a catheter to a selected specific region of an anatomy is disclosed. The catheter can be used to deliver a drug to the patient to achieve a volume of efficacy (VOE) within a selected target, region, or volume. The drug delivered can be used for treating at least a symptom in the patient.
US09020223B2	Method for determining bone resection on a deformed bone surface from few parameters The invention relates to a method for non-invasive reproducible determination of a corrected surface on a 3D bone surface model constructed from 3D medical image of a bone having a deformation consisting in a bump overgrowth at the head-neck junction; wherein said corrected surface comprises: i) a 3D spherical corrected surface patch on the head portion of said 3D bone surface model, and ii) a 3D smooth transition corrected surface patch on the neck portion of said 3D bone surface model, contiguous to said 3D spherical corrected surface patch; Said corrected surface patches are defined by a set of parameters comprising: iii) at least one first parameter (a*) representing a spherical extent value of said 3D spherical corrected surface patch, iv) and a set of at least one second parameter, said set determining the 3D correction boundary of said corrected surface patches, such that said corrected surface patches are continuous with said 3D bone surface model along said boundary.
US09020222B2	Method and arrangement for the computer-assisted structuring of medical examination data An arrangement for computer-assisted structuring of medical examination data is provided. The arrangement has a device for receiving at least one medical examination data record including at least one image data record created with a radiological imaging device, a device for receiving medical video data from external video sources, a device for converting the medical video data into a medical standard format in which a time stamp of the video data generation is stored, a device for storing the converted video data and the at least one examination data record, and a device for outputting the video data and examination data record. The video data and the at least one image data record can be arranged according to their time stamp.
US09020219B2	Medical image processing apparatus According to one embodiment, a medical image processing apparatus includes at least a parallax image generation unit and a display unit. The parallax image generation unit generates combined data of a three-dimensional medical image data and a text information, and generates a plurality of parallax image data by performing projection processing on the combined data along a corresponding plurality of parallax directions. The display unit displays a plurality of parallax images, based on the plurality of the parallax image data, in the corresponding plurality of parallax directions such that a three-dimensional medical image based on the three-dimensional medical image data and a text plane based on the text information are perceived stereoscopically viewable by an observer. The parallax image generation unit changes orientation of a display region for the text information in generating the combined data according to each of the parallax directions.
US09020218B2	Methods and apparatus for generating a modified intensity projection image In a method or apparatus for generating, from medical image data of a subject from a functional imaging modality, a modified intensity projection image for display. An intensity projection image data set is obtained from the image data. A segmentation for the image data is obtained. Based on information from the segmentation, a modified display property is calculated for at least one voxel of the intensity projection image data set.
US09020203B2	System and method for managing spatiotemporal uncertainty Provided herein are methods and systems for managing spatiotemporal uncertainty in image processing. A method can comprise determining motion from a first image to a second image, determining a latency value, determining a precision value, generating an uncertainty element based upon the motion, the latency value, and the precision value, and rendering the uncertainty element.
US09020197B2	Motion analyzing apparatus A sensor unit is installed to a target object and detects a given physical amount. A data acquisition unit acquires output data of the sensor unit in a period including a first period for which a real value of a value of m time integrals of the physical amount is known and a second period that is a target for motion analysis. An error time function estimating unit performs m time integrals of the output data of the sensor unit and estimates a time function of an error of a value of the physical amount detected by the sensor unit with respect to the real value of the value of the physical amount detected by the sensor unit based on a difference between a value of m time integrals of the output data and the real value for the first period.
US09020196B2	Extracting feature quantities from an image to perform location estimation A feature extraction method for extracting a feature from an image includes receiving an image and measured acceleration data from a mobile device; obtaining a gravity vector in the image in a camera coordinate system based on the measured acceleration data; obtaining a vanishing point in the image in a vertical direction in a screen coordinate system using the gravity vector; obtaining differential vectors along two axes for each pixel in the screen coordinate system; obtaining a connection line vector connecting each of the pixels with the vanishing point; identifying a vertical edge based on determining that an angle formed by the differential vector and the connection line vector is within a certain threshold range; obtaining the sum of strengths of vertical edges and writing the sum in a predetermined variable array; extracting a keypoint based on the variable array; and calculating a feature quantity from the keypoint.
US09020194B2	Systems and methods for performing a device action based on a detected gesture Systems and methods for performing an action based on a detected gesture are provided. The systems and methods provided herein may detect a direction of an initial touchless gesture and process subsequent touchless gestures based on the direction of the initial touchless gesture. The systems and methods may translate a coordinate system related to a user device and a gesture library based on the detected direction such that subsequent touchless gestures may be processed based on the detected direction. The systems and methods may allow a user to make a touchless gesture over a device to interact with the device independent of the orientation of the device since the direction of the initial gesture can set the coordinate system or context for subsequent gesture detection.
US09020192B2	Human submental profile measurement An imaging system captures images of a human submental profile in a dimension controlled environment and utilizes image analysis algorithms for detecting submental changes. Instead of implementing a strict posture control of a subject, the imaging system allows the subject to freely move his/her head in an up-and-down direction and a high speed camera captures this movement through a series of images at varying head-to-shoulder angles. The image analysis algorithms may accurately compare before and after images at similar head-to-shoulder angles to identify changes in a human submental profile using a series of measurements and checkpoints.
US09020188B2	Method for object detection and apparatus using the same A method for object detection and an apparatus using the same are provided, and the method includes: An image is captured, in which the image includes a plurality of sampling-windows. A first-stage sub-classifier of a classifier is used to detect whether the sampling-windows contain an object therein. The classifier is rotated at least one time by a predetermined rotation angle and the first-stage sub-classifier of the classifier is used to detect whether the sampling-windows contain the object after each rotating, wherein when the object is detected within the sampling-windows, keep detecting whether the sampling-windows contain the object therein sequentially by a second-stage sub-classifier to an Nth stage sub-classifier of the classifier with the same orientation. The image is rotated at least one time by a predetermined image angle and the above-mentioned operations of detecting the object is performed after each rotating. The sampling-windows containing the object are output.
US09020186B2	Method and apparatus for detecting object using volumetric feature vector and 3D haar-like filters In a method of detecting a specific object using a multi-dimensional image including the specific object, with respect to each window slide of the image subjected to window sliding by applying a previously generated 3D cube filter, data of an area corresponding to the window sliding is normalized in a previously defined specific form. After the corresponding part of the normalized data is assigned to each cell in the 3D cube filter, a volume of the cell is then calculated, thereby expressing the volumes of the cells as one volumetric feature vector having a volumetric feature. The volumetric feature vector is applied to a classifier so as to decide whether or not the data of the area corresponding to the window slide corresponds to the specific object.
US09020172B2	Methods, systems, and devices for detecting feedback Systems, methods, and devices are disclosed. An example sound processor is disclosed. The example sound processor includes a module configured to identify a feedback artifact in a current sample of an input spectral component by determining that a change in a signal level of an input spectral component is approximately equal to a predicted change. The predicted change may be based on one or more characteristics of an external feedback loop. Responsive to identifying the feedback artifact, the sound processor is further configured to apply a modification to a parameter used to process the input spectral component. The modification reduces a likelihood of including audible feedback in a processed input spectral component.
US09020168B2	Apparatus and method for audio delivery with different sound conduction transducers An apparatus including an air-conduction transducer and a bone conduction transducer. The air-conduction transducer is configured to convert a first frequency band component of an electrical audio signal into acoustic energy to be delivered to an ear canal of a user. The bone conduction transducer is configured to convert a second, at least partially different, frequency band component of the electrical audio signal into mechanical energy to be delivered to a skull of the user. The apparatus is configured to deliver both forms of the energies to the user at a substantially same time to provide a combined audio delivery result to the user.
US09020167B2	Setting television or radio default channel In some embodiments, a media device is configured so that it automatically causes a first predetermined channel to be displayed on an output device when a user sends a request signal to the media device to turn the output device off. The media device may be configured so that it causes the output device to shut off after the first predetermined channel has been on for a dwell period of time after the request signal has been received. The dwell period of time may be approximately two seconds. In some embodiments, a media device is configured so that it automatically causes a first predetermined channel to be displayed on an output device when a user sends a request signal to the media device to turn the output device on. In some embodiments, the media device is a television device. In other embodiments, the media device is a radio device.
US09020166B2	Volume amplitude limiting device A volume amplitude limiting device includes a volume adjustment unit, an amplitude limiting unit, and a control unit. The volume adjustment unit adjusts the amplitude of an input sound signal to a larger degree as the adjustment value increases and outputs the resulting sound signal. The amplitude limiting unit limits the amplitude of the sound signal output from the volume adjustment unit to an output limitation value and outputs the resulting signal to a speaker. The control unit sets an adjustment value for the volume adjustment unit and also sets an output limitation value for the amplitude limiting unit according to an adjustment value.
US09020165B2	Pop/click noise reduction circuitry for power-up and power-down of audio output circuitry Pop/clock noise reduction circuitry is disclosed for audio output circuitry. After audio output circuitry is enabled, reference voltage generator circuitry is then enabled to produce a reference voltage that ramps from a first voltage level to a second voltage level at a smooth rate. The ramping reference voltage is applied to the input of the audio output circuitry to reduce or prevent pop/click noise for the audio output circuitry. Further, negative offset control circuitry can also be used to provide a negative offset input to the audio output circuitry to remove initial step-up voltage levels that may exist at operational power-up for the audio output circuitry. Still further, current control circuitry can also be used that limits the available current flowing to the output node for the audio output circuitry, thereby further reducing and/or preventing potential pop/click noise in the audio output signals.
US09020163B2	Near-field null and beamforming Devices and methods are disclosed that allow for selective acoustic near-field nulls for microphone arrays. One embodiment may take the form of an electronic device including a speaker and a microphone array. The microphone array may include a first microphone positioned a first distance from the speaker and a second microphone positioned a second distance from the speaker. The first and second microphones are configured to receive an acoustic signal. The microphone array further includes a complex vector filter coupled to the second microphone. The complex vector filter is applied to an output signal of the second microphone to generate an acoustic sensitivity pattern for the array that provides an acoustic null at the location of the speaker.
US09020160B2	Reducing occlusion effect in ANR headphones In an active noise reducing headphone, a signal processor is configured to apply first feedback filters to the feedback signal path, causing the feedback signal path to operate at a first gain level, as a function of frequency, during a first operating mode, and apply second feedback filters to the feedback signal path, causing the feedback signal path to operate at a second gain level less than the first gain level at some frequencies during a second operating mode. The first gain level is a level of gain that results in effective cancellation of sounds transmitted through or around the ear cup and through the user's head, and the second level is a level of gain that is matched to the level of sound of a typical wearer's voice transmitted through the wearer's head when wearing the headphone.
US09020157B2	Active noise cancellation system A noise cancellation system generates a noise cancellation signal from a signal representing ambient noise by signal processing. The signal processing applies a controllable gain value, and includes a high pass filter with a controllable cut-off frequency. A control block detects a wind amplitude. The cut-off frequency of the high pass filter is controlled based on the detected wind amplitude. A low pass function is applied to the detected wind amplitude, and the controllable gain is adjusted based on the output of the low pass function.
US09020151B1	Secure real-time data replication with disk encryption and key management system A secure real-time data replication system includes a key management server that provides keys to hosts that store encrypted data. Data to be written in one host is encrypted using a key received from the key management server; the encrypted data is stored in the host. A copy of the data is provided to another host for real-time data replication. In the other host, the copy of the data is encrypted using another key received from the key management server; the encrypted copy of the data is stored in the other host. Keys are provided by the key management server based on policy rules governing the keys.
US09020149B1	Protected storage for cryptographic materials Disclosed are various embodiments for obtaining a service request from a client, the service request including plaintext data to be encrypted and associated metadata. Ciphertext data is generated based upon the plaintext data. The ciphertext data is stored in a record in a data store of a cryptographic device. A service response is provided to the client, which includes a record identifier for the record in the data store.
US09020144B1	Cross-domain processing for noise and echo suppression An audio-based system may perform noise and echo suppression by initially processing an audio signal that is subject to acoustic echo or echo resulting from other system characteristics. The audio signal is processed in the time domain using an adaptive echo-cancellation filter. The audio is then further processed in the frequency domain to simultaneously reduce background noise and residual echo.
US09020140B2	Telephonic teleservices management A system and method to provide telephonic teleservices management is provided. The system may comprise a session management module used to establish a session with an agent via a telephone of the agent. An agent management module may manage a work state of the agent within a plurality of sequential calls between the agent and a plurality of customers. During the session, the connection with the agent remains established between each of the sequential calls. A hub management module manages a call hub during a call of the plurality of sequential calls between the agent and a customer of the plurality of customers.
US09020138B1	Targeted issue routing A contact received by a service center from a customer may be assigned to one of a plurality of agents or representatives based on any prior experience with the customer or with the contact, any preferences of the customer or any skills required in order to address the contact. Preferably, an agent who previously handled an issue on behalf of the customer may be identified, and the contact may be assigned to that agent. Alternatively, the contact may be assigned to an agent preferred by the customer, or to a particularly skilled agent. If no preferred agents or particularly skilled agents are available to respond to the contact, the contact may be assigned at random to one or more particular agents. The contact may be initiated by way of a reply to a message containing a response to a previous contact, and the message may include metadata that associates the reply with the previous contact.
US09020133B2	Call occupancy management A device may receive a history of call volumes and statistics for a call queue. The device may also receive, for each of a number of agents that are associated with the call queue, a work schedule. The device may determine a projected call occupancy for the call queue based on the history of call volumes for the call queue and the work schedules; select a subset of agents, among the number of agents that are associated with the call queue, that are not needed to handle calls in the call queue during a time for which projected call occupancy is below a first threshold; and assign tasks, for the time, to the subset of agents.
US09020130B2	Automatic integrated escalation in a unified messaging system A user is identified based at least in part on a user identification designation associated with an incoming communication. A message recipient is then determined based at least in part on the identified user and one or more address books associated with message recipients by comparing the user identification designation to one or more entries in the one or more recipient databases. The incoming communication is routed to the determined message recipient. Escalation procedures are implemented up to a configured level in the recipient organization based on various criteria. As messages are escalated and deposited in mailboxes associated with the determined message recipients, the determined message recipients are notified of the deposited messages.
US09020129B2	Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing human-assisted natural language call routing Techniques for routing a telephone call are provided. A call interface device of an interactive voice response system is configured to receive the telephone call from a caller. A level one agent processing module routes the telephone all to a level one agent for an agent interview of the caller when level three and level two agents are not available. A level two agent processing module handles the telephone call when the level three agent is not available. A level three agent processing module facilitates the handling of the telephone call when the level three agent is available.
US09020126B1	Capacity allocation of call-handling devices across call destinations A system and method that allocate call capacity based on the need to divide the call capacities of at least some call-termination devices across geographic regions. Accordingly, the allocation system uses various input parameters as constraints in a linear programming optimization, which has the objective of maximizing the capacity allocation of a device to fulfill the traffic demands of each region being processed. The input parameters that are used include i) the traffic demand forecast of each geographic region being evaluated, ii) the available call capacity of each call-termination device, iii) the call destinations associated with each region, and iv) service levels associated with each given call destination. Call-capacities are separately allocated for i) the predicted traffic that is expected in the next time period and ii) an additional margin of excess traffic above and beyond the expected traffic.
US09020124B2	System and method for implementing do-not-disturb during playback of media content The disclosed embodiments include a system, method, and computer program product for implementing do-not-disturb feature during media content. For example, in one embodiment, a determination is made on whether to implement the do-not-disturb feature is implemented on at least one of a plurality of devices associated with a user during the playback of the media content based on user preferences, wherein the user preferences specify a type of media content that triggers the do-not-disturb feature. In response to the do-not-disturb feature being implemented, notification of an incoming communication is suspended during playback of the media content.
US09020120B2	Timeline interface for multi-modal collaboration A system, method, and computer readable medium are provided to manage a conference. The start of a conference is identified. For example, the start of the conference is identified when a host dials into a conference bridge. A timeline is created for the conference based on a first event that occurs at the start of the conference. The timeline includes the first event. The timeline is updated in real-time with a second event, as a second event occurs during the conference. This process is repeated throughout the conference. The timeline is rendered for display to one or more participants in the conference. The conference is then displayed to the conference participants, thus providing the conference participants with a real-time timeline of the conference.
US09020119B2	Moderation control method for participants in a heterogeneous conference call Presented are systems and methods for providing moderator control in a heterogeneous conference including acquiring a merge control to merge a first conference with a second conference to create a single heterogeneous conference, wherein the first conference and the second conference utilize different types of conference hosting systems. The system sends the merge control to a server, wherein the server is configured to establish conference connections with the first conference and the second conference. The system then merges the first conference with the second conference to create the heterogeneous conference and determines a moderator for the heterogeneous conference. The system automatically transfers one or more moderator controls to the moderator of the heterogeneous conference.
US09020117B2	Performing human client verification over a voice interface Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for managing telephone calls. Upon completion of a telephone call, a telephone services subscriber is provided with a post-call interface. The post call interface allows the subscriber to define how future telephone calls from the caller are to be managed. Instructions are received from the subscriber through the post-call interface. The instructions pertain to the management of future telephone calls from the caller. The received instructions are saved.
US09020115B2	Inmate communications Inmate communications can include establishing a communication, between an inmate device and a registered device, and storing information associated with the communication in a local data store.
US09020114B2	Systems and methods for detecting a call anomaly using biometric identification Embodiments of the present invention are directed generally to use of biometric identification during a call for detecting an anomaly occurring in the call, such as a change in the parties participating on the call. Communication between parties of a call is monitored and biometric identification is performed using the communication. According to one exemplary embodiment, biometric prints, such as voice prints, face prints, etc., are obtained for parties that are authorized to participate on a call. The call is then monitored and biometric data (e.g., audio, video, etc.) captured from communication during the call is compared with the biometric prints of the authorized parties to detect changes in the parties participating on the call, such as a new, unauthorized party joining the call. Thus, a call processing system can detect anomalies occurring during monitored calls, such as three-way calling, a handoff of a call, etc.
US09020111B2	Setting up a communication session within a wireless communications system In an embodiment, an originating communication device within a wireless communications system sends a call request to a server to initiate a communication session with a target communication device, and also sends, along with the call request, a session description request, the session description request requesting alerting data to be sent to the target communication device from the server in addition to a call announce message for announcing the communication session to the at least one target communication device, the alerting data describing a nature of the communication session. The server sends the call announce message and the alerting data to the target communication device. The target communication device receives the call announce message and the alerting data, notifies a user of the target communication device of the announced communication session and outputs the alerting data to the user of the target communication device in conjunction with the notification.
US09020110B1	Consumer-provider video interaction Methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for interactions between a consumer and a service provider. In some embodiments, an interaction application may provide a collection of service providers to a consumer, receive a selection of a service provider from the consumer, and establish a two-way video communication between the consumer and the service provider. In some embodiments, the interaction application may charge a fee to the consumer, the service provider, or both, for the providing the interaction.
US09020108B1	Methods and systems for confirming message delivery Methods and systems for processing messages and providing notifications regarding the same are described. An optional embodiment includes a telecommunications interface, a data network interface, and an answering system coupled to the telecommunications interface and the data network interface, the call processing system configured to receive a first call from a caller via the telecommunications interface, store a message from the caller, transmit a message notification using the data network to the intended recipient of the call via which the intended recipient can access the message, and transmit information related to the intended recipient's receipt of the message.
US09020103B2	Versatile beam scanner with fan beam A versatile beam scanner for generating a far-field scanned pencil beam, and, alternatively, a far-field pencil beam. An angle selector limits the angular extent of an inner fan beam emitted by a source of penetrating radiation. The source and angle selector may be translated, along a direction parallel to a central axis of a multi-aperture unit, in such a manner as to generate a scanned far-field pencil beam, when rings of apertures are interposed between the source and an inspected target, or, alternatively, a far-field fan beam, when no ring of apertures is interposed.
US09020101B2	Target for X-ray generator, method of manufacturing the same and X-ray generator There is provided a target for an X-ray generator, including: a holder part made of an electrically conductive material and having an opening part; a diamond plate air-tightly joined to the holder part so as to close the opening part; a thin film target provided on a surface of the diamond plate, with its outer peripheral part extending to the holder part to be electrically connected to the holder part, wherein the holder part is configured to be electrically connected to a power supply of the X-ray generator, and the diamond plate is incorporated into the X-ray generator with one side disposed in a vacuum atmosphere where the thin film target is formed, and an opposite side thereto disposed at a side where the diamond plate is brought into thermal contact with a refrigerant and cooled.
US09020100B2	Multiple image collection and synthesis for personnel screening An apparatus and method for inspecting personnel or their effects. A first and second carriage each carries a source for producing a beam of penetrating radiation incident on a given subject. A positioner provides for relative motion of each beam vis-à-vis the subject in a motion, the vertical component of which is one-way. A detector receives radiation produced by at least one of the sources after the radiation interacts with the subject.
US09020092B2	Apparatus and method for angular response calibration of photon-counting detectors in sparse spectral computed tomography imaging A method for detector angular response calibration in computed-tomography (CT) comprising capturing incident X-ray photons, emitted from an X-ray source, via a plurality of energy-discriminating detectors, determining photon counts of the captured incident X-ray photons in a plurality of energy windows at each energy-discriminating detector, and adjusting the photon counts based on a pre-determined detector angular response calibration look-up table for a given view for each energy-discriminating detector at each energy window.
US09020084B2	High frequency synchronizer Techniques for resolving a metastable state in a synchronizer are described herein. In one embodiment, a circuit for resolving a metastable state in a synchronizer comprises a signal delay circuit coupled to a node of the synchronizer, wherein the signal delay circuit is configured to delay a data signal at the node to produce a delayed data signal, and a transmission circuit coupled to the signal delay circuit, wherein the transmission circuit is configured to couple the delayed data signal to the node after a delay from a first edge of a clock signal.
US09020071B1	Amplitude shift keyed (ASK) modulator/transmitter with fast fall time An Amplitude-Shifted-Keyed (ASK) modulator/transmitter has fall time enhanced by pulsing pull-up and pull-down enhancement switches on for a short period of time after a data transition. The enhancement switches draw energy from a coupling capacitor to more rapidly reduce an amplitude of the carrier wave being output. An input carrier wave is applied to gates of p-channel and n-channel current sources that drive the coupling capacitor. Gates of the n-channel and p-channel enhancement switches also receive the input carrier wave when data is high, but are disabled when data is low. Multiple p-channel and n-channel transistors may be used in parallel for each current source or enhancement switch. Each of the multiple transistors in parallel has a gate that is AND'ed with an index signal. The index signals are programmable and determine how many of the parallel transistors are enabled, thus determining the aggregate current.
US09020069B2	Active general purpose hybrid A general purpose hybrid includes a first input port in communication with a first dual vector generator, a second input port in communication with a second dual vector generator, a first active combiner receives a first signal from the first dual vector generator and a third signal from the second dual vector generator, where the first and second dual vector generators independently apply phase shifting and amplitude control to the first and third signals; a second active combiner receives a second signal from the first dual vector generator and a fourth signal from the second dual vector generator, where the first and second dual vector generators independently apply phase shifting and amplitude control to the second and fourth signals; a first output port provides a first composite signal from the first active combiner; and a second output port provides a second composite signal from the second active combiner.
US09020066B2	Single-bit direct modulation transmitter Single-bit transmitter modulator having a digital pulse shaping filter configured to shape data pulses of an inphase signal and quadrature signal; an upsampling filter configured to increase the sample rate of the inphase signal and quadrature signal; a sigma-delta modulator providing a one-bit inphase output signal and a one-bit quadrature output signal; an inphase low-order analog low pass filter coupling the one-bit inphase output signal to an inphase channel input of a quadrature modulator, and a quadrature low-order analog low pass filter coupling the one-bit quadrature output signal to a quadrature channel input of a quadrature modulator; and, wherein the quadrature modulator is connected to a carrier signal generator and is configured to generate an inphase and quadrature modulated carrier.
US09020065B2	Radio frequency digital filter group delay mismatch reduction A radio frequency (RF) front end having group delay mismatch reduction is provided. One embodiment provides a first feed forward path and a second feed forward path. The second feed forward path is electrically in parallel with the first feed forward. The second feed forward path has a first signal path and a second signal path. The first and second signal paths are arranged to be electrically in parallel. The first signal path has a digital filter. The second signal path has a tunable analog filter. The tunable analog filter operates to reduce a delay associated with the second feed forward path as compared with a delay associated with the first feed forward path.
US09020060B2	Virtual multiple-input multiple-output communication method and device The present invention provides a virtual multiple-input multiple-output communication method and device. The method includes: determining a user set to which a user equipment in a sector belongs, where the user set includes a first user set and a second user set, a user equipment in the first user set is in a beam coverage area of a first antenna group in the sector but is not in a beam coverage area of a second antenna group of the sector, and a user equipment in the second user set is in the beam coverage area of the second antenna group but is not in the beam coverage area of the first antenna group (101); and selecting, when a scheduled user equipment belongs to the first user set, an unscheduled user equipment in the second user set for pairing.
US09020054B2	Apparatus and methods for symbol timing error detection, tracking and correction Systems and methods for adjusting timing in a communication system, such as an OFDM system are described. In one implementation an error signal is generated to adjust the timing of a variable rate interpolator so as to adjust FFT timing. The error signal may be based on detection of significant peaks in an estimate of the impulse response of the channel, with the peak locations being tracked over subsequent symbols and the system timing adjusted in response to changes in the peaks.
US09020053B2	Clocking architectures in high-speed signaling systems Clocking systems and methods are provided below that accurately clock per-pin data transfers of input/output (IO) circuits of integrated circuit devices. These multiplexer-based clock selection systems use a dedicated multiplexer to receive clock signals from multiple mixer circuits and in turn to provide a selected reference clock signal for use by an interface circuit in transferring data to other integrated circuit devices. The timing of the selected reference clock signal is synchronized with the data signals to provide optimal sampling of the data signals. The multiplexer-based clock selection system is for use in memory interfaces of high-speed signaling systems for example.
US09020043B2	Pathway indexing in flexible partitioning There is a processing of an incoming video signal into a compressed video bitstream. The processing includes determining indexed pathways of blocks in the incoming video signal. The processing also includes determining flexible partitioning of the blocks utilizing partitioning lines. The partitioning lines are based on index units in the determined indexed pathways. The processing also includes generating PIFP information associated with the determined flexible partitioning and encoding the generated PIFP information associated with the PIFP encoded video. Also, there is a processing of received PIFP encoded video utilizing received encoded PIFP information associated with the received PIFP encoded video.
US09020042B2	Audio/video speedup system and method in a server-client streaming architecture A system and a corresponding method for temporal modification of audio signals, to increase or reduce the playback rates of an audio and/or a video file in a client-server environment. The system and method improve the efficiency of serving streaming media to a client so that the client can select an arbitrary time-speedup factor. The speedup system performs many of the pre-calculations once, at the server, so that the bandwidth needs are reduced and the client's computational load is minimized. The final time-scale-modification can be either done completely on the server, thus reducing the client's needs, or partly on the client's computer to minimize latency, and to reduce on-the-fly computational load from the server that serves multiple clients concurrently.
US09020038B2	Systems and methods for streaming and archiving video with geographic anchoring of frame contents A system and method for generating compressed video with geographically-anchored-video functionality includes processing frames from a source video sequence by matching image content of the frames to image data from a geographic database to derive the geographic locations of pixels within at least part of the frames. The source video sequence is then compressed by a lossy video compression technique to generate a compressed video sequence, and the compressed video sequence is encoded together with data indicative of the geographic locations of pixels as a composite data stream. Also disclosed are methods for selective video archiving and retrieval based on the geographical footprint of the image content.
US09020032B2	Method and apparatus for processing a video signal The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for encoding or decoding a video signal. According to the present invention, a plurality of reference units for image prediction of the current unit is acquired and combined to obtain a unit prediction value, thereby improving the accuracy of image prediction. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for inducing a variety of reference units using a motion vector prediction value or a motion vector which is used in conventional inter-prediction, and also relates to a method which combines the reference units so as to obtain the prediction value for the current unit. In addition, the present invention relates to a method which involves acquiring a plurality of reference units for a merging mode, and combining the reference units so as to perform image prediction.
US09020028B2	Transmitter circuit, receiver circuit, and transmitting/receiving system A transmitting/receiving system may include a transmission line, a transmitter circuit configured to transmit a clock to the transmission line and to adjust an amplitude of the clock in accordance with a logic level of data, and a receiver circuit configured to receive the clock transferred to the transmission line and to recover the data through detection of the amplitude of the clock.
US09020023B2	Reception device and reception method The present technique relates to a reception device and a reception method which can improve equalization performance. An equalization processing unit has a time domain equalization unit which equalizes a received signal in a time domain and a frequency domain equalization unit which is provided in parallel to the time domain equalization unit and which equalizes the received signal in a frequency domain, and performs control of switching between the time domain equalization unit and the frequency domain equalization unit. The present technique can be applied to, for example, equalize a signal of data transmitted by way of single carrier transmission or data transmitted by way of multicarrier transmission.
US09020022B1	Analog finite impulse response adaptation method and apparatus A SerDes receiver comprising: an input for receiving a signal, the signal having a baud rate; an Analog Finite Impulse Response equalizer (AFIR) for equalizing the received signal, the AFIR comprising: a pre-cursor tap having a pre-cursor coefficient; a cursor tap having a cursor coefficient, the cursor coefficient being constrained to a non-negative value; and a post-cursor tap having a post-cursor coefficient; an adaptation block coupled to the AFIR, the adaptation block configured to adjust the pre-cursor coefficient and the post-cursor coefficient based on the received signal, the adaptation block further being configured to constrain the values of the pre-cursor and post-cursor coefficients to be non-positive.
US09020018B2	Systems for calibration of wireless electronic devices A calibration system may be provided for calibrating wireless communications circuitry in an electronic device during manufacturing. The calibration system may include data acquisition equipment and calibration computing equipment for receiving and processing test and calibration signals from wireless communications circuitry to be calibrated. During testing and calibration operations, a device may be provided with initial pre-distortion calibration values. The initial pre-distortion calibration values may be generated at least in part based on calibration operations performed for other wireless electronic devices. The device may generate a test signal using the initial pre-distortion calibration values. The calibration system may determine whether the test signal is within an acceptable range of a known reference signal. If the test signal is outside of the acceptable range, the calibration system may generate a set of corrected pre-distortion calibration values to be used in generating wireless communications signals during normal operation of the device.
US09020016B2	Multi-domain test and measurement instrument A test and measurement instrument including a time domain channel configured to process a first input signal for analysis in a time domain; a frequency domain channel configured to process a second input signal for analysis in a frequency domain; and an acquisition system coupled to the time domain channel and the frequency domain channel. The acquisition system is configured to acquire data from the time domain channel and the frequency domain channel. Time domain and frequency domain data can be time aligned.
US09020014B2	Convergence layer bonding over multiple carriers A cable modem termination system (CMTS) is disclosed that allocates one or more minislots of a super-frame arrangement to cable modems for upstream transmission. The super-frame arrangement includes multiple minislots that correspond to multiple communication channels of one or more super-frames. The CMTS receives requests for upstream bandwidth from the cable modems. The CMTS continuously allocates the minislots of the super-frame to provide upstream bandwidth grants to accommodate these requests. The CMTS communicates the upstream bandwidth grants as a single upstream bandwidth allocation map (MAP) to the cable modems.
US09020013B2	Apparatus and method for processing signals An apparatus for processing signals, in particular physiological measuring signals, is provided with a number of channels with main signal inputs for receiving input signals. Each of the input signals has a specific signal component and a signal component common to all input signals. Each channel is provided with an impedance transforming input amplifier. The apparatus supplies a respective input signal to the first input of each input amplifier and an analog reference signal, which is equal for all channels, to the second input. The apparatus includes a digital signal processor and one or more analog-digital converters for supplying the signals provided by the input amplifiers to the digital signal processor. The signal processor converts signals received from the one or more analog-digital converters at least into one or more output signals.
US09020010B2	Transfer of encoded data The invention relates to a method that includes transfer of data encoded on the basis of a first encoding scheme via an interface between a baseband assembly and a radio-frequency assembly of a mobile radio transceiver. The method further includes transfer of a data sequence which is encoded on the basis of the first encoding scheme and which identifies a change of encoding scheme from the first encoding scheme to a second encoding scheme. Lastly, the method includes transfer of data encoded on the basis of the second encoding scheme via the interface.
US09020006B2	High density laser optics Apparatuses and methods for high density laser optics are provided. An example, of a laser optics apparatus includes a plurality of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) in a monolithically integrated array, a high contrast grating (HCG) integrated with an aperture of a vertical cavity of each of the plurality of the VCSELs to enable emission of a single lasing wavelength of a plurality of lasing wavelengths, and a plurality of single mode waveguides, each integrated with a grating coupler, that are connected to each of the plurality of the integrated VCSELs and the HCGs, where each of the grating couplers is aligned to an integrated VCSEL and HCG.
US09020003B1	Group III-nitride laser diode grown on a semi-polar orientation of gallium and nitrogen containing substrates Blue laser diode (LD) structures are grown on a particular subset of semi-polar GaN substrate orientations that offer a distinct set of advantages relative to both (0001), non-polar oriented devices, and alternative semipolar-polar oriented devices operating in the blue regime are disclosed. In particular, the (30-3-1) and (30-31) gallium and nitrogen containing surface orientation and equivalent planes show narrower luminescence spectra than equivalent devices grown on the nonpolar {10-10} m-plane or semipolar planes tilted away from m-plane toward the c-plane between angles of about 0 degrees to about 7 or 8 degrees such as {60-6-1).
US09019992B2	Joint retransmission and frame synchronization for error resilience control A method for controlling error resilience in network communication is described. The method includes: determining, by a receiver-side controller, a packet gap representing a packet loss of a packet being communicated over a network; projecting, by the receiver-side controller, a retransmission time-out for at least one missing packet of the packet loss; issuing, by the receiver-side controller, a retransmission request for the at least one missing packet; if the packet gap is not filled within a first time period of the retransmission time-out, then issuing, by the receiver-side controller, at least one synchronization frame request; and selecting, by a sender-side controller, to respond to at least one of either of the retransmission request or the at least one synchronization frame request and neither of the retransmission request nor the at least one synchronization frame request.
US09019991B1	Method and apparatus for detecting a packet in a WLAN system A method for transmitting a data packet includes prepending to the digital contents of the data packet a preamble including a first preamble field having a plurality of repetitions of a sequence. The method also includes determining according to a specified communication protocol a first transmission power level for the data packet and determining according to the specified communication protocol and the first preamble field an unadjusted transmission power level for the first preamble field. The method further includes determining the presence of one or more power-boost characteristics of the data packet or of an intended receiving client, transmitting the first preamble field at a first adjusted transmission power level if one or more power-boost characteristics are determined to be present, and transmitting a remainder of the data packet at the first transmission power level for the data packet.
US09019989B2	Bandwidth allocation method of wirelessly transmitting AV stream data in wireless communication system including coordinator device In response to a video and audio bandwidth allocation request command signal and an audio bandwidth allocation request command signal from a source device, a coordinator device allocates a first reservation period for transmitting AV stream data from the source device to a sink device and a second reservation period for transmitting audio stream data from the source device to a sink device within a predetermined frame period, and transmits a beacon signal including information on allocation of the first reservation period and the second reservation period.
US09019985B2	Method and system for scheduling multiple concurrent transmissions during a contention access period in a wireless communications network Aspects of a method and system for scheduling multiple concurrent transmissions during a contention access period in a wireless communications network are presented. Aspects of the system comprise communicating devices (DEVs) within a piconet that are operable to derive a neighborhood map of a piconet. The neighborhood map information may enable a plurality of DEVs to concurrently transmit signals during a given channel time allocation (CTA) time slot. The ability for multiple DEVs to transmit signals concurrently during a single CTA time slot may increase spectral reuse within a wireless communication medium. In another aspect the system, the neighborhood map information may enable individual DEVs to set clear channel assessment (CCA) thresholds. Individual DEVs may utilize CCA threshold information to determine when to transmit signals to one or more destination DEVs and/or at what rate to transmit data via the signals.
US09019979B2	Radio base station apparatus and mobile terminal To provide a radio base station apparatus and mobile terminal supporting each of a plurality of mobile communication systems when the plurality of mobile communication systems coexists, the radio base station apparatus assigns a modulated signal of a control signal to at least one frequency band with the system band of the LTE system as a unit on a predetermined data block basis (CCE basis) according to a predetermined rule, and when data blocks are assigned according to the rule as shown in FIG. 4(a), the mobile terminal demodulates CCEs of the same number in respective frequency bands at a time and thereby determines whether or not the signal is the control signal to the mobile terminal. Meanwhile, when data blocks are assigned according to the rules as shown in FIGS. 4(b) and 4(c), the mobile terminal demodulates a specific CCE block range in each frequency band, and thereby determines whether or not the signal is the control signal to the mobile terminal.
US09019976B2	Redundant host connection in a routed network One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a management mechanism and a configuration mechanism. During operation, the management mechanism is configured to operate the switch in conjunction with the partner switch as a single logical switch. The configuration mechanism is configured to assign a virtual switch identifier to the logical switch.
US09019975B2	Unified system networking with CEE-PCIE tunneling Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) tunneling over Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus. An initiating device, connected to a CEE network, initiates a command. An encoding device encodes a CEE frame comprising the command, target device address, initiator signals, and an address of a CEE switch closest to the target device, connected to a PCIe network. The initiating device transmits an inquiry to the CEE switch through the CEE frame. The CEE switch comprises an address table with an entry specifying a generic PCIe device. The CEE switch is configured to convert the CEE frame into PCIe readable signals and to transmit them to PCIe devices. The initiating device receives a response indicating a PCIe acknowledgement from a corresponding device from the PCIe devices. The corresponding device is associated with the target device address. Based on the response, the initiating device initiates a transaction to the corresponding device through CEE frames.
US09019973B1	Static MAC address propagation in multipoint network services A first network device receives a control message at an interface from a second network device, wherein the first network device and the second network device use a multipoint service that provides layer two (L2) connectivity between L2 networks. The control message specifies one or more L2 addresses of customer network devices that are provided connectivity to an autonomous system by the second network device, wherein the control message identifies the L2 addresses as static L2 addresses that are to be persistently maintained at the first network device as reachable by the interface. In response to receiving the control message and by the first network device, the first network device stores the L2 addresses as persistently maintained static L2 addresses being reachable by the interface at which the control message was received.
US09019972B2	System and method for gateway monitoring and control A system and method for monitoring and controlling operations, of a gateway is disclosed. The system is configured to allow an end user to monitor and/or control data streams appearing on one or more customer premises equipment (CPE) interfaces of a gateway, even where the data streams are of different types such as voice, video or computer data. The system comprises a processor within the gateway that may be configured to receive data from an external network, generate the data streams from the received data, and provide the generated data streams to corresponding CPE devices. The processor may be further configured to receive commands from the corresponding CPE devices, determine a type of the received commands, and perform operations on the generated data streams based on the determined type of the received command to execute the desired monitoring and/or control functions.
US09019968B2	Method and system for managing communication ports Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a communication system that enables transmitting control signals between communication devices connected with a communication cable. The control signals are either to activate a visual indicator associated with the second port or to request a unique identification number and the signals are transmitted without changing the voltage polarity between the control wires. The communication cable may include at one end a connector having a control circuitry, a visual indicator and a unique identification number.
US09019966B2	Method for formatting signal in mobile communication system A method for formatting a signal in a mobile communication system by appending a plurality of medium access control headers to a plurality of medium access control-service data units for data transfer between a mobile station and network in the mobile communication system. If the service data units have the same characteristics, a medium access control-protocol data unit is formed by successively coupling the service data units to any one of the medium access control headers. If the service data units have different characteristics, the protocol data unit is formed by sequentially coupling each of the service data units and each of the medium access control headers. The formed protocol data unit is then transformed into a transport block with a predetermined size. A medium access control sublayer formats medium access control-protocol data units according to transport channel characteristics in peer-to-peer communication in such a manner that the protocol data units can have different formats with respect to different transport channels. This makes it possible to provide more efficient functions.
US09019965B2	Methods and devices for routing data packets between IPv4 and IPv6 networks A data packet routing system is provided wherein: at least one terminal belonging to a private IPv4 network is connected to a gateway itself connected to an IPv6 network; at least one interface device at the interface between said IPv6 network and a public IPv4 network implements a translation function comprising exchanging a private IPv4 address with a public IPv4 address. The gateway allocates to the terminal an IPv6 address by providing an IPv6 prefix with the private IPv4 address of the terminal in its private IPv4 network; said gateway verifying whether IPv4 address conflict exists, and if IPv4 it does exist, for replacing said private IPv4 address locally with a substitute private IPv4 address. A method is provided that routes an IPv4 data packet sent by a source terminal belonging to a first IPv4 domain via an IPv6 domain to a destination terminal belonging to a second IPv4 domain.
US09019962B1	Tunneling from a provider edge routing device to a remote customer edge network device Selection of proper virtual routing and forwarding (VRF) tables is based on a logical interface that is not associated with a physical interface. The selected VRF table is used to perform an output interface lookup for outgoing packets. In one example, a router includes a plurality of network interfaces, and a processing unit configured to select a logical interface not associated with any of the plurality of network interfaces based on an association with a received packet of a virtual private network, select one of a plurality of VRF tables in which to perform an output interface lookup for the packet that corresponds to the selected logical interface, and determine one of the plurality of network interfaces from the one of the plurality of VRF tables based on a destination of the packet, wherein the determined one of the plurality of network interfaces is configured to forward the packet.
US09019961B2	Method and system for reliable multicast Method and system for transmitting a multicast message with one or more packets to a plurality of destinations is provided. The system includes an adapter including an entry port to receive the multicast message from a source for transmission to the plurality of destinations; one or more egress ports of the adapter that transmit one or more packets of the multicast message to the plurality of destinations and receives acknowledgement for the one or more packets from the one or more destinations; and a message manager that monitors the delivery status for one or more packets to the plurality of destinations without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source.
US09019958B2	Outbound communication session establishment on a telecommunications network Disclosed are techniques for establishing a communication session in a call server between communication devices. A call server receives a communication session establishment message from a communication device that has an associated VoIP telephone number. The message is indicative of the communication device wanting to place a call to a target communication device. The communication session establishment message includes the VoIP telephone number and a target communication device identifier. The call server establishes a first communication link with the device depending on the quality of a connection with an IP access point. The call server then establishes a second communication link with the target communication device. The call server may then join the first and second communication links to establish a communication session between the communication devices.
US09019956B2	Self-forming VoIP network A self-forming VoIP connection capability is described that may be superimposed over wired networks, wireless networks, or combinations thereof. As described herein, a local network cluster forms while isolated from a conventional SIP server, or alternately may exist as a cluster of network nodes and clients that later becomes isolated from a conventional SIP server by a break in the network. Either way, each network node thus enabled with distributed SIP registry functionality according to this invention independently constructs a local SIP registry and SIP server capability within that node. Subsequently, while isolated from a conventional SIP server, VoIP conversations among client devices connected to nodes within an isolated cluster will continue, and nodes and clients may join or leave an isolated cluster with conversations able to be initiated or continued while a node has network connectivity to the cluster.
US09019954B2	Methods and apparatuses for handling public identities in an internet protocol multimedia subsystem network The present invention concern methods and apparatuses for handling public identities in an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem, IMS, network. A CSCF node receives information indicating a set of distinct public identities, within a range of a wildcarded public identity, which set of distinct public identities are not in the same Implicit Registration Set (IRS) as the wildcarded public identity. The information is received from a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) node. The CSCF node stores the information indicating the set of distinct public identities, which are not in the same IRS, in the CSCF node for allowing matching of an originating request to the information indicating the set of distinct public identities, which are not in the same IRS. Alternatively, the CSCF node forwards the information indicating the set of distinct public identities, which are not in the same IRS, to another CSCF node, for allowing matching of an originating request to the information indicating the set of distinct public identities, which are not in the same IRS.
US09019950B2	Data processing system having distributed processing means for using intrinsic latencies of the system The present disclosure relates to a method for routing data between a sending unit and a receiving unit linked by a network in a processing system comprising several units, the method comprising steps of routing data in the network between the sending unit and the receiving unit, and of applying a process to the routed data, the process comprising several steps which are applied to the data by different units in the network receiving the data, to use latency times in data routing.
US09019949B2	Adapter, base band processing unit and base station system An adapter, base band processing unit and a base station system. The adapter includes a frame obtaining logic unit configured to obtain an uplink data frame based on a received radio frame. A frame synchronizing logic unit configured to manage a frame tag of the uplink data frame. A time feedback logic unit configured to feedback to the base band processing unit an arrival time of a downlink data frame that is received from the base band processing unit. The base band processing unit includes a time synchronizing module configured to determine generation time of a current downlink data frame based on at least an arrival time of a previous downlink data frame that was a previous feed back from the adapter. A frame synchronizing module configured to manage a frame tag of the generated current downlink data frame.
US09019946B1	Wireless and cellular voice and data transmission with multiple paths of communication A method and apparatus in which multiple Internet Protocol (IP) based wireless data transmissions are simultaneously provided between a wireless device and a server, including providing multiple antennas, multiple T/R units, multiple processors and multiple I/O ports on the wireless device. The method includes receiving multiple IP data packets on the I/O ports at substantially the same time, and sending multiple data packets from the wireless device to the server, whereby the transmission rate between the wireless device and the server is increased.
US09019945B2	Service-assisted network access point selection Embodiments enable prioritization and selection of network access points (NAP) by a computing device using NAP attribute values. The computing device obtains the attribute values based on a location of the computing device and/or proximate NAPs detected by the computing device. The obtained attribute values are compared to a state of the computing device (e.g., sensor values), user preferences, or other criteria to select at least one of the NAPs for connection with the computing device. In some embodiments, a user of the computing device is presented with a list of Wi-Fi access points ranked according to relevance to the computing device and/or user.
US09019938B2	Predictive and nomadic roaming of wireless clients across different network subnets Wireless access points detect neighboring wireless access points in different subnets. Upon connecting with a wireless client, a wireless access point determines predictive roaming information for the wireless client. Predictive roaming information identifies the wireless client; its home network subnet; and includes connection information associated with the wireless client. The wireless access point forwards the predictive roaming information associated with a wireless client to neighboring wireless access points while the wireless client is still connected with the wireless access point. Neighboring wireless access points store received predictive roaming information. Upon connecting with a wireless client, a neighboring wireless access point determines if the wireless client matches the stored predictive roaming information. If so, the neighboring wireless access point uses the predictive roaming information to quickly connect with the wireless client and to establish a tunnel to redirect network traffic associated with the wireless client through to its home subnet.
US09019928B2	Method and apparatus for controlling inter-cell collision in wireless communication system The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more specifically, a method and an apparatus for controlling an inter-cell collision are disclosed. A method for transmitting collision information from a transmission/reception apparatus, which is connected to first and second base stations, according to one embodiment of the present invention, comprises the following steps: obtaining a first scheduling information, generated by the first base station, with regard to a first user equipment, and a second scheduling information, generated by the second base station, with regard to a second user equipment; generating the collision information based on the first scheduling information and the second scheduling information which are obtained; and transferring the collision information to the first and second base stations.
US09019919B2	Base station apparatus, terminal apparatus and wireless communication system using them When signals received by receiving antennas included in each terminal are subjected to MMSE combining, it is configured that each terminal is able to grasp position of desired signal in signal vector obtained after combining. A base station 100 receives by a receiving antenna 23 from the terminal apparatus channel state information between a transmitting antenna 16 and spatial multiplexing object antennas included in each terminal apparatus. A transmit weight calculation unit 19 calculates a transmit weight for performing spatial multiplexing transmission to the terminal apparatus based on the channel state information. Transmit weight multiplication unit s 12 and 18 multiplies an information signal addressed to each terminal apparatus to be performed spatial multiplexing by the transmit weight. A signal multiplexing unit 13 multiplexes the information signal multiplied by the transmit weight and an information to specify the information signal that needs to be demodulated by each terminal apparatus.
US09019914B2	Efficient transmission for low data rate WLAN In a method for facilitating power saving in a wireless network, a PHY header is generated to include an indication of a duration of a PHY data unit. A preamble is also generated. The PHY data unit is generated to include the preamble and the PHY header, and the PHY data unit is transmitted.
US09019911B2	System and method for centralized station management A wireless network is adapted with a wireless network switch in communication with a plurality of access points, which are in communication with one or more stations. Specifically, a network device may receive a plurality of request messages on a plurality of wireless communication channels through a plurality of access points. The request messages are originated from a single station. Furthermore, the network can extract a plurality of channel identifiers from the request messages, and generates a filtered radio frequency neighborhood list dynamically based on the extracted channel identifiers.
US09019906B2	Wireless base station apparatus, wireless terminal apparatus, frequency resource allocation method, and method of forming transmission signal A wireless base station apparatus and wireless terminal apparatus with a configuration which can prevent reductions in the accuracy of channel estimation when non-contiguous band transmission and SRS transmission are employed in an uplink line. In the base station apparatus (100), an allocation setting unit (106), which sets the reception band of an SRS at an SRS extraction unit (103) and sets the units of frequency allocation (RBG) at a CQI estimation unit (104) and allocation unit (105), matches the frequency position at the end of the SRS reception band to the frequency position at the end of any of the units of frequency allocation and sets the reception bandwidth of the reference signal to a natural number multiple of the bandwidth of the unit of frequency allocation. In the terminal apparatus (200), a band information setting unit (204), which sets the transmission band and units of frequency allocation (RBG), matches the frequency position at the end of the transmission band to the frequency position at the end of any of the units of frequency allocation and sets the transmission bandwidth of the SRS to a natural number multiple of the bandwidth of the unit of frequency allocation.
US09019904B2	Method and base station for transmitting reference signals, and method and user equipment for receiving reference signals A method and apparatus for multiplexing reference signals in a predetermined number of Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) groups to balance power across Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols are disclosed. In a wireless communication system, orthogonal sequences used for spreading the reference signals are allocated such that the order of orthogonal sequences allocated to a subcarrier of one CDM group has a predetermined offset with respect to the order of orthogonal sequences allocated to a subcarrier of another CDM group, adjacent to the subcarrier of the one CDM group.
US09019899B2	Method and apparatus for synchronous communication of frames of digital information A method and apparatus for synchronous communication of frames of serial data is provided. A framing pattern and data payloads are communicated over a first communication path. A clock signal is communicated over a second communication path. The clock signal is synchronous to the data to allow easy data recovery at the receiver. The framing pattern is communicated between each data payload. The framing pattern has a length greater than the length of each data payload. The framing pattern includes one or more bits of a first logic level followed contiguously by one or more bits of a second logic level. Since the framing pattern is longer than each data payload, a data payload can never contain sufficient information to mimic a framing pattern. A transmitter and a receiver are provided that avoid the need for complex circuitry while readily identifying any communication path failures so as to prevent propagation of erroneous data.
US09019898B2	Multi-interface WLAN device having real and virtual dual band operation A wireless local area network (WLAN) method and device including at least one antenna to enable simultaneous dual band (SDB) operation of the WLAN device, the SDB operation including communication in a first frequency band with a first device and communication in a second frequency band with a second device, first network interface circuitry to support communication in the first frequency band with the first device, second network interface circuitry to support communication in the second frequency band with the second device, and a processor to generate an information element including information regarding the SDB operation of the WLAN device, and to enable transmission of the information element to the first device or to the second device.
US09019897B2	Wireless multimedia brokerage service for real time content provisioning A wireless multimedia brokerage service supports sharing of real-time multimedia content whereby a mobile device user can perceive real-time content from a device in visual proximity, such as a nearby display device, and share the content of the display device with another mobile terminal user without the need to download or otherwise directly access the real-time content. The brokerage service can handle the transactional details of obtaining rights to the real-time content and also manage establishing and terminating a real-time multimedia session with the device(s) of the recipient user(s). In some embodiments, the wireless multimedia content brokerage service can proactively obtain subscriptions to content providers based on the location of one or more users. The brokerage service can also proactively obtain and buffer real-time content after receiving a request to share the content, with the buffering allowing for content to be preserved while the recipient user or users are contacted. The content can then be pushed or otherwise provided to the recipient(s).
US09019896B2	Systems and methods for low overhead paging Systems, methods, and devices for low overhead paging in a wireless communications network are described herein. In one aspect, a wireless communications device comprises a processor and a transmitter. The processor is configured to compress a bitmap of a paging message to obtain a compressed paging message. The bitmap is associated with a plurality of receiver identifiers, and each of the plurality of receiver identifiers associated with at least one receiver of a set of receivers. The compressed bitmap comprises a block bitmap and a plurality of sub-block bitmaps. Each bit of the block bitmap comprises a logical OR of a subset of the bitmap, and each sub-block bitmap corresponds to a bit of the block bitmap. The transmitter is electronically coupled with the processor and configured to transmit the compressed paging message to at least one receiver.
US09019895B2	Methods and apparatus for controlling access points coupled to a common power source Power efficient methods and apparatus for detecting wireless terminals in a relatively small geographic area are described. Wireless terminals transmit discovery signals and/or other signals which may be detected by an access point. Various described methods and apparatus are well suited for embodiments where multiple access points, which obtain power from a common power source and/or via a common power bus, with limited power delivery capability. To address power constraints, access points are controlled by a gateway device coupled to the access points so that one or more access points perform monitoring at different times with one or more access points having their receivers powered off while another access point monitors for wireless terminal signals. Power consumption from the common power source is managed by controlling power consumption associated with monitoring operations performed by one or more access points coupled to a common power source.
US09019890B2	Method for selecting a policy and charging rules function server on a non-roaming scene The present invention discloses a method for selecting a policy and charging rules function server in a non-roaming scenario to achieve that the PCC policies for each IP-CAN session are determined only by one PCRF. The method comprises of a Diameter Routing Agent (DRA) establishing an association relationship table in which IP Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session information and corresponding address information of a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) server are stored; and when a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) entity and a Gateway Control Function Entity (GWCF) requests the PCRF for or to update a Policy and Charging Control (PCC) policy of one IP-CAN session, or when an Application Function (AF) entity sends application information or service information down to the PCRF, obtaining the address information of the PCRF associated with said IP-CAN session from said DRA, then performing subsequent processing.
US09019886B2	Unicast to multicast conversion A method for unicast packet conversion whereby a unicast packet is received at a receiving node followed by a determination as to whether the destination address is identified in the packet. If the address is identified, then the unicast packets are converted to a multicast packet and forwarded to a connected station. If a destination network address is not identified, then the packet is forwarded to the connected station.
US09019881B2	Method and system for waking up node B cell A method for waking up a Node B (NB) cell is provided. When a User Equipment (UE) in an idle state arrives in an area of a Home NB cell in which the UE ever resided, but does not search out signals of the Home cell, the UE reports Proximity Indication (PI) information to a network side through a specific Tracking Area Update (TAU) process; when determining that there is need to wake up the NB cell according to footprint information which is reported by the UE and obtained in the specific TAU process, the network side wakes up the NB cell. The method ensures that the UE in an idle state wakes up the sleeping Home NB cell (or macro cell) in time and gets service from the Home NB cell (or macro cell), thus a network coverage problem caused by cell sleeping for saving energy is avoided.
US09019879B2	Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information update control information in wireless communication system The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information update control information in a sleep mode in a wireless communication system. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method in which a terminal in a sleep mode receives system information update control information in a wireless communication system comprises: receiving, by the terminal from a base station, system information update control information including information on whether or not each of a plurality of secondary super frame header subpacket information elements (hereinafter, referred to as “S-SFH SP IEs”) is changed during a listening window; and receiving a changed S-SFH SP IE using the system information update control information.
US09019876B2	Virtual linking using a wireless device A system and method for virtual linking a wireless device to another device is disclosed herein. The system includes an access point and a controller configured to mediate transmissions between the wireless device and the another device. The system further includes a virtual device table and a permissions filter to ensure virtual linking between devices that have matching access right and requested services. The wireless device and the another device may have the same or dissimilar protocols.
US09019872B2	Generation of HARQ-ACK information and power control of HARQ-ACK signals in TDD systems with downlink of carrier aggregation Methods and apparatus are provided for a User Equipment (UE) configured to have multiple cells in a DownLink (DL) of a Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication system so as to determine a power of an acknowledgement signal that the UE transmits in a control channel and to determine a number of acknowledgement information bits that the UE multiplexes with data information bits in a data channel. A transmission power of the control signal is determined based on DL Assignment Index (DAI) Information Elements (IEs) in DL Scheduling Assignments (SAs) that the UE detects through multiple transmission time intervals and through the multiple configured DL cells. The number of acknowledgement information bits in the data channel is determined based on a DAI IE of an UpLink (UL) SA associated with the transmission of the data channel.
US09019871B2	Method for transmitting/receiving signal and device therefor The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method comprising: setting a first cell having a first TDD UL-DL configuration and a second cell having a second TDD UL-DL configuration; receiving a PHICH signal in a subframe #(n−L) of the first cell, or receiving a PDCCH signal in a subframe #(n−K) of the first cell; and transmitting a PUSCH signal in a subframe #n of the second cell, corresponding to the PHICH signal or the PDCCH signal, wherein the relationship between the subframes #(n−L), #(n−K), and #n is determined in consideration of a parameter value set in a specific TDD UL-DL configuration, which is the TDD UL-DL configuration having the least number of UL subframes from TDD UL-DL configuration(s), in which subframes set as UL in the first or second cell are all set as ULs.
US09019868B2	Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls are described. An example method includes classifying participants of the conference call in a hierarchy according to respective priority values; detecting an attempt of a participants to speak at a same time; detecting which one of the participants has a lower priority ranking; blocking an audio signal of the one of the participants having the lower priority ranking; placing an identifier associated with the blocked one of the participants in a queue; organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy by comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and increasing a point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant.
US09019864B2	System and method of wireless enabled device configuration over an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) Described herein are embodiments of methods and systems for configuring a wireless-enabled device over an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) network. In accordance with one aspect, a method is provided comprising receiving, from a first device via a first network, information about one or more wireless access points accessible by the first device. The method further comprises receiving, from a second device via a second network, configuration information for the first device for configuring the first device to connect to a wireless network through one of the one or more wireless access points; and configuring the first device using the configuration information. In one aspect, configuring the first device includes sending at least a portion of the configuration information to the first device via the first network.
US09019859B2	Method for calibrating listen duration and listen interval and control module thereof A method for calibrating a listen duration and a listen interval and a control module thereof are provided. The method is suitable for being applied in a wireless device and monitoring beacons transmitted by a wireless access point (AP) within a wireless transmission range to calibrate the listen duration and the listen interval. The method includes: calculating an average beacon-receiving time and an RMS beacon-receiving time according to a beacon-receiving interval obtained within a first specific time frame when the listen duration and the listen interval are determined to be calibrated; setting the average beacon-receiving time and the RMS beacon-receiving time as an optimal listen interval and an optimal listen duration, respectively; monitoring beacons in X optimal listen durations according to the optimal listen interval and the optimal listen duration; if at least Y beacons are received, determining the calibration is successful, wherein X and Y are positive integers.
US09019857B2	Idle measurement periods in a communication network A transmission frame is communicated to cause a media idle measurement period on a contention based communication media. The media idle measurement period (i.e., “quiet period”) provides a period of inactivity on the communications medium that may be used to detect for the presence of foreign signals such as radio broadcast interference, noise, or other signals, or may be used for calibration of circuitry coupled to the communications medium. Idle measurement periods may be caused regularly (e.g., periodically). The transmission frame may include an explicit instruction for the media idle measurement period or may cause the media idle measurement period by simulating a collision on the communications media.
US09019850B2	CSI reporting for multiple carriers with different system configurations Techniques to support periodic reporting of channel state information (CSI) for multiple component carriers (CCs) with different system configurations are disclosed. A user equipment (UE) is configured with multiple CCs for carrier aggregation. Each CC is associated with a particular system configuration, which indicates whether FDD or TDD is utilized and, if TDD is utilized, a particular uplink-downlink configuration for the CC. Each CC is associated with a set of subframes available to send CSI on that CC, which is determined based on the system configuration of the CC. The multiple CCs configured for the UE include at least two CCs associated with different system configurations and different sets of subframes available to send CSI. The UE sends CSI for a first CC on a second CC based on a set of subframes available to send CSI on the second CC.
US09019846B2	Reducing the impact of hidden nodes in mesh networks In one embodiment, hidden neighbor relationships are identified based on received neighbor information from a plurality of nodes in a communication network. Based on determining a number of hidden neighbors for a particular node at various node parameters, a cost function associated with the particular node may be determined and utilized. In another embodiment, a number of hidden nodes of the particular node is determined across a range of transmission powers, and a delay associated with the particular node reaching a root node in the network across the range of transmission powers is also determined based on the neighbor nodes reachable at respective transmission powers. A tradeoff is determined across the range of transmission powers between the number of hidden nodes and the delay, and then the transmission power of the particular node can be set based on an acceptable determined tradeoff.
US09019844B2	Radio carrier identification methods and apparatus A user equipment (UE) in a communication system measures the power received in a bandwidth on possible downlink carriers in a frequency band that is supported by the UE in order to search for available carriers. Search times can be decreased on average by using a specially configured filter to process the received power measurements and then determining likely carriers based on the filtered values. Metrics from the filter can be used to indicate both where to perform cell search and where not to perform cell search.
US09019843B2	Utilizing stored data to reduce packet data loss in a mobile data network with data breakout at the edge In a mobile data network with a breakout system, when data is broken out, the RLC function is split into two different flows, between the UE and the breakout system and between the breakout system and the RNC. These two flows are processed by different RLC functions that may drift apart and become out of synchronization resulting in errors that diminish the user's quality of experience. Other errors may also occur in communication on these two different flows. The breakout system attempts to correct these errors using data stored locally in communication data structures for the two data flows. If the errors cannot be corrected, the breakout system can initiate an RLC reset into both of these flows to resynchronize the data communication.
US09019838B2	Central piece of network equipment A central piece of network equipment having at least one Ethernet connector having first and second pairs of contacts used to carry BaseT Ethernet communication signals and at least one electrical supply used by the central piece of network equipment to change impedance between at least one of the contacts of the first pair of contacts and at least one of the contacts of the second pair of contacts.
US09019834B2	Systems and methods for link load balancing on a multi-core device Systems and methods are described for link load balancing, by a multi-core intermediary device, a plurality of Internet links. The method may include load balancing, by a multi-core device intermediary to a plurality of devices and a plurality of Internet links, network traffic across the plurality of Internet links. The multi-core device providing persistence of network traffic to a selected Internet link based on a persistence type. A first core of the multi-core device receives, a packet to be transmitted via an Internet link to be selected from the plurality of Internet links. The first core sends to a second core of the multi-core device a request for persistence information responsive to identifying that the second core is an owner core of a session for persistence based on the persistence type. The first core receives the persistence information from the second core and determines to transmit the packet to the Internet link previously selected based on the persistence information received from the second core.
US09019832B2	Network switching system and method for processing packet switching in network switching system A network processor for processing packet switching in a network switching system is disclosed. The network processor includes a first memory for storing a first packet among a plurality of packets; a second memory for storing a second packet among the plurality of packets; and a memory selecting unit for selecting the first memory or the second memory for storing each of the plurality of packets according to whether a traffic of the network switching system is congested; wherein attributes of the first memory and the second memory are different.
US09019822B2	Apparatus and methods for block acknowledgment compression Systems, methods, and devices for compressing block acknowledgment (ACK) frames/packets are described herein. In some aspects, a method of communicating in a wireless network includes generating a compressed block acknowledgment frame comprising a physical layer header, the physical layer header including at least one of the following: a block acknowledgment identifier, a starting sequence number of the compressed block acknowledgement frame, and a bitmap. The method further includes transmitting the compressed block acknowledgment frame.
US09019820B1	Optimizing voice services Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for optimizing voice services are provided. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) is an algorithm that implements fast retransmissions of lost blocks or packets of data. HARQ is an error correcting algorithm. Data may be lost at any layer of a protocol stack, thus, increasing a retransmission rate. In order to reduce the retransmission rate and increase quality of voice services, HARQ may be implemented at each layer of a protocol stack based on, for example, radio frequency signal and retransmission rates.
US09019817B2	Autonomic network management system The present invention relates to an autonomic network management system which includes: an active measurement unit that measures and analyzes a network state in an active measurement scheme; a passive measurement unit that measures and analyzes the network state in a passive measurement scheme; an autonomic management control unit that respectively receives the measured and analyzed results of the network from the active measurement unit and the passive measurement unit to determine the network state; and a transmission path control unit that receives a transmission path message from the autonomic management control unit to control a transmission path according to the transmission path message.
US09019813B2	Active IP forwarding in an event driven virtual link aggregation (VLAG) system In one embodiment, a networking system includes a first networking switch positioned at a boundary between Layer-2 (L2) and Layer-3 (L3), the first networking switch including a first virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP) module, a second networking switch connected to the first networking switch via an interswitch link (ISL), the second networking switch being positioned at the boundary between L2 and L3 and including a second VRRP module, and an access switch positioned in L2, the access switch being configured to be connected to the first and second networking switches in a virtual link aggregation (vLAG), the first VRRP module being configured to perform active internet protocol (IP) forwarding when the second networking switch is not performing active IP forwarding, and the second VRRP module being configured to perform active IP forwarding when the first networking switch is not performing active IP forwarding.
US09019808B2	Method for transferring data stream A method for transmitting data stream includes the steps of analyzing a request to generate a transmitting command, calculating a data receiving ability of a receiving end when receiving the transferring command, calculating an I frame dividing rate, a P frame dividing rate, and a B frame dividing rate based on the data receiving ability, dividing an I frame, a P frame, and a B frame based on the I frame dividing rate, the P frame dividing rate, and the B frame dividing rate to generate a plurality of I frame segments, P frame segments, and B frame segments, transmitting the I frame segments, P frame segments, and B frame segments of the data stream to the receiving end in turn base on the data receiving ability.
US09019806B1	Low friction linear tracking tone arm This invention is provides a means of playing LP records with minimal distortion. Low distortion is achieved by eliminating tracking error normally associated with pickup cartridges mounted to pivoting tone arms. This invention discloses a tone arm that constrains the motion of the stylus to straight radial path, mimicking the cutting path of the record lathe, supported on parallel rails by free rolling spherical bearings. Unlike many previous linear tracking tone arms, this invention does not rely on air pressure or servo motor mechanisms. The use of free rolling bearings or axles between parallel tracks fashioned from rails, rods or tubes, eliminates all sources of lateral friction other than pure static and rolling friction of the balls on the rails, rods or tubes. In the preferred embodiment, the fixed rods or tubes are driven synchronously, thereby eliminating static friction of the supporting rolling balls. Friction is further reduced using magnetic or buoyant support of the tone arm to reduce bearing load to that amount minimally sufficient to maintain full contact between the rolling balls and the upper and lower rods.
US09019802B2	Solar-powered electronic timepiece The solar battery includes a plurality of cells having a same electromotive force with each other. The display device further includes a display means to display time, and a control means to control operation of the display means. The electromotive force of the solar battery is lower than a deterioration-start voltage of the rechargeable battery. The electromotive force of the cells is higher than a lower-limit driving voltage of the display device, in which a number of such cells equals a total number of cells include in the solar battery minus one. A driving voltage of the display means is lower than the aforementioned lower-limit driving voltage, and an operational voltage of the control means is lower than the aforementioned lower-limit driving voltage.
US09019798B2	Acoustic reception A pressure-balanced acoustic-signal-receiving apparatus and methods therefor. The apparatus may comprise a first housing, a first actuator, a second housing, and a second actuator. The first housing may comprise a fluid chamber, a passage connecting a first and second portion of the fluid chamber, a tubular-contact assembly, an isolating member within the fluid chamber and coupled to the assembly, an acoustic-signal receiver within the isolating member and coupled to the assembly, and a communication member coupled to the receiver. A method for receiving an acoustic signal generated within a wellbore may comprise receiving the acoustic signal with a tubular-contact assembly, sensing the acoustic signal with an acoustic-signal receiver positioned within a fluid chamber and coupled to the assembly, equilibrating fluid pressures in the first and second portions of the fluid chamber, and transmitting information generated by the acoustic-signal receiver through a communication member.
US09019797B2	Deghosting using measurement data from seismic sensors Measurement data is received from first and second seismic sensors, where the first and second seismic sensors are oriented in opposite directions. Each of the first and second seismic sensors has a sensing element responsive to pressure and particle motion. The signals can be combined to remove the particle motion component of the measurement data and obtain pressure-only data. Alternatively, the signals can be combined to deghost the received measurement data.
US09019794B2	Memory device with reduced on-chip noise In some examples, a memory device includes multiple memory banks equipped with an isolation switch and dedicated power supply pins. The isolation switch of each memory bank is configured to isolate the memory bank from global signals. The dedicated power supply pins are configured to connect each of the memory banks to a dedicated local power supply pads on the package substrate to provide local dedicated power supplies to each of the memory banks and to reduce voltage transfer between memory banks over conductors on the device, the device substrate, or the package substrate of the memory device.
US09019793B1	Semiconductor devices The semiconductor device includes a fuse data storage unit, a power source signal generator and a redundancy signal generator. The fuse data storage unit generates a section signal, a fuse clock signal, a fuse reset signal and a fuse data in response to a first power-up signal generated from a power supply voltage signal. The redundancy signal generator generates a fuse set signal that is counted in response to the fuse clock signal, generates an input reset signal and an input set signal from the fuse set signal and the fuse reset signal in response to the section signal, and latches the fuse data in response to the input reset signal and the input set signal to generate a redundancy signal.
US09019792B2	Fast startup hybrid memory module A memory device is provided comprising: a volatile memory device, a non-volatile memory device, a memory control circuit volatile memory controller coupled to the volatile memory device and non-volatile memory device, and a backup power source. The backup power source may be arranged to temporarily power the volatile memory devices and the memory control circuit upon a loss of power from the external power source. Additionally, a switch may serve to selectively couple: (a) a host memory bus to either the volatile memory device or non-volatile memory device; and (b) the volatile memory device to the non-volatile memory device. Upon reestablishment of power by an external power source from a power loss event, the memory control circuit is configured to restore data from the non-volatile memory device to the volatile memory device prior to a host system, to which the memory device is coupled, completes boot-up.
US09019789B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit having differential signal transmission structure and method for driving the same A semiconductor integrated circuit includes an input data line pair, a sense amplifier configured to sense and amplify data loaded in the input data line pair and transmit the amplified data to an output data line pair, in response to a control signal, and a sense amplification controller configured to sense an amplification level of the output data line pair, limit an activation period of a sense amplification enable signal, and output the limited signal as the control signal.
US09019786B2	Repair system for repairing defect using E fuses and method of controlling the same A system for repairing a plurality of semiconductor chips each comprising a data storage region including electric fuses connected to the data storage regions of the plurality of semiconductor chips, a defect determination unit configured to read the data of a chip that is actually accessed and the data of an idle chip in the data storage regions, compare the actually accessed and read data with the data of the idle chip, and detect a defect based on a result of the comparison, a storage unit configured to store the defective position of the defect according to a result of the defect determination unit, and a repair unit configured to repair the defect through an E fuse connected to the position of the defect using a reset signal.
US09019784B2	Data training device A data training device includes a training control block configured to activate driving signals for driving a bit line sense amplifier, with a word line deactivated, when a write training operation is performed according to a mode register write command; and the bit line sense amplifier configured to store training data according to the driving signals from the training control block.
US09019781B2	Internal voltage generation circuit An internal voltage generation circuit includes: a selection unit configured to select one of first and second reference voltages as a selection reference voltage in response to a self refresh signal and a power-down mode signal and output the selection reference voltage; a driving signal generation unit configured to compare the selection reference voltage with a negative word line voltage applied to an unselected word line and generate a driving signal; and a driving unit configured to change the negative word line voltage in response to the driving signal.
US09019778B2	Semiconductor apparatus A semiconductor apparatus includes a memory chip which includes: a memory area; a data input/output block configured to communicate with the memory area; and a data transmission/reception block configured to connect one of a plurality of channels and a pad to the data input/output block, wherein the plurality of channels are configured to input and output normal data to and from another chip, and the pad is configured to input and output test data.
US09019771B2	Dielectric charge trapping memory cells with redundancy A memory cell array of dielectric charge trapping memory cells and method for performing program, read and erase operations on the memory cell array that includes bits stored at charge trapping sites in adjacent memory cells. A bit of information is stored at a first charge trapping site in a first memory cell and a second charge trapping site in a second adjacent memory cell. Storing charge at two trapping sites in adjacent memory cells increases data retention rates of the array of memory cells as each charge trapping site can be read to represent the data that is stored at the data site. Each corresponding charge trapping site can be read independently and in parallel so that the results can be compared to determine the data value that is stored at the data site in an array of dielectric charge trapping memory cells.
US09019770B2	Data reading method, and control circuit, memory module and memory storage apparatus and memory module using the same A data reading method for a rewritable non-volatile memory module is provided. The method includes applying a test voltage to a word line of the rewritable non-volatile memory module to read a plurality of verification bit data. The method also includes calculating a variation of bit data identified as a first status among the verification bit data, obtaining a new read voltage value set based on the variation, and updating a threshold voltage set for the word line with the new read voltage value set. The method further includes using the updated threshold voltage set to read data from a physical page formed by memory cells connected to the word line. Accordingly, storage states of memory cells in the rewritable non-volatile memory module can be identified correctly, thereby preventing data stored in the memory cells from losing.
US09019765B2	Semiconductor device, data programming device, and method for improving the recovery of bit lines of unselected memory cells for programming operation A device comprises a non-volatile memory array, a first selection circuit selecting whether to make a first connection path between a first bit line and a first circuit node, and selecting whether to make a second connection path between the first bit line and a second circuit node, a power supplying circuit supplying a power supply voltage to the first circuit node, the power supply voltage being, when the first connection path is selected to be made, supplied to the first bit line, and a first voltage supplying circuit supplying a first voltage to the second circuit node, the first voltage being, when the second connection path is selected to be made, supplied to the first bit line, the first voltage and the power supply voltage being higher than a ground potential, and the first voltage being higher than the power supply voltage.
US09019764B2	Low-voltage page buffer to be used in NVM design A low-current FN channel for Erase, Program, Program-Inhibit and Read operations is disclosed for any non-volatile memory using FN-tunneling scheme for program and erase operation, regardless NAND, NOR, and EEPROM and regardless PMOS or NMOS non-volatile cell type. As a result, all above NMV memories can use the disclosed LV, compact PGM buffer to replace the traditional HV PGM buffer for saving in the silicon area and power consumption. The page buffer is used to store new loaded data for new writing and to convert the stored data into the required BL HV voltage for either Erase or Program operations according to the stored data. In addition, the simpler on-chip State-machine design can be achieved with the superior quality of NVMs of this disclosure.
US09019763B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device This nonvolatile semiconductor memory device comprises a transistor string formed on a substrate and including a plurality of first transistors connected in series with each other. A first bit line is connected to a first end of the transistor string. A source line is connected to a second end of the transistor string. A memory string extends in a direction perpendicular to the substrate and comprises a plurality of nonvolatile memory transistors and a select transistor connected in series. Moreover, a part of the memory string is connected to a gate of the first transistor.
US09019761B1	Memory device and column decoder for reducing capacitive coupling effect on adjacent memory cells A memory device includes a memory cell array and a column decoder. The memory cell array includes a plurality of even local bit lines and a plurality of odd local bit lines. The column decoder includes a plurality of even pass transistors and a plurality of odd pass transistors. Each of the even pass transistors has a, control terminal coupled to a respective one of a plurality of even selection lines, a first terminal coupled to a respective one of the even local bit lines, and a second terminal coupled to an even global bit line. Each of the odd pass transistors has a control terminal coupled to a respective one of a plurality of odd selection lines, a first terminal coupled to a respective one of the odd local bit lines, and a second terminal coupled to an odd global bit line.
US09019760B2	Multilevel memory device A memory device is provided, including a back gate including a first portion of electrically conductive material, a first portion of dielectric material arranged on the back gate, a semiconductor nanobeam arranged on the first portion of dielectric material, a second portion of dielectric material covering the semiconductor nanobeam, a portion of material configured to receive electrons and holes, and configured to store electrical charges and covering the second portion of dielectric material, a third portion of dielectric material covering the portion of material configured to perform storage of electrical charges, and a front gate including a second portion of electrically conductive material covering the third portion of dielectric material.
US09019758B2	Spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy multilayers A spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STTMRAM) element includes a composite fixed layer formed on top of a substrate and a tunnel layer formed upon the fixed layer and a composite free layer formed upon the tunnel barrier layer. The magnetization direction of each of the composite free layer and fixed layer being substantially perpendicular to the plane of the substrate. The composite layers are made of multiple repeats of a bi-layer unit which consists of a non-magnetic insulating layer and magnetic layer with thicknesses adjusted in a range that makes the magnetization having a preferred direction perpendicular to film plane.
US09019757B2	Spin wave element A spin wave element includes a substrate, a multilayer, a detecting portion, and two or more input portions. The multilayer having a lamination direction thereof is formed on the substrate and includes a first ferromagnetic layer. The first ferromagnetic layer has magnetization whose direction is in the lamination direction. The detecting portion and the input portions are formed on the multilayer and separated from each other by a first nonmagnetic layer. In addition, a portion of an outer edge of the multilayer viewed from the lamination direction makes a portion of one ellipsoid. The detecting portion and one of the input portions are located on the long axis of the one ellipsoid. The portion of the one ellipsoid is located on a side of one of the input portions.
US09019751B2	Process tolerant circuits Various integrated circuits and methods of operating the integrated circuits are disclosed. The integrated circuit may include a circuit having one or more electrical parameters resulting from process variations during the manufacture of the integrated circuit, and a voltage source configured to supply a voltage to the circuit to power the circuit, wherein the voltage source is further configured to adjust the voltage as a function of the one or more electrical parameters.
US09019750B2	Dynamic random access memory apparatus The present invention provides a dynamic random access memory apparatus includes a first chip and a second chip. The first chip includes a plurality of memory cells and a plurality of through-silicon vias (TSVs). The plurality of memory cells are arranged in an array. First terminals of the TSVs are respectively coupled to the memory cells. The first chip and the second chip are overlapped, the second chip includes a plurality storage capacitors. Second terminals of the TSVs are respectively coupled to the storage capacitors storage capacitors.
US09019748B2	Semiconductor memory device and operation method thereof This semiconductor memory device comprises: a memory cell array including plural bit lines, plural word lines intersecting the plurality of bit lines, and memory cells provided at intersections of the plural bit lines and the plural word lines; and a control unit operative to control a voltage applied to the bit line and the word line. The control unit, when performing a certain operation consecutively on a plurality of the memory cells, selects a first bit line selected from among the plural bit lines and a first word line selected from among the plural word lines to perform a first operation on a first memory cell. Then, in a subsequent second operation following this first operation, selects a second bit line different from the first bit line and a second word line different from the first word line to select a second memory cell.
US09019729B2	Controller for a switched mode power converter A switched mode power converter controller outputs a switch control signal for a switch, receives sensed voltage and primary current input signals, and includes a constant current mode controller to process voltage input signals and generate output control signals for controlling converter peak current and/or switching frequency operational; a constant voltage mode controller processes the voltage input signal and generates output control signals for converter peak current and/or switching frequency operational parameters; a primary peak current adjuster processes primary current input and output control signals from the current and voltage mode controllers to configure the switch control signal to turn off the switch; a switching frequency adjuster processes output control signals from the current and voltage controllers to configure the switch control signal to turn on the switch. The constant current controller is enabled if the constant voltage controller signals represent operation with maximum peak current and switching frequency.

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