Document Document Title
US09076906B2 Hetero-junction bipolar phototransistor with improved noise characteristic
A hetero-junction bipolar phototransistor includes a photo-absorption layer formed of a first conductivity type semiconductor layer, and a collector operating as a barrier layer, a base layer, and an emitter layer, which are stacked in sequence on the photo-absorption layer. The photo-absorption layer, collector, base layer and emitter layer forms a first mesa structure, and an emitter contact layer forms a second mesa structure. The photo-absorption layer includes a semiconductor layer with a narrow gap corresponding to a light-sensing wavelength of the phototransistor. The collector includes a semiconductor layer with a wider gap than a gap of the photo-absorption layer. The base layer has an energy level equal to or higher than the energy level of the collector. The emitter layer has a wide gap as compared to the base layer, and an energy level in a valence band is lower than an energy level of the base layer.
US09076904B2 Photo detector device, photo sensor and spectrum sensor
A photodetector device includes: a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type electrically connected to a first external electrode: a second semiconductor region of a second conductivity type formed on the first semiconductor region; a third semiconductor region of the first conductivity type formed on the second semiconductor region; and a plurality of fourth semiconductor regions of the second conductivity type formed on the second semiconductor region, each of the plurality of fourth semiconductor regions being surrounded by the third semiconductor region, including a second conductivity type impurity having a concentration higher than a concentration of the second semiconductor region, and electrically connected to a second external electrode.
US09076903B2 Forming high-efficiency silicon solar cells using density-graded anti-reflection surfaces
A method (50) is provided for processing a graded-density AR silicon surface (14) to provide effective surface passivation. The method (50) includes positioning a substrate or wafer (12) with a silicon surface (14) in a reaction or processing chamber (42). The silicon surface (14) has been processed (52) to be an AR surface with a density gradient or region of black silicon. The method (50) continues with heating (54) the chamber (42) to a high temperature for both doping and surface passivation. The method (50) includes forming (58), with a dopant-containing precursor in contact with the silicon surface (14) of the substrate (12), an emitter junction (16) proximate to the silicon surface (14) by doping the substrate (12). The method (50) further includes, while the chamber is maintained at the high or raised temperature, forming (62) a passivation layer (19) on the graded-density silicon anti-reflection surface (14).
US09076901B2 Process and apparatus for producing a glass sheet coated with a semiconductor material
The invention relates to a process for producing a glass sheet 10, 21 coated with a semiconductor material, which comprises the steps (a) production of a glass strip in a float bath 3 containing liquid tin; (b) discharge of the glass strip from the float bath 3 and optionally coating of the glass strip with a transparent, electrically conductive intermediate layer; (c) transfer of the uncoated or coated glass strip into a deposition chamber 5 for the physical deposition of the semiconductor material from the gas phase; and (d) coating of the coated or uncoated glass strip from step (c) with the semiconductor material by physical deposition of the semiconductor material from the gas phase at a gas pressure of at least 0.1 bar. The invention additionally relates to an apparatus for producing a glass strip coated with a semiconductor material, a process for producing a solar cell or a solar module and also a solar cell or a solar module which can be obtained by this process.
US09076892B2 Method of producing semiconductor module and semiconductor module
In order to securely ground an exterior shield and reduce burden imposed on a dicing blade and the exterior shield, a method of producing a semiconductor module comprises a hole-forming step of forming a hole 30 extending from a top surface of a sealing resin layer 3 to a ground wiring 111 (112) provided at a collective substrate 100, a film-forming step of forming an electrically conductive film made of an electrically conductive material so as to cover at least the top surface of the sealing resin layer 3, an internal surface of the hole 20, and the ground wiring 111 (112), and a separation step of separating from each other a plurality of individual module sections which the individual module section comprises.
US09076887B2 Method of fabricating a vertical diffusion metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device is provided. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a first conductive type. An epitaxy layer having the first conductive type is formed on the semiconductor substrate. First trenches are formed in the epitaxy layer. First insulating liner layers are formed on sidewalls and bottoms of the first trenches. A first dopant having the first conductive type dopes the epitaxy layer from the sidewalls of the first trenches to form first doped regions. A first insulating material is filled into the first trenches. Second trenches are formed in the epitaxy layer. Second insulating liner layers are formed on sidewalls and bottoms of the second trenches. A second dopant having a second conductive type dopes the epitaxy layer from the sidewalls of the second trenches to form second doped regions.
US09076884B2 Compliant printed circuit semiconductor package
A method of making a package for a semiconductor device having electrical terminals. At least one semiconductor device is located on a substrate. A first dielectric layer is printed on at least a portion of the semiconductor device to include first recesses aligned with a plurality of the electrical terminals. A conductive material is deposited in the first recesses forming contact members. A second dielectric layer is printed on at least a portion of the first dielectric layer to include second recesses aligned with a plurality of the first recesses. A conductive material is deposited in at least a portion of the second recesses to include a circuit geometry and a plurality of exposed terminals. A compliant material is deposited in recesses in one or more of the first and second dielectric layers adjacent to a plurality of the exposed terminals.
US09076881B2 Bump structure including nano-wires and a body connecting ends of the nano-wires, semiconductor package having the bump structure and method of manufacturing the semiconductor package
Provided are a bump structure includes a first bump and a second bump, a semiconductor package including the same, and a method of manufacturing the same. The bump structure includes: first bump provided on a connection pad of a substrate, the first bump including a plurality of nano-wires extending from the connection pad and a body connecting end portions of the plurality of nano-wires; and a second bump provided on the body of the first bump.
US09076869B1 FinFET device and method
A fin field effect transistor (FinFET), and a method of fabrication, is introduced. In an embodiment, trenches are formed in a substrate, wherein a region between adjacent trenches defines a fin. A dielectric material is formed in the trenches. A part of the substrate is doped and a region of high dopant concentration and a region of low dopant concentration are formed. Gate stacks are formed, portions of the fins are removed and source/drain regions are epitaxially grown in the regions of high/low dopant concentration. Contacts are formed to provide electrical contacts to source/gate/drain regions.
US09076867B2 Semiconductor device structures including strained transistor channels
The present invention includes methods for stressing transistor channels of semiconductor device structures. Such methods include the formation of so-called near-surface “nanocavities” adjacent to the source/drain regions, forming extensions of the source/drain regions adjacent to and including the nanocavities, and implanting matter of a type that will expand or contract the volume of the nanocavities, depending respectively upon whether compressive strain is desirable in transistor channels between the nanocavities, as in PMOS field effect transistors, or tensile strain is wanted in transistor channels, as in NMOS field effect transistors, to enhance carrier mobility and transistor speed. Semiconductor device structures and semiconductor devices including these features are also disclosed.
US09076864B2 Semiconductor device with one-side-contact and method for fabricating the same
A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes forming a first conductive layer doped with an impurity for forming a cell junction over a semiconductor substrate, forming a second layer over the first conductive layer, forming a plurality of active regions by etching the second layer and the first conductive layer, the plurality of the active regions being separated from one another by trenches, forming a side contact connected to a sidewall of the first conductive layer, and forming a plurality of metal bit lines each connected to the side contact and filling a portion of each trench.
US09076863B2 Semiconductor structure with a doped region between two deep trench isolation structures
The density of a transistor array is increased by forming one or more deep trench isolation structures in a semiconductor material. The deep trench isolation structures laterally surround the transistors in the array. The deep trench isolation structures limit the lateral diffusion of dopants and the lateral movement of charge carriers.
US09076861B2 Schottky and MOSFET+Schottky structures, devices, and methods
Power devices which include trench Schottky barrier diodes and also (preferably) trench-gate transistors. Isolation trenches flank both the gate regions and the diode mesas, and have an additional diffusion below the bottom of the isolation trenches. The additional diffusion helps to reduce the electric field (and leakage), when the device is in the OFF state, at both the Schottky barrier and at the body diode.
US09076856B2 Positioning system
A positioning system includes a first working platform, a second working platform spaced apart from the first working platform, and a carrier. The carrier is fixed on the first working platform or the second working platform. The carrier has at least one fixing member for fixing the substrate onto the carrier and fixing the mask onto the substrate. The substrate has at least one fixing hole formed thereon for receiving the fixing member, and the mask has at least one positioning hole formed thereon in alignment with the fixing hole. The fixing member is capable of inserting sequentially through the fixing hole of the substrate and the positioning hole of the mask.
US09076849B2 Semiconductor devices and methods of fabricating the same
Semiconductor devices, and methods of fabricating a semiconductor device, include forming a via hole through a first surface of a substrate, the via hole being spaced apart from a second surface facing the first surface, forming a first conductive pattern in the via hole, forming an insulating pad layer on the first surface of the substrate, the insulating pad having an opening exposing the first conductive pattern, performing a thermal treatment on the first conductive pattern to form a protrusion protruding from a top surface of the first conductive pattern toward the opening, and then, forming a second conductive pattern in the opening.
US09076846B2 Methods for fabricating integrated circuits using surface modification to selectively inhibit etching
Methods for fabricating integrated circuits are provided in various exemplary embodiments. In one embodiment, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a first exposed surface including an elemental metal material and a second exposed surface including a barrier material. The elemental metal material has a first etch rate when exposed to a wet etchant and the barrier material has a second etch rate when exposed to the wet etchant. Further, the method includes modifying the first exposed surface to form a modified first exposed surface so as to reduce the first etch rate when exposed to the wet etchant and applying the wet etchant simultaneously to the modified first exposed surface and to the second exposed surface.
US09076844B2 Process integration scheme to lower overall dielectric constant in BEoL interconnect structures
Back-End of Line (BEoL) interconnect structures, and methods for their manufacture, are provided. The structures are characterized by narrower conductive lines and reduced overall dielectric constant values. Conformal diffusion barrier layers, and selectively formed capping layers, are used to isolate the conductive lines and vias from surrounding dielectric layers in the interconnect structures. The methods of the invention employ techniques to narrow the openings in photoresist masks in order to define narrower vias. More narrow vias increase the amount of misalignment that can be tolerated between the vias and the conductive lines.
US09076836B2 Semiconductor device
The present invention implements an equivalent circuit to a semiconductor device for an upper arm by electrically connecting a terminal for E1C2 and a terminal for K with the use of an external wiring in a semiconductor device. On the other hand, in a semiconductor device including a circuit having the same structure as the semiconductor device, an external wiring is used to electrically connect a terminal for A and a terminal for E1C2. Consequently, there is implemented an equivalent circuit to a semiconductor device for a lower arm which is of a different type from the semiconductor device for the upper arm.
US09076834B2 Spacer for thermal plate in semiconductor processing
A spacer for a thermal plate in semiconductor processing includes a base substrate having a top surface defined thereon, a wafer having a bottom surface covering a portion of the base substrate, and a plurality of air passages formed in between the bottom surface of the wafer and the base substrate. The air passages connect the bottom surface of the wafer to an ambience.
US09076832B2 Wafer processing tape, method of manufacturing wafer processing tape, and method of manufacturing semiconductor device
In a wafer processing tape, circular or tongue-shaped notched parts facing the center of an adhesive layer, as seen in a plan view, are formed so as to correspond to a pasting region to a wafer ring to a depth that reaches a release base material from the side of a base material film. Due to the formation of the notched parts, when a peeling force acts on the wafer processing tape, portions of a tacky material layer and the base material film which are more outward than the notched parts are peeled off first, and a portion that is more inward than the notched parts remains on the wafer ring in a protruding state. Accordingly, a peeling strength between the wafer processing tape and the wafer ring can be increased. Methods of manufacturing the tape and a semiconductor device are also provided.
US09076830B2 Robot systems and apparatus adapted to transport dual substrates in electronic device manufacturing with wrist drive motors mounted to upper arm
Substrate transport systems and robot apparatus are provided. The systems are adapted to pick or place a substrate at a destination by independently rotating an upper arm, a forearm, and dual wrist members relative to each other and a base. Methods of operating the robot apparatus are provided, as are numerous other aspects.
US09076828B2 Edge ring for a thermal processing chamber
Embodiments of the present invention provide an edge ring for supporting a substrate with increased temperature uniformity. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide an edge ring having one or more surface area increasing structures formed on an energy receiving surface of the edge ring.
US09076824B2 Memory arrays with a memory cell adjacent to a smaller size of a pillar having a greater channel length than a memory cell adjacent to a larger size of the pillar and methods
The disclosure is related to memory arrays and methods. One such memory array has a substantially vertical pillar. A memory cell adjacent to the pillar where the pillar has a first size has a greater channel length than a memory cell adjacent to the pillar where the pillar has a second size larger than the first size.
US09076822B2 Method of manufacturing electronic devices on both sides of a carrier substrate and electronic devices thereof
Some embodiments can include a method of manufacturing first electronic device(s) and second electronic device(s), the method including: providing a carrier substrate having a first side and a second side, a first substrate bonded to the first side of the carrier substrate, and a second substrate bonded to the second side of the carrier substrate; depositing at least one layer of a first material over the first substrate while the first substrate is bonded to the first side of the carrier substrate to create a portion of the first electronic device(s); and depositing at least one layer of a second material over the second substrate while the second substrate is bonded to the second side of the carrier substrate to create a portion of the second electronic device(s). In many embodiments, the first substrate and/or the second substrate includes a flexible substrate. Other related systems and methods are also disclosed.
US09076819B2 Contact structure of semiconductor device
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprises epitaxially-growing a strained material in a cavity of a substrate comprising a major surface and the cavity, the cavity being below the major surface. A lattice constant of the strained material is different from a lattice constant of the substrate. The method also comprises forming a first metal layer over the strained material, and forming a dielectric layer over the first metal layer, wherein the dielectric layer has a thickness ranging from 1 nm to 10 nm. The method further comprises forming a dummy poly-silicon over the dielectric layer, and forming an interlayered dielectric layer (ILD) surrounding the dummy poly-silicon. The method additionally comprises removing the dummy poly-silicon over the dielectric layer, and forming a second metal layer over the dielectric layer.
US09076817B2 Epitaxial extension CMOS transistor
A pair of horizontal-step-including trenches are formed in a semiconductor layer by forming a pair of first trenches having a first depth around a gate structure on the semiconductor layer, forming a disposable spacer around the gate structure to cover proximal portions of the first trenches, and by forming a pair of second trenches to a second depth greater than the first depth. The disposable spacer is removed, and selective epitaxy is performed to form an integrated epitaxial source and source extension region and an integrated epitaxial drain and drain extension region. A replacement gate structure can be formed after deposition and planarization of a planarization dielectric layer and subsequent removal of the gate structure and laterally expand the gate cavity over expitaxial source and drain extension regions. Alternately, a contact-level dielectric layer can be deposited directly on the integrated epitaxial regions and contact via structures can be formed therein.
US09076815B2 Spacer stress relaxation
A known problem when manufacturing transistors is the stress undesirably introduced by the spacers into the transistor channel region. In order to solve this problem, the present invention proposes an ion implantation aimed at relaxing the stress of the spacer materials. The relax implantation is performed after the spacer has been completely formed. The relax implantation may be performed after a silicidation process or after an implantation step in the source and drain regions followed by an activation annealing and before performing the silicidation process.
US09076814B2 Enhanced dislocation stress transistor
A device is provided. The device includes a transistor formed on a semiconductor substrate, the transistor having a conduction channel. The device includes at least one edge dislocation formed adjacent to the conduction channel on the semiconductor substrate. The device also includes at least one free surface introduced above the conduction channel and the at least one edge dislocation.
US09076811B2 Power semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
Disclosed herein is a power semiconductor device including: a base substrate having one surface and the other surface and formed of a first conductive type drift layer; a first conductive type diffusion layer formed on one surface of the base substrate and having a concentration higher than that of the first conductive type drift layer; and a trench formed so as to penetrate through the second conductive type well layer and the first conductive type diffusion layer from one surface of the base substrate including the second conductive type well layer in a thickness direction.
US09076808B2 RF MEMS isolation, series and shunt DVC, and small MEMS
The present invention generally relates to an architecture for isolating an RF MEMS device from a substrate and driving circuit, series and shunt DVC die architectures, and smaller MEMS arrays for high frequency communications. The semiconductor device has one or more cells with a plurality of MEMS devices therein. The MEMS device operates by applying an electrical bias to either a pull-up electrode or a pull-down electrode to move a switching element of the MEMS device between a first position spaced a first distance from an RF electrode and a second position spaced a second distance different than the first distance from the RF electrode. The pull-up and/or pull-off electrode may be coupled to a resistor to isolate the MEMS device from the substrate.
US09076805B2 Current sense transistor with embedding of sense transistor cells
A semiconductor device a field of transistor cells integrated in a semiconductor body. A number of the transistor cells forming a power transistor and at least one of the transistor cells forming a sense transistor. A first source electrode is arranged on the semiconductor body electrically connected to the transistor cell(s) of the sense transistor but electrically isolated from the transistor cells of the power transistor. A second source electrode is arranged on the semiconductor body and covers the transistor cells of both the power transistor and the sense transistor, and at least partially covering the first source electrode in such a manner that the second source electrode is electrically connected only to the transistor cells of the power transistor but electrically isolated from the transistor cells of the sense transistor.
US09076801B2 Module IC package structure
A module IC package structure includes a substrate unit, an electronic unit, a package unit and a shielding unit. The substrate unit includes a circuit substrate and a grounding layer disposed inside the circuit substrate. The grounding layer is exposed from the outer surrounding peripheral surface of the circuit substrate. The electronic unit includes a plurality of electronic components disposed on the circuit substrate. The electronic components are electrically connected to the grounding layer through the circuit substrate. The package unit includes a package gel body disposed on the circuit substrate to enclose the electronic components. The shielding unit includes a metal shielding layer disposed on the outer surface of the package gel body and the surrounding peripheral surface of the circuit substrate. The metal shielding layer directly contacts the grounding layer, thus the electronic components are electrically connected to the metal shielding layer through the grounding layer.
US09076800B2 Method for forming identification marks on silicon carbide single crystal substrate, and silicon carbide single crystal substrate
A method for forming an identification mark on a silicon carbide single crystal substrate according to the present invention includes: (a) scanning a principal surface of a silicon carbide single crystal substrate with a laser beam at a first energy density such that a groove is formed in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate, thereby forming an identification mark which is constituted of one or more grooves in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate; and (b) scanning an inside of the groove formed in the principal surface of the silicon carbide single crystal substrate with a laser beam at a second energy density that is lower than the first energy density.
US09076795B1 Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
According to one embodiment, there is provided a semiconductor device using graphene, includes a catalyst layer formed on or in a substrate along with an interconnect pattern and a graphene layer formed on the catalyst layer. The graphene layer is arranged parallel to a narrower linewidth than the width of the interconnect pattern.
US09076789B2 Semiconductor device having a high frequency external connection electrode positioned within a via hole
A semiconductor device is disclosed that includes a support substrate, a first semiconductor element that is mounted on one side of the support substrate, a second semiconductor element including a high frequency electrode that is mounted on the one side of the support substrate, a via hole that is provided at the support substrate in relation to the high frequency electrode, and an external connection electrode that is provided on the other side of the support substrate in relation to the via hole.
US09076783B2 Methods and systems for selectively forming metal layers on lead frames after die attachment
Methods and systems are disclosed for selectively forming metal layers on lead frames after die attachment to improve electrical connections for areas of interest on lead frames, such as for example, lead fingers and down-bond areas. By selectively forming metal layers on areas of interest after die attachment, the disclosed embodiments help to eliminate anomalies and associated defects for the lead frames that may be caused by the die attachment process. A variety of techniques can be utilized for selectively forming one or more metal layers, and a variety of metal materials can be used (e.g., nickel, palladium, gold, silver, etc.). Further, cleaning can also be performed with respect to the areas of interest prior to selectively forming the one or more metal layers on areas of interest for the leaf frame.
US09076781B2 Support device for a semiconductor chip and optoelectronic component with a carrier device and electronic component with a carrier device
A carrier device for a semiconductor chip includes a bondable and/or solderable metallic carrier having a mounting region for the semiconductor chip and a soldering region. The carrier is at least partly covered with a covering material. A solder barrier is arranged between the soldering region and the mounting region at an interface between the carrier and the covering material. An electronic component and an optoelectronic component are furthermore specified.
US09076778B2 Semiconductor package
Provided are a semiconductor die and a semiconductor package. The semiconductor package includes: a monolithic die; a driving circuit, a low-side output power device, and a high-side output power device disposed in the monolithic die; and an upper electrode and a lower electrode disposed above and below the monolithic die.
US09076774B2 Semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing same
In a semiconductor device where a metal circuit layer is disposed over a main planar surface of an insulating substrate, a semiconductor chip is connected by way of a solder over the metal circuit layer, and a metal wiring is connected over the metal circuit layer, in which a solder flow prevention area comprising a linear oxide material is formed between the semiconductor chip and the ultrasonic metal bonding region over the metal circuit layer.
US09076773B2 Wire bondable surface for microelectronic devices
The present invention concerns thin diffusion barriers in metal and metal alloy layer sequences of contact area/barrier layer/first bonding layer type for metal wire bonding applications. The diffusion barrier is selected from Co-M-P. Co-M-B and Co-M-B—P alloys wherein M is selected from Mn, Zr, Re, Mo, Ta and W having a thickness in the range 0.03 to 0.3 μm. The first bonding layer is selected from palladium and palladium alloys.
US09076767B2 Semiconductor device having a surround gate transistor
A semiconductor device includes a first-conductive type first pillar, a first dielectric surrounding the first pillar, a gate surrounding the dielectric, a second pillar underneath the first pillar, and a third pillar on a top of the first pillar. The second pillar has a second-conductive type region in a surface thereof except at least a part of a contact surface with the first pillar, and a first-conductive type region surrounded by the second-conductive type region. The third pillar has a second-conductive type impurity region in a surface thereof except a part of a contact surface with the first pillar, and a first-conductive type region therein and surrounded by the second-conductive type region of the third pillar. The first-conductive type region of each of the second and third pillars has a length greater than that of a depletion layer extending from a base of the second-conductive type region of one of the second and third pillars.
US09076766B2 Mechanism for forming metal gate structure
Embodiments of mechanisms for forming a semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate with a metal gate stack formed on the semiconductor substrate, and the metal gate stack includes a metal gate electrode. The semiconductor device also includes a metal oxide layer formed over the metal gate stack and in direct contact with the metal gate electrode, and a thickness of the metal oxide layer is in a range from about 15 Å to about 40 Å. The metal oxide layer has a first portion made of an oxidized material of the metal gate electrode and has a second portion made of a material different from that of the first portion.
US09076761B2 Silicon carbide semiconductor device and method for manufacturing silicon carbide semiconductor device
A silicon carbide semiconductor device that is able to increase the gate reliability, and to provide a method for manufacturing the silicon carbide semiconductor device, and that includes: a source electrode selectively formed on a source region; a gate insulating film formed so as to extend over the source region; and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating film. The source region includes a first source region located below the source electrode, and a second source region surrounding the first source region. The doping concentration in a superficial layer of the second source region is lower than the doping concentration in a superficial layer of the first source region. The doping concentration in the second source region is higher in a deep portion than in a superficial portion thereof.
US09076752B2 Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device (1) includes: a semiconductor chip (2) having a first main surface and a second main surface opposite to the first main surface; a heat dissipating plate (3) opposed to the first main surface; a first electrode (5) disposed between the first main surface and the heat dissipating plate (3) so as to be electrically connected to the semiconductor chip (2); a pressure contact member (4) opposed to the second main surface; a second electrode (6) disposed between the second main surface and the pressure contact member (4) so as to be electrically connected to the semiconductor chip (2); and a pressure generating mechanism that generates a pressure for pressing the first electrode (5) into contact with the heat dissipating plate (3) and the semiconductor chip (2) and pressing the second electrode (6) into contact with the pressure contact member (4) and the semiconductor chip (2).
US09076750B2 Semiconductor wafer and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor wafer having sag formed at an outer periphery at the time of polishing, wherein a displacement of the semiconductor wafer in a thickness direction is 100 nm or less between a center and a outer peripheral sag start position of the semiconductor wafer, and the center of the semiconductor wafer has a convex shape, an amount of outer peripheral sag of the semiconductor wafer is 100 nm or less, and the outer peripheral sag start position is away from an outer peripheral portion of the semiconductor wafer toward the center or 20 mm or more away from an outer peripheral end of the semiconductor wafer toward the center, the outer peripheral portion being a measurement target of ESFQR.
US09076748B2 Thin film transistor substrate and method of repairing signal line of the substrate
Disclosed are a thin film transistor substrate and a method of repairing a signal line of the thin film transistor substrate. The thin-film transistor substrate includes: a scan line for transferring a scan signal; a light-emission control line for transferring a light-emission control signal; and a capacitor including a first electrode and a second electrode, wherein the second electrode may be provided with a plurality of divided regions, al plurality of bridges coupling the plurality of divided regions to each other, and a plurality of protrusions which overlap at least one of the scan line and the light-emission control line.
US09076747B2 Organic light-emitting display apparatus having an embossed structure
Provided is an organic light-emitting display apparatus including a thin-film transistor (TFT) that includes an active layer, a gate electrode, and source/drain electrodes; an organic light-emitting device that includes a pixel electrode which is connected to the TFT, an intermediate layer which includes a light-emitting layer, and an opposite electrode; and an opposite electrode contact unit in which the opposite electrode is electrically connected to a power wiring, wherein, with regard to the power wiring, a surface that contacts the opposite electrode is formed to have an embossed structure.
US09076742B2 Oxidation annealing device and method for fabricating thin film transistor using oxidation annealing
A far-infrared plane heater 6 is placed in a closed-container-shaped device body 3 of an oxidation annealing device 1, an oxygen addition gas feed pipe 8 through which an oxygen addition gas containing water vapor and oxygen is fed into the device body 3 is connected to a gas exhaust pipe 11 through which gas in the device body 3 is discharged, and jet nozzles 16 through which the oxygen addition gas containing water vapor and oxygen is ejected to an oxygen-deficient portion of a substrate 50 are brought into communication with the oxygen addition gas feed pipe 8. This allows oxidation annealing of a large substrate at high throughput and low cost while preventing a leakage current.
US09076735B2 Methods for fabricating integrated circuits using chemical mechanical polishing
Methods for fabricating integrated circuits are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, a method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes forming a silicon material layer over a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a logic device region and a memory array region. The memory array region has a memory device formed on the semiconductor substrate. The method further includes forming a capping layer over the silicon material layer and over the memory device and removing the capping layer from over the memory device in the memory array region using a first chemical mechanical polishing process while leaving at least a first portion of the capping layer in place over the logic device region. Further, the method includes removing the first the silicon material layer from over the memory device in the memory array region using a second chemical mechanical polishing process.
US09076734B2 Defect reduction for formation of epitaxial layer in source and drain regions
The embodiments of mechanisms for forming source/drain (S/D) regions of field effect transistors (FETs) described enable forming an epitaxially grown silicon-containing layer with reduced number of particles on surface of recesses. The described mechanisms also reduce the effect of the residual particles on the epitaxial growth. The mechanisms include controlled etch of a native oxide layer on the surfaces of recesses to reduce creation of particles, and pre-CDE etch to remove particles from surface. The mechanisms also include reduced etch/deposition ratio(s) of initial CDE unit cycle(s) of CDE process to reduce the effect of residual particles on the formation of the epitaxially grown silicon-containing layer. With the application of one or more of the mechanisms, the quality of the epitaxial layer is improved.
US09076733B2 Self-aligned trench over fin
A stack of a first hard mask portion and a second hard mask portion is formed over a semiconductor material layer by anisotropically etching a stack, from bottom to top, of a first hard mask layer and a second hard mask layer. The first hard mask portion is laterally recessed by an isotropic etch. A dielectric material layer is conformally deposited and planarized. The dielectric material layer is etched employing an anisotropic etch that is selective to the first hard mask portion to form a dielectric material portion that laterally surrounds the first hard mask portion. After removal of the second and first hard mask portions, the semiconductor material layer is etched employing the dielectric material portion as an etch mask. Optionally, portions of the semiconductor material layer underneath the first and second hard mask portions can be undercut at a periphery.
US09076724B1 Integrated circuit system with debonding adhesive and method of manufacture thereof
A system and method of manufacture of an integrated circuit system includes: a die having a via, the die having a top side and a bottom side; a top interconnect mounted to the via at the top side; an interconnect pillar mounted to the via at the bottom side; a device interconnect mounted to the interconnect pillar; and a base adhesive covering the interconnect pillar and the device interconnect.
US09076723B1 Non-volatile memory device and method for manufacturing same
A nonvolatile memory device includes: a first interconnection extending in a first direction; a second interconnection extending in a second direction, and a lower end of the second interconnection being located above the first interconnection; a plurality of third interconnections extending in a third direction, and the third interconnections being arranged in the second direction; a current limitation layer provided between the second interconnection and the third interconnections; a metal ion source layer provided between the current limitation layer and the third interconnections; a resistance change layer provided between the current limitation layer and the third interconnections; and a selector provided between the first interconnection and the lower end of the second interconnection.
US09076718B2 Oxide semiconductor, thin film transistor array substrate and production method thereof, and display device
The present invention provides an oxide semiconductor capable of achieving a thin film transistor having stable transistor characteristics, a thin film transistor having a channel layer formed of the oxide semiconductor and a production method thereof, and a display device equipped with the thin film transistor. The oxide semiconductor of the present invention is an oxide semiconductor for a thin film transistor. The oxide semiconductor includes indium, gallium, zinc, and oxygen as constituent atoms, and the oxygen content of the oxide semiconductor is 87% to 95% of the stoichiometric condition set as 100%, in terms of atomic units.
US09076717B2 Semiconductor component comprising magnetic field sensor
The invention relates to a semiconductor component (100) comprising a semiconductor chip (10) configured as a wafer level package, a magnetic field sensor (11) being integrated into said semiconductor chip.
US09076716B2 Methods for discretized processing and process sequence integration of regions of a substrate
The present invention provides methods and systems for discretized, combinatorial processing of regions of a substrate such as for the discovery, implementation, optimization, and qualification of new materials, processes, and process sequence integration schemes used in integrated circuit fabrication. A substrate having an array of differentially processed regions thereon is processed by delivering materials to or modifying regions of the substrate.
US09076714B2 Substrate for mounting light-emitting element and light-emitting device
There is provided a substrate for light-emitting element, including a mounting surface on which a light-emitting element is to be mounted, the mounting surface being one of two opposed main surfaces of the substrate. The substrate of the present invention is provided with a protection element for the light-emitting element, the protection element comprising a voltage-dependent resistive layer embedded in a body of the substrate, and comprising a first electrode and a second electrode each of which is in connection with the voltage-dependent resistive layer wherein the light-emitting element is to be mounted such that it is positioned in an overlapping relation with the voltage-dependent resistive layer.
US09076712B2 Solid state cloaking for electrical charge carrier mobility control
An electrical mobility-controlled material includes a solid state host material having a controllable Fermi energy level and electrical charge carriers with a charge carrier mobility. At least one Fermi level energy at which a peak in charge carrier mobility is to occur is prespecified for the host material. A plurality of particles are distributed in the host material, with at least one particle disposed with an effective mass and a radius that minimize scattering of the electrical charge carriers for the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy of peak charge carrier mobility. The minimized scattering of electrical charge carriers produces the peak charge carrier mobility only at the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy, set by the particle effective mass and radius, the charge carrier mobility being less than the peak charge carrier mobility at Fermi level energies other than the at least one prespecified Fermi level energy.
US09076709B2 3D CCD-style imaging sensor with rolling readout
The presented readout structure provides charge transport based readout of a photosensitive device with a minimum number of transport gates. The structure uses the given charge storage buckets of the photosensitive device, separated by a minimum sized barrier-gate, to transport the charge out of the pixel field. This new readout schema allows for a fast readout speed based on a 2 phase transport chain and increases the pixel's optical fill factor by significantly reducing the transport gate size compared to state-of-the-art pixels using a 3 or 4 phase CCD readout chain. This readout structure can be exploited for standard photo-detecting elements such as e.g. pinned photo-diodes or any enhanced pixel structure that has additional intelligence incorporated as well. Typical applications are 2D- or 3D-imaging. The process used for manufacturing a sensor with such a readout scheme requires preferably charge transport mechanisms like charge-coupled gate devices as well as the possibility of integrating circuitries of high density. The exploitation of such a combination of process-related features results in a new sensor readout technique that allows for optimizing the pixel's dynamic range and optical fill factor.
US09076708B2 CMOS image sensors and methods for forming the same
A method includes forming a first implantation mask comprising a first opening, implanting a first portion of a semiconductor substrate through the first opening to form a first doped region, forming a second implantation mask comprising a second opening, and implanting a second portion of the semiconductor substrate to form a second doped region. The first portion of the semiconductor substrate is encircled by the second portion of the semiconductor substrate. A surface layer of the semiconductor substrate is implanted to form a third doped region of an opposite conductivity type than the first and the second doped regions. The third doped region forms a diode with the first and the second doped regions.
US09076707B2 Integrated avalanche photodiode arrays
The present disclosure includes devices for detecting photons, including avalanche photon detectors, arrays of such detectors, and circuits including such arrays. In some aspects, the detectors and arrays include a virtual beveled edge mesa structure surrounded by resistive material damaged by ion implantation and having side wall profiles that taper inwardly towards the top of the mesa structures, or towards the direction from which the ion implantation occurred. Other aspects are directed to masking and multiple implantation and/or annealing steps. Furthermore, methods for fabricating and using such devices, circuits and arrays are disclosed.
US09076706B2 Image sensor based on depth pixel structure
An image sensor based on a depth pixel structure is provided. The image sensor may include a pixel including a photodiode, and the photodiode may include a transfer gate to transfer, to a floating diffusion node, an electron generated by a light reflected from an object.
US09076705B2 Method for manufacturing a solid-state imaging apparatus
Certain embodiments provide a solid-state imaging apparatus including a first impurity layer, a second impurity layer, a third impurity layer, and an electrode. The first impurity layer is a photoelectric conversion layer, and is formed to have a constant depth on a semiconductor substrate. The second impurity layer is formed on a surface of the first impurity layer, to have a depth which becomes shallower toward a direction from the first impurity layer to the third impurity layer. The third impurity layer is formed in a position spaced apart from the first impurity layer and the second impurity layer on the surface of the semiconductor substrate. The electrode can transport electric charges from the first impurity layer to the third impurity layer, and is formed between the second impurity layer and the third impurity layer, on the surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US09076703B2 Method and apparatus to use array sensors to measure multiple types of data at full resolution of the sensor
An actuator is configured to move a sensor array between first and second positions in order to provide color image data and other data with full resolution of the sensor array. In many embodiments, the output resolution of the sensor array for each type of data comprises twice the resolution of the sensor array without movement. The alternating movement of the sensor array between the first and second positions provides output images with decreased artifacts that might otherwise be present without the alternating movement of the sensor array.
US09076685B2 Semiconductor memory device and method for manufacturing the same
According to one embodiment, a semiconductor memory device includes a lower gate layer, a stacked body including a plurality of electrode layers and a plurality of insulating layers, alternately stacked on the lower gate layer, a channel body extending within the stacked body from the topmost electrode layer to the lower gate layer, and a memory film provided between the electrode layer and the channel body. The memory film includes a charge storage film. The electrode layer includes a step portion in which a step is formed in a stacking direction of the stacked body. The channel body and the memory film pass through the step portion.
US09076682B2 Gate structure including a metal silicide pattern in which an upper surface portion of the metal silicide pattern includes concavo-convex portions and semiconductor devices including the same
In a semiconductor device, a first gate structure is provided in a cell transistor region and includes a floating gate electrode, a first dielectric layer pattern, and a control gate electrode including a first metal silicide pattern. A second gate structure is provided in a selecting transistor region and includes a first conductive layer pattern, a second dielectric layer pattern, and a first gate electrode including a second metal silicide pattern. A third gate structure is provided in a peripheral circuit region and includes a second conductive layer pattern, a third dielectric layer pattern including opening portions on the second conductive layer pattern, and a second gate electrode including a concavo-convex portion at an upper surface portion thereof and a third metal silicide pattern. The third metal silicide pattern has a uniform thickness.
US09076681B2 Memory devices and method of fabricating same
A device comprises a control gate structure over a substrate, a memory gate structure over the substrate, wherein the memory gate structure comprises a memory gate electrode and a memory gate spacer, and wherein the memory gate electrode is an L-shaped structure, a charge storage layer formed between the control gate structure and the memory gate structure, a first spacer along a sidewall of the memory gate structure, a second spacer over a top surface of the memory gate structure, a first drain/source region formed in the substrate and adjacent to the memory gate structure and a second drain/source region formed in the substrate and adjacent to the control gate structure.
US09076680B2 Integrated circuitry, methods of forming capacitors, and methods of forming integrated circuitry comprising an array of capacitors and circuitry peripheral to the array
A method of forming capacitors includes providing a support material over a substrate. The support material is at least one of semiconductive or conductive. Openings are formed into the support material. The openings include at least one of semiconductive or conductive sidewalls. An insulator is deposited along the semiconductive and/or conductive opening sidewalls. A pair of capacitor electrodes having capacitor dielectric there-between is formed within the respective openings laterally inward of the deposited insulator. One of the pair of capacitor electrodes within the respective openings is laterally adjacent the deposited insulator. Other aspects are disclosed, including integrated circuitry independent of method of manufacture.
US09076679B2 Semiconductor device
The semiconductor device includes a source line, a bit line, a signal line, a word line, memory cells connected in parallel between the source line and the bit line, a first driver circuit electrically connected to the source line and the bit line through switching elements, a second driver circuit electrically connected to the source line through a switching element, a third driver circuit electrically connected to the signal line, and a fourth driver circuit electrically connected to the word line. The memory cell includes a first transistor including a first gate electrode, a first source electrode, and a first drain electrode, a second transistor including a second gate electrode, a second source electrode, and a second drain electrode, and a capacitor. The second transistor includes an oxide semiconductor material.
US09076675B2 Semiconductor memory device with a 3-dimensional stacked memory cell structure
A semiconductor memory device comprises: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of memory units provided on the semiconductor substrate and each including a plurality of memory cells that are stacked; and a plurality of bit lines formed above each of a plurality of the memory units aligned in a column direction, an alignment pitch in a row direction of the plurality of bit lines being less than an alignment pitch in the row direction of the memory units, and an end of each of the memory units aligned in the column direction being connected to one of the plurality of bit lines formed above the plurality of the memory units aligned in the column direction.
US09076672B2 Cost-effective gate replacement process
The present disclosure provides a method of fabricating a semiconductor device. The method includes forming a first gate structure and a second gate structure over a substrate. The first and second gate structures each include a high-k dielectric layer located over the substrate, a capping layer located over the high-k dielectric layer, an N-type work function metal layer located over the capping layer, and a polysilicon layer located over the N-type work function metal layer. The method includes forming an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) layer over the substrate, the first gate structure, and the second gate structure. The method includes polishing the ILD layer until a surface of the ILD layer is substantially co-planar with surfaces of the first gate structure and the second gate structure. The method includes replacing portions of the second gate structure with a metal gate. A silicidation process is then performed to the semiconductor device.
US09076670B2 Integrated circuit and method of forming the integrated circuit with improved logic transistor performance and SRAM transistor yield
In an integrated circuit that includes an NMOS logic transistor, an NMOS SRAM transistor, and a resistor, the gate of the SRAM transistor is doped at the same time that the resistor is doped, thereby allowing the gate of the logic transistor to be separately doped without requiring any additional masking steps.
US09076669B2 Semiconductor device having high-K gate insulation films including lanthanum
A semiconductor device having high-k gate insulation films and a method of fabricating the semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a first gate insulation film on a substrate and the first gate insulation film includes a material selected from the group consisting of HfO2, ZrO2, Ta2O5, TiO2, SrTiO3 and (Ba,Sr)TiO3, and lanthanum (La). Additionally, the semiconductor device includes a first barrier film on the first gate insulation film, a first gate electrode on the first barrier film, and n-type source/drain regions in the substrate at both sides of the first gate electrode.
US09076667B2 White light emitting diode module
Disclosed is a white light emitting diode module including a conducting wire frame, a first primary color chip, a second primary color chip and a phosphor layer. The conducting wire frame has an accommodating groove. The first primary color chip is installed at the bottom of the middle of the accommodating groove, and the first primary color chip transmits a first light emitting source with a wavelength λ1. The second primary color chip is stacked on top of the first primary color chip and the second primary color chip transmits a second light emitting source with a wavelength λ2. The phosphor layer is formed on the second primary color chip and excited to produce a fluorescent light with a wavelength λ3. Therefore, the stacked LED chips and the phosphor can be used to obtain a white light source with high color saturation.
US09076665B2 CMOS-compatible silicon nano-wire sensors with biochemical and cellular interfaces
The systems and methods described herein include a sensor for suitable for sensing chemical and biological substances. The sensor comprises a semiconductor layer formed in or on a substrate and a channel having nano-scale dimensions formed in the semiconductor layer, where the structure creates an electrically conducting pathway between a first contact and a second contact on the semiconductor layer. In certain preferred embodiments, the nano-scale channel has a trapezoidal cross-section with an effective width and exposed lateral faces, where the effective width is selected to have same order of magnitude as a Debye length (LD) of the semiconductor material of which the semiconductor layer is formed.
US09076663B2 Determining spacing using a spatially varying charge distribution
A semiconductor die is described. This semiconductor die includes a driver, and a spatial alignment transducer that is electrically coupled to the driver and which is proximate to a surface of the semiconductor die. The driver establishes a spatially varying electric charge distribution in at least one direction in the spatial alignment transducer, thereby facilitating determination of a vertical spacing between a surface of the semiconductor die and a surface of another semiconductor die. In particular, a spatial alignment sensor proximate to the surface of the other semiconductor die may detect an electrical field (or an associated electrostatic potential) associated with the spatially varying electric charge distribution. This detected electric field may allow the vertical spacing between the surfaces of the semiconductor dies to be determined.
US09076659B2 Light emitting device for linear light source
A light emitting device includes: a substrate; a first metal film formed on the substrate; quadrilateral light emitting elements arranged in a line at an interval d1, with second metal films on lower faces, and a die bond fixes the first and second metal films together. A diagonal of the respective quadrilateral outlines of the light emitting elements is aligned with the line. One of a distance DL from a light emitting element on one end among the light emitting elements arranged in the line to an end of the substrate, and a distance DR from a light emitting element on the other end among the light emitting elements arranged in the line to an end of the substrate is equal to or shorter than the interval d1.
US09076653B2 Substrate for growing single crystal diamond layer and method for producing single crystal diamond substrate
The present invention is a substrate for growing a single crystal diamond layer including: at least, a base material made of a single crystal diamond, and an iridium film or a rhodium film heteroepitaxially grown on a side of the base material where the single crystal diamond layer is to be grown; wherein a peripheral end portion of a surface of the base material on the side where the single crystal diamond layer is to be grown is chamfered with a curvature radius (r), the curvature radius satisfying (r)≧50 μm. As a result, there is provided a substrate for growing a single crystal diamond layer and a method for producing a single crystal diamond substrate, the substrate and the method in which a single crystal diamond having uniform and high crystallinity can be reproducibly produced at low cost.
US09076650B2 Method for fabricating mesa sidewall with spin coated dielectric material and semiconductor element thereof
A method for fabricating a mesa sidewall with a spin coated dielectric material and a semiconductor element fabricated by the same are provided in the present invention. The method includes the steps of: disposing an object on a semiconductor substrate; performing a spin coating process to coat with a liquid dielectric material; performing a drying process to dry the liquid dielectric material; performing a first etching process to remove an upper part of the dried dielectric material to expose a metal part (unaffected by ion bombardment) of the object; performing a deposition process to insulate the metal part (unaffected by ion bombardment) of the object; and performing a second etching process to form a semiconductor element with a mesa sidewall.
US09076649B2 Film forming method and apparatus
A method of forming a thin film on a surface of target objects in a vacuum-evacuable processing chamber by using a source gas and a reaction gas includes: forming a mixed gas by mixing the source gas and an inert gas in a gas reservoir tank, and supplying the mixed gas and the reaction gas into the processing chamber.
US09076648B2 Preparation of lanthanide-containing precursors and deposition of lanthanide-containing films
Methods and compositions for depositing rare earth metal-containing layers are described herein. In general, the disclosed methods deposit the precursor compounds comprising rare earth-containing compounds using deposition methods such as chemical vapor deposition or atomic layer deposition. The disclosed precursor compounds include a cyclopentadienyl ligand having at least one aliphatic group as a substituent and an amidine ligand.
US09076642B2 High-Throughput batch porous silicon manufacturing equipment design and processing methods
This disclosure enables high-productivity fabrication of porous semiconductor layers (made of single layer or multi-layer porous semiconductors such as porous silicon, comprising single porosity or multi-porosity layers). Some applications include fabrication of MEMS separation and sacrificial layers for die detachment and MEMS device fabrication, membrane formation and shallow trench isolation (STI) porous silicon (using porous silicon formation with an optimal porosity and its subsequent oxidation). Further, this disclosure is applicable to the general fields of photovoltaics, MEMS, including sensors and actuators, stand-alone, or integrated with integrated semiconductor microelectronics, semiconductor microelectronics chips and optoelectronics.
US09076641B2 Ultra-low resistivity contacts
Contacts for semiconductor devices and methods of making thereof are disclosed. A method comprises forming a first layer on a semiconductor, the first layer comprising one or more metals; forming a second layer on the first layer, the second layer comprising the one or more metals, nitrogen and oxygen; and heating the first and second layer such that oxygen migrates from the second layer into the first layer and the first layer comprises a sub-stoichiometric metal oxide after heating. Exemplary embodiments use transition metals such as Ti in the first layer. After heating there is a sub-stoichiometric oxide layer of about 2.5 nm thickness between a metal nitride conductor and the semiconductor. The specific contact resistivity is less than about 7×10−9 Ω·cm2.
US09076634B2 Replaceable upper chamber parts of plasma processing apparatus
An upper chamber section of a plasma reaction chamber includes a ceramic window with blind bores in an upper surface for receipt of a thermal couple and a resistance temperature detector, a top chamber interface which comprises an upper surface which vacuum seals against the bottom of the window and a gas injection system comprising 8 side injectors mounted in the sidewall of the top chamber interface and a gas delivery system comprising tubing which provides symmetric gas flow to the 8 injectors from a single gas feed connection.
US09076631B2 Interface, a method for observing an object within a non-vacuum environment and a scanning electron microscope
An interface, a scanning electron microscope and a method for observing an object that is positioned in a non-vacuum environment. The method includes: passing at least one electron beam that is generated in a vacuum environment through at least one aperture out of an aperture array and through at least one ultra thin membrane that seals the at least one aperture; wherein the at least one electron beam is directed towards the object; wherein the at least one ultra thin membrane withstands a pressure difference between the vacuum environment and the non-vacuum environment; and detecting particles generated in response to an interaction between the at least one electron beam and the object.
US09076628B2 Variable radius taper x-ray window support structure
A support structure for an x-ray window comprising a support frame defining a perimeter and an aperture, a plurality of ribs extending across the aperture of the support frame and carried by the support frame, and openings between the plurality of ribs. A rib taper region can extend from a central portion of the ribs to the support frame. The taper region can include a non-circular, arcuate pair of fillets on opposing sides of the ribs and an increasing of rib width from the central portion to the support frame.
US09076627B2 Radiation generating apparatus and radiation imaging apparatus using the same
A radiation generating apparatus 30 according to the present invention including: a radiation generating tube 10 having a target 14, a tubular shielding member 18 that shields a part of a radiation generated from the target 14 and also has an aperture 21 through which the radiation generated from the target 14 passes, and an envelope 1 that has the target 14 so as to be brought into contact with the internal space thereof and also has the tubular shielding member 18 so as to protrude toward an external space thereof; a storage container 1 for storing the radiation generating tube 3 therein; and an insulating liquid 8 that comes in contact with the tubular shielding member 18 and the storage container 1, wherein the tubular shielding member 18 has a protruding portion P, and the protruding portion P is covered with a solid insulating member 9.
US09076622B2 Trip unit with captive trip bar
A trip unit wherein one sidewall of a trip unit housing assembly captivates a trip bar is provided. A captivation assembly is coupled, or directly coupled, to a trip unit housing assembly, thereby limiting tolerance buildup. The captivation assembly includes a trip bar bearing cap having a stop feature, thereby limiting tolerance buildup. The trip bar includes a radial stop paddle having hemispherical protrusions structured to contact the trip unit housing, thereby limiting tolerance buildup. The captivation assembly elements are incorporated into the trip unit housing assembly and captivates the trip bar in all but one axis, thereby limiting tolerance buildup and improving repeatability.
US09076621B2 Electromagnetic actuator with under voltage release
An electromagnetic actuator has a yoke for guiding a magnetic flux, and a holding plate attached to an actuating member, the holding plate and yoke forming a first magnetic circuit. Furthermore a magnetic flux generation device is provided for generating a magnetic flux in the first magnetic circuit. The magnetic flux generation device has an under voltage release coil electrically connected to an auxiliary voltage source representing the value of a voltage to be monitored.
US09076620B2 Electromagnetic switching device
Disclosed is an electromagnetic device. The electromagnetic switching device includes: a shaft coupled with a movable contact point to reciprocate up and down; and an elastic member coupled with a bottom end of the shaft, wherein a vertical volume of the elastic member expands as a temperature is increased.
US09076619B2 Miniature magnetic switch structures
According to an illustrative embodiment, a switching device structure is provided comprising a cavity defined by a laminated structure; and a moveable member comprising a plurality of laminated layers, wherein the moveable member is suspended from a side surface of the cavity by a hinge comprising a plurality of adjacent electrical conductors. In one embodiment, a current conducting coil is formed within the moveable member, and first and second of the adjacent electrical conductors of the hinge respectively comprise coil-in and coil-out conductors electrically connected to the coil. In such an embodiment, the third and fourth of said electrical conductors may respectively comprise tip and ring conductors. In illustrative embodiments, each of the electrical conductors of the hinge may comprise a resilient or flexible copper material.
US09076618B2 Nanotube based nanoelectromechanical device
A nanoelectromechanical device is provided. The nanoelectromechanical device includes a nanotube, a first contact, and a first actuator. The nanotube includes a first end, the first end supported by a first structure, a second end opposite the first end, and a first portion. The first actuator is configured to apply a first force to the nanotube, the first force causing the nanotube to buckle such that the first portion couples to the first contact.
US09076617B2 Electromagnetic relay
An electromagnetic relay including a contact switching unit formed by arranging at least two contact groups, in parallel with each other and perpendicular to the touch/separation direction of the contacts, each of the contact group includes a pair of contacts that can touch and separate; an electromagnet block that drives the contact switching unit to open and close the contacts; and an arc-extinguishing member comprising a connection member made from a magnetic material and formed by a connection of protrusions that respectively protrude from both sides of a middle part in the direction of the parallel arrangement of the contact groups and between the contact groups, and also comprising permanent magnets respectively disposed at least on the opposing positions of the protrusions located on both sides of the middle part.
US09076611B2 Circuit breaker unit
A power circuit breaker unit has first and second arcing contact pieces. A contact gap is formed between the arcing contact pieces. A switch gas channel of the circuit breaker unit joins the contact gap to the surrounding area of the circuit breaker unit for removing a switch gas from the contact gap. Several barriers that increase a flow resistance are arranged successively, spaced from one another, in the switch gas channel. At least one of the barriers is arranged between a first pipe section, which is surrounded by a second pipe section, and the second pipe section.
US09076607B2 System with circuitry for suppressing arc formation in micro-electromechanical system based switch
A system that includes micro-electromechanical system switching circuitry is provided. The system may include a first over-current protection circuitry connected in a parallel circuit with the micro-electromechanical system switching circuitry for suppressing a voltage level across contacts of the micro-electromechanical system switching circuitry during a first switching event, such as a turn-on event. The system may further include a second over-current protection circuitry connected in a parallel circuit with the micro-electromechanical system switching circuitry for suppressing a current flow through the contacts of the micro-electromechanical system switching circuitry during a second switching event, such as a turn-off event.
US09076604B2 Touch panel, a touch device, and a method for determining a location of a touch point
A touch panel includes a substrate, first and second electrode units, and an auxiliary electrode unit. The substrate has first and second touch areas. The first electrode unit includes a plurality of first electrodes arranged spacedly in one of rows and columns, and disposed on the substrate to span the first and second touch areas. The second electrode unit includes a plurality of second electrodes arranged spacedly in the other of rows and columns to intersect without contacting the first electrodes. The auxiliary electrode unit is disposed proximate to and without contacting the second electrode unit such that the second electrode unit is able to detect a signal passing through the auxiliary electrode unit.
US09076596B2 Laminated ceramic electronic component having a cover layer with dielectric grains and method of fabricating the same
There are provided a laminated ceramic electronic component and a method of fabricating the same. The laminated ceramic electronic component include a ceramic body including a dielectric layer; and first and second internal electrodes disposed to face each other, having the dielectric layer interposed therebetween within the ceramic body, wherein the ceramic body includes an active layer that is a capacitance forming part and a cover layer that is a non-capacitance forming part formed on at least one of a top surface and a bottom surface of the active layer, and when a thickness of the ceramic body is t and a thickness of the cover layer is T, T≦t×0.05 is satisfied and when an average particle diameter of a dielectric grain in the active layer is Da and an average particle diameter of a dielectric grain in the cover layer is Dc, 0.7≦Dc/Da≦1.5 is satisfied.
US09076583B2 Linear solenoid
A communication hole is formed in a peripheral wall portion of a yoke. The communication hole communicates between an inside and an outside of the yoke. A gap, which is formed between one end portion of the coil and a bottom wall portion of the yoke, overlaps with the communication hole in an axial direction.
US09076576B2 Chip thermistor and thermistor assembly board
A chip thermistor is provided with a thermistor element body, a first electrode, a second electrode, and a third electrode. The thermistor element body has a first principal face and a second principal face opposed to each other in a first direction. The first electrode and the second electrode are arranged as separated from each other in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, on the first principal face of the thermistor element body. The third electrode is arranged so as to lap over the first electrode and the second electrode, when viewed from the first direction, on the second principal face of the thermistor element body.
US09076575B2 Reduced wire count high speed data cable
A high speed video cable carries signals according to the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) or DisplayPort standards, and includes a raw cable and a boost device. The raw cable is exclusively constructed with either Shielded Twisted Pairs (STP) or coaxial lines which carry all signals on either shielded wires or their shields. The high speed signals are carried on the shielded wires to the boost device where any common mode noise induced by the signals on the shields is removed. Some auxiliary signals including power are carried on ungrounded shields.
US09076574B2 Elastomer material containing immobilized ionic components and method for manufacturing the same
An elastomer material containing immobilized ionic components includes an elastomer, ion-immobilized particles in which first ionic components are immobilized to metallic oxide particles, and second ionic components having electric charges opposite to electric charges of the first ionic components, wherein the ion-immobilized particles are chemically bonded to the elastomer. In the elastomer material, the first ionic components are immobilized to the elastomer through the metallic oxide particles. Therefore, the first ionic components do not easily migrate even with the passage of time or in use. Thus, the elastomer material is less susceptible to temporal changes in properties. The elastomer material is preferably used for the component of a transducer and a conductive roll.
US09076573B2 Halogen-free resin composition and method for fabricating halogen-free copper clad laminate using the same
The present invention relate to a halogen-free resin composition and a method for fabricating a halogen-free copper clad laminate using the same. The halogen-free resin composition comprises the following components: reactive small molecular polyphenylene oxide with a number average molecular weight of 500-3000, a polybenzoxazine resin, a phosphorus-containing epoxy resin, a composite curing agent, a curing promoter, a filler, and a benzene or ketone solvent. The method for fabricating a halogen-free copper clad laminate comprises: Step 1: dissolving reactive small molecular polyphenylene oxide with a number average molecular weight of 500-3000 in a benzene or ketone solvent, adding a polybenzoxazine resin after dissolution, and mixing by stirring, to prepare a solution for use; Step 2: adding a phosphorus-containing epoxy resin, a composite curing agent, a curing promoter, and a filler to the solution for use, and stirring uniformly, to obtain a colloidal solution; Step 3: evenly coating the prepared colloidal solution to E-glass cloth with an even surface and baking, to produce a B-stage partially cured prepreg; and Step 4: cutting the B-stage partially cured prepreg into a suitable size according to the size of a compressor, precisely overlaying, placing a copper foil on and under the laminated B-stage partially cured Prepregs, and pressing in a vacuum hot pressing machine, to obtain a halogen-free copper clad laminate.
US09076567B2 Reduced oxides having large thermoelectric ZT values
Doped and partially-reduced oxide (e.g., SrTiO3-based) thermoelectric materials. The thermoelectric materials can be single-doped or multi-doped (e.g., co-doped) and display a thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of 0.2 or higher at 1050K. Methods of forming the thermoelectric materials involve combining and reacting suitable raw materials and heating them in a graphite environment to at least partially reduce the resulting oxide. Optionally, a reducing agent such as titanium carbide, titanium nitride, or titanium boride can be incorporated into the starting materials prior to the reducing step in graphite. The reaction product can be sintered to form a dense thermoelectric material.
US09076566B2 DC power cable with space charge reducing effect
Provided is a DC power cable including a conductor, an inner semiconductive layer, an insulation and an outer semiconductive layer. In particular, the inner semiconductive layer or the outer semiconductive layer may be formed from a semiconductive composition containing a polypropylene base resin or a low-density polyethylene base resin and carbon nano tubes; and the insulation may be formed from an insulation composition containing a polypropylene base resin or a low-density polyethylene base resin and inorganic nano particles. The resulting power cable may have improved properties such as volume resistivity, hot set, and so on, and excellent space charge reducing effect.
US09076565B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and program
There is provided an image processing apparatus including a processing unit configured to superimpose a plurality of X-ray images that are based on X-ray detection data representing detection results obtained by detecting a plurality of times in a time-division manner parallel beam X-rays output from a ray source including a plurality of X-ray sources that output parallel beam X-rays.
US09076560B2 Bolt fixing device of jet pump beam
A jet pump including a riser as a coolant supply tube, an inlet mixer forming a turn-around path for the coolant, a diffuser, and a jet pump beam provided with a bolt fixing device is disclosed. The bolt fixing device includes: a head bolt of a jet pump beam for pushing and supporting the inlet mixer from an upper side of the riser, the head bolt being provided with a polygonal head portion; a lock cap provided on the polygonal head portion of the head bolt; a body housing disposed on an upper surface of the jet pump beam and adapted to accommodate the lock pin; a plurality of tapered external teeth formed on an outer peripheral side surface of the lock cap; and a plurality of internal tooth-shaped grooves formed to the body housing to fix the head bolt of the jet pump beam.
US09076559B2 Method of operating nuclear plant
An object is to reduce radiation exposure in a nuclear plant. A nuclear plant 1 is a nuclear power generating plant where steam is generated by thermal energy generated by nuclear fission of a nuclear fuel 2C in a nuclear reactor 2, and a turbine 8 is driven by the steam to generate heat by a power generator 10. After a nuclear plant 1 is newly constructed, when a primary cooling system of the nuclear reactor 2 raises the temperature to around a power operation temperature for the first time, zinc is injected into a primary coolant C1 present in the primary cooling system by a zinc injector 20.
US09076556B2 Memory with bit line current injection
Embodiments of a memory are disclosed that may allow for the detection of weak data storage cells or may allow operation of data storage cells under conditions that may represent the effects of transistor ageing. The memory may include data storage cells, a column multiplexer, a sense amplifier, and a current injector. The current injector may be configured to generate multiple current levels and may be operable to controllably select one of the current levels to either source current to or sink current from the input of the sense amplifier.
US09076547B2 Level compensation in multilevel memory
Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a compensation unit to provide a compensation value based at least in part on a threshold voltage value of a memory cell. At least one of such embodiments includes a controller to select a code during an operation of retrieving information from the memory cell to represent a value of information stored in the memory cell. Such a code can be associated with an address having an address value based at least in part on the compensation value. Additional apparatuses and methods are described.
US09076546B2 Nonvolatile semiconductor storage device and control method thereof
A nonvolatile memory cell array is divided into first and second cell arrays, the page buffer circuit is arranged between the first and second cell arrays, a second latch circuit is arranged by the outside edge section of the first cell array, and the page buffer circuit is connected to the second latch circuit via a global bit line of the first cell array. The data writing to the first or second cell array is controlled by transmitting the writing data to the page buffer circuit via the global bit line from the second latch circuit, after the writing data is latched in the second latch circuit. The data reading of outputting the data read from the first or second cell array to the external circuit is controlled by transmitting data to the second latch circuit from the page buffer circuit via the global bit line.
US09076544B2 Operation for non-volatile storage system with shared bit lines
A non-volatile storage system is disclosed that includes pairs of NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) in the same block being connected to and sharing a common bit line. To operate the system, two selection lines are used so that the NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) sharing a bit line can be selected at the block level. Both selection lines are connected to a selection gate for each of the NAND strings (or other groupings of memory cells) sharing the bit line. One set of embodiments avoid unwanted boosting during read operations by keeping the channels of the memory cells connected to word lines on the drain side of the selected word line biased at a fixed potential.
US09076541B2 Architecture for magnetic memories including magnetic tunneling junctions using spin-orbit interaction based switching
A magnetic memory includes memory array tiles (MATs), intermediate circuitry, global bit lines and global circuitry. Each MAT includes bit lines, word lines, and magnetic storage cells having magnetic junction(s), selection device(s) and at least part of a spin-orbit interaction (SO) active layer adjacent to the magnetic junction(s). The SO active layer exerts a SO torque on the magnetic junction(s) due to a preconditioning current passing through the SO active layer. The magnetic junction(s) are programmable using write current(s) driven through the magnetic junction(s) and the preconditioning current. The bit and word lines correspond to the magnetic storage cells. The intermediate circuitry controls read and write operations within the MATs. Each global bit line corresponds to a portion of the MATs. The global circuitry selects and drivesportions of the global bit lines for read operations and write operations.
US09076538B2 Fuse information storage circuit of semiconductor apparatus
A test mode decoder configured to decode a test mode signal inputted a plurality of times and to generate preliminary fuse information, a count latch configured to count the preliminary fuse information in response to a count clock signal and to generate fuse information, and a fuse array block configured to store the fuse information can be included.
US09076537B2 Method and system for providing a magnetic tunneling junction using spin-orbit interaction based switching and memories utilizing the magnetic tunneling junction
A magnetic memory is described. The magnetic memory includes magnetic junctions and at least one spin-orbit interaction (SO) active layer. Each of the magnetic junctions includes a data storage layer that is magnetic. The SO active layer(s) are adjacent to the data storage layer of the magnetic junction. The at SO active layer(s) are configured to exert a SO torque on the data storage layer due to a current passing through the at least one SO active layer in a direction substantially perpendicular to a direction between the at least one SO active layer and the data storage layer of a magnetic junction of the plurality of magnetic junctions closest to the at least one SO active layer. The data storage layer is configured to be switchable using at least the SO torque.
US09076534B2 Flash memory device using adaptive program verification scheme and related method of operation
A method of programming a flash memory device comprises programming selected memory cells, performing a verification operation to determine whether the selected memory cells have reached a target program state, and determining a start point of the verification operation based on a programming characteristic associated with a detection of a pass bit during programming of an initial program state.
US09076533B2 Method of reprogramming nonvolatile memory comprising marking some cells as blanks
A method of operating a memory device includes programming a first data signal to a first memory cell, attempting to program a second data signal to the first memory cell in a state where the first memory cell is not erased, and marking the first memory cell as blank upon failing to program the second data signal to the first memory cell.
US09076526B2 OTP memories functioning as an MTP memory
Techniques, systems and circuitry for using One-Time Programmable (OTP) memories to function as a Multiple-Time Programmable (MTP) memory. The OTP-for-MTP memory can include at least one OTP data memory to store data, and at least one OTP CAM to store addresses and to search input address through valid entries of the OTP CAM to find a latest entry of the matched valid addresses. The OTP-for-MTP memory can also include a valid-bit memory to find a next available entry of the OTP data memory and OTP CAM. When programming the OTP-for-MTP memory, address and data can be both programmed into the next available entry of the OTP CAM and the OTP data memory, respectively. When reading the OTP-for-MTP memory, the input address can be used to compare with valid entries of the addresses stored in the OTP CAM so that the latest entry of the matched valid addresses can be output.
US09076524B2 Method of accessing a memory device
A method is provided for accessing a memory device. The method includes programming data in a plurality of cells of the memory device in a first programming operation. The first programming operation uses a first memory instruction including at least one first parameter representative of at least one first threshold voltage value for said programming. The method further includes re-programming at least a portion of the data in the plurality of cells in a second programming operation. The second programming operation uses a second memory instruction including at least one second parameter representative of at least one second threshold voltage value for said re-programming, wherein said re-programming provides bit manipulation of the portion of the data.
US09076519B2 Reram device structure
A resistive random access memory (ReRAM) device can comprise a first metal layer and a first metal-oxide layer on the first metal layer. The first metal-oxide layer comprises the first metal. A second metal layer can comprise a second metal over and in physical contact with the first metal-oxide layer. A first continuous non-conductive barrier layer can be in physical contact with sidewalls of the first metal layer and sidewalls of the first metal-oxide layer. A second metal-oxide layer can be on the second metal layer. The second metal-oxide layer can comprise the second metal layer. A third metal layer can be over and in physical contact with the second metal-oxide layer. The first and second metal-oxide layers, are further characterized as independent storage mediums.
US09076513B2 Low-pin-count non-volatile memory interface with soft programming capability
A low-pin-count non-volatile (NVM) memory with no more than two control signals that can at least program NVM cells, load data to be programmed into output registers, or read the NVM cells. At least one of the NVM cells has at least one NVM element coupled to at least one selector and to a first supply voltage line. The selector is coupled to a second supply voltage line and having a select signal. At least one of the selected NVM cells can be coupled to at least one output register. No more than two control signals can be used to select the at least one NVM cells in the NVM sequentially for programming the data into the at least one NVM cells or loading data into the at least one output registers controlled by the pulse of the first signal and voltage level and/or timing of the second signal. Programming into the NVM cells, or loading data into output registers, can be determined by the voltage levels of the first to the second supply voltage lines. Reading at least one of the NVM cells can be activated by a third signal or by detecting ramping of the first or the second supply voltage line.
US09076510B2 Power mixing circuit and semiconductor memory device including the same
A power mixing circuit capable of maintaining a stable output voltage in a deep-power-down mode is provided. The power mixing circuit includes an input buffer, a power mixing control circuit, a power mixing driver and an output buffer. The input buffer is configured to operate using a first supply voltage, and to generate a first voltage signal in response to an input signal. The power mixing control circuit is configured to generate a power mixing control signal based on a power-up signal and a deep-power-down mode signal. The power mixing driver is configured to operate using an external supply voltage and a second supply voltage, to perform power mixing on the external supply voltage and the second supply voltage, and to generate a second voltage signal. The output buffer is configured to operate using the second supply voltage, and to generate an output signal.
US09076502B2 Non-volatile memory device
According to one embodiment, a non-volatile memory device includes a memory cell array and a coil provided closely to the memory cell array. The memory cell array includes memory cells provided above an underlying layer, and a first interconnection. The memory cells are aligned in a first direction perpendicular to the underlying layer. The first interconnection extends in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The coil includes a winding including a second interconnection extending in the second direction and sharing a central axis with the first interconnection, a first plug extending in the first direction and connected to the second interconnection, a third interconnection electrically connected to another end of the first plug and extending in a direction parallel to the underlying layer, and a second plug having one end electrically connected to the third interconnection, and extending in a direction opposite to the first direction.
US09076501B2 Apparatuses and methods for reducing current leakage in a memory
Apparatuses, sense amplifier circuits, and methods for operating a sense amplifier circuit in a memory are described. An example apparatus includes a sense amplifier circuit configured to be coupled to a digit line and configured to, during a memory access operation, drive the digit line to a voltage that indicates the logical value of the charge stored by a memory cell coupled to the digit line. During an initial time period of the memory access operation, the sense amplifier circuit is configured to drive the digit line to a first voltage that indicates the logical value of the charge stored by the memory cell. After the initial time period, the sense amplifier circuit is configured to drive the digit line to a second voltage different than the first voltage that indicates the logical value of the charge stored by the memory cell.
US09076500B2 Memory module including plural memory devices and data register buffer
Disclosed herein is a memory module that includes a module substrate, data connectors, memory devices, and data register buffers. A first main surface of the module substrate has first and second memory mounting areas. One of the first and second main surfaces of the module substrate has a register mounting area located between the first and second memory mounting areas in a planner view. The memory devices include a plurality of first memory devices that are mounted on the first memory mounting area and a plurality of second memory devices that are mounted on the second memory mounting area. The data register buffers are mounted on the register mounting area. The data register buffers transfers write data supplied from the data connectors to the memory devices, and transfers read data supplied from the memory devices to the data connectors.
US09076498B1 Mobile hard disk drive
A mobile hard disk drive includes an electrical module including a circuit board, a face panel and a holder box, and a hard disk tray detachably insertable through an insertion slot in the face panel into a receiving chamber in the holder box to force arched spring plates thereof into friction engagement with two opposite inner lateral walls in the receiving chamber of the holder box and lockable to the face panel by two hand screws that are mounted at an end plate of the hard disk tray for threading into respective locating screw holes at the face panel to lock the hard disk tray to the face panel of the electrical module.
US09076494B2 Optical pick up including protrusion portion to position optical element
An optical pickup, including a housing, and an optical element mounted on the housing, wherein the optical element is fixed onto wall surfaces of the housing via adhesive agents on both sides of a certain single surface of the optical element, the optical pickup, further including a protrusion portion on the other side of a surface with the optical element positioned therebetween, the surface being orthogonal to the wall surfaces of the housing, the protrusion portion protruding from the housing, the front end of the protrusion portion protruding than the adhesive agents in a direction away from the wall surfaces.
US09076492B2 Systems and methods for rapid erasure retry decoding
Data processing systems, circuits and methods are disclosed. As one example, a data processing system is disclosed that includes: a buffer circuit, a data processing circuit, and an erasure window set circuit. The buffer circuit is operable to store a data set as a buffered data set, and the data processing circuit is operable to repeatedly apply a data processing algorithm to the buffered data set. The erasure window set circuit is operable to define a location of the erasure window in relation to the buffered data set.
US09076478B2 Binder resin composition for magnetic recording medium, method of manufacturing the same, and magnetic recording medium
An aspect of the present invention relates to a binder resin composition for a magnetic recording medium, which comprises a vinyl chloride resin containing a radiation-curable functional group, and a methacrylate compound denoted by formula (A): in an amount of equal to or more than 0.3 weight percent but equal to or less than 10 weight percent relative to a content of the vinyl chloride resin.
US09076475B2 Apparatuses and methods for controlling near-field transducer to write pole spacing
An apparatus includes a waveguide and a near-field transducer adjacent the waveguide. The near-field transducer includes an enlarged region and a peg region extending from the enlarged region towards an air bearing surface. A write pole is adjacent the near-field transducer and include a first portion having an edge extending towards the air bearing surface at a non-orthogonal angle with respect to the air bearing surface. A second portion of the write pole extends orthogonally to the air bearing surface and is in contact with the first portion. The apparatus includes an insulator-filled gap at the air bearing surface between the second portion of the write pole and the peg region of the near-field transducer. The gap is bounded away from the air bearing surface by the enlarged region of the near-field transducer.
US09076474B1 Data storage device attenuating thermal decay effect on fly height measurement
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk. A first spacing pattern is written to the disk and a second spacing pattern is written to the disk different from the first spacing pattern. A first fly height measurement (FHM1_1) is generated by reading the first spacing pattern and a first fly height measurement (FHM2_1) is generated by reading the second spacing pattern. After an interval, a second fly height measurement (FHM1_2) is generated by reading the first spacing pattern and a second fly height measurement (FHM2_2) is generated by reading the second spacing pattern. A change in the fly height of the head is estimated based on: (ΔFHM2−B·ΔFHM1)/(A−B) where ΔFHM1 represents a difference between FHM1_1 and FHM1_2, ΔFHM2 represents a difference between FHM2_1 and FHM2_2, and A and B are constants.
US09076472B1 Apparatus enabling writing servo data when disk reaches target rotation speed
An apparatus is disclosed comprising control circuitry configured to measure a rotation speed of a disk over multiple revolutions of the disk to generate a measured range of rotation speeds, select a target rotation speed from the measured range of rotation speeds, and when the rotation speed of the disk substantially matches the target rotation speed, enable writing of servo data on the disk using a head.
US09076471B1 Fall detection scheme using FFS
For a disk drive involving a disk; a head; and control circuitry having a servo control system operable to actuate the head, the control circuitry may be configured to determine a magnitude of acceleration readings, the acceleration readings involving at least three degrees of freedom, wherein when a magnitude of the acceleration readings is less than a first threshold, the control circuitry confirms a free fall, wherein when the magnitude is between the first and second threshold, the control circuitry confirms a tilt drop. During the tilt drop and the free fall, the control circuitry is further configured to actuate the head to park and monitor the shock impact.
US09076470B2 Suspension substrate, suspension, head suspension, hard disk drive, and method for manufacturing suspension substrate
A suspension substrate of the present invention includes an insulating layer, a spring material layer, and a plurality of wirings, wherein one wiring of the plurality of wirings includes a head-side wiring part and a plurality of division wiring parts, respectively bifurcated from the head-side wiring part. The spring material layer includes a spring-material-layer main body, a first spring-material-layer separated body and a second spring-material-layer separated body. The division wiring parts of the one wiring are respectively connected with the first spring-material-layer separated body, via a pair of conductive connection parts, respectively extending through the insulating layer. The first spring-material-layer separated body is located on one side relative to the longitudinal axis, while the second spring-material-layer separated body is located on the other side relative to the longitudinal axis.
US09076469B1 Head assembly
A head assembly includes: a first link that is disposed to interconnect between a first joint connected to a slider support plate and a second joint connected to a first fixing unit; a second link that is disposed to interconnect between a third joint connected to the slider support plate and a fourth joint connected to a second fixing unit; a first drive unit that drives the first link; and a second drive unit that drives the second link.
US09076463B2 Magnetic recording head and disk device with the same
According to one embodiment, a magnetic head includes a main pole configured to apply a recording magnetic field to a recording layer included in a recording medium, a trailing shield opposing the main pole in a down-track direction, with a write gap interposed therebetween, a pair of side shields opposing the main pole on opposite sides of the main pole in a cross-track direction, with respective gaps interposed therebetween, a recording coil configured to cause the main pole to generate a magnetic field, a first high-frequency oscillator interposed between the main pole and one of the side shields, and a second high-frequency oscillator interposed between the main pole and the other side shield.
US09076461B2 Optical information recording/reproducing apparatus and optical information recording/reproducing method
An optical information recording/reproducing apparatus for recording an interference pattern between signal light and reference light information-multiplexed as a hologram in an optical information recording medium and for reproducing information recorded in the optical information recording medium on the basis of the recorded hologram with use of the reference light. The apparatus includes a light source for emitting light and a coherency controller for controlling a coherency of the light source. The apparatus controls the coherency controller in such a manner as to switch between a coherency required in a recording mode and a coherency required in a reproducing mode.
US09076460B2 Multiple layer optical disc, and device for writing such disc
A data storage system (1) comprises: an optical disc (2) having a physical storage space (3) comprising two layers (L0; L1) of physical storage locations, the physical storage space comprising a logical storage space (LSS) which contains storage locations within a first layer (L0) and within a second layer (L1), the storage locations in said logical storage space having contiguously numbered logical addresses (LA); a disc drive (10) capable of writing information in the logical storage space of said optical disc; the disc drive having an address limit memory (12), containing at least a value for a parameter LAmax indicating the maximum value of said logical addresses of the storage locations (4) in said first storage layer (L0); the disc drive (10) being capable of changing the value in said address limit memory (12); and a host device (20), capable of cooperating with said disc drive (10).
US09076458B1 System and method for controlling noise in real-time audio signals
A system for processing a digital audio signal that includes a plurality of samples is disclosed. The system comprises a magnitude determination module, a windowing module, a summing module and a comparison module. The magnitude determination module determines a magnitude of each of the plurality of samples of the digital audio signal. The windowing module selects a subset of the plurality of samples, which are summed by the summing module to obtain a subset sum. The comparison module compares the subset sum to a threshold, and generates a silence indicating signal based on the comparison of the subset sum to the threshold. The silence indicating signal is indicative of a period of silence in the digital audio signal.
US09076456B1 System and method for providing voice equalization
Systems and methods for providing voice equalization are provided. In exemplary embodiments, acoustic signals are received from both a near-end and a far-end environment. A power spectrum estimate for the far-end signal and a noise estimate based on the near-end signal are determined. A voice equalization mask based on the power spectrum estimate of the far-end signal and the noise estimate based on the near-end signal is generated and applied to the far-end signal to obtain a modified signal. The modified signal may then be dynamically processed to obtain an enhanced audio signal. The enhanced audio signal is then output.
US09076455B2 Temporal interpolation of adjacent spectra
Embodiments of the present invention exploit redundancy of succeeding FFT spectra and use this redundancy for computing interpolated temporal supporting points. An analysis filter bank converts overlapped sequences of an audio (ex. loudspeaker) signal from a time domain to a frequency domain to obtain a time series of short-time loudspeaker spectra. An interpolator temporally interpolates this time series. The interpolation is fed to an echo canceller, which computes an estimated echo spectrum. A microphone analysis filter bank converts overlapped sequences of an audio microphone signal from the time domain to the frequency domain to obtain a time series of short-time microphone spectra. The estimated echo spectrum is subtracted from the microphone spectrum. Further signal enhancement (filtration) may be applied. A synthesis filter bank converts the filtered microphone spectra to the time domain to generate an echo compensated audio microphone signal. Computational complexity of signal processing systems can, therefore, be reduced.
US09076453B2 Methods and arrangements in a telecommunications network
The present invention relates to a postfilter and a postfilter control to be associated with a postfilter for improving perceived quality of speech reconstructed at a speech decoder. The postfilter control comprises means for measuring stationarity of a speech signal reconstructed at a decoder, means for determining a coefficient to a postfilter control parameter based on the measured stationarity, and means for transmitting the determined coefficient to a postfilter, such that the postfilter can process the reconstructed speech signal by applying the determined coefficient to the postfilter control parameter to obtain an enhanced speech signal.
US09076452B2 Apparatus and method for generating audio signal having sound enhancement effect
An audio apparatus includes a decay pattern generator configured to generate a decay pattern to be applied in an early reflection region, and generate an audio signal to which a decay pattern is applied by convoluting the generated decay pattern with PCM raw data of a sound source, a reverberation generator configured to generate reverberation from the audio signal to which the decay pattern is applied, and an adder configured to generate an output signal having a sound enhancement effect by adding the PCM raw data to an output of the reverberation generator.
US09076449B2 Multistage IIR filter and parallelized filtering of data with same
In some embodiments, a multistage filter whose biquad filter stages are combined with latency between the stages, a system (e.g., an audio encoder or decoder) including such a filter, and methods for multistage biquad filtering. In typical embodiments, all biquad filter stages of the filter are operable independently to perform fully parallelized processing of data. In some embodiments, the inventive multistage filter includes a buffer memory, at least two biquad filter stages, and a controller coupled and configured to assert a single stream of instructions to the filter stages. Typically, the multistage filter is configured to perform multistage filtering of a block of input samples in a single processing loop with iteration over a sample index but without iteration over a biquadratic filter stage index.
US09076448B2 Distributed real time speech recognition system
A real-time system incorporating speech recognition and linguistic processing for recognizing a spoken query by a user and distributed between client and server, is disclosed. The system accepts user's queries in the form of speech at the client where minimal processing extracts a sufficient number of acoustic speech vectors representing the utterance. These vectors are sent via a communications channel to the server where additional acoustic vectors are derived. Using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), and appropriate grammars and dictionaries conditioned by the selections made by the user, the speech representing the user's query is fully decoded into text (or some other suitable form) at the server. This text corresponding to the user's query is then simultaneously sent to a natural language engine and a database processor where optimized SQL statements are constructed for a full-text search from a database for a recordset of several stored questions that best matches the user's query. Further processing in the natural language engine narrows the search to a single stored question. The answer corresponding to this single stored question is next retrieved from the file path and sent to the client in compressed form. At the client, the answer to the user's query is articulated to the user using a text-to-speech engine in his or her native natural language. The system requires no training and can operate in several natural languages.
US09076440B2 Audio signal encoding device, method, and medium by correcting allowable error powers for a tonal frequency spectrum
A disclosed encoding device converts an audio signal into frequency spectra, determines allowable error powers with respect to bands divided by the frequency of the audio signal by a predetermined with, detects a tonal frequency spectrum from the frequency spectra, and detects a band containing the frequency spectrum. Using the detection result and the allowable error powers, the encoding device performs correction such that allowable error powers determined by a power determining unit with respect to bands adjacent to the band detected by a detecting unit become smaller than the powers of the frequency spectra with respect to the adjacent bands, and quantizes each of frequency spectra having greater powers than the corrected allowable error powers.
US09076438B2 Audio processing method and apparatus by utilizing a partition domain spreading function table stored in three linear arrays for reducing storage
An audio processing method is disclosed. In the audio processing method, a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) algorithm is utilized to transform a present time domain audio signal into a spectrum audio signal. A spreading function (SF) coefficient of each partition domain of the spectrum audio signal is obtained by referencing an SF table, wherein the table is stored in three linear arrays based on non-zero SF-Coefficient values. A masking partitioned energy threshold of each partition domain of the spectrum audio signal is calculated utilizing a logarithmic scale. An audio block type of each partition domain and an SMR of the spectrum audio signal are calculated. Subsequently, the spectrum audio signal is compressed into an audio bit stream according to the audio block type of each partition domain and the SMR. In addition, an audio signal processing apparatus is also disclosed in this invention.
US09076437B2 Audio signal processing apparatus
An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: filtering an audio signal into at least three frequency band signals; generating for each frequency band signal a plurality of sub-band signals; processing at least one sub-band signal from at least one frequency band; and combining the processed sub-band signals to form a combined processed audio signal.
US09076436B2 Apparatus and method for applying pitch features in automatic speech recognition
According to one embodiment, an apparatus for applying pitch features in automatic speech recognition is provided. The apparatus includes a distribution evaluation module, normalization module, and random value adjusting module. The distribution evaluation module evaluates the global distribution of pitch features of voiced frames in speech signals, and the global distribution of random values for unvoiced frames in speech signals. The normalization module normalizes the global distribution of random values for unvoiced frames based on the global distribution of pitch features of voiced frames. The random value adjusting module adjusts random values for unvoiced frames based on the normalized global distribution, so that the adjusted random values can be assigned to unvoiced frames in speech signals as pitch features of the unvoiced frames.
US09076434B2 Decoding and encoding apparatus and method for efficiently encoding spectral data in a high-frequency portion based on spectral data in a low-frequency portion of a wideband signal
A decoding device which can efficiently encode/decode spectral data in a high pass section of a broadband signal. In the device, a sample group extraction unit partially selects spectral components by means of an ease of selection importance which is the extent that the spectral components come close to the spectral component having the maximum amplitude value, in the spectrum of a high pass estimated by means of first parameters contained in second encoded information and bands most approximated to each of the spectrums of a plurality of sub-bands calculated from the spectrum of a second decode signal; a logarithmic gain application unit applies second parameters to the partially selected spectral components; and an interpolation processing unit applies third parameters which are adaptively set according to the value of the second parameters, to the spectral components which were not partially selected.
US09076432B2 Encoding apparatus, encoding method, and program
An encoding apparatus includes a noise detector configured to detect noise included in a certain band in accordance with an audio signal, a gain controller configured to perform gain control on the audio signal so that components in the certain band of the audio signal are attenuated when the noise is detected by the noise detector, a bit allocation calculation unit configured to calculate the numbers of bits to be allocated to frequency spectra of the audio signal which have been subjected to the gain control performed by the gain controller in accordance with the frequency spectra, and a quantization unit configured to quantize the frequency spectra of the audio signal which have been subjected to the gain control in accordance with the numbers of the bits.
US09076427B2 Error-signal content controlled adaptation of secondary and leakage path models in noise-canceling personal audio devices
A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, generates an anti-noise signal from a microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. The microphone measures the ambient environment, but also contains a component due to the transducer acoustic output. An adaptive filter is used to estimate the electro-acoustical path from the noise-canceling circuit through the transducer to the at least one microphone so that source audio can be removed from the microphone signal. A determination of the relative amount of the ambient sounds present in the microphone signal versus the amount of the transducer output of the source audio present in the microphone signal is made to determine whether to update the adaptive response.
US09076426B2 Training an echo canceller in severe noise
An apparatus includes a non-adaptive filter, an adaptive filter, and a controller. The non-adaptive filter may have non-adaptive filter coefficients and be configured to develop a non-adaptive error signal as a function of the non-adaptive filter coefficients. The adaptive filter may have adaptive filter coefficients and be configured to develop an adaptive error signal as a function of the adaptive filter coefficients. The controller may be configured to monitor a quality of the non-adaptive and adaptive error signals and perform one or more of a full coefficient update, a partial coefficient update and a fractional coefficient update of the non-adaptive filter coefficients based on a comparison of the quality of the adaptive error signal to a determined current best-attained performance measurement.
US09076424B2 Active noise control device
The active noise control device for canceling out a target sound to be controlled in a target area for sound control includes: control sound output units each of which produces a control sound based on a wavefront control signal; and a wavefront control unit which provides the wavefront control signal to the corresponding one of the control sound output units, and the wavefront control unit generates the wavefront control signal to emit a synthesized sound from a virtual sound source toward the target area for sound control and cancel out the target sound in the target area for sound control, the synthesized sound being a sound synthesized from control sounds produced by the respective control sound output units, and the virtual sound source being located at a predetermined position.
US09076423B2 System and method for analysis and creation of music
A method and system for analyzing patterns in the relationships of notes of an input piece of music. The method comprises generating a set of the most frequently occurring note pitches in ascending pitch order that matches an interval pattern, and detecting out-of-key pitches that lie outside of this interval pattern. One or more potential key sequence bifurcations are identified which represent a list of possible key sequences according to forwards and backwards analysis. By finding patterns of repetition in the chordal sequences that may be generated according to these key sequence bifurcations, a key sequence that allows the most frequently recurring chord sequences may be chosen. Chord sequences may be analyzed by using ghost chords, temporary harmonic structures that are created, updated and finalized over time according to a combination of essential and inessential note fragments. The method further comprises identifying non-harmony pitches according to the analyzed chord sequence.
US09076421B1 Wireless headset for karaoke inside a vehicle
The present invention features a wireless headset system for karaoke inside a vehicle. A driver or passenger wears the headset and sings with a music being played by a vehicle music player. The headset has a microphone to pick up the singing voice and send the voice to a vehicle sound system via Bluetooth connection. The vehicle sound system plays the voice via the vehicle speakers together with the music files being played.
US09076419B2 Multi-touch pad controller
A highly configurable controller is described that includes a number of different types of control mechanisms that emulate a wide variety of conventional control mechanisms using pressure and location sensitive sensors that generate high-density control information which may be mapped to the controls of a wide variety of devices and software.
US09076418B2 Graphical user interface for music sequence programming
An example graphical programming interface system includes a processor. A grid matrix defined by a plurality of coordinate axes, having selectable matrix positions is displayed on a display device. Multiple movable object icons, each representing an object having a predefined output sound are also displayed on the display device. In one aspect, a single object data file is associated with each matrix position on said grid matrix. In this aspect, once a user places an object icon on a matrix position, the processor causes the predefined output sound associated with the object icon in accordance with the object data file associated with the matrix position at which the object icon is placed, and outputs the processed sound to an output device. This allows a user to program musical sequences by placing one or more object icons each on the selectable matrix positions.
US09076417B2 Automatic performance technique using audio waveform data
A plurality of sets of waveform data and switchover position information indicative of, for each of the sets of waveform data, one or more possible switchover positions in the waveform data are prestored, and one set of waveform data is reproduced in accordance with the passage of time. During reproduction of a first set of waveform data, a second set of waveform data is designated at given timing in response to a user's instruction. Control is performed such that the waveform data to be reproduced is switched from the first set of waveform data over to the second set of waveform data in response to waveform data reproduction timing arriving at one of the possible switchover positions indicated by the switchover position information corresponding to the second set of waveform data. Reproduction of the second set of waveform data is started at the switchover position corresponding to the reproduction timing.
US09076413B2 Pedal operated configurable guitar chord player
A pedal operated configurable guitar chord player is used in conjunction with a selection software and includes a chord actuator, an actuator assembly, and a pedal. The chord actuator provides a support structure, wherein the actuator assembly is positioned within a casing and connected to a base and a mounting frame. A first clamp and a second clamp attached to the base allow the chord actuator to be attached to the neck of a guitar, wherein a plurality of actuators of the actuator assembly is positioned overtop each of the guitar strings. The plurality of actuators is controlled by a microcontroller that is communicably coupled to an electronic device through an electronic device connection means. The pedal signals the microcontroller to progress the plurality of actuators to form the subsequent chords, wherein the order of chords is determined through the selection software.
US09076409B2 Display control method, display control device and program
A display control method for controlling display of characters in a display section equipped with a plurality of pixels, includes: acquiring character data; and displaying a character according to the character data in a character display region of the display section. The character corresponding to the character data is displayed in the character display region by using a plurality of pixel groups each having a predetermined shape.
US09076408B2 Frame data shrinking method used in over-driving technology
A frame data shrinking method is disclosed. The method is to divide frame data into data of target pixel and neighbor pixels, and select one data combination set from a plurality of data combination sets provided from the data neighbor pixels as encoded data of the target pixel; and the data combination set are to be compressed and recovered as decoded data of the target pixel of the current frame for being used to be compared with the decoded data of a target pixel of a previous frame; and then the data of the neighbor pixels are compressed and stored along with the selection information about the target pixel in a memory. Because the usage of memory is relatively lower, the cost of driving chips can be effectively reduced.
US09076403B2 Bidirectional shift register and image display device using the same
A display device including a bidirectional shift register circuit, including: a plurality of cascade-connected register circuits; various circuits for setting various nodes to various voltage levels responsive to various signals input to various terminals; and an output circuit which outputs the clock pulse as an output pulse when the voltage of the first node is high level, wherein, at the forward shift operation, the bottom dummy register circuit is not input the reset signal and the first node of the bottom dummy register circuit is reset if the initial reset circuit of the bottom dummy register circuit receives the backward trigger signal, and wherein, at the backward shift operation, the top dummy register circuit is not input the reset signal and the first node of the top dummy register circuit is reset if the initial reset circuit of the top dummy register circuit receives the forward trigger signal.
US09076401B2 Method for driving liquid crystal display device
In a liquid crystal display device capable of displaying a moving image and a still image, a reduction in contrast due to light scattering in a reflective pixel portion or the like is suppressed and consumed power is reduced. As a driving method of a transflective liquid crystal display device including a plurality of pixels each including a plurality of light-transmitting pixel portions and a reflective pixel portion, an image signal for color display is supplied to the plurality of light-transmitting pixel portions and a signal for black display is supplied to the reflective pixel portion in a moving-image display period, and an image signal of black-and-white grayscale is supplied to the plurality of light-transmitting pixel portions and the reflective pixel portion in a still-image display period.
US09076400B2 Liquid crystal display device and method for driving same
A memory-type liquid crystal display device includes transistors (N1, N2), retention electrodes (MRY), refresh output control sections (RS1), and capacitors (Cb1). In a data retention period, an electric potential of each of the retention electrodes (MRY) is changed via a corresponding one of the capacitors (Cb1) by changing an electric potential level of a retention capacitor wire signal that is supplied to a corresponding CS line (CSL(i)). Each of the refresh output control sections (RS1) receives the electric potential thus changed of a corresponding one of the retention electrodes (MRY) via the input section and controls an electric potential of a corresponding pixel electrode (PIX) in accordance with the electric potential thus changed.
US09076399B2 Liquid crystal display having level shifter
A level shifter for a liquid crystal display is disclosed. The level shifter includes a pull-down transistor which includes a source terminal, to which the gate low voltage is supplied, and a drain terminal connected to an output terminal of the level shifter, and discharges a voltage of an output terminal of the level shifter, and an output stabilization circuit which is connected to a gate terminal of the pull-down transistor, controls a gate voltage of the pull-down transistor in the process of a power-on sequence, and discharges an output voltage of the level shifter.
US09076394B2 Active matrix substrate, liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal display device, television receiver
An active matrix substrate of the present invention includes: data signal lines; scanning signal lines (GLi); transistors connected with the data signal lines and the scanning signal lines (GLi); and retention capacitor lines (CSLi). One pixel region includes a plurality of pixel electrodes. A CS driver (46) for outputting a retention capacitor line signal to drive the retention capacitor lines is formed monolithically. In one pixel region, a pixel electrode and a retention capacitor line corresponding to the pixel electrode forms a retention capacitor therebetween. This allows the liquid crystal display device based on a pixel-division system to have a liquid crystal panel with a narrower frame.
US09076392B2 Display device and driving method thereof
A new driving method of a display device that makes it possible to reduce power consumption and to improve display quality is proposed. A first gray scale is displayed in all pixels in a first initialization period, a second gray scale is displayed in all the pixels in a second initialization period, an objective image is displayed in a writing period, and the image is held in a holding period. Alternatively, an electrical history of a gray scale storage display element for displaying a number of gray scales is erased in the first initialization period and the second initialization period. Alternatively, a potential of a common electrode is changed in the first initialization period, the second initialization period, the writing period, and the holding period. Alternatively, a potential of a capacitor wiring is changed in synchronization with the potential of the common electrode.
US09076389B2 Projection-type image display device, image projection control device, and image projection control method
The projection-type image display device includes a light source unit, a color generation unit provided on the optical path of emitted light from the light source unit and configured to generate multiple colors of light from emitted light from the light source in a time-division manner by rotating at a predetermined rotation cycle, a light modulation unit, and a control unit. In accordance with a color component of the input image signal, the control unit sets current values for current to be applied to the light source unit and a polarity inversion timing for inverting the polarity of the light source unit. The control unit applies current having the current values to the light source unit while inverting the polarity according to the polarity inversion timing. The control unit shifts the polarity inversion timing according to change in the current values for current to be applied to the light source unit.
US09076388B2 Pixel and organic light emitting display using the same
A pixel capable of stably compensating for a threshold voltage is disclosed. The pixel includes an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a driving transistor having a gate electrode, a source electrode, and first and second drain electrodes. The pixel also has a plurality of second transistors serially coupled between the first drain electrode and a gate electrode of the driving transistor, and a node electrically coupled to the second drain electrode and to each of the second transistors.
US09076386B2 Pixel, display device including the same, and driving method thereof
A display device is disclosed. In one aspect, the device includes a plurality of pixels, a scan driver sequentially applying scan signals at a gate-on voltage to a plurality of scan lines connected to a plurality of pixels and a data driver applying data signals to a plurality of data lines connected to a plurality of pixels in response to the scan signals at the gate-on voltage. The device also includes a power supply unit sequentially changing first power voltages at a high level voltage into a low level voltage and applying the changed voltages, and sequentially changing second power voltages at the low level voltage into the high level voltage and applying the changed voltages. The device further includes a light-emitting signal unit sequentially applying light-emitting signals at the gate-on voltage to a plurality of light-emitting lines connected to a plurality of pixels.
US09076385B2 Signal line driving circuit and light emitting device
Variations occur in the characteristics of transistors. The present invention is a signal-line drive circuit comprising first and second current source circuits corresponding to respective plurality of signal lines, a shift register, and n (n is a natural number of one or more) video-signal constant current source s, wherein each of the first and second current source circuits has a capacitance means and a supply means. The capacitance means held in one of the first and second source circuits converts a current including a current supplied from each of the n video-signal constant current source s to voltage in response to a sampling pulse supplied from the shift register and a latch pulse supplied from the exterior; and the supply means held in the other supplies a current responsive to the converted voltage. The values of the currents supplied from the n video-signal constant current source s are set to a proportion of 20:21: . . . :2n.
US09076383B2 Display device
A light emitting element has a property in which a current value is varied due to a change in temperature. A display device has a temperature compensation function in order to suppress the variation in current value dues to the change in temperature. The temperature compensation function, which is essential for the present invention has a sensor, a storage means, and a correction means. The sensor has a function of detecting an environmental temperature. The detected temperature is compared with data of voltage-current characteristic versus temperature in the light emitting element which is stored in advance in the storage means. In the correction means, a signal inputted to a pixel or a power source potential supplied to a pixel portion is corrected using an output of the sensor and the data stored in the storage means.
US09076380B2 Pixel driving cirucit, pixel driving methods, display panels and electronic devices
A pixel driving circuit is provided, including first, second, third, fourth, and fifth switching devices and first and second capacitors. The first switching device has a first terminal coupled to a first power source voltage, and a control terminal coupled to a first scan signal line. The second switching device has a first terminal coupled to a second terminal of the first switching device, a second terminal coupled to a first node and an emitting device, and a control terminal coupled to a second node. The third switching device has a first terminal coupled between the first terminal of the second switching device and a second terminal of the first switching device, a second terminal coupled to the second node, and a control terminal coupled to a second scan signal line.
US09076379B2 Display module
A display module including a substrate having a plurality of pixels, a data line that supplies a data signal to a pixel, a current supply line that supplies electric current to the pixel, a data driving circuit that supplies a data signal to the data line, and a gate driving circuit thereon. The plurality of pixels are arranged in a display area of the substrate, and each of the plurality of pixels includes a light emitting device, a first thin film transistor connected to the data line that supplies the data signal, a second thin film transistor connected to the current supply line, and a capacitor. The light emitting device includes a first electrode layer connected to the second thin film transistor, an organic layer formed on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer formed on the organic layer.
US09076377B2 Signal processing circuit, display device and electronic apparatus
A signal processing circuit supplies a gradation signal specifying a gradation to be displayed on pixels comprising; a conversion unit that extracts a extraction signal specifying a gradation to be displayed on a predetermined number of pixels including a certain pixel for each RGBW, from the video signal specifying a gradation to be displayed on a pixel for each RGBW, a storage unit that stores a predetermined number of coefficients for each RGBW, a first selection unit that selects a single color signal specifying a gradation to be displayed on a block with regard to a display color of a certain pixel, from the extraction signal, a second selection unit that acquires a predetermined number of coefficients corresponding to the display color of a certain pixel and a calculation unit that generates a gradation signal based on the outputs from the first selection unit and the second selection unit.
US09076376B2 Subtractive color based display white point calibration
Systems, methods, and devices for white point calibration using subtractive color measurements are provided. Specifically, a white point of a display may be calibrated using subtractive color measurements rather than merely additive color measurements. In one example, a display having red, green, and blue pixels may measure the responses in a subtractive color space (e.g., CMY) rather than additive color space (e.g., RGB). Measurements of the display response using subtractive color space may involve providing image data to two or more color channels at once. Thus, any crosstalk effect between channels may be accounted for, even though the same crosstalk effect might not be apparent using additive color measurements in which only a single channel color channel were measured.
US09076372B2 Display device and light adjusting method thereof
The present disclosure provides a display device including a light emitting diode and a driving module. The driving module drives the light emitting diode. The driving module includes a first switch circuit, a second switch circuit, and a driver transistor. The first switch circuit selectively writes a gray scale voltage in a first capacitor. The second switch circuit selectively writes an offset voltage in a second capacitor. The driver transistor is coupled to the light emitting diode, the first capacitor, and the second capacitor. The driver transistor adjusts a driving current being outputted to the light emitting diode according to the gray scale voltage and the offset voltage. The gray scale voltage adjusts the voltage difference between the gate and the source of the driver transistor, while the offset voltage adjusts a threshold voltage of the driver transistor.
US09076365B2 Program title display with anti-aging
A method is provided to perform anti-aging techniques in an informational display. An informational display is located on the front bezel of a consumer recording device that displays information related to the content being recorded or played or the operation of the device. To increase the life of the display, displayed text is shifted within the display so that pixel use in the display is more evenly distributed with the pixels in the display. To determine the direction and shape of the shift, real-time calculations of pixel use are made or a simulator is used to compute the probable use of each pixel in the display over a certain period of time. Another anti-aging technique is to dim the display of information after a specified amount of time of display at normal brightness.
US09076363B2 Parallel sensing configuration covers spectrum and colorimetric quantities with spatial resolution
An optical test equipment/method for display testing that features parallel testing/sensing configuration that covers spectrum and colorimetric quantities with spatial resolution is disclosed. In one embodiment, a spectra-camera, which is a hybrid system consisting of both a single-point spectrometer and an imaging colorimeter, can be configured for concurrent display artifact and parametric testing. An aperture mirror with a hole in the middle splits an image of a test display into two parts. One part of the image passes through the hole and is directed to the spectrometer for display parametric testing. The rest of the image is reflected off the aperture mirror for concurrent display artifact testing with the colorimeter. In another embodiment, a beam splitter can be used instead of an aperture mirror. In yet another embodiment, the single-point high accuracy spectrometer can be used to calibrate the low accuracy imaging colorimeter.
US09076362B2 Display substrate and method of manufacturing a motherboard for the same
A display substrate includes a signal line, a test switch, a test pad, and a first electrostatic dispersion line. The signal line is formed in the display area of a base substrate. The test switch is formed in a peripheral area of the base substrate surrounding the display area. The test switch applies a test signal to the signal line. The test pad is electrically connected to the test switch and receives the test signal. The first electrostatic dispersion line is extended from the test pad to an end of the base substrate.
US09076360B2 Display apparatus for displaying an image in a 2D mode and a 3D mode using a patterned retarder
A display apparatus including a display panel and a patterned retarder disposed on the display panel. The display apparatus displays a first image in a 2D mode and displays a second image including a left-eye image and a right-eye image in a 3D mode. Each of the sub-pixels included in the display panel includes two or three sub-pixel electrodes, and the patterned retarder includes a first retarder and a second retarder, which provide different directivities from each other to the left-eye image and the right-eye image, respectively. The first retarder is disposed corresponding to at least a portion of the sub-pixels and the second retarder is disposed corresponding to a remaining portion of the sub-pixels.
US09076359B2 Wide view 3D television system
This invention relates to a multiview 3-dimensional display for sequentially projecting high number of 2-dimensional images of aspect angles of objects (scenes) into the wide field of view (apparatus) for producing their 3-dimensional images. The 3D image is perceived with great depth, provides comfortable conditions for its viewing without eye strain. The viewing of such 3D image also does not require using any supplementary means such as glasses or tracking devices, does not limit the position of the viewer in the field of view. This allows viewing the 3D image by many viewers simultaneously. The 3D display of the present invention can be used in computer and TV systems for transforming 2-dimensional images of aspect angles of virtual and real, static and moving 3D objects into corresponding signals and transmitting said signals for reproducing 2-dimensional by 3D display.
US09076354B1 Sign stanchion
A sign stanchion includes a support frame having a first side and a second side. A plurality of substantially horizontal backer panels are mounted to the support frame, extend between the first and second sides of the support frame and are substantially vertically spaced apart from each other. At least one sign includes a main panel, a first tab coupled to a top of the main panel by a first bend and a second tab coupled to a bottom of the main panel by a second bend. The at least one sign is mounted to at least one of the plurality of backer panels by inserting one of the first tab and the second tab between two of the plurality of backer panels.
US09076353B1 Flag protection assembly with flag extending device
Herein is described my flag protection assembly that prevents flag deterioration from heat, humidity, wind, rain and other adverse environmental conditions. In some embodiments the flag protection assembly also prevents flag deterioration from ultraviolet light. My flag protection assembly does not require motorized, computerized or other electrical components to fully extend the flexible covering and enclosed flag from a support. My flag protection assembly preferably includes a flexible cover through which a short rod initially inserts. A flag is coiled around this short rod and the rod is then placed within the upper interior of the flexible cover. The flag is thereafter uncoiled within the flexible cover while the rod is removed through an opening in the bottom edge of the flexible cover.
US09076350B2 Food container for microwave use
A food container for microwave use comprises at least one compartment for receiving a food item, the container portion having a structural wall defining the lateral sides of the container portion. The structural wall is made of a polymer. A label is secured to the structural wall and covers continuously the lateral sides of the container portion. The label has an inner surface against the structural wall and an outer surface oriented away from the structural wall. The label comprises a substrate defining the outer surface of the label and a metallic ink defining partly the inner surface of the label. The metallic ink defines a continuous coating on the label with openings. The openings have a selected dimension to allow some microwaves to pass therethrough to reach the food item in the compartment. A method for fabricating a food container for microwave use is also provided.
US09076349B2 Geosocial network system and method for aggregating group members
A geosocial network system and method for aggregating group members. A plurality of geosocial groups is generated for each user, if desired. Each geosocial group might be based on particular topics of interests specified by the user. Each geosocial group can receive map data contributions from members depending upon the permissions granted by the creator of such a geosocial group.
US09076348B2 Methods and apparatus for geo-collaboration
Methods and computer readable medium for collaborating on geographical maps between two or more computers are disclosed. In particular, sharing a geographical location on a map between two or more computers and co-navigating a map between two or more computers are disclosed. With respect to sharing a geographical location, the geographical location is retrieved to the first computer. The geographical location is added to the map being rendered at the first computer and is sent to a second computer. A map including the geographical location is rendered at the second computer. With respect to co-navigating, a map is displayed from a map perspective at the first computer. The map perspective is sent to the second computer. A map from the same map perspective being displayed at the first computer is rendered at the second computer.
US09076338B2 Travel control plan generation system and computer program
A travel control plan generating system 1 includes: upper level plan generating means 22a for generating an upper level plan corresponding to a travel policy of a vehicle A; lower level plan generating means 22b for generating a lower level plan, which is a plan for achieving the upper level plan and includes at least a travel course; lower level plan obtaining means 16, 30 for obtaining a lower level plan including at least a travel course of a peripheral vehicle B, C; evaluating means 24 for evaluating the lower level plan of the vehicle A in accordance with a predetermined index, taking into account the lower level plan of the peripheral vehicle B, C; and lower level plan selecting means 26 for selecting a lower level plan to be executed by the vehicle A on the basis of an evaluation performed by the evaluating means 24.
US09076334B2 Navigation system and navigation method
A navigation system and method having a function of alerting the driver to potential wrong way driving comprises means 102 for determining a position of a vehicle 300, means 107 for calculating a driving route of the vehicle 300, means 108 for determining a driving maneuver in accordance with the predetermined driving route 305, means 104, 105, 110, 111 for outputting indications relating to the determined driving maneuver to a driver of the vehicle 300, and means 109 for alerting the driver to potential wrong way driving including means 201 for detecting a potential wrong way driving situation and means 202, 104, 105, 110, 111 for outputting an indication relating to the potential wrong way driving situation to the driver.
US09076333B2 Driving support device, driving support method, and driving support program
Information specifying an initial motion of a vehicle when travel is started on a road in a predetermined section is obtained, and information specifying an estimated motion, which is associated in advance with the initial motion, of the vehicle on the road in the predetermined section subsequent to the initial motion is also obtained. Based on the estimated motion, a guidance unit mounted in the vehicle provides guidance for supporting driving when traveling on the road in the predetermined section.
US09076332B2 Multi-objective optimization for real time traffic light control and navigation systems for urban saturated networks
A multiobjective management system for saturated traffic road networks comprising: green wave coordination of locally adaptive traffic control units, traffic movement optimization and live traffic route guidance. Current traffic congestion measurements on intersections are generated from local traffic cameras and remote air-borne conventional cameras and thermal sensing imaging cameras or satellite radar such as SAR/ISAR using optical image brightness analysis. At the first stage of traffic optimization, individual local intersection green times are computed based on current traffic congestion level. At the second stage optimization, the central traffic server uses a multiobjective approach to coordinate the current locally-optimized green times of the first stage and create input constraints for green-way coordination of plurality of traffic lights. The server updates dynamically current cycle start and green times on all network-connected traffic light controllers and also broadcasts recommended travel times, green times and green waves to all on-line client vehicle navigation units. Traffic server and individual client guidance units utilize novel time-dependent modifications of an A*-type algorithm to update current travel and recommended travel times and to execute fastest route searches.
US09076329B2 Method and device for fusion of traffic data when information is incomplete
A method for merging imprecisely localized traffic reports with precisely localized traffic data includes obtaining a plurality of possible positions (x) of the localized traffic reports having imprecise position indications. The plurality of possible positions is evaluated using overlap functions. Substantially precise positions for the localized traffic reports are defined by solving an extremum problem.
US09076328B2 Acoustic guiding system
An acoustic guiding system of this invention comprises: an n-phase signal wiring which contains n wire lines and a common ground where n is an integer larger than or equals to three; a sound source which generates an electric current for a signal sound; a distributer which distributes the electric current from the sound source to each line of the n-phase signal wiring repeatedly; a controller which controls the signal sound in accordance with signal information required for traffic control or the like; and speakers connected to each line of the n phase signal wiring in the order of the phase number.
US09076326B2 Systems and methods for traffic prioritization
Methods and apparatus are provided for traffic prioritization of surrounding air traffic for display onboard an aircraft. The apparatus includes a traffic data source configured to supply surrounding traffic data. The apparatus includes a traffic control module coupled to receive user selection data from the user input device and the surrounding traffic data. The traffic control module can be configured to determine a prioritization zone for prioritizing the surrounding air traffic to identify air traffic preceding the aircraft based on the user selection data, the range and the vertical speed of the surrounding air traffic, and set first traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic within the prioritization zone listed by priority and second traffic data that includes the surrounding air traffic outside of the prioritization zone listed in received sequence. The apparatus displays a graphical user interface that includes the first traffic and the second traffic data.
US09076321B2 Real time control chart generation and monitoring of safety systems
A safety system may include a monitoring device that receives analog values of various parameters from one or more safety appliances. The analog values may be compared to upper and lower control limits in control charts for the parameters for each safety appliance. When an analog value falls outside of the upper control limit or lower control limit in the control chart, an alert may be issued to indicate that the safety appliance may be degrading or failing. The monitoring device may also generate control charts for safety appliances from the analog values output from the safety appliances.
US09076318B2 Drowning alert transmitter
The present invention relates to a drowning alert transmitter comprising: a) a head component 1 for securing on a swimmer's head, b) a head sensor 6A,6B to sense if a swimmer's head is inclined back relative the upper torso and to then generate an alert signal, and c) a transmitter 3 connected to the head sensor to transmit an alarm signal upon generation of an alert signal.
US09076314B2 Emergent information pattern driven sensor networks
Emergent information is created and utilized by an array of sensors. Each sensor is programmed with a trigger rule, which describes a local condition that must be met for the sensor to trigger an event signal, and a relationship rule, which describes a hierarchy of communication control among sensors in the array of sensors. When a predetermined percentage or weighting of the sensors trigger event signals, emergent information that describes conditions at the array location is generated.
US09076306B2 Wagering gaming device providing physical stimulation responses to various components of the gaming device
A wagering gaming device that physically stimulates an input device of the gaming device to stimulate a player. The input device, includes a component stimulator and an actuation member. The input devices sends a signal or plurality of signals to a processor upon actuation of the actuation member of the input device. The processor sends an electronic signal to the component stimulator. The component stimulator causes the physical stimulation of the actuation member. The player feels this movement, which may be in correlation to the image being displayed by a display device. This physical stimulation of an input device may be employed in any suitable manner in relation to a game in a wagering gaming device.
US09076304B1 Method and apparatus to implement a wager on a randomly picked winning team
A method, apparatus, and computer readable storage medium to implement a wagering paradigm in which a player can place a wager amount to wager on a random potential outcome of a series chosen randomly by a computer. The series can be a sporting event such as the World Series, and the random potential outcome can be an electronically randomly picked team. If the randomly picked team turns out to be the actual team that wins the World Series, then the wager would win. The payout on a winning wager can be determined using a number of algorithms, for example each possible team is given an equal payout. The wager can be placed before the series begins, during the series (e.g., after at least one game has been played or has been started), and even after the series has ended.
US09076301B2 Gaming machine displaying predetermined images for displaying a bonus symbol at a predetermined position
A gaming machine 13 determines a position of a symbol statically displayed corresponding to a random number thus generated, statically displays the video reels 3A to 3E which were rotationally displayed in sequence, in a case where a bonus game is statically displayed, displays an image corresponding to the total number of the bonus symbols statically displayed on the display every time the video reels 3A to 3E are statically displayed. Furthermore, in a case where the total number of the bonus symbols which were statically displayed is a predetermined number, and when the bonus symbol included in a video reel to be statically displayed next is determined to be stopped at a predetermined stop position, displays a predetermined image on the display while the video reel to be statically displayed next is being rotationally displayed.
US09076300B2 Card game with auction function
A method of playing a card game by a number of players competing for a jackpot contributed by the players that includes performing an auction phase by a computer. The auction phase can be applied to any kind of poker and includes the steps of revealing a face value of an auction card; auctioning the auction card; and (i) eliminating the auction card when none of the players makes a bid for the auction card, (ii) awarding the auction card to a player who makes a sole bid and requiring the player to pay the amount of the sole bid into the jackpot, or (iii) awarding the auction card to a player who makes a winning bid among a plurality of bids and requiring the player to pay the amount of the winning bid to the player having the second best bid. The step of auctioning the auction card includes a bidding period that is timed by a computer (connected with the input terminal of the manager when the manager is not a computer). Each user utilizes a keypad and/or touch screen display to input and increase bids.
US09076299B2 Gaming system and method for providing an offer and acceptance game with progressive awards
A gaming system for providing a progressive award in association with an offer and acceptance game.
US09076297B2 Gaming system and a method of gaming
A method of gaming comprising: determining a wagering threshold to apply to play of at least one gaming device during a current gaming session based on an amount wagered in at least one prior gaming session; and triggering an event upon reaching the wagering threshold in the current gaming session.
US09076294B2 System and method of revealing the outcomes of real world wagers through timed reveals and reveal decay
The invention relates to systems and methods of selecting and placing real-world wagers responsive to one or more wager triggers, obtaining outcomes of the real-world wagers, facilitating user interactions with various interactive media, and revealing the outcomes of the real-world wagers through the interactive media to give an appearance that the outcomes of the real-world wagers resulted from the user interactions even though the outcomes resulted from the real-world wagers. The system may provide a time-conditioned reveal such that a certain action must be performed within some period of time (or by a deadline) to claim a potential payout. The system may provide a reveal decay, where the user may be given an opportunity to complete an action such that the longer it takes to complete the action, the payout amount that is revealed decreases to zero.
US09076291B2 Navigation system having preference region adjustment mechanism and method of operation thereof
A method of operation of a navigation system includes: receiving a game search preference; locating a compliant opponent location conformant to the game search preference; identifying a first preference region encompassing the compliant opponent location; locating a noncompliant opponent location violating the game search preference; and adjusting the first preference region to exclude the noncompliant opponent location for displaying on a device.
US09076289B2 Controlling audio in a wagering game system
A wagering game system and its operations are described herein. In some embodiments, the operations include analyzing sound content that is not configured for use with a wagering game machine's sound system prior to presentation via sound equipment of the wagering game machine. If the sound content meets sound presentation tolerances of the sound equipment, then the operations can include approving presentation of the sound content. If a portion of the sound content does not meet the sound presentation tolerances, the operations can further include removing or modifying the portion of the sound content, such as filtering frequencies, reducing power levels, reducing volume levels, and reducing a duration of play of the sound content. The operations can further include prioritizing presentation of the sound content along with other content configured for use with the wagering game machine's sound system and which is scheduled for presentation via the sound equipment.
US09076287B2 Gaming device for wagering on multiple game outcomes
Systems and methods for wagering on game outcomes allow a player to wager on game outcomes resulting from linked gaming devices linked to a primary gaming device being played by the player. A primary game display shows game plays and outcomes and allows wagering on a primary game and a linked game display shows game plays and outcomes and allows wagering on linked games. Both the primary and linked gaming devices may be the same type of gaming device, or they may be two different types of gaming devices, such as gaming devices for playing slot games, card games, keno, and the like. Further, either or both of the primary and linked games may allow bonus game outcomes resulting in a bonus game having bonus game awards.
US09076285B2 Simulation of mechanical reels on a gaming machine
A spinning reel slot machine has increased versatility, while having reels that are aesthetically similar to traditional mechanical reels. In one embodiment, the slot machine includes a plurality of optical fibers having first ends optically coupled to a surface of an image display device and seconds ends defining a curved display surface for displaying simulated mechanical reels to a player. In another embodiment, one or more of the mechanical reels has a transparent window at a location where a symbol would normally be present. A video display displays a video symbol in the transparent window. In yet a further embodiment, one of the plurality of mechanical reels has a miniature image display located at selected ones of the symbol regions for providing video symbols for the game. In yet further embodiments, a symbol region can produce more than one symbol in response to exposure at certain wavelengths or polarizations of light.
US09076284B2 Video switcher and touch router method for a gaming machine
A method is described for presenting video signals from a first video source and one or more second video sources on a single touch screen display. The method includes: enabling display of primary content from a first video signal and secondary content from a second video signal on the touch screen display, using a display manager, in an adjacent or overlapping condition by scaling or shifting one of the first video signal(s) or the second video signal(s) to alter the size and to render the first video signal with the second video signal(s); and calculating a coordinate transformation, using a touch router device, on coordinates received from the touch screen display that correspond to the presentation at the touch screen display of the video signals and to accommodate any scaling or shifting performed on the first video signal(s) or the second video signal(s).
US09076280B2 Completion of portable data carriers
A method for completing at least one portable data carrier connected to a completion device, wherein a completion data set that is present on the completion device is introduced into the data carrier. A security module is connected to the completion device and different authorization data sets are provided on the security module. The security module includes a management application for managing the different authorization data sets. Each of the authorization data sets exactly specifies one completion, and each of the authorization data sets is exactly associated with one completion data set. The managing application on the security module monitors the completion of the at least one data carrier according to the specification in an authorization data set selected from the different authorization data sets.
US09076271B2 Machine operation management
A method for managing machine operation comprising sensing a plurality of operational variables for a machine during use thereof so as to generate operational data for said variables. The operational data is processed so as to determine features within the operational data which are indicative of a divergence from a desired operational state of the machine. Confidence values associated with said features are determined and used to assess whether the plurality of features and associated confidence values are indicative of a predetermined diagnosis for said machine. A confidence value for said diagnosis is determined based upon the associated feature confidence values and used to generate a signal indicative of an operational state of the machine. The invention may be used for engine health monitoring applications and may be used for determining necessary servicing or repair work for the engine.
US09076269B2 Method and electronic device for creating a combined image
An object of the present invention is to provide a way of improving the stitching procedure.The object is achieved by a method in an electronic device for creating a combined image. The method comprises obtaining (701) a first set of at least two sub-images recorded by an array camera. The method further comprises obtaining (702) a second set of at least two sub-images recorded by the array camera. A first depth map is calculated for the first set of sub-images. The first depth map comprises information about a first plane of the sub-images and a second plane of the sub-images. The first plane being at a first distance from the point where the sub-images have been recorded, and the second plane being at a second distance from the point where the sub-images have been recorded. A second depth map is calculated for the second set of sub-images. The second depth map comprises information about the first plane and the second plane. The method further comprises stitching the first set of sub-images and the second set of sub-images in the first plane, and thereby obtaining a first stitched image. The first set of sub-images and the second set of sub-images are stitched in the second plane, and thereby obtaining a second stitched image. Finally the method comprises combining the first stitched image with the second stitched image and thereby creating the combined image.
US09076268B2 Method and system for analyzing multi-channel images
A method and a system for analyzing multi-channel images are provided. The method includes: receiving a plurality of images through a plurality of channels, respectively; combining selected images among the plurality of images into a single image; and performing an image analysis with respect to: entirety of the combined image by treating the selected images as a single image; or each of the selected images in the combined image.
US09076266B2 Image processing apparatus and method therefor
Based on the refractive property and/or reflectance property of an object, it is determined which one of light, spectra, and channels is to be used as a target for tracing by the ray-tracing method. A pixel value of image data representing the object is determined by tracing at least one entity of the determined target for tracing from a view point in the virtual three-dimensional space to a light source.
US09076262B2 Scripted stereo curves for stereoscopic computer animation
A computer-implemented method for determining a user-defined stereo effect for a computer-animated film sequence. A stereo-volume value for a timeline of the film sequence is obtained, wherein the stereo-volume value represents a percentage of parallax at the respective time entry. A stereo-shift value for the timeline is also obtained, wherein the stereo-shift value represents a distance across one of: an area associated with a sensor of a pair of stereoscopic cameras adapted to create the film sequence; and a screen adapted to depict a stereoscopic image of the computer-generated scene. A script-adjusted near-parallax value and a script-adjusted far-parallax value are calculated.
US09076260B2 Stitching for primitives in graphics processing
Techniques described in the disclosure are generally related to determining the manner in which to connect points that reside along an outer ring edge and an inner ring edge for purposes of tessellation. For example, a two-dimensional (2D) stitching table may define the manner in which points along the edges should be connected together to form a plurality of primitives. The techniques may index the 2D stitching table to retrieve entry values that define the manner in which the points along the edges should be connected together.
US09076256B2 Information processing device, information processing method, and program
An information processing apparatus that acquires first posture information corresponding to the information processing apparatus and a first distance coordinate corresponding to the information processing apparatus, and second posture information corresponding to another information processing apparatus and a second distance coordinate corresponding to the another information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus then calculates an object's position in a virtual space based on the first and second posture information and the first and second distance coordinates.
US09076254B2 Texture unit for general purpose computing
A texture unit may be used to perform general purpose mathematical computations such as dot products. This enables some general purpose computations and operations to be offloaded from a central processing unit to the texture unit. The texture unit may use linear interpolators in order to perform the dot product calculations.
US09076253B2 Methods and devices for displaying an overlay on a device display screen
Disclosed herein is a camera unit configured to capture an image, and a microprocessor configured to control a display to display the image and an overlay substantially simultaneously. In one broad aspect, at least one of the level of transparency, the brightness level, or the color value of the overlay is determined based on at least one of a representative brightness level or a representative color value associated with the image being displayed.
US09076249B2 Hole filling method for multi-view disparity maps
A hole filling method for multi-view disparity maps is provided. At least one disparity map is respectively captured as a plurality of known views among a plurality of views for capturing an object. As for a plurality of virtual views among the views excluding the at least one known view, disparity maps of the virtual views are synthesized by sequentially using the disparity maps of the known views according to a distance of a virtual camera position or a transformed angle between each virtual view and each known view. Hole filling information of the disparity maps of other virtual views having the distances or the transformed angles smaller than that of the virtual view is used to fill holes in the synthesized disparity maps of the virtual views.
US09076248B2 Display apparatus
According to one embodiment, a display apparatus includes an image projection unit, an information acquisition unit and a data supply unit. The image projection unit projects a light flux including an image toward a projection layer which is reflective and transmissive. The information acquisition unit acquires information relating to a position of a three-dimensional object superimposing portion of three-dimensional objects positioned at a road. The road extends from a proximal region of the external environment proximal to the projection layer toward a distal region of the external environment distal to the projection layer. The three-dimensional object superimposing portion is higher than a ground surface and viewable via the projection layer. The data supply unit supplies data relating to the image including a display object to the image projection unit based on the information. The display object is displayed along the three-dimensional object superimposing portion.
US09076242B2 Automatic correction of skew in natural images and video
An electronic device and method use a camera to capture an image of an environment outside followed by identification of regions therein. A subset of the regions is selected, based on attributes of the regions, such as aspect ratio, height, and variance in stroke width. Next, a number of angles that are candidates for use as skew of the image are determined (e.g. one angle is selected for each region. based on peakiness of a histogram of the region, evaluated at different angles). Then, an angle that is most common among these candidates is identified as the angle of skew of the image. The just-described identification of skew angle is performed prior to classification of any region as text or non-text. After skew identification, at least all regions in the subset are rotated by negative of the skew angle, to obtain skew-corrected regions for use in optical character recognition.
US09076232B2 Apparatus and method for interpolating image, and apparatus for processing image using the same
An image interpolation apparatus is provided which includes an edge area distinguishing part configured to distinguish an edge area including an edge from an image; an edge area classifying part configured to classify the edge area into a plurality of regions; and an interpolation part configured to perform interpolation the regions in different manners.
US09076228B2 Image processing device, image processing method, and image processing system
According to one embodiment, an image processing system includes an image processing device, an encoder, and a memory. The image processing device is configured to select one of a plurality of resolution candidates as a unified resolution, and to scale, according to the unified resolution, a first input image and a second input image to generate a first output image and a second output image, respectively. The first input image has a first resolution, the second input image has a second resolution different from the first resolution, and a resolution of the first output image is identical to a resolution of the second output image. The encoder is configured to encode the first output image and the second output image to generated encoded data. The memory is configured to store the encoded data.
US09076223B1 Fast stopping criterion for active contour algorithms
A device is configured to determine a contour vector that delineates an object in an image from a remaining portion of the image, and to generate a hash value by applying a hash function to the contour vector. The device is configured to compare the hash value to a previous hash value generated by applying the hash function to a previous contour vector, where the previous contour vector is determined prior to determining the contour vector. The device is configured to determine that the hash value matches the previous hash value and, based on determining that the hash value matches the previous hash value, segment the image using the contour vector.
US09076221B2 Removing an object from an image
A method for removing an object from an image is described. The image is separated into a source region and a target region. The target region includes the object to be removed. A contour of the target region may be extracted. One or more filling candidate pixels are obtained. Multiple filling patches are obtained. Each filling patch is centered at a filling candidate pixel. A filling patch may be selected for replacement.
US09076219B2 Space segmentation method for 3D point clouds
A space segmentation method for 3D point clouds is disclosed. A space segmentation method for 3D point clouds includes equally segmenting a space of the 3D point clouds into a plurality of grid cells; establishing a base plane corresponding to a ground part of the space of the 3D point clouds; accumulating points of all grid cells located perpendicular to the base plane in a grid cell of the base plane; and segmenting the grid cell in which the points are accumulated into an object part and a ground part according to the number of accumulated points.
US09076212B2 Motion tracking system for real time adaptive imaging and spectroscopy
This invention relates to a system that adaptively compensates for subject motion in real-time in an imaging system. An object orientation marker (30), preferably a retro-grate reflector (RGR), is placed on the head or other body organ of interest of a patient (P) during a scan, such as an MRI scan. The marker (30) makes it possible to measure the six degrees of freedom (x, y, and z-translations, and pitch, yaw, and roll), or “pose”, required to track motion of the organ of interest. A detector, preferably a camera (40), observes the marker (30) and continuously extracts its pose. The pose from the camera (40) is sent to the scanner (120) via an RGR processing computer (50) and a scanner control and processing computer (100), allowing for continuous correction of scan planes and position (in real-time) for motion of the patient (P). This invention also provides for internal calibration and for co-registration over time of the scanner's and tracking system's reference frames to compensate for drift and other inaccuracies that may arise over time.
US09076207B1 Image processing method, system and electronic device
The present disclosure provides an image processing method, system and electronic device. The method comprises: obtaining a first image; applying a first process to the first image to obtain a second image having a number of pixels smaller than a number of pixels in the first image; applying a second process to the second image to obtain a third image having an image quality higher than that of the second image; sending, upon detecting a first operation by a user, the first image to a server, such that the server applies a third process to the first image to obtain a fourth image having an image quality higher than that of the first image, the third process and the second process belonging to a same type of image process; and receiving the fourth image. The present invention avoids unnecessary waste of data traffic and saves the consumed time.
US09076206B2 Methods and systems for correcting distortions in multimedia content
Various embodiments of a method, system and computer program product for correcting distortions in a multimedia content comprising a set of temporal images are disclosed. Each image of the set of temporal images is decomposed into patches. Thereafter, each set of temporal patches is parsed hierarchically to obtain a set of background components and one or more moving objects. Thereafter, the set of background components and the one or more moving objects are aggregated to reconstruct the multimedia content.
US09076205B2 Edge direction and curve based image de-blurring
An image de-blurring system obtains a blurred input image and generates, based on the blurred input image, a blur kernel. The blur kernel is an indication of how the image capture device was moved and/or how the subject captured in the image moved during image capture. Based on the blur kernel and the blurred input image, a de-blurred image is generated. The blur kernel is generated based on the direction of edges identified in the blurred input image and/or based on curves having a high curvature identified in the image (e.g., corners identified in the image).
US09076193B2 Method of inspecting substrate
Provided is a method of inspecting a substrate. The method includes: receiving an image of a pad area of substrate; determining and registering a start point pixel; tracing pixels having the same gradation as the start point pixel; determining a boundary area; designating a direction code to next point pixel on the basis of a current point pixel; extracting maximum distance pixel coordinates; and detecting a defect of the pad area.
US09076192B2 Method of detecting and quantifying blur in a digital image
Method of detecting and quantifying blur in a digital image implementing a computer and comprising: —a step a) of obtaining a digital image; a step b) of obtaining a brightness parameter for each pixel on the basis of the digital image, the step b) comprising an operation of convolution with an edge detection matrix; a step c) of calculation of a score S1 comprising the maximum, calculated over all the pixels, of the brightness parameter obtained in step b); and a step d) a step of evaluating the digital image, the digital image being considered to be blurred if the score S1 obtained in step c) is strictly less than a first predetermined threshold, the score S1 providing a first quantity of blur present in the digital image.
US09076182B2 Automated financial data aggregation
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for data aggregation. The methods, systems, and apparatus include determining whether a site-specific script for extracting financial data from a particular financial institution website is available; in response to determining that a site-specific script for extracting financial data from the particular financial institution website is not available, generating a site map of web pages and web page segments in the financial institution website, wherein the site map is generated based on at least in part on a statistical analysis of web pages and web page segments that are not in the financial institution website; generating, based on the site map of the financial institution website, a site-specific script for extracting financial data from the financial institution website; and extracting, for one or more users, financial data from the particular financial institution website using the generated site-specific script.
US09076181B2 Auction overbidding vigilance tool
Vigilance monitoring and a navigation aid are provided to a user in an electronic auction by receiving by a computer a command to watch similar items to a first item in an online or electronic auction; extracting by a computer from the command, from the auction, or from both the command and the auction one or more item descriptive parameters; using by a computer the extracted parameters to query one or more online or electronic sales sources for similar items matching the extracted parameters, the sales sources being electronic sources other than the auction; receiving by a computer at least one price for an available similar item from at least one sales source; and causing prompting by a computer a user of the auction with the similar item price and sales source.
US09076180B2 Customized product display
Technologies are described herein for customized product display. A data structure schema is defined for describing product graphics, such as product images, and for defining how aspects of the product graphics should be displayed. Through the use of the schema, a product manufacturer can provide product graphics to an e-commerce merchant along with product display data formatted according to the schema that provides instructions to the merchant regarding how the manufacturer prefers the product graphics to be displayed. The merchant can then utilize the product graphics and the product display data to generate a product page for the product.
US09076176B2 Electronic submission of application programs for network-based distribution
An improved system and method for submitting, distributing and/or managing digital products with respect to a product distribution site are disclosed. The submission of digital products to the product distribution site is able to be performed by numerous submitters in a uniform and computer-assisted manner. The submitted digital products can then be managed in a largely automated manner and made available for online purchase and distribution at the product distribution site. Once a digital product is submitted, the user can access the status of the digital product submission to obtain information of whether the digital product has been approved or rejected. In one embodiment, the digital products are computer program products (e.g., computer software programs).
US09076175B2 Mobile comparison shopping
Improved capabilities are disclosed for receiving a product selection from a mobile communication facility, identifying merchants that sell such product and products associated with the product selection, receiving information relating to the mobile communication facility and presenting an ordered list of merchants selling the product. In embodiments, based at least part on the information relating to the mobile communication facility, the list of merchants may be ordered. These and other capabilities are employed to provide systems and methods for comparison shopping that are adapted for mobile comparison shopping.
US09076171B2 Automatic electronic payments via mobile communication device with imaging system
A graphical payment identifier is used to facilitate the automatic processing of an electronic payment. A graphical identifier payment system receives a request from a payment processing entity for a onetime use graphical payment identifier. In response, a onetime use graphical payment identifier to be displayed by the payment processing entity is generated. A request for user payment information by the payment processing entity is encoded in the graphical payment identifier, which is transmitted to the payment processing entity for display. The graphical payment identifier being displayed by the payment processing entity is captured by a registered user operated computing device. In response, the requested user payment information is transmitted to the payment processing entity, such that the electronic payment is executed automatically, without the user manually entering the requested payment information or providing a credit card.
US09076165B2 Systems and methods to determine the name of a physical business location visited by a user of a wireless device and verify the authenticity of reviews of the physical business location
Methods and systems that ascertain and record the specific named location of a user of a wireless device. A geographic location of a mobile device based on a geographic location sensor is received. A selection of the likely locations that may have been visited is provided to the wireless device based on location data. A verification of the specific named location of the user is received from the wireless device based on the provided selection of locations. The location history is updated with, for example, the location of the wireless device, the specific named location visited, and time of day information. A user may then provide a review of the specific named location visited. The review is stored in a format associated with the user. A portion of the user's profile may also show a third party that the user has visited the physical named location that was reviewed.
US09076162B2 Method for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage
A method for the placement of advertisements on a page to optimize the occurrence of an event associated with such advertisements. The advertisements might include, for instance, advertisements on a webpage, and the event would include a user clicking on an advertisement. Data regarding the past performance of the advertisements is stored and updated as new data is received. A user requests a page from a server associated with the system. The server uses the performance data to derive a prioritized arrangement of the advertisements on the page. The server performs a calculation regarding the likelihood that an event will occur for a given advertisement displayed to a user. The advertisements are arranged according to this calculation and returned to the user on the requested page. The likelihood can also be multiplied by a weighting factor and the advertisements arranged according to this product.
US09076156B2 Real-time adaptive binning through partition modification
In one embodiment, real-time adaptive binning may be performed through the modification of a set of partitions. More particularly, a set of partitions separating one or more bins from one another may be identified, each of the one or more bins having boundaries including a lower boundary and an upper boundary, wherein the boundaries of the one or more bins together define a contiguous range of data values capable of being stored in the one or more bins. A data value may be obtained and added to one of the one or more bins according to the boundaries of the one or more bins. It may be determined whether to modify the set of partitions. The set of partitions may be modified according to a result of the determining step.
US09076154B1 Advertising in collaborative environments
A user profile is identified, the user profile including portions of information related to a first user that is present in a collaborative environment. A weight is associated with a portion of information. An advertisement is identified based on the portions of information and associated weights, and the advertisement is shown to the first user.
US09076142B2 Smart electronic wallet or smart e-wallet
The electronic wallet comprises a card duplicator, an electronic wallet or e-wallet, and an e-card. The card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet comprises a personalized authentication security card. Each electronic wallet or e-wallet has only one e-card. Single users are only required to have the electronic wallet or e-wallet. Business and family plans are required to have both the card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet. The card duplicator and the electronic wallet or e-wallet store credit card and personal data into the system. The e-card works as an interface device for the consumers. The e-card functions like normal credit card however the e-card is equipped with superior security system compared to a normal credit card.
US09076140B2 Image embedding apparatus and method
A method is disclosed for embedding an image during a transaction at a point-of-sale system. The method may include obtaining a first digital image coded to display a call to action and a placeholder occupying a specific position with respect to the call to action. A computer system associated with the point-of-sale system may interpret the first digital image to collect data identifying the specific position of the placeholder. The computer system may obtain a two-dimensional barcode encoded with a transaction identification unique to the transaction. Using the collected data, the computer system may generate a third digital image coded to display the call to action and the two-dimensional barcode. The two-dimensional barcode may occupy the specific position with respect to the call to action. The point-of-sale system may display the third digital image to a customer associated with the transaction via a receipt, a customer-facing screen, or the like.
US09076137B2 Systems and methods facilitating mobile retail environments
An automated system for facilitating sales in dynamically-changing mobile retail environments includes a vendor/supplier connector module, a carrier connector module, a provisioning module, and a point-of-sale (POS) customization module. The vendor/supplier connector module facilitates automated exchange of product data with a plurality of different vendors or suppliers of products or services. The carrier connector module facilitates automated exchange of transportation data with a plurality of different carriers, with the transportation data corresponding to specific mobile retail environments. The provisioning module automatically determines, based on the product data and on the transportation data, products or services corresponding to a specific mobile retail environment. The POS customization module automatically generates re-configuration data for each of a plurality of POS interfaces. The re-configuration data limits each of the plurality of POS interfaces to facilitating sales of only the subset of the set of products or services that corresponds to a specific mobile retail environment.
US09076133B2 Ordering lottery tickets using machine-readable code images display on mobile devices and transmitting a lottery image ticket
A mobile application or mobile website allows a user of a mobile device to make player selections associated with the order of a lottery ticket. The mobile device then displays a machine-readable code image. When a lottery retailer scans the image, the code conveys the lottery ticket order to the retail system, allowing the retailer to sell lottery tickets corresponding with the order. The mobile application or website may record player selections for reuse, record purchased tickets to report lottery status to the player, and assist the player in locating a lottery retailer. Further, a lottery image ticket may be transmitted to the user's mobile device or to an account which can be accessed through the user's mobile device. The lottery image ticket can then be presented to the retailer equipment for winnings check and redemption.
US09076128B2 Abstractions and automation for enhanced sharing and collaboration
The present invention provides methods for using abstractions of people, including dynamic and static groups of people, to enhance the efficiency of the specification and automation of policies for sharing information between users with a “need-to-know.” An instance of the present invention can also provide these users information based on a “time-to-know.”By providing access to information based on group affiliation and properties of the content of the information, the present invention maintains optimal information privacy while minimizing encumbrances to sharing data with appropriate users and even at appropriate times. The present invention can be integrated with other communication technologies to facilitate access to information in a time appropriate manner. Other instances of the present invention employ automated and semi-automated, mixed-initiative techniques, to make information-sharing decisions. Additional instances of the present invention include the employment of machine-learning techniques to facilitate construction of access policies from the actions or profile of a single user or a community of users, including the construction of automated sharing agents that work in an automated or mixed-initiative manner to respond to real-time requests for information.
US09076123B1 Methods and systems for labeling labware
The present invention includes a system for marking labware. The system includes an instruction set with markings to be applied to pieces of labware and the order in which the markings are to be applied to the labware. The system also includes a marking device that receives the instruction set and then places the non-toxic marks on the pieces of labware. The invention also includes methods tracking chain of custody of biological material in a facility. The methods include assigning a unique marking for biological materials, storing that marking in a database, applying a non-toxic marking to a piece(s) of labware and then scanning the marking.
US09076117B2 Proactive maintenance of devices based on usage data
A system and method for monitoring device usage are described. The system includes an enterprise service bus configured to receive a request to transmit media to a device and route the media to a device and network appliance as a service (NAaaS) server-side application configured to log device usage entries for a second device, determine usage information based on the device usage entries, perform a comparison between a life expectancy associated with the second device and the usage information and responsive to the comparison being within a threshold value, generating a notification.
US09076116B2 Alpha-chain constraints for process planning
A method is provided that includes receiving process-related information describing a process for production of a product, including a logical sequence of tasks to produce respective internal products of the process. The method also includes constructing a schedule for the process based on the process-related information, with the process schedule being for execution of at least some of the tasks each of which utilizes or requires inputs including temporally a last input. Construction of the process schedule includes separating each of at least some of the respective tasks into a closure portion that requires availability of the last input of its task before being initiated, and a distinct precursor portion capable of being initiated before the respective last input is available. The closure portions of the respective tasks may be temporally sequenced without intervening precursor portions, and the precursor portions may be prepended to respective, temporally-sequenced closure portions.
US09076115B2 Component based aggregation of medication orders
A system for component based aggregation of medication orders may include a processor and memory. The processor may receive display a queue that lists medication orders to be prepared by a healthcare professional, the medication orders indicating component medications that will be used to prepare the ordered medications. The processor may receive a selection of a first medication order listed in the queue, where the first medication order indicates a first component medication. The processor may determine a second medication order listed in the queue that indicates the first component medication. The processor may reorder the displayed queue such that the second medication order is listed adjacent to the first medication order. The processor may notify the healthcare professional of the second medication order, such as by displaying an indication of the second medication order separately from the queue.
US09076113B2 Automatic data transmission in response to content of electronic forms satisfying criteria
Automatic transmission of information is generated when the content of a posted electronic form matches a predefined criteria. An interface allows the user to create a criterion template to specify the match criterion without requiring the user to have the skills of a professional programmer. The person to be notified and the form and content of the notification can also be defined by the user and can be dependent on the content of the posted form. In one application, individuals associated with an institution of higher learning are automatically notified when a student submits an electronic profile form showing that the student meets a pre-specified criteria.
US09076111B2 Methods of integrating multiple management domains
An integrated solution strategy that integrates multiple domains together in a seamless and standardized way for increasing a users control over facilities and equipment. This integrated approach can lead to a reduction of energy usage, more efficient energy usage, increased safety, health, and security of a facility and its occupants, optimized production in industrial settings, and associated and other economic advantages. Accurate, reliable information about a facility or equipment is essential to making timely, informed decisions. Enhanced automation provides a reliable means of collecting and assembling a variety of operating data and archiving that data into a central database for evaluation, reporting, forecasting, and negotiation with resource marketers.
US09076108B2 Methods for discovering and classifying situations that influence affective response
Described herein are methods for identifying situations. The methods receive samples, each comprising a temporal window of token instances to which a user was exposed and an affective response annotation. One embodiment clusters the samples into a plurality of clusters utilizing a distance function that computes a distance between a pair comprising first and second samples. Another embodiment utilizes an Expectation-Maximization approach to assign situation identifiers. And still another embodiment involves training, utilizing the samples, a machine learning-based classifier to assign situation identifiers.
US09076101B1 Printer formatter in a cable
A printer cable that is configured for coupling to a printer having an enclosure and a printer port. The printer cable includes a first connector for connecting to the printer port and a second connector for coupling to a host device (e.g., a personal computer (PC)). The printer cable includes a printer formatter for providing formatting services to the printer via the first connector. Since the printer formatter is integrated into the printer cable, the printer formatter is external to the printer enclosure and is easily removable and configurable by a user.
US09076098B2 Printing apparatus and control method therefor
A rendering process is not distributed in units that take into consideration an object construction. The rendering process divides printing data into page units, generates a plurality of divided printing data, merges divided printing data related to the same double spread page from the plurality of divided printing data, and converts each of the merged divided printing data into bitmap data by a plurality of rendering units.
US09076097B1 Pausing and resuming a three-dimensional printjob
A method comprising beginning a print job on a three-dimensional printer to manufacture an object, pausing the print job while the object is incomplete, determining the state of the print job when the print job was paused, and printing information onto the incomplete object, wherein the information includes an identification of the print job. The information preferably takes the form of a matrix barcode printed on a surface of the incomplete object that will later be overwritten.
US09076095B2 Extendable identification tag
An identification system comprising an extendable identification tag. An identification tag, such as an RFID tag having an electronics module configured to transmit information is provided. The identification tag includes a body portion and a sleeve portion. The sleeve portion is arranged about the body portion such that the sleeve portion can traverse a length of the body portion, thereby extending the overall length of the identification tag. The identification tag may be adjusted to match the thickness of an object, such as a flange, such that the identification tag may be disposed in a tag pocket formed through the object and adjusted to approximately match the thickness of the object so as to be readable from opposing sides of the objects.
US09076094B2 System and method for providing power to a wireless tag
The present invention provides an engine, system and method for providing an NFC tag capable of receiving a charge and performing as an active tag without interaction.
US09076093B2 Metal card and manufacturing method thereof
Provided is a metal card including a metal card sheet made of duralumin and an anodized layer formed by anodizing a surface of the metal card sheet, wherein a background color or pattern of the metal card is determined according to a composition of electrolyte of the anodizing for forming the anodized layer.
US09076092B2 RFID transponder and a method for fabricating the same
The present application provides a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder and a method for fabricating the same. The RFID transponder, comprising: a microchip which is arranged to communicating with a reader; a battery which is arranged to provide an electrical power for operating the transponder, and is attached to the microchip by means of a conductive path; an antenna which is arranged to receive and backscatter radio frequency interrogation radiation; and a substrate, on which the microchip, the battery and the antenna are arranged.
US09076088B2 Image forming apparatus, control method of image forming apparatus, and storage medium
A user is unable to confirm whether a sheet for color printing and a sheet for monochromatic printing may be mixed before executing a job.
US09076087B2 Electronic apparatus having display function and touch panel function and image forming apparatus having display function and touch panel function
An electronic apparatus includes a display unit that includes a display screen including a touch panel configured to display an image and to accept an input from an operator made by touching the touch panel, a touch position detection unit that detects a position touched by the operator on the display screen of the display unit, upon receipt of a detection signal outputted from the display unit according to detection by the touch panel, a calibration execution unit that executes calibration to correct a shift of the touch position detected by the touch position detection unit, and a human body sensor that outputs a detection signal upon detecting that the operator has come to a position spaced from the electronic apparatus by a predetermined distance. The calibration execution unit executes the calibration upon receipt of the detection signal from the human body sensor.
US09076085B2 Image processing apparatus, image processing apparatus control method, and storage medium
A scroll distance in a scroll display performed during a preview display of a print job to which a specific printing method is specified is set to be shorter than a scroll distance in a scroll display performed during a preview display of a print job to which the specific printing method is not specified.
US09076083B1 System, method, apparatus and computer readable medium for secure one-time printing of coupons
Technologies are provided in embodiments to enable secure one-time printing for electronic coupons. The embodiments are configured to provide, for display on a display screen of a user device, one or more coupon offers, to receive information indicating at least one offer is selected by a user, to communicate a unique identifier of the user device and an indication of the at least one selected offer to a coupon platform, and to receive the at least one selected offer to be printed if the at least one selected offer is available. Embodiments are also configured to bypass a print dialog box to provide the at least one selected offer directly to a default printer associated with the user device. Specific embodiments are configured to communicate to the coupon platform whether the print was successful. In specific embodiments, coupon codes are not displayed with the one or more coupon offers.
US09076081B2 Multi-class discriminating device
A multi-class discriminating device for judging to which class a feature represented by data falls. The device has a first unit for generating plural first hierarchical discriminating devices for discriminating one from N, and a second unit for combining score values output respectively from the plural first hierarchical discriminating devices to generate a second hierarchical feature vector and for entering the second hierarchical feature vector to generate plural second hierarchical discriminating devices for discriminating one from N. When data is entered, the plural first hierarchical discriminating devices output score values, and these score values are combined together to generate the second hierarchical feature vector. When the second hierarchical feature vector is entered, the second hierarchical discriminating device which outputs the maximum score value is selected. The class corresponding to the selected second hierarchical discriminating device is discriminated as the class, into which the feature represented by the entered data falls.
US09076072B2 System and method for web page rendering test automation suite
Methods and systems are provided for testing visual elements in a rendered web page. The method includes defining a gold image at a first point within a web application, taking a screen shot of an actual image at the first point during execution of the web application, and comparing the gold image to the actual image and generating a difference image based on the comparison. The difference image may include a first region highlighting a first difference between the gold image and the actual image within an area common to both images, and a second region highlighting a second difference between the gold image and the actual image which is not within an area common to both images.
US09076068B2 Method and apparatus for evaluating color in an image
A method for evaluating a color of a sample includes acquiring a color calibrated swatch of the sample, the color calibrated swatch comprising a plurality of pixels, and comparing all pixels that are of a first color in a swatch of a standard to all of the plurality of pixels that are of a second color, wherein the second color is a color in the swatch of the sample that is most similar to the first color in the swatch of the standard.
US09076067B2 Information processing apparatus and method for classifier-based object detection
An information processing apparatus includes an information input section that reads input image information, a cumulative image information generator that generates cumulative image information for pixels corresponding to positions of pixels of a prescribed pixel pattern in the read input image information, and a memory controller that stores in the cumulative image information holding memory the cumulative image information generated in the cumulative image information generator. This configuration allows memory resources necessary for holding the cumulative image information to be reduced.
US09076062B2 Feature searching along a path of increasing similarity
Techniques for searching in an image for a particular block of pixels that represents a feature are described herein. The techniques may include searching within an expanding search area to find a block of pixels that has a threshold amount of similarity to a block of pixels of a preceding image. Upon finding a block of pixels that satisfies the threshold, the techniques may search in the image along a path of increasing similarity to the block of pixels of the preceding image.
US09076060B2 Parking lot management system in working cooperation with intelligent cameras
A parking lot management system that works in cooperation with intelligent cameras is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of intelligent cameras connected to each other via a wired/wireless mesh network, a license plate recognition unit which can recognize a license plate of a vehicle entering and exiting a parking lot, a server for storing and managing information about the vehicle, a parking information board and a vehicle information about the position terminal which provide a user with parking information, and a personal computer for controlling all information.
US09076059B2 Key-frame selection for parallel tracking and mapping
A method of selecting a first image from a plurality of images for constructing a coordinate system of an augmented reality system. A first image feature in the first image corresponding to the feature of the marker is determined. A second image feature in a second image is determined based on a second pose of a camera, said second image feature having a visual match to the first image feature. A reconstructed position of the feature of the marker in a three-dimensional (3D) space is determined based on positions of the first and second image features, the first and the second camera pose. A reconstruction error is determined based on the reconstructed position of the feature of the marker and a pre-determined position of the marker.
US09076056B2 Text detection in natural images
A system and method of text detection in an image are described. A component detection module applies a filter having a stroke width constraint and a stroke color constraint to an image to identify text stroke pixels in the image and to generate both a first map based on the stroke width constraint and a second map based on the stroke color constraint. A component filtering module has a first classifier and second classifier. The first classifier is applied to both the first map and the second map to generate a third map identifying a component of a text in the image. The second classifier is applied to the third map to generate a fourth map identifying a text line of the text in the image. A text region locator module thresholds the fourth map to identify text regions in the image.
US09076054B2 Image sensor based optical reader
An apparatus for use in optical reading can comprise an image sensor and a circuit board, and can further comprise a support assembly. An apparatus for use in optical reading can also comprise a light source and imaging optics.
US09076050B2 Enhanced smartcard reader with multi-level reading contacts
An enhanced smartcard reader having a row of first reading contacts, a row of second reading contacts, and a row of third reading contacts. The first reading contacts have arm portions that are cantilevered off a first mounting member of the reader, the second reading contacts have arm portions that are cantilevered off a second mounting member of the reader, and the third reading contacts have arm portions that are cantilevered off a third mounting member of the reader. The third mounting member is located vertically distanced from the second mounting member, and the arm portions of the third reading contacts directly overlay the arm portions of the second reading contacts.
US09076047B2 System and method for recognizing parking space line markings for vehicle
Disclosed herein is a method for recognizing a parking space line marking for a vehicle, including: detecting, by a processor, a plurality of parking spaces from a portion of a parking space line marking in an image; calculating, by the processor, an overlap coefficient representing a degree of overlapping between the detected parking spaces; selecting, by the processor, a parking space having a largest brightness coefficient as a final parking space by determining overlap when the overlap coefficient has a predetermined magnitude and comparing the brightness degrees of the overlapped parking spaces.
US09076045B2 Automatic content analysis method and system
A method of analyzing images over time is provided herein. The method includes: capturing a plurality of images each associated with specified objects in specified locations such that a specified area is covered; specifying regions of interest (ROI) in each of the captured images; repeating the capturing with at least one of: a different location, a different orientation, and a different timing such that the captured images are associated with the specified covered area; and comparing the captured imaged produced in the capturing with the captured imaged produced in the repeating of the capturing to yield comparison between the captured objects by comparing specified ROI.
US09076044B2 Apparatus and method for monitoring hand washing
A method and apparatus to monitor and document that proper hygienic procedures are followed by food service providers consisting of a camera, a processor controlling the camera, and software to accomplish the hand washing monitoring. The criteria for identifying the start and end of a hand washing event by monitoring activity is selected areas is presented. A record is created of the wash event including a sequence of photograph during the event and additional related data such as start time, duration, location, and any employee identification. This record is available for recording or downloading to a server for further manipulation, including washer identification and statistical analysis.
US09076042B2 Method of generating index elements of objects in images captured by a camera system
A camera system comprises an image capturing device, object detection module, object tracking module, and match classifier. The object detection module receives image data and detects objects appearing in one or more of the images. The object tracking module temporally associates instances of a first object detected in a first group of the images. The first object has a first signature representing features of the first object. The match classifier matches object instances by analyzing data derived from the first signature of the first object and a second signature of a second object detected in a second image. The second signature represents features of the second object derived from the second image. The match classifier determine whether the second signature matches the first signature. A training process automatically configures the match classifier using a set of possible object features.
US09076041B2 Motion event recognition and video synchronization system and method
Enables recognition of events within motion data obtained from portable wireless motion capture elements and video synchronization of the events with video as the events occur or at a later time, based on location and/or time of the event or both. May use integrated camera or external cameras with respect to mobile device to automatically generate generally smaller event videos of the event on the mobile device or server. Also enables analysis or comparison of movement associated with the same user, other user, historical user or group of users. Provides low memory and power utilization and greatly reduces storage for video data that corresponds to events such as a shot, move or swing of a player, a concussion of a player, or other medical related events or events, such as the first steps of a child, or falling events.
US09076040B1 Inferring locations from an image
Systems and methods are disclosed for determining the location where an image was captured. In general, a device such as a smartphone may capture one or more images from a location, such as images of buildings, street signs and the like, and a central system may compare the submitted images to images in an image library to identify matches. The location of the match may then be provided back to the smartphone.
US09076039B2 Probabilistic identification of solid materials in hyperspectral imagery
Systems, methods and computer program products, for identification of materials based on hyperspectral imagery, are disclosed. An example system comprises one or more processors, a memory, a library of spectral signatures, a receiver, a model generator, and a material identifier. The receiver module is configured to receive a first spectral signature corresponding to a region of interest contained in the hyperspectral image. The model generator is configured to create a model search space including one or more model signatures based on the spectral signatures in the library, wherein each of the one or more model signatures approximate the first spectral signature. The material identifier is a material identifier configured to calculate a probability associated with a presence or absence of a material within the first spectral signature, based on the first spectral signature and the model search space and determine the presence or absence of the material in the region of interest based on the probability.
US09076038B2 Detection of non-compliance patterns in prescribed medication doses
Apparatus for detecting non-compliance patterns on a series of used blister sheets previously returned by the same patient, reads a code (2) on each blister sheet (1) providing, inter alia, information relating to the position of each blister on the blister sheet. This information is passed by the code reader (4) through a key (15) to an image (5) of the blister sheet appearing on one-half (14) of a split screen (6). The screen (14) displays a picture of a blister sheet with its blister positions marked by dots or rings (8). By means of the key (15), which may take the form of a joystick, an image of a disc (9) can be placed over each of the blister positions where an unopened blisters occurs. The image of the blister sheet together with the discs is then transferred by operation of a key (10) to the second half (11) of the split screen (6) screen where it is superimposed on a slightly offset stack (13) of used blister sheets previously returned by the same patient. The positions of the discs (9) are compared by the apparatus with corresponding positions on previously returned blister sheets and, if a coincidence is detected, the apparatus produces a change in the appearance of the corresponding disc on the blister sheet on the top of the stack. A change in a disc appearance suggests that there may be a pattern of non-compliance that can then be investigated further.
US09076032B1 Specularity determination from images
Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to determine specularity of an object. As an example an object or area of geometry may be selected. A set of images that include the area of geometry may be captured. This set of images may be filtered to remove images that do not show the area of geometry well, such as if the area is in a shadow or occluded by another object. A set of intensity values for the area are determined for each image. A set of angle values for each image is determined based on at least a direction of a camera that captured the particular image when the particular image was captured. The set of average intensities and the set of angle values are paired and fit to a curve. The specularity of the area may then be classified based on at least the fit.
US09076029B2 Low threshold face recognition
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, are disclosed for reducing the impact of lighting conditions and biometric distortions, while providing a low-computation solution for reasonably effective (low threshold) face recognition. In one aspect, the methods include processing a captured image of a face of a user seeking to access a resource by conforming a subset of the captured face image to a reference model. The reference model corresponds to a high information portion of human faces. The methods further include comparing the processed captured image to at least one target profile corresponding to a user associated with the resource, and selectively recognizing the user seeking access to the resource based on a result of said comparing.
US09076026B2 Biometric information processing apparatus and biometric information processing method
A biometric information processing apparatus includes: a biometric information acquiring unit which generates a biometric image representing biometric information of a plurality of fingers of a user; and a processor adapted to extract a biometric region capturing biometric information of each of the plurality of fingers in the biometric image; obtain the first distance between the biometric regions corresponding to two adjacent fingers of the plurality of fingers; and estimate an angle of spread between the two adjacent fingers according to a ratio of a value obtained by subtracting a distance between bases of the two fingers from the first distance, to a length from a base of one of the two adjacent fingers to the biometric information.
US09076024B2 Anti-counterfeiting system and method
In an anti-counterfeiting system and method, a set of identification codes are generated from data associated with units of a line of items. A manufacturer affixes machine readable forms of such identification codes to units of an item, and scans or reads the affixed identification codes before distribution of the units in order to flag only affixed identification codes as “active”. Thereafter, when a user scans or reads the machine readable form of an affixed identification code from a unit of some item, such as by using a “smart phone”, the identification code value is transmitted for verification and validation, and subjected to selected computer based tests to determine the authenticity of the identification code and thus of the associated unit. The user is provided with feedback as to the genuineness of the unit, or is contacted by or directed to contact a representative of the manufacturer if doubt exists.
US09076020B2 Protected mode for mobile communication and other devices
An electronic device includes at least one memory unit, a plurality of applications residing on at least one of the memory units and a database residing on at least one of the memory units. The database is configured to store a record specifying a subset of the plurality of applications that are to be inaccessible to a user when in a protected mode of operation. The protected mode is designed for a user (e.g., child or friend borrowing the device) who can potentially use the device with setting that are configured under the primary user's (e.g. parent, device administrator) supervision. The device also includes a user interface through which a primary user and not other users can specify the subset of the plurality of applications to be included in the record. A processor is operatively associated with the memory unit, the database and the user interface. The processor is configured to switch, in response to a request from the primary user and not other users, between a normal mode operation in which all of the applications in the plurality of applications are available for use and the protected mode of operation.
US09076019B2 Method and apparatus for memory encryption with integrity check and protection against replay attacks
A method and apparatus to provide cryptographic integrity checks and replay protection to protect against hardware attacks on system memory is provided. A mode of operation for block ciphers enhances the standard XTS-AES mode of operation to perform memory encryption by extending a tweak to include a “time stamp” indicator. A tree-based replay protection scheme uses standard XTS-AES to encrypt contents of a cache line in the system memory. A Message-Authentication Code (MAC) for the cache line is encrypted using enhanced XTS-AES and a “time stamp” indicator associated with the cache line. The “time stamp indicator” is stored in a processor.
US09076018B2 Encryption key generation in encrypted storage devices
A system and method of generating an encryption key in a self-encrypting mass storage device that includes using a manual input device as input for a micro-controller that contains a cyclic counter. An input device event triggers the micro-controller to read the current state of the cyclic counter. An accumulation of cyclic counter values is used as a source of entropy to seed a deterministic random number generator. The output of the deterministic random number generator is used as an encryption key for encryption/decryption processes within the mass storage device.
US09076017B2 Hardware virtualization module for exclusive controlled access to CPU
In one embodiment, a method comprises providing an apparatus having exclusive access to each of one or more central processing units (CPUs) of a computing system and exclusive access to host resources of the computing system; and controlling, by the apparatus, execution of a virtual machine in the computing system based on the apparatus controlling access to any one of the CPUs or any one of the host resources according to prescribed policies for the virtual machine, the prescribed policies maintained exclusively by the apparatus.
US09076014B2 Systems and methods for controlling subscribed access to data
Embodiments are directed to providing a plurality of data provisioning tiers for datasets and to throttling access to dataset data based on the dataset's data provisioning tiers. In an embodiment, a computer system receives an input that specifies a maximum number of queries that a user is allowed to perform on a given dataset over a specified period of time. The computer system generates data provisioning tiers for the dataset based on the received input. Each data provisioning tier indicates a maximum number of queries that the user is allowed to perform on a given dataset over a specified period of time. The computer system also applies the generated data provisioning tiers to the dataset so that the user is limited to the maximum number of queries specified in the data provisioning tier.
US09076013B1 Managing requests for security services
Embodiments of systems and methods are described for managing requests for security services to a provider of computing resources. In some implementations, a user can request that security services be provided to analyze or test a target network. For example, the user can request that security services conduct penetration testing of the target network in order to detect vulnerabilities with the target network's security infrastructure or configuration. The computing resource provider can dynamically provide the security services to the target network, for example, by instantiating one or more virtual machines that begin security testing of the target network in response to the user's request. In some embodiments, the provider of the security services may instantiate a security virtual machine instance (VMI) that can be connected to a customer's network using a secure connection, such as a virtual private network. The virtual machine instance can be physically located outside the customer's network while functioning as part of the customer's network. Thus, the security VMI can test security from either outside the network or from inside the network. In some embodiments, the VMI may test at multiple locations of the customer's network, for example, by establishing connections to multiple locations on the customer network.
US09076012B2 Access requests with cache intentions
A lease system is described herein that allows clients to request a lease to a remote file, wherein the lease permits access to the file across multiple applications using multiple handles without extra round trips to a server. When multiple applications on the same client (or multiple components of the same application) request access to the same file, the client specifies the same lease identifier to the server for each open request or may handle the request from the cache based on the existing lease. Because the server identifies the client's cache at the client level rather than the individual file request level, the client receives fewer break notifications and is able to cache remote files in more circumstances. Thus, by providing the ability to cache data in more circumstances common with modern applications, the lease system reduces bandwidth, improves server scalability, and provides faster access to data.
US09076009B2 Method and apparatus for secure shared personal map layer
Techniques to provide a secure, shared personal map layer include determining a geographic location. The geographic location is associated with operation of a device. The techniques also include determining indication that describes a relationship between the geographic location and a first user of the device. The techniques also include determining a privacy level for the indication. Then, the first user of the device is associated with the indication and the geographic location and the privacy level. In some embodiments, the techniques also include determining a personal description vocabulary word based, at least in part, on the geographic location and a context for the device. Then it is determined to present on the device a prompt that includes the personal description vocabulary word.
US09076007B2 Portable data support with watermark function
A portable data carrier (1) includes a non-volatile memory (11), a processor (15) and a watermark application (131) executable by the processor (15) which is also stored on the data carrier (1). The watermark application (131) is configured to check (152) data (110, 140) stored on the data carrier (1) or data intended to be stored on the data carrier (1) as to the presence of a digital watermark, or to mark (151) such data (110, 140) with a digital watermark. The check (152) or marking (151) is carried out on the data carrier (1) and after the check (152) or marking (151) the checked or marked data (110, 140) are stored in the non-volatile memory (11) in order to remain there for an indefinite time.
US09076004B1 Systems and methods for secure hybrid third-party data storage
The disclosed computer-implemented method for secure hybrid third-party data storage may include (1) identifying, at a trusted proxy system, an access request from a client system to access an encrypted file stored under a user account at a third-party storage system, where the requested access requires decryption of the encrypted file, (2) retrieving, from the third-party storage system, (i) the encrypted file and (ii) a decryption key that has been encrypted with a client-side key, where an asymmetric key pair designated for the user account includes an encryption key and the encrypted decryption key, (3) receiving, at the trusted proxy system, the client-side key, (4) decrypting, at the trusted proxy system, the decryption key with the client-side key, and (5) using the decryption key to access an unencrypted version of the encrypted file at the trusted proxy system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09076002B2 Stored authorization status for cryptographic operations
A hardware authentication device is disclosed that uses a cryptographic signature verification operation to authorize a subsequent cryptographic operation to be performed using the same or different keys and stores that authorization status in protected memory. The cryptographic algorithm may be an ECDSA signature, SHA-based Message Authentication Code (MAC) or any other cryptographic algorithm. The authorization status may be stored for a number of uses for a period of time or until a certain event occurs. In some implementations, the authorization status and the key that was authorized are stored in the same protected location in memory to preserve their relation to each other and prevent modification of either of them. Depending on system policy, the authorization mechanism might be a static stored external token that authorizes key use or an authorization process that is regenerated using a random (e.g., unique) number.
US09075998B2 Digital delivery system and user interface for enabling the digital delivery of media content
A system, method, and computer readable storage medium provide multi-platform accessibility of media content in a global computer network. Media content is selected in a client computer. Based on a format of the content, a media content player is loaded. If the content is not digital rights managements (DRM) protected, it is loaded and played in the player. If the content is DRM protected, a license to play the content is requested via an API and obtained via a server process. A web server computer creates/updates an authorized client user by communicating with a DRM server. The web server then creates a session with the DRM server and enables authorization to play by communicating with the DRM server that transmits the license to the client computer. Based on the license, the client loads and plays the content in the player.
US09075994B2 Processing attestation data associated with a plurality of data processing systems
An attestation technique is provided for processing attestation data associated with a plurality of data processing systems. A first data processing system is operable for receiving a request for attestation from a requester. In response to receiving the request, the first data processing system is further operable for retrieving a list of one or more children, wherein the one or more children include the second data processing system; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with each of the one or more children; retrieving and storing attestation data associated with the first data processing system; and sending to the requester a concatenated response containing the attestation data associated with the first data processing system and the child attestation data associated with the one or more children.
US09075993B2 System and method for selectively grouping and managing program files
A method in one embodiment includes determining a frequency range corresponding to a subset of a plurality of program files on a plurality of hosts in a network environment. The method also includes generating a first set of counts including a first count that represents an aggregate amount of program files in a first grouping of one or more program files of the subset, where each of the one or more program files of the first grouping includes a first value of a primary attribute. In specific embodiments, each program file is unknown. In further embodiments, the primary attribute is one of a plurality of file attributes provided in file metadata. Other specific embodiments include either blocking or allowing execution of each of the program files of the first grouping. More specific embodiments include determining a unique identifier corresponding to at least one program file of the first grouping.
US09075992B2 Systems and methods for identifying, deterring and/or delaying attacks to a network using shadow networking techniques
Systems (100) and methods (2100) for identifying, deterring and/or delaying malicious attacks being waged on a Computer Network (“CN”). The methods involve implementing a Mission Plan (“MP”) at a first Network Node (“NN”). MP (1900, 1902) specifies that: a first IDentity Parameter (“IDP”) for a second NN has numerous possible values associated therewith; and at least two possible values are to be used in communications to and from the second NN in different timeslots of a time frame (2020-2026). At the first NN, a value for the first IDP, which is contained in a received packet, is compared with the possible values specified in MP to determine if the value is a “correct” value for a current timeslot. If it is determined that the value is not “correct” for the current timeslot, then the first NN performs actions to identify, deter or delay a possible malicious attack on CN.
US09075989B2 Identifying misuse of legitimate objects
A query is received from a client device regarding an object. The query includes an identifier of the object and a set of associated usage attributes describing a usage of the object on the client device. A set of usage facts associated with the identified object is identified. The set of usage facts describe typical usages of the object on a plurality of client devices. A determination is made whether the usage of the object on the client device is suspicious based on the set of usage facts associated with the object and the set of usage attributes included in the query. A report is provided to the client device based on the determination.
US09075982B2 Security arrangement
The present invention relates to a method and arrangement for providing access to a device, the method comprising: receiving via a touch surface information, at least partly comprising a graphical code, said code comprising at least two parts, a first part relating to a first physical value on said touch surface and a second part relating to a second physical value on said touch surface, and generating a graphical code based on said first and second physical values, said graphical code having at least one portion deviating from a plane extension of said touch surface.
US09075978B2 Secure configuration of mobile applications
Secure configuration of a mobile application (“app”) includes sending the required configuration data for the app to the user's mobile computing device in a communication, for example an email with an attachment. A verification value is included in the attachment to protect the authenticity and integrity of the configuration data. A challenge code is issued to the user (or group of users). The challenge code is used to verify the configuration data.
US09075976B2 Systems and methods for controlling access to media content by detecting one or more user fingerprints
A system includes a media content processing subsystem and user input device having a plurality of control surfaces each configured to cause the input device to transmit at least one command to the media content processing subsystem. The input device is configured to acquire an image of a fingerprint of a finger touching the control surface and cause the processing subsystem to execute the command in accordance with a user profile that corresponds to the acquired fingerprint image.
US09075973B2 Identification by means of checking a user's biometric data
The invention relates to a database (10) suitable for combining biometric data (b) and an identifier (Id(b)). For this purpose, biometric data (bref) are collected (101). Next, a plurality of keywords is generated (102) by means of applying a family (H) of hash functions to the biometric data. Then, a plurality of addresses (@i) is obtained (103) by means of applying an addressing function (F) to the plurality of keywords and to a secret key. Finally, the identifier is stored (104) at said plurality of addresses.
US09075971B2 Information processing system, image processing apparatus, user device, control method, and storage medium
A mediation service accepts a coordination instruction for coordinating a web application server with a coordination device from a web browser, generates a script to be authenticated by an authentication method corresponding to the server, and transmits the generated script to the coordination destination service providing system indicated by the coordination instruction. The web browser transmits authentication information or an authentication token, which is obtained in response to an input operation on an authentication information input screen displayed by execution of the script, to the coordination device. Then, the coordination device receives and saves the authentication information or the authentication token.
US09075969B2 Systems and methods for secure handling of secure attention sequences
A method for authenticating, by a trusted component, a user of a desktop appliance to a remote machine includes executing, by a desktop appliance, a user interaction component, responsive to receiving a secure attention sequence from a user. The user interaction component receives authentication credentials associated with the user. The desktop appliance transmits, to a broker service, the received authentication credentials. The broker service authenticates the user, responsive to the received authentication credentials. The broker service transmits, to a remote machine, authentication data associated with the received authentication credentials. The remote machine authenticates the user, responsive to the received authentication data. The remote machine provides, to the desktop appliance, access to a resource requested by the user. In another aspect, a trusted component provides, to a user of a desktop appliance, access to secure desktop functionality provided by a remote machine.
US09075968B2 Dynamic creation of a temporary administrative user
In a computing system environment for administratively installing MSI applications on one or more computing devices of a remote user, methods and apparatus include creating a temporary administrative user on the computing devices. Upon installation, the temporary administrative user is removed and the application is used normally. Preceding installation, however, determinations are made regarding whether the MSI application requires the presence of the user. If so, creation of the temporary administrative user occurs on the fly by software, indicated by way of an administrator of the environment on a computing device other than the one being installed with the application. In this manner, MSI applications, which oftentimes require the presence of an actual user, can be successfully installed without their presence. They can also be installed without the security risks of a generic user common to all computing device or installed immediately without waiting for a first user to log on.
US09075966B2 System and method for loading application classes
In an application, variants of a class may be generated and associated with different security permissions for the application. When a class is to be loaded, a determination is made as to the application's security permissions, e.g. by decoding a security token. The class is then retrieved from a repository that stores class variants matching the required security level. The retrieved class variant, which may have a full or a reduced functionality as appropriate for the security permission may then by loaded.
US09075959B2 Application builder for industrial automation
A control system development platform is provided. The platform includes a shell component adapted to support development of a control systems application. An abstract model is associated with the shell component to facilitate development of the control systems applications.
US09075958B2 Use of fingerprint with an on-line or networked auction
A method for selectively allowing participation in an auction, implemented at one or more servers, includes steps for receiving a request to participate in the auction, receiving machine fingerprint data related to the request to participate in the auction, saving the machine fingerprint data in a memory, comparing the machine fingerprint data with previously stored machine fingerprint data, and determining, using the machine fingerprint data, whether to allow the participation in the auction.
US09075957B2 Backing up digital content that is stored in a secured storage device
A third party facilitates preparation of a backup SSD for backing up a source SSD. Digital data of the source SSD, which includes protected and sensitive data and information, is copied to the backup SSD either by and via the third party or directly from the source SSD but under supervision of the third party. The digital data of the source SSD is copied to the backup SSD under stringent rules and only if each party (i.e., the source SSD, destination SSD, and third party) proves to a counterpart device with which it operates that it is authorized to send to it digital data or to receive therefrom digital data, depending on the device with which that party operates.
US09075954B2 Requesting modification rights to a linked file set
A computer implemented system and method of sharing files between a link sharer and a link recipient over a network. The method comprises generating, in response to a request by a link sharer, a file sharing link to a file set, where the link does not provide a link recipient the ability to modify the contents of the linked file set. In response to receiving an indication that the generated link has been activated by a link recipient, displaying a representation of the linked file set with a display element configured to send a request for modification rights to the linked file set when activated by the link recipient. In response to receiving the request for modification rights, either automatically granting modification rights to the linked file set or sending notice to the link sharer indicating that the link recipient is requesting modification rights to the linked file set.
US09075950B2 Integrating discovered and user-defined geometric relationships
Methods for product data management and corresponding systems and computer-readable mediums. A method includes receiving a three-dimensional CAD model in the data processing system, the CAD model including a plurality of geometries. The method includes receiving at least one system-found equivalence class (EC) including at least one of the geometries, the system-found EC being of a specified EC type, and receiving at least one persistent EC of the specified EC type including at least one of the geometries. The method includes completing any unique persistent member of the persistent EC by finding any other geometries in the CAD model that have an EC relationship with the unique persistent member of the specified EC type. The method includes expanding the user-defined persistent EC by adding any unique found members of the specified EC type to produce a combined EC, and storing and reusing the combined EC.
US09075945B1 Method for implementing efficient entropy decoder by using high level synthesis
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable program code which, when executed on a computer system, causes the computer system to perform steps is disclosed. The steps include receiving a portion of a source code including a first program model defining an element of an integrated circuit, generating a first register-transfer level (RTL) description based on the portion of the source code, defining a library component based on the first RTL description, receiving the source code including a second program model defining the integrated circuit, replacing the portion of the source code corresponding to the first program model with the library component, and generating a second RTL description based on the source code.
US09075944B2 System and method of predicting problematic areas for lithography in a circuit design
A system and method is provided which predicts problematic areas for lithography in a circuit design, and more specifically, which uses modeling data from a modeling tool to accurately predict problematic lithographic areas. The method includes identifying surface heights of plurality of tiles of a modeled wafer, and mathematically mimicking a lithographic tool to determine best planes of focus for exposure for the plurality of tiles.
US09075943B2 Mesh number prediction method, analyzing apparatus and computer-readable storage medium
A mesh number prediction method obtains a mesh length for a case in which a mesh having an arbitrary shape is created by approximating an entire analyzing target by a three-dimensional (3D) mesh model based on data of a 3D surface model of the analyzing target, obtains a mesh number of each part forming the analyzing target for a case in which a mesh having an arbitrary shape is created by approximating each part by a 3D mesh model based on the mesh length, and obtains a predicted total mesh number of the entire analyzing target from a ratio of volumes of the entire analyzing target and each part based on the mesh number.
US09075936B2 Pre-colored methodology of multiple patterning
Some embodiments relate to a method for pre-coloring data within an integrated chip layout to avoid overlay errors that result from mask misalignment during multiple patterning lithography. The method may be performed by generating a graphical IC layout file containing an integrated chip layout having a plurality of IC shapes. The IC shapes within the graphical IC layout file are assigned a color during decomposition. The IC shapes are further pre-colored in a manner that deliberately assigns the pre-colored data to a same mask. During mask building data associated with IC shapes that have been pre-colored is automatically sent to a same mask, regardless of the colors that are assigned to the shapes. Therefore, the pre-colored shapes are not assigned to a masked based upon a decomposition, but rather based upon the pre-coloring. By assigning IC shapes to a same mask through pre-coloring, overlay errors can be reduced.
US09075935B2 Merit-based characterization of assertions in hardware design verification
A system is configured to generate assertions for verification of an integrated circuit hardware design expressed at a register transfer level (RTL) for variables of interest, each including an antecedent and a consequent. A relative importance score for the variables is determined by characterizing respective variables by a level of importance with respect to a target variable of the consequent. The relative importance scores may be combined to form a relative importance score of the assertion. A relative complexity score for the variable is determined by characterizing the variable by a level of understandability of the variable with respect to the target variable. The relative complexity scores are combined to form a relative complexity score of the assertion. The relative importance and complexity scores are combined to generate a rank score, which is used in ranking the assertion with respect to the RTL design for which the assertion was generated.
US09075933B2 3D transformation of objects using 2D controls projected in 3D space and contextual face selections of a three dimensional bounding box
Systems and methods are provided that allow a user to intuitively and efficiently manipulate one or more three-dimensional (3D) objects in a 3D space by performing at least one of a rotation transformation, a translation transformation, and a scaling transformation. A bounding box is presented encompassing the one or more 3D objects, as well as an anchor point. A user may select a face of the bounding box to establish a plane of transformation. Based upon the established plane of transformation, the dimensionality of possible transformations is automatically determined. Thereafter, a user may drag a handle or selected face of the bounding box, and the transformation is performed in accordance with the drag and relative to the location of the anchor point in the direction of the selected face.
US09075931B2 Process and system for rendering an object in a view using a product lifecycle management database
The invention proposes a process for rendering an object view using a PLM database. The database comprises modeled objects and relations between said modeled objects. Said modeled objects are associated to a set of values of attributes, whose values are stored in the database or computable based on relations involving said modeled objects. The process comprises displaying to the user a view of a set of modeled objects; receiving a selection by a user of an attribute; querying the database for a modeled object to be rendered; providing a value of the selected attribute, associated to said modeled object; and rendering said modeled object in the view according to the provided value of the attribute. It is also possible for the user to select a value of an attribute and the rendering will be carried out only on the object, whose value(s) matches with the selected value.
US09075930B2 Configurable embedded memory system
An embodiment of a memory module is disclosed. This memory module is a configurable hard macro. A portion of this memory module includes a data input multiplexer coupled to select between cascaded data and direct/bused data. Such portion further includes, a memory coupled to receive output from the data input multiplexer for storage therein, and a register input multiplexer coupled to select between read data from the memory and the cascaded data. This memory module further includes: a register coupled to receive output from the register input multiplexer, a latch/register mode multiplexer coupled to select between the read data from the memory and registered data from the register, and a data output multiplexer coupled to select between the cascaded data and output from the latch/register mode multiplexer to provide output data.
US09075926B2 Distributed interconnect bus apparatus
A distributed interconnect bus apparatus for connecting peripheral devices. The apparatus can be utilized to wirelessly connect peripheral devices or to allow the connectivity of such devices over a network. The apparatus includes a first bridge coupled to a root component of an interconnect bus; and a second bridge coupled to an endpoint component of an interconnect bus. The apparatus may further include an acknowledgment (ACK) termination for generating at least an ACK signal; and a flow control mechanism including at least one receiver buffer for temporarily saving data packets of multiple different transactions.
US09075924B2 Memory card controller and host device including the same
An interface selection unit physically determines whether or not a memory card is compatible with a first transfer mode, based on the result of signal exchange with the memory card via a first interface unit, to select a first interface unit or a second interface unit. If the second interface unit is selected, a memory card control unit performs an initialization process to cause the memory card to be accessible via the second interface unit, and thereafter, logically determines whether or not the memory card is compatible with the first transfer mode, based on information read from the memory card.
US09075923B2 Discovery mechanisms for universal serial bus (USB) protocol adaptation layer
A WiFi serial bus (WSB) attribute for use in Wi-Fi Alliance defined point-to-point (P2P) discovery mechanism includes a plurality of fields disposed in the frame. The WiFi serial bus attribute is arranged to provide information in the plurality of fields to support connectivity decisions for a USB device in a point-to-point network using a WSB protocol. The WSB attribute includes WSB architectural element information and information associated with a USB device behind a USB protocol adaptation layer (PAL).
US09075916B1 Undoing/redoing program code execution
A device may obtain first program code, and may cause the first program code to be executed. The device may determine a first execution state generated based on causing the first program code to be executed. The device may store the first execution state. The device may obtain second program code that includes a modification to the first program code, and may cause the second program code to be executed. The device may determine a second execution state generated based on causing the second program code to be executed. The device may store the second execution state. The device may receive an indication to restore the first execution state, and may restore the first execution state based on receiving the indication.
US09075915B2 Managing window focus while debugging a graphical user interface program
An embodiment of the present invention utilizes the abilities of an operating system to manage the window focus while debugging a graphical user interface program. In an example, a debugger program intercepts a breakpoint in the code of a graphical user interface computer program undergoing automated testing by a separate computer program. The debugger program instructs the operating system to save states of the window focus. Responsive to determining the breakpoint condition has ended, the debugger program instructs the operating system to restore saved states of the window that had focus prior to the breakpoint condition. Another embodiment of the present invention arranges similar window focus management where an operating system on its own is unable to save and restore states of the window that had focus prior to the breakpoint condition.
US09075914B2 Analytics driven development
Analytics of the recorded user interface operations at clients accessing a web application at a server are used to develop a test routine for testing the web application at a cloud service. A code module, which is either at the server or attached to the browser in each of the clients, records and correlates each of the user interface operations at each client to each action taken in the web application as it is being navigated. The module then transmits the correlated user interface operations to the test service. At the test service, analytics are performed on the correlated user interface operations to develop data from the user interface operations, from which data the test routine is constructed.
US09075907B2 Medical diagnosis assistance system, medical care assistance device, and medical care assistance method
A medical diagnosis assistance system comprising an image data storage part, a substance distribution information acquiring part, a display part; and a control part. The image data storage part is configured to store image data of a brain function image. The substance distribution information acquiring part is configured to detect the signal from within the brain of a subject and to acquire, based on the detected signal, substance distribution information indicating the distribution of the quantity of specified endogenous substances in each part of the brain. The control part is configured to control the display part to display the brain function image and the image information based on said acquired substance distribution information.
US09075905B2 Using audio video device as health monitor
An IPTV can receive a user name and present a screen enabling a user by means of a remote control to select health information categories, inputting numeric parameters into the selected categories which can be uploaded to an Internet server for analysis and viewed by the user for subsequent monitoring/charting.
US09075901B2 System and method to visualize activities through the use of avatars
A system and method to visualize activities through the use of avatars. The system includes a display engine configured to display at least one automated activity as an avatar. The system also includes a management system configured to monitor the progress of the at least one automated activity and alter at least one of an appearance and a movement of the avatar in relation to the progress of the at least one automated activity.
US09075893B1 Providing files with cacheable portions
Systems and methods are provided for enabling caching of one or more portions of a file. In some embodiments, a first file may be sent to a client system, where the first file includes a cache identifier identifying a shared portion of content of the first file, where the shared portion of content is included in both the first file and at least one other file. A request may be received from the client system for a second file that includes the shared portion of content. A modified second page may then be sent to the client system, where the modified second page includes the cache identifier, and does not include the shared portion of content, such that the client system may determine the content of the second page based on the modified second page and the previously stored shared portion of content.
US09075889B2 Mechanism for facilitating user-controlled management of site network mapping and synchronization
In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for facilitating user-controlled mapping of sites and synchronization of their content. In one embodiment and by way of example, a method includes receiving a first generation request for generating a site template in a first site network. The first generation request is received at a first computing device. The method may further include generating the site template, generating a child site based on the site template, and mapping the child site to one or more of a parent site and one or more child sites within the first site network.
US09075888B2 Information processing apparatus
A procedure includes: receiving a request to monitor a target monitored item of the computer from a first information processing apparatus; inquiring the first information processing apparatus for a first monitoring condition; and determining a second information processing apparatus by referring to monitoring information. The monitoring information includes information indicating a specific monitored item and a monitoring condition for monitoring the specific monitored item in association with an identifier for identifying an information processing apparatus. The procedure further includes: instructing one of the first and second information processing apparatuses to monitor the target monitored item of the computer in accordance with the first monitoring condition for monitoring the target monitored item by the other one of the first and second information processing apparatuses; and instructing the other one of the first and second information processing apparatuses not to transmit a request to monitor the target monitored item.
US09075885B2 System for handling a broken uniform resource locator
A method and apparatus for receiving a request for a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), determining the URL is broken, retrieving query data from a first database mapping the broken URL to the query data and retrieving one or more substitute URLs from a second database mapping the broken URL to the query data.
US09075882B1 Recommending content items
Recommending content items is disclosed. In some embodiments, determining an item to recommend includes receiving an indication that a first item is of interest and selecting a second item to recommend based at least in part on a degree of similarity of the second item to the first item as determined based at least in part on a number of other instances in which both the first item and the second item have been of interest and a first decayed popularity of the first item. In some embodiments, the degree of similarity of the second item to the first item is determined based in addition on a second decayed popularity of the second item.
US09075875B1 System and method for recommending television programs based on user search queries
A computer implemented method for recommending television programs based on search queries. The method is performed at a server, the server including a plurality of processors and storage and having access to a database of television program related information. The server receives from an electronic device search terms during a time window. The server determines one or more categories of interest associated with the received search query. The server then determines, in accordance with a location associated with the electronic device and the categories determined to be of interest in accordance with the received search query, at least one television program from a plurality of television programs available during the time window. The server then sends a recommendation to the electronic device to view the determined television program, in accordance with a determination that at least one television program is available and is sufficiently related to the determined categories of interests.
US09075874B2 Making user generated audio content on the spoken web navigable by community tagging
Methods and arrangements for creating and building subcategories in a user-based voice application. User posts are appended to a category in a voice application and subdivision of the category is prompted upon satisfaction of a first condition. The category is designated as a parent category, and at least one subcategory nomination are solicited from users. User input is solicited on appending at least one nominated subcategory to the parent category, and a nominated subcategory is appended to the parent category upon satisfaction of a second condition. User input is solicited to reassign a user post from the parent category to at least one subcategory.
US09075871B2 Technique to classify data displayed in a user interface based on a user defined classification
Disclosed are methods and systems for classifying data displayed in a user interface based on a user defined classification and generating the user interface to display the data based on the user defined classification. The method includes importing a folder structure from a folder structure container wherein the folder structure depicts a user defined classification of the data. The data displayed in the user interface is mapped to a folder in the folder structure and a user interface object in the user interface is created for the folder. Furthermore, the mapped data is presented in the user interface object.
US09075868B2 Intelligent results based on database queries
Information may be presented to a user by using a first application to receive a character stream of one or more noncompletion characters. The noncompletion characters indicate that additional characters may be received. The character stream is exchanged with a host that analyzes the character stream to generate results that are responsive to the user's predicted interest. Results are received and displayed so that the user may select one of the results to launch a code segment related to the selected result.
US09075863B2 Systems and methods for managing business objects
Described herein are systems and methods for managing business objects. In overview, various embodiments provide software, hardware and methodologies underlying a data driven application including a data driven business layer, optionally in combination with a data driven user interface and presentation layer. In overview, an object-oriented computer program includes a presentation layer, a business layer, and a database. The business layer provides business objects, which effectively interpose the presentation layer with the database. Substantive business object data is defined within the database, and loaded to the business layer following the receipt of a page call-up request at the presentation layer.
US09075860B2 Data lineage system
A data lineage system is provided that traces a data lineage of a data warehouse. The data lineage system maps a target data element to one or more source data elements. The data lineage system further stores one or more source surrogate keys within one or more auxiliary columns of a target data record. The data lineage system further stores, for each source data element, a data lineage mapping system record within a data lineage mapping system table that represents the mapping of the target data element and the corresponding source data element. The data lineage system further maps a source data element to one or more target data elements. The system further stores, for each target data element, a shadow system record within a shadow system table that represents the mapping of the source data element and the corresponding target data element.
US09075857B2 Computer-readable non-transitory medium storing therein a control program, management apparatus, and information processing system
A computer-readable, non-transitory medium storing therein a control program that causes a management apparatus to execute an operation, the operation comprises specifying, from among a plurality of databases, a database with the highest frequency of update of target data to be integrated which is stored in the database, transmitting, in accordance with acquisition of update data from the specified database, to a database other than the specified database among the plurality of databases, a request to transmit information stored in the database other than the specified database to the management apparatus and updating the target data to be integrated on the basis of the information transmitted to the management apparatus by the database other than the specified database in accordance with the request.
US09075855B2 Table synthesis from raw data
A system, method, and computer program product for organizing a visual representation of data into a structured data format are presented. Steps for identifying cell data structures from raw data and creating a structured data format are disclosed.
US09075853B1 Attribute category enhanced search
Performing a user initiated search query is disclosed and comprises receiving user input comprising description details of at least one desired object, retrieving a plurality of objects from a database sharing one or more of the description details of the user input, constructing a tree data structure based on the description details of the plurality of objects, the tree data structure comprising one or more attributes related to each of the plurality of objects retrieved, displaying visual images associated with the retrieved plurality of objects, the visual images matching at least one of the attributes related to the plurality of objects, and receiving a user selection of one or more of the visual images.
US09075851B2 Method and apparatus for data retention in a storage system
A system and method are provided for retention of data on a storage system. An application program provides the storage system with data to be stored on the storage system. The application program also provides the storage system with a retention period that indicates a period of time for which the data may not be deleted. When the storage system receives a request to delete the data, it first evaluates the retention period associated with that data to determine if the retention period has expired. If the retention period has not expired, the storage system denies the request to delete the data.
US09075848B2 Methods, systems, and computer program products for generating data quality indicators for relationships in a database
The disclosed methods, systems, and computer-program products allow a business to generate data quality indicators for relationships in a database. In an embodiment, one or more relationships linked to a customer are retrieved from a database to form a set of relationships. A match confidence code is generated for each relationship based on a score generated by the comparison of customer data associated with the respective relationship and corresponding customer data obtained from an external industry database. A link confidence code is subsequently determined for the customer based on a score generated by the scores used to define the match confidence code for each relationship in the set of relationships and on internal data associated with each relationship in the set of relationships.
US09075844B1 Correlating and reconciling descriptor data associated with computing systems
A system includes a memory operable to store instructions and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and operable, upon executing the instructions, to receive first probe information from a first probe installed on a first device, compare the first probe information to first device information in a database, and determine that the first probe is associated with the first device. The processor may be further operable, upon executing the instructions, to receive second probe information from a second probe installed on the first device, compare the second probe information to the first device information in the database, and determine that the second probe is associated with the first device. The processor may be further operable, upon executing the instructions, to generate a relationship between the first probe information and the first device information and generate a relationship between the first probe information and the first device information.
US09075837B1 Systems and methods of mapping multidimensional data and executing queries
A method includes receiving, at a server from a computing device, a query identifying a source multidimensional cube, a mapped measure associated with the source multidimensional cube, and one or more classification values. The mapped measure corresponds to a measure associated with a mapped multidimensional cube that is distinct from the source multidimensional cube. The method also includes generating a cell set, wherein each cell of the cell set corresponds to a respective combination of the one or more classification values. The method further includes executing the mapped measure with respect to each cell of the cell set to generate one or more query execution results and sending the one or more query execution results to the computing device.
US09075836B2 Partitioning keys for hash tables
A method, computer program product, and system for partitioning keys for a hash table in order to improve performance of the hash table. A hash function is used to generate a hash table by mapping a set of keys to a corresponding set of hash codes, and a hash failure is detected if the hash function fails to map the entire set of keys. To resolve the hash failure, the set of keys is partitioned to form subsets of keys that can be individually mapped.
US09075833B2 Generating XML schema from JSON data
A computer receives a first JSON data that includes at least one JSON array or JSON object value. The computer parses a stream of JSON data, wherein the stream of JSON data includes at least a part of the first JSON data. The computer determines the logical structure of the first JSON data using the parsed stream of JSON data. The computer generates an XML schema based on the logical structure of the first JSON data.
US09075832B2 Tenant placement in multitenant databases for profit maximization
A method for database consolidation includes generating a model for expected penalty estimation; determining a tenant's value as a function of query arrival rate and SLA penalty; placing a tenant to minimize a total expected cost in the order of the tenant value; and progressively using additional servers to prevent any server from being saturated to guarantee a tenant placement that costs no more than four times the cost of any other placement.
US09075827B2 Image retrieval apparatus, image retrieval method, and storage medium
An image retrieval apparatus includes a designation unit configured to designate a query area of an image based on a user's designation operation, a display unit configured to display an area where a local feature amount is difficult to be extracted in the query area designated by the designation unit as a feature non-extractable area, and a retrieval unit configured to retrieve, based on a local feature amount extracted from an area which is not displayed as the feature non-extractable area in the query area by the display unit, image feature data with which a local feature amount and the image are associated and which is stored in a storage device.
US09075819B1 Method and apparatus for providing parallel backup set processing for creating a synthetic backup
A method of creating a synthetic backup set which can be used as a baseline for subsequent incremental backup or for the restoration of a data volume. The method includes copying a first data object from a first backup set to a memory media for storing the synthetic backup set, and copying a second data object from a second backup set to the memory media. The second data object is copied to the memory media when both the first and second backup sets are open for read access. In one embodiment, the first backup set data of data objects is stored on a first magnetic tape, and the second backup set data of data objects is stored on a second magnetic tape. When the second data object is copied to the memory media, the first and second magnetic tapes are simultaneously mounted on first and second tape drives, respectively.
US09075817B2 System, method, and computer readable media for identifying a user-initiated log file record in a log file
A system, a method, and a computer readable media for identifying a user-initiated log file record in a log file are provided. The log file has a user-initiated log file record and a repeating pattern of log file records automatically generated by a software program. The system allows a user to identify first and second timestamp values corresponding to first and second times which identify a time interval of interest in the log file. The system further analyzes the log file to identify the user-initiated log file record having a timestamp value between the first and second timestamp values. The system further identifies the repeating pattern of log file records in the log file.
US09075811B2 Cloud information migration systems and methods
Information migration systems and methods are presented. In one embodiment, a cloud information migration method comprises: performing a migration interpretation process, including interpreting migration initiation information; performing a migration information retrieval process to automatically retrieve information in a first configuration from a first cloud vendor in accordance with the migration initiation information; performing a migration information configuration process, including automatically converting the retrieved information in a first configuration to information in a second configuration, wherein the second configuration is compatible with a second cloud vendor; and performing a migration information forwarding process to automatically forward the information in a second configuration to the second cloud vendor in accordance with the migration initiation information.
US09075810B2 Volume and partial volume merge to synchronize to non-homogeneous drive layouts
A method and system for merging files of multiple volumes in a data store to a single merged volume. The method includes creating one or more snapshots of one or more volumes of a data store of a first system. Files in the one or more snapshots are merged into a merged volume. The merged volume is mounted and stored in a second system.
US09075809B1 Methods and systems for application cluster virtual nodes
A method for creating an application cluster virtual node. The method may comprise identifying a plurality of nodes associated with an application cluster. The method may also comprise creating a virtual node that is associated with each node in the plurality of nodes. The method may comprise providing a data protection server with access to at least one node in the plurality of nodes. The access may be provided through the virtual node. A computer-readable medium is also disclosed.
US09075808B2 Digital photograph content information service
A server provides an information record comprising selected information related to an image depicted in a digital photograph. The server may comprise a database and a recognition application. The database may store, in association with each of a plurality of subject matters: i) recognition data for recognizing the subject matter within an image; and ii) information related to the subject matter. The recognition application may receive a request from a remote client system. The request comprises a digital image embodying at least a portion of a digital photograph. The recognition application applies recognition data to the digital image to determine a selected subject matter. The selected subject matter is the subject matter depicted in the digital image. The recognition application further obtains selected information from the database. The selected information may be the information related to the selected subject matter. A response is then returned to the remote client system. The response comprises the information record comprising the selected information.
US09075807B2 System and method for creating, receiving and using interactive information
Systems and methods are provided for implementing and using interactive information. In one embodiment, a user may specify certain information that should be collected by the embodiment. The embodiment may monitor or search through one or more data streams for all information matching or corresponding to the user's specifications.
US09075806B2 Alignment and re-association of metadata for media streams within a computing device
Techniques for re-associating dynamic metadata with media data are provided. A media processing system creates, with a first media processing stage, binding information comprising dynamic metadata and a time relationship between the dynamic metadata and media data. The binding information may be derived from the media data. While the first media processing stage delivers the media data to a second media processing stage in a first data path, the first media processing stage passes the binding information to the second media processing stage in a second data path. The media processing system re-associates, with the second media processing stage, the dynamic metadata and the media data using the binding information.
US09075804B2 On-the fly pattern recognition with configurable bounds
Some embodiments of on-the-fly pattern recognition with configurable bounds have been presented. In one embodiment, a pattern matching engine is configured based on user input, which may include values of one or more user configurable bounds on searching. Then the configured pattern matching engine is used to search for a set of features in an incoming string. A set of scores is updated based on the presence of any of the features in the string while searching for the features. Each score may indicate a likelihood of the content of the string being in a category. The search is terminated if the end of the string is reached or if the user configurable bounds are met. After terminating the search, the scores are output.
US09075803B2 Systems and methods for using machine readable codes to store and retrieve reversible write eraseable paper documents
An embodiment generally relates to systems and methods for electronically auto-filing and retrieving erasable paper document documents configured for ultraviolet (UV) imaging. A device can embed a machine readable code on an erasable paper document, or can detect a machine readable code preprinted on the document. An electronic version of the erasable paper document along with the machine readable code can be stored in a database. When the machine readable code is later detected on a rendered document, the electronic version corresponding to the machine readable code can be retrieved from storage. The erasable paper document can be re-rendered using the retrieved electronic version either as a new erasable paper document, for display to the user, or other renderings.
US09075800B2 Context switching in a business application
In a business application, contexts can be switched based on a selected customer. A first authorization profile can be associated with the business application. The authorization profile can restrict a user's ability to access, enter new or update existing information. In response to selection of a first element, such as a customer, the authorization profile can be switched to a second, different authorization profile with different read and/or write privileges. Context switching can also be used which includes additional features beyond the authorization profile. For example, personalization parameters that affect look and feel can be swapped. Additionally, available actions or pages accessible in the application can be swapped.
US09075799B1 Methods and apparatus for query formulation
To the standard inverted index database, a new “To” operator is added. The “To” operator treats the standard single-level linear collection of records as being organized into localized clusters. Techniques for hierarchical clusters are presented. During indexing, hierarchical clusters are serialized according to a uniform visitation procedure. Serialization produces bit maps, one for each hierarchical level, that preserve the hierarchical level of each record and its location in the serialization sequence. Also presented are techniques, when searching for an Object-of-Interest, for greatly improving the process by which Exclude Terms are identified. Exclude Terms are particularly useful when the lexical units, representing an Object-of-Interest, are ambiguous. When in the mode of searching for Exclude Terms, the Object-of-Interest can match anywhere in a snippet, rather than just in the focus sentence. Using the “To” operator, the focus sentences thus found are converted into role values, from which are identified candidate Exclude Terms.
US09075793B2 System and method of providing autocomplete recommended word which interoperate with plurality of languages
A system and method of providing an autocomplete recommended word, which classify a recommended word list according to indexes of various languages, store the recommended word list for each index, extract a corresponding autocomplete recommended word according to a user query and a setting mode which is received from a user's web browser, provide the user with the corresponding autocomplete recommended word, and thereby may propose a suitable recommended word according to the user query.
US09075792B2 Compound splitting
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for decompounding compound words are disclosed. In one aspect, a method includes obtaining a token that includes a sequence of characters, identifying two or more candidate sub-words that are constituents of the token, and one or more morphological operations that are required to transform the sub-words into the token, where at least one of the morphological operations involves a use of a non-dictionary word, and determining a cost associated with each sub-word and a cost associated with each morphological operation.
US09075785B2 Apparatus and method for sharing comment in mobile communication terminal
An apparatus and a method share a comment related to contents in a mobile communication terminal. In the method, a comment regarding a contents file that is being reproduced is received. A comment Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is read from a metadata storage space of the contents file. The comment regarding the contents file is stored in a storage space of the comment URL.
US09075784B2 Communication device, communication method and computer-readable recording medium
There is provided a communication device which communicates with a target communication device, including: a communication controller, a general-purpose processing unit, a data transfer processing unit and a starting unit. The general-purpose processing unit communicates with the target communication device via the communication controller. The data transfer processing unit receives data from the target communication device via the communication controller. The starting unit starts up the data transfer processing unit. The general-purpose processing unit receives a data transfer start request from the target communication device. The starting unit starts up the data transfer processing unit when the general-purpose processing unit receives the data transfer start request. The general-purpose processing unit or the data transfer processing unit notifies a data transfer start response to the target communication device after the data transfer processing unit is started up.
US09075782B2 Mass spectrometry data analysis method and analysis device
A data matrix in which pixel numbers are assigned to the vertical direction, m/z values are assigned to the horizontal direction, and intensity values are used as terms is generated from data obtained by peak detection (S3), and after the standardization of the data is executed so that the norms of the intensities of the pixel space are set to 1 for each m/z, the peaks (m/z values) are classified into a plurality of clusters by performing clustering in the m/z direction (S5 and S6). Since the probability of isotope peaks or adduct ion peaks derived from the same substance being consolidated into the same cluster increases, unnecessary peaks can be accurately removed by removing unnecessary isotope ion peaks and the like using m/z differences or intensities in the clusters (S7 and S8).
US09075777B1 System and method for dynamically changing web uniform resource locators
A web browser is implemented to receive a document from a server. The document may include one or more embedded Uniform Resource Locator (URL) references. The web browser may display the document on a user interface. A user associated with the web browser may determine one or more of the original embedded URL references should be replaced. In response to user input, the web browser may change at least one of the original embedded URL references to a corresponding replacement embedded URL reference and display the document with the replacement embedded URL reference. The web browser may save an association of the original embedded URL reference with the replacement embedded URL reference and subsequently, when receiving the document with the original embedded URL reference, automatically replace the original embedded URL reference with the corresponding replacement embedded URL reference before displaying the document.
US09075776B2 Document processing apparatus, document processing method, and program
In a system for displaying, in a text to which only one font can be designated, a character that cannot be output in the font designated in the text in an alternative font, the whole text is changed to the alternative font, so that a rendering result on the display side and a rendering result on the output side differ from each other. The text rendered during the display is acquired, and is divided into texts for each font if it is displayed in an alternative font, and output data are respectively generated as the individual texts.
US09075775B2 Method and system of identifying textual passages that affect document length
The system relates to identifying critical textual passages that influence the pagination of electronic documents such that the addition or removal of text to these critical passages will have the effect of shortening or lengthening the document.
US09075770B2 Apparatuses and methods for memory testing and repair
Some embodiments include apparatuses and methods having a first interface to communicate with a processing unit, a second interface to communicate with a memory device, and a module coupled to the first and second interfaces. In at least one of the embodiments, the module can be configured to obtain information stored in the memory device and perform at least one of testing and repairing of a memory structure of the memory device based at least in part on the information.
US09075762B2 Setting copy permissions for target data in a copy relationship
Providing a computer program product, system, and method for setting copy permissions for target data in a copy relationship. Source data is copied from a first storage to a first data copy in a second storage. A request is received to copy requested data from the first data copy to a second data copy. The second copy operation is performed to copy the requested first data copy form the second storage to a second data copy in response to determining that the requested first data copy is not in the state that does not permit the copying. The request is denied in response to determining that the requested first data copy is in the state that does not permit copying.
US09075761B1 Social spaces for games
A method, computer program product, and system is described. A plurality of individuals who have participated in an electronic game are identified. A social networking group associated with participation in the electronic game is identified. The plurality of individuals is associated with the social networking group.
US09075758B2 Removable storage device with transactional operation support and system including same
A removable storage device operates in accordance with transactions defined by a connected host. The removable storage device includes an input unit receiving metadata update operation(s) and log file information, a log information storage storing the log file information, and a transaction manager controlling execution of the metadata update operation(s) and execution of a recovery operation for the transaction following a failure event interrupting the transaction in accordance with the stored log file information.
US09075752B2 Information processing apparatus that detects startup error, method of controlling the same, and storage medium
An information processing apparatus which includes at least two controllers and is capable of positively detecting a startup error. Memory devices are connected to the controllers, respectively. A CPU of each controller accesses the memory device connected to the other controller via a bus bridge, identifies a startup stage to which the startup process has proceeded during the start of the self-controller, writes the identified startup stage as startup information into the memory device connected to the other controller, and detects whether or not an abnormality occurs during the startup of the other controller with reference to the startup information written into the memory device connected to the self-controller.
US09075750B2 Oracle rewind: metadata-driven undo
Metadata-driven undo is described. In an embodiment, a metadata repository stores metadata that is associated with operations. Attributes associated with each operation are also stored in the metadata. Each operation is associated with an undolet that includes instructions for generating undo entries for operations of a particular operation type. Undo log entries are generated using the metadata and the undolet when a request is intercepted that includes an undoable operation. When an undo command is issued, the instructions in the undo log that are associated with a particular business transaction are executed to “rewind” the transaction.
US09075747B2 Bus controller and control unit that outputs instruction to the bus controller
A bus controller is arranged on a plurality of network communication buses that connect together a plurality of bus masters, each sending out a packet, and at least one node, to which the packet is sent from each said bus master, in order to control the transmission route of a packet that is flowing through the plurality of communication buses. The bus controller includes: a route diagram manager configured to manage a plurality of transmission routes and their respective transmission statuses; a parameter generator configured to generate either a parameter that conforms to a predetermined probability distribution or a parameter that follows a predefined rule; a processor configured to select one of the plurality of transmission routes based on the respective transmission statuses of the transmission routes and the parameter; and a relay configured to perform relay processing on the packet that is flowing through the communication bus.
US09075746B2 Utility and lifetime based cache replacement policy
Embodiments of the invention describe an apparatus, system and method for utilizing a utility and lifetime based cached replacement policy as described herein. For processors having one or more processor cores and a cache memory accessible via the processor core(s), embodiments of the invention describe a cache controller to determine, for a plurality of cache blocks in the cache memory, an estimated utility and lifetime of the contents of each cache block, the utility of a cache block to indicate a likelihood of use its contents, the lifetime of a cache block to indicate a duration of use of its contents. Upon receiving a cache access request resulting in a cache miss, said cache controller may select one of the cache blocks to be replaced based, at least in part, on one of the estimated utility or estimated lifetime of the cache block.
US09075739B2 Storage device
According to one embodiment, a storage device performs error correction processing of a code of which the maximum correction performance is T bits, the decoding device including an error correction processor for performing error correction processing using calculating devices capable of handling errors of J bits (J is an integer equal to or more than one and less than T), wherein an initial value of an error number expectation value is set to I (I is an integer equal to or more than one and less than T), and execution of increment of the error number expectation value and execution of the error correction processing is repeated until no error is detected or the error number expectation value becomes T bits.
US09075733B1 Selective storage of address mapping metadata in a system having multiple memories
This disclosure is related to systems and methods for selective metadata storage in a system having multiple memories. In one example, a device may include a control circuit configured to selectively store a metadata base map in a first memory or a second memory. The metadata base map may include information to determine a physical memory address from a logical block address. The control circuit may also be configured to store metadata updates separately from the metadata base map. The metadata updates may comprise changes to the metadata base map. The control circuit may also be configured to selectively store the metadata updates in the first memory or the second memory based on characteristics of the device.
US09075730B2 Mechanisms to bound the presence of cache blocks with specific properties in caches
A system and method for efficiently limiting storage space for data with particular properties in a cache memory. A computing system includes a cache and one or more sources for memory requests. In response to receiving a request to allocate data of a first type, a cache controller allocates the data in the cache responsive to determining a limit of an amount of data of the first type permitted in the cache is not reached. The controller maintains an amount and location information of the data of the first type stored in the cache. Additionally, the cache may be partitioned with each partition designated for storing data of a given type. Allocation of data of the first type is dependent at least upon the availability of a first partition and a limit of an amount of data of the first type in a second partition.
US09075729B2 Storage system and method of controlling data transfer in storage system
An embodiment of the present invention is a storage system including a plurality of non-volatile storage devices for storing user data, and a controller for controlling data transfer between the plurality of non-volatile storage devices and a host. The controller includes a processor core circuit, a processor cache, and a primary storage device including a cache area for temporarily storing user data. The processor core circuit ascertains contents of a command received from the host. The processor core circuit ascertains a retention storage device of data to be transferred in the storage system in operations responsive to the command. The processor core circuit determines whether to transfer the data via the processor cache in the storage system, based on a type of the command and the ascertained retention storage device.
US09075723B2 Efficient discard scans
A plurality of tracks is examined for meeting criteria for a discard scan. In lieu of waiting for a completion of a track access operation, at least one of the plurality of tracks is marked for demotion. An additional discard scan may be subsequently performed for tracks not previously demoted. The discard and additional discard scans may proceed in two phases.
US09075722B2 Clustered and highly-available wide-area write-through file system cache
A method for accessing data stored in a distributed caching storage system containing a home cluster and a secondary cluster is provided. A first copy of a file is stored on the home cluster and a second copy of the file is stored on the secondary cluster. The second copy of the file is associated with an inode data structure having a consistency attribute. An input/output request is received directed to the file and indicates that file is in an inconsistent state by updating the inode's consistency attribute. The first copy and the second copy of the file is updated according to the received input/output request and it is determined whether the first copy and the second copy were updated successfully. The maintaining of the inode's consistency attribute is indicative of the inconsistent state of the file.
US09075720B2 Locking a cache line for write operations on a bus
Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for locking a cache line for a burst write operations on a bus. A cache line is allocated in a cache for a target address. A lock is set for the cache line, wherein setting the lock prevents the data in the cache line from being cast out. Data is written to the cache line. All the data in the cache line is flushed to the target address over a bus in response to completing writing to the cache line.
US09075719B2 Computer system and storage system
A storage system is migrated without stopping service provision by a host computer. By this means, in a migration-source storage system, data of the cache memory is destaged, and, next, data received from the host computer is directly written in a logical unit by bypassing the cache memory. On the other hand, in a migration-destination storage system, communication with the migration-source storage system is performed to set setting information of a logical unit of the migration object into a logical unit management table and set a writing mode for the cache memory to a cache-bypass mode. After that, the migration-source storage system blocks a path to the host computer. The migration-destination storage system receives a report of the path block from the migration-source storage system and then opens a path between the own system and the host computer.
US09075718B2 Dynamic field extraction of log data
A log analytics graphical user interface enables a user to dynamically extract and define a field from unstructured log data. The log analytics module automatically determines a definition for a field based on log text selected by the user. A portion of each log message is highlighted to reflect what the extracted field may be to assist users with understanding if input parameters are selected the intended log data. Changes to the definition of the field, by the user, may cause further highlighting that to indicate an incomplete or erroneous field definition.
US09075717B2 Connectivity fault notification
Connectivity fault notification is provided by generating an alarm indication signal at a device that is logically adjacent to the fault, and forwarding the alarm indication signal upward through various levels to at least one client level entity. The alarm indication signal may be suppressed at any level for a service instance if service is restored at that level, or if a protection path prevents disruption of the service instance at that level, or auto-suppressed at an originating node based on number of times transmitted or elapsed time. The alarm indication signal may include a point of failure indicator such as the MAC address of the device that generates the alarm indication signal, or a failed resource identity such as an IEEE 802.1AB LLDP MAC Service Access Point (“MSAP”). Further, the alarm indication signal may be employed to trigger use of the protection path.
US09075716B2 Remote issue logging and reporting of mobile station issues and diagnostic information to manufacturer
A user of a mobile station can report a mobile station issue by transmitting a report including a description of the mobile station issue and other information for rapid troubleshooting and resolution by a manufacturer, through a wireless mobile communication network, to the manufacturer of the mobile station or its software, via a life cycle management tool program at a network. The report sent by the user of the mobile station may include information relating to the description of the mobile station issue, mobile station device information, device operation information, diagnostic logs, or captured screenshots. The life cycle management tool program stores the report including the information and sends an electronic notification to a technical center of a carrier and/or the manufacturer of the mobile station or its software for review and resolution of the reported mobile station issue in real time.
US09075713B2 Method for detecting anomalies in multivariate time series data
A method detects anomalies in time series data, wherein the time series data is multivariate, by partitioning time series training data into partitions. A representation for each partition in each time window is determined to form a model of the time series training data, wherein the model includes representations of distributions of the time series training data. The representations obtained from partitions of time series test data are compared to the model to obtain anomaly scores.
US09075704B2 Mitigating risks during a high availibility and disaster recovery (HA/DR) rehearsal
A method of mitigating risks during a high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR) rehearsal comprises, with a processor, performing a number of checks on a number of applications to determine the operational performance of the applications, and with the processor, determining if the applications comprise design patterns that indicate potential HA/DR risks.
US09075703B2 Vehicle state amount estimating device
To provide a vehicle state amount estimating device capable of suppressing sudden change in behavior at the time of behavior control of the vehicle, in a vehicle state amount estimating device that estimates a target lateral acceleration used in a behavior control of a vehicle based on a lateral acceleration actual measurement value and a lateral acceleration estimated value at time of traveling of the vehicle; when estimating the target lateral acceleration based on the lateral acceleration actual measurement value and the lateral acceleration estimated value, the target lateral acceleration is estimated by performing weighting on the lateral acceleration actual measurement value and the lateral acceleration estimated value according to a state of side slipping of the vehicle.
US09075702B2 In-vehicle infotainment processor and data processing method using the same
An in-vehicle infotainment method and device, the in-vehicle infotainment device including a first processor for executing a web application, and a second processor for outputting vehicle data to the first processor. The first processor includes a first-processor-side inter-node communication (INC) interface module for transmitting and receiving information to and from the second processor. The second processor includes a second-processor-side INC interface module for transmitting and receiving information to and from the first processor. The first processor constructs a data structure including at least one lower node and a higher node of the lower node according to the vehicle data received from the second processor, locates vehicle data of the same attribute as internal values of lower nodes belonging to the same higher node of the data tree, and outputs the data tree to the web application.
US09075699B2 Side-by-side diesel utility vehicle
A utility vehicle comprises a plurality of ground engaging members and a frame supported by the plurality of ground engaging members. The frame includes a front frame portion, a mid-frame portion, and a rear frame portion. The utility vehicle further comprises an attachment supported at the front frame portion. Additionally, the utility vehicle includes an operator area supported by the frame and including an operator seat and an adjacent passenger seat spaced apart from the operator seat. The operator seat and the passenger seat are in a side-by-side arrangement. The utility vehicle also comprises an auxiliary power assembly having an attachment shaft configured to be operably coupled to the attachment. The attachment shaft extends in a generally longitudinal direction of the utility vehicle and projects outwardly from the front frame portion.
US09075697B2 Parallel digital filtering of an audio channel
An electronic audio apparatus is described that uses a digital audio filter in which a splitter separates an input frame of discrete time audio into different time interval portions. Separate digital filter blocks then operate in parallel upon those time interval portions, respectively. A combiner merges the filtered portions into a single audio channel signal. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US09075695B2 Version conflict checking to installable unit
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method, system, and computer program product for version conflict checking of installable units (IUs). The method includes receiving a request for version conflict checking of specified IU, the request including a version dependency relationship between IUs that are in a dependency relationship with the specified IU. A version dependency relationship between installed IUs is obtained. The version dependency relationship between the installed IUs is updated according to the version dependency relationships between the IUs that are in a dependency relationship with the specified IU. It is checked whether the specified IU has a version conflict with the updated version dependency relationship between the installed IUs.
US09075693B2 Methods for updating applications
A method includes receiving, from a remote computing device, an update request, the update request including a first signature corresponding to a client-side application package that is stored at the remote computing device. The method also includes identifying a first server-side application package using the first signature. The method also includes generating a differential update package using the first server-side application package and a second server-side application package as inputs, wherein the differential update package, when applied to the client side application package, is operable to modify to the client-side application package such that it is functionally equivalent to the second server-side application package.
US09075682B2 STB-driven upgrade of remote server application
A client application, executed on a set-top box with a local network, detects that a media server application, executed on a computing device within the local network, is eligible for a software upgrade. The set-top box provides, based on the detecting, an interactive prompt, on a separate television display, to request authorization for the software upgrade. The set-top box receives user input, via a remote control, authorizing the software upgrade and provides, to the media server application on the computing device, a signal for the media server application to initiate the software upgrade.
US09075680B2 Firmware upgrade for thin clients using one or more servers
A process and system for upgrading firmware in a thin client in a network environment. The process may proceed on an automated basis during boot-up by using one or more FTP addresses stored in the thin client. Multiple FTP servers may be accessed. The same firmware upgrades may be stored on more than one FTP server. Different firmware upgrades may instead or in addition be stored on different FTP servers.
US09075677B2 Methods and systems for automating deployment of applications in a database environment
In accordance with embodiments disclosed herein, there are provided mechanisms and methods for automating deployment of applications in a multi-tenant database environment. For example, in one embodiment, mechanisms include managing a plurality of machines operating as a machine farm within a datacenter by executing an agent provisioning script at a control hub, instructing the plurality of machines to download and instantiate a lightweight agent; pushing a plurality of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) references from the control hub to the instantiated lightweight agent on each of the plurality of machines specifying one or more applications to be provisioned and one or more dependencies for each of the applications; and loading, via the lightweight agent at each of the plurality of machines, the one or more applications and the one or more dependencies for each of the one or more applications into memory of each respective machine.
US09075673B2 Digital fast dB to gain multiplier for envelope tracking systems
A digital log gain to digital linear gain multiplier is disclosed. The digital log gain to digital linear gain multiplier includes a log gain splitter adapted to split a log gain input into an integer log part and a remainder log part. A log scale-to-linear scale converter is adapted to output a linear gain value in response to the integer log part and the remainder log part. A gain multiply circuit is adapted to multiply a digital signal by the linear gain value to output a gain-enhanced digital signal.
US09075671B2 Operating system and architecture for embedded system
An operating system for an aircraft according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a core services layer and a hardware interface layer that is time and space partitioned from the core services layer. The hardware interface layer is operable to control communications with hardware in a computer.
US09075667B2 Dynamic binding directed by static types
A static type, called “dynamic”, is introduced into a statically bound programming language. An expression or subexpression that is defined as a static type called “dynamic” in the source code of a program written in the statically bound programming language, is bound based on its runtime type instead of on its compile time type. Binding can be performed based on a mixture of compile time and runtime types that are based on the specification of types of expressions in source code. This type of binding is called hybrid binding. Operations are bound using the runtime type of constituent expressions (i.e., the runtime type of a receiver, an argument, or an operand) typed as dynamic and the compile time type of static constituents. If any constituent expression of an operation is dynamic, binding occurs at runtime instead of at compile time.
US09075666B2 Deferred execution in a multi-thread safe system level modeling simulation
Methods, systems, and machine readable medium for multi-thread safe system level modeling simulation (SLMS) of a target system on a host system. An example of a SLMS is a SYSTEMC simulation. During the SLMS, SLMS processes are executed in parallel via a plurality of threads. SLMS processes represent functional behaviors of components within the target system, such as functional behaviors of processor cores. Deferred execution may be used to defer execution of operations of SLMS processes that access a shared resource. Multi-thread safe direct memory interface (DMI) access may be used by a SLMS process to access a region of the memory in a multi-thread safe manner. Access to regions of the memory may also be guarded if they are at risk of being in a transient state when being accessed by more than one SLMS process.
US09075665B2 Smoothing peak system load via behavior prediction in collaborative systems with temporal data access patterns
Techniques are described above for smoothing peak load in collaborative systems. One embodiment includes, prior to a predicted peak load period, pre-staging user-data associated with one or more users of the collaborative system. During the predicted peak load period, a request from a first one of the users for access to the pre-staged user-data associated with the first user is received. And in response to the request, the pre-staged user-data is provided to the first user.
US09075661B2 Placing objects on hosts using hard and soft constraints
Objects are placed on hosts using hard constraints and soft constraints. The objects to be placed on the host may be many different types of objects. For example, the objects to place may include tenants in a database, virtual machines on a physical machine, databases on a virtual machine, tenants in directory forests, tenants in farms, and the like. When determining a host for an object, a pool of hosts is filtered through a series of hard constraints. The remaining pool of hosts is further filtered through soft constraints to help in selection of a host. A host is then chosen from the remaining hosts.
US09075660B2 Apparatus and method for providing service availability to a user via selection of data centers for the user
A capability is provided for improving service availability experienced by a user requesting access to a service via a user device, where the service has multiple service instances available from multiple data centers. A set of servicing data centers is selected for the user device. The set of servicing data centers is selected from a set of candidate data centers. The set of servicing data centers is selected from the set of candidate data centers in a manner for maximizing the independence/orthogonality of the network paths between the user device and the servicing data centers. The set of servicing data centers includes two or more of the candidate data centers from which the user device may access the service, thereby providing the user device with a primary service instance and one or more backup service instances which may be used to access the service.
US09075652B2 Idle time service
In embodiments of an idle time service, it can be determined that processing on a device is in an idle state. An execution duration of applications that are scheduled to be executed by a processor of the device can then be extended to reduce power consumption by the device. In other embodiments, it can be determined that an application configured to execute on a device is a background application. The execution duration of the background application can then be extended to reduce power consumption by the device.
US09075651B2 Methods and apparatus for efficient complex long multiplication and covariance matrix implementation
Efficient computation of complex long multiplication results and an efficient calculation of a covariance matrix are described. A parallel array VLIW digital signal processor is employed along with specialized complex long multiplication instructions and communication operations between the processing elements which are overlapped with computation to provide very high performance operation. Successive iterations of a loop of tightly packed VLIWs may be used allowing the complex multiplication pipeline hardware to be efficiently used.
US09075649B1 Exposing a proprietary image backup to a hypervisor as a disk file that is bootable by the hypervisor
Exposing a proprietary image backup to a hypervisor as a disk file that is bootable by the hypervisor. In one example embodiment, a method of exposing a proprietary image backup to a hypervisor as a disk file that is bootable by the hypervisor may include identifying the proprietary image backup having a proprietary format and storing an operating system, creating a plugin file corresponding to the proprietary image backup, reconfiguring the operating system to cause the operating system to be bootable when using hardware emulated by the hypervisor, gathering operating system data from the proprietary image backup, reformatting, using a filter module, the operating system data into a native format of the hypervisor, booting the operating system in a virtual machine of the hypervisor, and storing the reformatted operating system data in a replacement disk file formatted in the native format of the hypervisor.
US09075648B2 Virtual machine switching based on measured network delay
Technologies related to virtual machine switching based on measured network delay are generally described. A network delay aware Virtual Machine (VM) may be configured to adapt a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) to delay switching back to the network delay aware VM by a delay amount determined using a measured network delay. The measured network delay may comprise a delay between sending a network communication and receiving a network response. By delaying switching back to the network delay aware VM, additional processing resources are freed for other VMs managed by the VMM, thereby increasing efficiency of computing devices including network delay aware VMs, and correspondingly increasing efficiency of data centers including such computing devices.
US09075647B2 Preemptive guest merging for virtualization hypervisors
Aspects of the present invention provide a solution for managing memory in a shared virtual computing environment. A page that is to be stored in the memory of the host in the virtual computing environment is obtained from a guest. The page is analyzed to compute an identifier for the page. This identifier is compared with other identifiers of other pages that are currently stored in the memory to determine whether the identical page is already stored in the memory. If the identical page is currently stored in the memory, a link to that page is stored in the portion of the memory that is allocated to the guest.
US09075646B1 System and method for application isolation
A system, method, and computer readable medium for providing application isolation to one or more applications. The system may include an isolated environment including application files and executables, and an interception layer intercepting access to system resources and interfaces. The system may further include an interception database maintaining mapping between the system resources inside the isolated environment and outside, and a host operating system, wherein the isolated environments are saved on at least one of a local and remote storage.
US09075645B2 Automatically selecting optimal transport protocol in a cloud computing environment
A method, system and computer program product for selecting an optimal transport protocol in a cloud computing environment. An application creates a socket to communicate with a destination Virtual Machine (VM). The application requests a daemon agent to query a virtual machine manager to determine if the destination VM is on the same hypervisor as the application. The daemon agent receives a VMCI address (“context ID”) and an indication of the hypervisor associated with the destination VM from the virtual machine manager. The daemon agent enables the transport layer to route traffic over the VMCI protocol to the destination VM using its context ID in response to the destination VM being on the same hypervisor as the application. In this manner, the application is able to route traffic using an optimal transport protocol, including VMCI, depending on peer hypervisor association without requiring any code modifications to the application.
US09075644B2 Secure recursive virtualization
A mechanism is provided for performing secure recursive virtualization of a computer system. A portion of memory is allocated by a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or an operating system (OS) to a new domain. An initial program for the new domain is loaded into the portion of memory. Secure recursive virtualization firmware (SVF) in the data processing system is called to request that the new domain be generated. A determination is made as to whether the call is from a privileged domain or a non-privileged domain. Responsive to the request being from a privileged domain, all access to the new domain is removed from any other domain in the data processing system. Responsive to receiving an indication that the new domain has been generated, an execution of the initial program is scheduled.
US09075642B1 Controlling access to resources using independent and nested hypervisors in a storage system environment
Operating a hypervisor includes running a hypervisor as a thread of an underlying operating system and loading a guest operating system using the hypervisor based on the thread of the underlying operating system, where the hypervisor runs independently of the guest operating system and independently of other hypervisors running as other threads of the underlying operating system. The hypervisor may be a first hypervisor and operating a hypervisor may further include running a second hypervisor nested with the first hypervisor, where the guest operating system may be loaded using both the first hypervisor and the second hypervisor. The underlying operating system may be an operating system of a storage system.
US09075640B1 Sharing applications in a java virtual machine
Disclosed are various embodiments for executing multiple Java applications in a single Java virtual machine. Each Java application is stored in a Java distribution and includes a plurality of classes. The executing includes translating an access to a non-shareable static field within one of the classes into an access to mapping data associated with the non-shareable static field. The executing further includes executing an initializer associated with the non-shareable static field when the mapping data is created.
US09075637B1 Installer-free applications using native code modules and persistent local storage
Some embodiments provide a system that executes an application. During operation, the system obtains a resource list associated with the application and stores a set of resources including a native code module from the resource list through communications over a network connection, wherein the resources are stored in persistent local storage. The application then loads the application in the web browser and loads the native code module into a secure runtime environment. Next, the application executes the application independently of the network connection using the native code module and the stored resources.
US09075633B2 Configuration of life cycle management for configuration files for an application
A method for modifying a configuration file includes receiving a first configuration file for an application and receiving one or more changes to the first configuration file to generate a modified configuration file. When a second configuration file is received, differences between the first configuration file and the modified configuration file are determined, and differences between the first configuration file and the second configuration file are determined. The differences may then be presented to a user, who can then reconcile the differences.
US09075631B2 Method of rendering a user interface
A user interface (UI) is presented in which a UI client engine is associated with an application, and a UI rendering engine is associated with the client engine. The UI rendering engine receives the scene graph and data items associated with elements of the scene graph, and processes a rendering thread to render a UI in accordance with the scene graph and the data items, independently of further input from the client UI engine.
US09075629B2 Multi-phase resume from hibernate
Resume of a computing device from hibernation may be performed in multiple phases. Each phase may partially restore a state of the computing device to an operational state and may establish an environment in which another phase of the resume is performed. The hibernation information may be partitioned to store separately data to be used at each resume phase. The information may be stored in a compressed form. In a first phase, a boot-level resume loader may restore a portion of the operating system based on a portion of the hibernation information. The restored portion may be used in a second phase to retrieve hibernation information from another portion through the operating system (OS). Multiple processors supported by the OS may read and decompress the hibernation information that is then moved back to operational memory. The operating system may support asynchronous disk input/output or other functions that accelerate the resume process.
US09075628B2 Electronic system and communication control method for transmitting and receiving data by serial communication
Provided is an electronic system capable of dynamically switching a communication speed among a plurality of electronic devices connected in series. A first communication device and a second communication device are connected in series to a host controller. After controlling the communication speed of the second communication device to be a communication speed defined in advance, the host controller controls the communication speed of the first communication device to be the same communication speed as the communication speed of the second communication device.
US09075623B2 External auxiliary execution unit interface for format conversion of instruction from issue unit to off-chip auxiliary execution unit
An external Auxiliary Execution Unit (AXU) interface is provided between a processing core disposed in a first programmable chip and an off-chip AXU disposed in a second programmable chip to integrate the AXU with an issue unit, a fixed point execution unit, and optionally other functional units in the processing core. The external AXU interface enables the issue unit to issue instructions to the AXU in much the same manner as the issue unit would be able to issue instructions to an AXU that was disposed on the same chip. By doing so, the AXU on the second programmable chip can be designed, tested and verified independent of the processing core on the first programmable chip, thereby enabling a common processing core, which has been designed, tested, and verified, to be used in connection with multiple different AXU designs.
US09075622B2 Reducing errors in pre-decode caches
In a data processing system, data representing program instructions is fetched from memory, each instruction being from one of a plurality of sets of instructions including at least first and second sets of instructions and each program instruction within the fetched data comprising one or more blocks to be pre-decoded, each block representing a portion of an instruction. Pre-decoding circuitry is configured to perform pre-decoding operations on the blocks. For at least one portion of an instruction from the first set of instructions and at least one portion of an instruction from the second set of instructions the pre-decoding operation performed on a block fetched from memory is independent of whether the block is identified as representing the at least one portion of an instruction from the first set of instructions or as the at least one portion of an instruction from the second set of instructions.
US09075621B2 Error recovery upon reaching oldest instruction marked with error or upon timed expiration by flushing instructions in pipeline pending queue and restarting execution
A data processing apparatus executes instructions in a sequence of pipelined execution stages. An error detection unit twice samples a signal associated with execution of an instruction and generates an error signal if the samples differ. An exception storage unit maintains an age-ordered list of entries corresponding to instructions issued to the execution pipeline and can mark an entry to show if the error signal has been generated in association with that instruction. A timer unit is responsive to generation of the error signal to initiate timing of a predetermined time period. An error recovery unit initiates a soft pipeline flush procedure if an oldest pending entry in the list has said error marker stored in association therewith and initiates a hard pipeline flush procedure if said predetermined time period elapses, said hard flush procedure comprising resetting said pipeline to a predetermined state.
US09075614B2 Managing power consumption in a multi-core processor
A processor may include a core and an uncore area. The power consumed by the core area may be controlled by controlling the Cdyn of the processor such that the Cdyn is within an allowable Cdyn value irrespective of the application being processed by the core area. The power management technique includes measuring digital activity factor (DAF), monitoring architectural and data activity levels, and controlling power consumption by throttling the instructions based on the activity levels. As a result of throttling the instructions, throttling may be implemented in 3rd droop and thermal design point (TDP). Also, the idle power consumed by the uncore area while the core area is in deep power saving states may be reduced by varying the reference voltage VR and the VP provided to the uncore area. As a result, the idle power consumed by the uncore area may be reduced.
US09075612B2 System and method for managing display power consumption
A device includes a display screen that may be directed to function in one of multiple modes. The device may be configured to direct the display to shift between modes. In one mode, first information is displayed in an available display area including a first portion of a display screen in a display screen mode having a set of portions of the display screen. The set of portions may include the first portion of the display screen, which is configured in a powered-on state to perform display functions and receive user input, and a second portion of the display screen, which is configured in a powered-off state. In another mode, the entire screen may function in a powered-on state. One of the particular modes may be selected by swiping on object displayed by the screen to select a particular mode while the display is in a sleep mode.
US09075610B2 Method, apparatus, and system for energy efficiency and energy conservation including thread consolidation
An apparatus, method and system is described herein for thread consolidation. Current processor utilization is determined. And consolidation opportunities are identified from the processor utilization and other exaction parameters, such as estimating a new utilization after consolidation, determining if power savings would occur based on the new utilization, and performing migration/consolidation of threads to a subset of active processing elements. Once the consolidation is performed, the non-subset processing elements that are now idle are powered down to save energy and provide an energy efficient execution environment.
US09075609B2 Power controller, processor and method of power management
A processor includes a plurality of exclusive resources, a shared resource, and a controller configured to manage power state transitions of each of the plurality of exclusive resources and the shared resource. The controller receives a request from a resource to transition from a first power state to a lower power state and, in response to receiving the request, the controller controls power state transitions of the resource according to a first power control threshold when the resource is one of the plurality of exclusive resources and according to a second power control threshold that is greater than the first power control threshold when the resource is the shared resource.
US09075598B2 Productized approach for developing multi instance single code base product/application with centralized management
The embodiments herein relate to product/application customization and, more particularly, to develop multi instance single code base product/application with centralized management. The central repository present in the system fetches and holds all differentiation information for various instances of the application. Then the synchronization framework allows the differentiation data to be available to the individual instances. Further, the application archetype provides all the services needed to adhere to the principles of externalizing require facets of each instance and ensures the right configurations are fetched from the central repository. Finally, the application is executed with required configuration data.
US09075593B2 Multiple voltage generator and voltage regulation methodology for power dense integrated power systems
An integrated power system suitable for simultaneously powering marine propulsion and service loads. The system includes: (a) at least one generator configured with at least first and second armature windings configured to output respective first and second alternating current power signals of different voltages, the at least two armature windings positioned within the same stator slots so that they magnetically couple; (b) at least first and second rectifier circuits coupled to said generator to convert said first and second alternating current power signals into first and second direct current power signals; (c) a first load to which said first direct current power signal is coupled and a second load to which said second direct current power signal is coupled.
US09075592B2 Information processing system, uninterruptible power system, and method for controlling allocation of processing
An information processing system includes: a plurality of information processing devices; a plurality of power storage devices configured to supply DC power to any of the plurality of information processing devices; a plurality power source devices configured to supply DC power to the plurality of power storage devices; and an arithmetic unit configured to, in accordance with the charged state of any of the plurality of power storage devices and a task to be processed by the information processing device to which DC power is supplied from the power storage device, allocating the task to be processed by the information processing device to an information processing device to which DC power is not supplied from the power storage device.
US09075586B2 Power switching system, computer system, and reboot controlling method thereof
A power switching system, a computer system, and a reboot controlling method thereof are disclosed. The power switching system is used to the computer system and includes a first power input port, a first power output port, a first linear regulator module, and a first switch module. The first power input port is used for inputting a first power signal. The first power output port is used for outputting a second power signal. The first linear regulator module includes a first transformer unit used for transforming the first power signal into the second power signal, and a first switch control unit used for controlling the first transformer unit. When the first switch module is activated, the first switch control unit is connected to a ground and controls the first transformer unit to stop outputting the second power signal.
US09075584B2 Apparatus, system and method for concealed venting thermal solution
Some embodiments of an apparatus, system and method are described for a concealed venting thermal solution. An apparatus may comprise an enclosure arranged around one or more heat generating components, a duct arranged around an internal perimeter of the enclosure and a seam inlet arranged around an external perimeter of the enclosure to allow an airflow to enter the duct. Other embodiments are described.
US09075583B1 Layout design for a mobile application using selected governance, risk management and compliance rules
A method comprises selecting a set of governance, risk management and compliance rules, designing a layout for a mobile application, customizing data sources and permissions for the mobile application based on the set of governance, risk management and compliance rules, and building the mobile application. The selecting, designing, customizing and building are performed by at least one processing device. The governance rules comprise a set of policies which define a structure by which a given entity is directed and managed. The risk management rules comprise a set of business processes and tolerances defining an unacceptable potential for loss for the set of business processes. The compliance rules comprise a set of procedures for conforming to the governance and risk management rules.
US09075580B2 Tool-free fixation structure for data storage device
A tool-free fixation structure for a data storage device includes: a tray, a front end, center and rear end thereof being respectively formed with a position limiting portion, pressing portion, and elastic propping portion, an accepting space being formed between the position limiting portion and elastic propping portion, two propping sheets being respectively disposed on two sides of the elastic propping portion, and positioning columns being disposed on the tray at a lower side of the accepting space, an outer threaded portion being disposed on a circumference of each positioning column; a data storage device, threaded holes adapted to accept the corresponding positioning columns therein, being on a lower side thereof, an inner threaded portion being disposed in each threaded hole, thereby allowing the propping sheets to press against the data storage device, and achieving a tight engagement of the inner threaded portions with the corresponding outer threaded portions.
US09075573B2 Dock with moveable connector for display device
Docking stations with a moveable connector that is more durable are provided. For example, when a portable electronic device, coupled with the connector, is pushed forward, the connector is designed to move (e.g. rotate), thereby reducing an impact of strain resulting from such a push. The rotatable connector may be biased to keep the portable electronic device in an upright position such that the electronic device is supported by a rear reference surface of the docking station, thereby preventing undue strain on the rotatable connector in the upright position and inhibiting movement forward. The rotatable connector may be partly below an outer shell of the docking station, and pivot at the outer shell, thereby reducing possible damage to parts below the outer shell. The rotatable connector may also retract when rotated, thereby removing a force that can break the connector at a position of full rotation forward.
US09075564B2 Electronic device with input device
An electronic device includes a main body, an input device, a latching mechanism, at least one first driving device, and at least one support mechanism. The main body includes a housing defining a recess therein. The input device is rotatably received in the recess and rotatable between a first position where a top surface of the input device is substantially coplanar with a top surface of the housing, and a second position where the input device is inclined with respect to the top surface of the housing. The latching mechanism is configured to latch the input device in the first position. The first driving device is configured to rotate the input device to the second position when the input device is released by the latching mechanism. The support mechanism is configured to support the input device, thereby maintaining the input device in the second position.
US09075563B2 Augmented reality display system and method for vehicle
A system includes a head front display device, an eye position tracking camera to track movement of a driver's irises, a front view camera to take a picture of a front view of the driver, a head front display device controller to implement at least one of an angle change, forward movement, backward movement, upward movement, downward movement, leftward movement, and rightward movement of the head front display device, an image adjuster to adjust an object displayed on the head front display device in association with an object of an actual view seen through the front window of the vehicle based on positions of the driver's irises obtained through the eye position tracking camera and an image of the front view obtained by the front view camera, and a display unit controlled by the image adjuster and configured to display information on the head front display device.
US09075561B2 Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for managing collaboration on a virtual work of art
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for managing collaboration on a virtual work of art between multiple electronic devices are provided. A first graphical display system of a first device may generate an input command in response to receiving user information through a user interface of the first device, and may then share this input command with a second graphical display system of a second device. The first graphical display system may process the shared input command to generate pixel array data in a canvas of the first device while the second graphical display system may process the shared input command to generate pixel array data in a canvas of the second device. By sharing input commands rather than pixel array data, system latency may be reduced. Despite operating on the same artwork, the user interfaces and graphical processing capabilities of each device may vary, thereby providing the user greater expressiveness.
US09075559B2 Multiple graphics processing unit system and method
Systems and methods for utilizing multiple graphics processing units for controlling presentations on a display are presented. In one embodiment, a dual graphics processing system includes a first graphics processing unit for processing graphics information; a second graphics processing unit for processing graphics information; and a component for controlling switching between said first graphics processing unit and said second graphics processing unit. In one embodiment, the component for controlling complies with appropriate panel power sequencing operations when coordinating the switching between the first graphics processing unit and the second graphics processing unit.
US09075555B2 Print system, image forming apparatus, coordination method upon printing, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium encoded with coordination program upon printing
An information processing apparatus includes an application execution portion to generate application data, a print command portion to transmit a print command, a related information storage portion to store related information related to the application data, and a distant control portion, and the image forming apparatus includes an image forming control portion to form an image of print data included in the print command, and a remote control operation portion, and the remote control operation portion includes a remote control operation transmission portion to transmit to the information processing apparatus a remote control operation command, and a screen display control portion to display a remote control operation screen received from the information processing apparatus, and the distant control portion includes a screen generating portion to generate a remote control operation screen based on the related information associated with the application identification information included in the remote control operation command.
US09075543B2 Method of application memory preservation for dynamic calibration of memory interfaces
A method for calibrating a memory interface circuit is described wherein prior to a calibration operation at least a portion of application information contained in a memory circuit is moved or copied to an alternate location to preserve that information. At the completion of the calibration operation, the information is restored to the same location of the memory circuit. Thus, the calibration operation can be performed from time to time during normal operation of a system containing the memory circuit. Non-limiting examples of calibration operations are described including operations where a capture clock for a memory read circuit is calibrated, and operations where CAS latency compensation is calibrated for a DDR memory interface.
US09075537B2 Communication method applied to transmission port between access device and control device for performing multiple operational command functions and related access device thereof
A communication method applied to a transmission port between an access device and a control device includes: encoding a specific command to generate mode data; generating output data according to content of the mode data and content of command data corresponding to the specific command; and transmitting the output data from one of the access device and control device to the other via the transmission port. The other device of the access device and control device is used for receiving the output data and decoding the mode data of the output data to generate a decoding result, and selecting the specific command from a plurality of operational commands for executing a communication function corresponding to the specific command according to the decoding result.
US09075528B2 High-efficiency virtual disk management system
A virtual disk management system used in a diskless PC network communication agent system consisting of storage media, storage servers and a user-end computer for creating virtual disks having a dynamic space allocation function at the storage media and storing data into and fetching data from the virtual disks. The virtual disk management system uses a physical block index table, a storage media group record table, a virtual disk physical block occupation table and a differential disk relation table for virtual disk control, allowing physical and virtual space address translation to be done at one time to improve virtual disk access performance.
US09075522B2 Multi-screen bookmark hold gesture
Embodiments of a multi-screen bookmark hold gesture are described. In various embodiments, a hold input is recognized at a first screen of a multi-screen system, and the hold input is recognized when held in place proximate an edge of a journal page that is displayed on the first screen. A motion input is recognized at a second screen of the multi-screen system while the hold input remains held in place. A bookmark hold gesture can then be determined from the recognized hold and motion inputs, and the bookmark hold gesture is effective to bookmark the journal page at a location of the hold input on the first screen.
US09075520B2 Apparatus and method for representing an image in a portable terminal
An apparatus for displaying an image in a portable terminal includes a camera to photograph the image, a touch screen to display the image and to allow selecting an object area of the displayed image, a memory to store the image, a controller to detect at least one object area within the image when displaying the image of the camera or the memory and to recognize object information of the detected object area to be converted into a voice, and an audio processing unit to output the voice.
US09075519B2 System and method for interacting with a displayed work space
An application interface is provided that allows a user to interact with a work space. The application interface may include a defined display area that includes one or more discrete works spaces. In one implementation a user interaction with the defined display area, such as an overscroll interaction, results in the defined display area being modified, such as to include additional or fewer discrete work spaces.
US09075514B1 Interface selection element display
A finger of a user detected within a predetermined range from a surface of a display screen can be used to navigate through and select content in accordance with various embodiments. In response to detecting the finger within the predetermined range, a selection element can be positioned offset from the finger. The offset positioning keeps the selection element from being obscured by the finger and, thus, enabling it to remain visible to the user. In response to detecting the user's finger approaching the surface of the display screen, the selection element becomes fixed in its current location when the finger reaches a threshold distance from the surface. Accordingly, as the finger gets closer to the surface, it starts to converge with the selection element. Finally, the finger converges with the selection element when the finger reaches the surface of the display screen to select the desired content.
US09075513B2 Information processing apparatus, control method of information processing apparatus, and program
It enables a user to easily confirm whether or not a process corresponding to a key was correctly performed. To do so, there is provided a control method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: controlling, in a case where, after a key in a screen displayed on a display unit was depressed, the key comes to be not depressed inside a display area of the key, to perform a process corresponding to the key, and, in a case where, after the key in the screen displayed on the display unit was depressed, the key comes to be not depressed outside the display area of the key, to not perform the process corresponding to the key; and notifying, in the case where the key comes to be not depressed outside the display area of the key, the user that the process corresponding to the key is not performed.
US09075511B2 Display of target cardiac flow based on cardiac index calculation
User interfaces for medical perfusion systems that provide oxygenation, filleting, and recirculation of blood in connection with various medical procedures are provided. In particular, methods of displaying and communicating a desired target flow rate and cardiac index during cardiopulmonary bypass surgeries are provided.
US09075510B1 Aliases within a graphical model of a design
Blocks in a graphical model of a system may be assigned aliases. A user may interact with the aliases. In one implementation, a method may include displaying the alias in a view of the model that does not include the block associated with the alias and modifying, in response to user interaction with the alias, a graphical view of the model or properties of the block associated with the alias.
US09075509B2 User interface to provide additional information on a selected item in a list
Techniques pertaining to efficient scrolling a list are disclosed. One of the features of the efficient scrolling is to provide a graphic user interface that displays items in the list so that a user may scroll the list using a scroll wheel. After an item is highlighted for a predefined time, an information panel is automatically displayed to show hidden information associated with the item. The information panel is superimposed in an area of the graphic user interface, without obstructing the highlighted item.
US09075507B2 Silence reminder
A computing device may store a notification selection application executable by a processor of the computing device to provide operations including providing a user interface of a computing device including a notification selection control configured to receive user selection of a notification mode from a normal mode in which device notifications are enabled, a silent mode in which device notifications are disabled, and a timer mode in which device notifications are temporarily disabled until expiration of a countdown timer; receiving a gesture to select the timer mode from the notification selection control; starting the countdown timer based on receiving the gesture to select the timer mode; and automatically transitioning the computing device from the timer mode to the normal mode upon expiration of the countdown timer.
US09075505B2 Content feed user interface
A content feed aggregator displays an ordered list of content items, including a selected item and a set of other items. The selected item is displayed in an expanded format while the other items are simultaneously displayed in a compact format. At least one respective item in compact format is displayed above the selected item and at least one respective item in compact format displayed below the selected item. In response to a user action for selecting a second item in the displayed list, the ordered list of content items is redisplayed with the second item displayed in the expanded format and the other items, including the first item, displayed in the compact format.
US09075503B2 Concentric hierarchical list browser
The present disclosure involves computer-implemented methods, software, and systems for browsing hierarchically structured data using a concentric hierarchical list browser. A computer-implemented method includes displaying, using at least one hardware processor, a first-level circular user interface object with at least one first-level user interface object representing a first-level data object. Responsive to receiving an indication of a selection of the at least one first-level user interface object, decreasing the diameter of the first-level circular interface component, and displaying in a second-level circular user interface object at least one second-level user interface object representing a second-level data object associated with the first-level data object, wherein the second-level circular user interface object has an inner circular edge and an outer circular edge, and wherein the inner circular edge of the second-level circular user interface object is attached to the outer circular edge of the first-level circular user interface object.
US09075500B2 Method and system for presenting and navigating embedded user interface elements
A method and system to define attributes of a plurality of interactive user interface elements, the attributes including, at least, a textual descriptor and a value representation of an associated data element; associate at least one of the interactive user interface elements into a group of user interface elements; and display, embedded in a user interface of a first application, the group including a presentation of the textual descriptor and the value representation of the associated data element for each interactive user interface element in the group.
US09075496B1 Encapsulation of software support tools
A system, method, and computer program product for facilitating troubleshooting of remote workstation issues reported by an end user to a technical support center analyst in an enterprise network. A plurality of remote workstation software support tools are encapsulated in a support center utility application. Upon receiving a call from an end user (also referred to as customer herein), the remote workstation name for the end user is entered into the support center utility application. This causes information for the remote workstation and end user to be presented to the analyst via a support center utility application interface. At least one encapsulated remote workstation software support tool is launched based on an issue reported by the end user, the tool being pre-populated with information for the remote workstation from the support center utility application interface. The launched remote workstation software support tool is utilized to perform at least one troubleshooting step to resolve the issue reported by the end user.
US09075495B2 System and method for functional elements
Systems and methods whereby, for example, one or more functional elements can be established and/or employed. Such functional elements might serve a number of purposes. For instance, such functional elements might be employable in interoperating with devices, software, and/or the like, in working with entities, and/or the like. Such functional elements may, for example, be arrangeable in an associative and/or hierarchical manner.
US09075494B2 Systems and methods for performing object selection
Various embodiments are disclosed for selecting a region of interest within an object. One embodiment is a method for editing a digital image in an image editing device. The method comprises obtaining a first position within a digital image, the first position being specified by a pointer. The method further comprises defining a first selection region based on the first position and obtaining a second position within the digital image, the second position being specified by the pointer. The method further comprises determining movement of the pointer between the first position and the second position and predicting future movement by the pointer based on the determined movement. Based on the determined movement and the predicted future movement, the first selection region is expanded to define a second selection region.
US09075491B2 Double-sided touch-sensitive panel with shield and drive combined layer
A multi-touch capacitive touch sensor panel can be created using a substrate with column and row traces formed on either side of the substrate. To shield the column (sense) traces from the effects of capacitive coupling from a modulated Vcom layer in an adjacent liquid crystal display (LCD) or any source of capacitive coupling, the row traces can be widened to shield the column traces, and the row traces can be placed closer to the LCD. In particular, the rows can be widened so that there is spacing of about 30 microns between adjacent row traces. In this manner, the row traces can serve the dual functions of driving the touch sensor panel, and also the function of shielding the more sensitive column (sense) traces from the effects of capacitive coupling.
US09075489B2 Method for making touch panel
A method for making a touch panel is provided. A number of first transparent conductive layers are formed on an insulative substrate. Each of the first transparent conductive layers is resistance anisotropy. An adhesive layer is formed on the insulative substrate to cover only part of the first transparent conductive layers. A carbon nanotube layer is formed on the adhesive layer. The carbon nanotube layer is patterned to obtain a number of second transparent conductive layers spaced from each other and with each corresponding to one first transparent conductive layer. A number of first electrodes, a first conductive trace, a number of second electrodes, and a second conductive trace are formed contemporaneously.
US09075486B2 Circuit and method for sensing a capacitance
A transconductance amplifier mirror circuit is connected to an electrode for sensing the capacitance of the electrode with reference to ground, or the capacitance between the electrode and another electrode. A voltage level change is produced on the electrode connected to the transconductance amplifier mirror circuit to cause the transconductance amplifier mirror circuit to supply charges to or drain charges from a charge calculation circuit. The charge amount variation is converted to a signal for calculating the sensed capacitance.
US09075478B2 Reflective touch display and fabrication method thereof
The present disclosure relates to a display device, and more particularly to a reflective touch display and a fabrication method thereof. The reflective touch display comprises a reflective display device, a first bonding layer, a light guiding plate, a second bonding layer, and a touch screen. The light guiding plate is laminated to top surface of the reflective display through the first bonding layer. The touch screen is laminated to top surface of the light guiding plate through the second bonding layer. The first bonding layer and the second bonding layer are formed by a liquid bonding material that transforms from a liquid state to a solid state, wherein refraction index of each of the first and second bonding layer is less than that of the light guiding plate. In accordance with the present disclosure, yield rate can be increased and production cost can be reduced.
US09075477B2 Touch panel apparatus and methods
Apparatus and methods process a set of calibration sample values acquired in response to a sequence of calibration touch events generated at known X-Y coordinate positions along a linear path across a touch panel surface. The set of calibration sample values is then curve-fitted to the path to create a characteristic model of the touch panel or a portion thereof. Run-time signals are acquired from X-Y nodes across the panel at the time of a touch event. One or more run-time signal values may be substituted into the panel characteristic model to determine a distance between an X-Y node most strongly associated with the run-time touch event and a point-of-projection of the touch event location onto the path.
US09075476B2 Touch sensing methods comprising comparison of a detected profile form of a sensing curve with predetermined profile forms and devices thereof
A sensing method for detecting a sensing array is provided. The sensing array comprises at least one sensing row. The sensing method comprises the steps of: obtaining a sensing curve according to a plurality of sensing data signals extracting from the sensing row; determining whether a curve feature of the sensing curve matches one of a plurality of predetermined curve features; and obtaining a touch condition of the sensing row according to the determination result related to the sensing row. A sensing device is further provided. The present invention can reduce the impact of interference noise on detection of a sensing array, and enhance accuracy of detecting a touch condition of the sensing array.
US09075474B2 Portable electronic device and method for waking up the same from sleep mode through touch screen
A portable electronic device including a touch screen, a micro processing unit, a central processor and a display is provided. The central processor can operate in a normal operation mode or a sleep mode. The touch screen overlays the display, and includes a first touch area, a second touch area and at least one electrode. When the central processor operates in the sleep mode and one of the first and second touch areas senses a touch, the at least one electrode generates a touch signal. The micro processing unit determines whether the touch is sensed by the first or the second touch area according to the touch signal. If the touch is sensed by the second touch area, the micro processing unit outputs a wake-up signal to the central processing unit, so as to switch the central processor from the sleep mode to the normal operation mode.
US09075471B2 Mobile terminal and controlling method thereof
A mobile terminal including a touchscreen configured to receive an input of a first touch gesture and a second touch gesture; a memory configured to store a discrimination value for determining if the first or second touch gesture is by a touch pen; and a controller configured to compare an attribute of the first touch gesture with the discrimination value, receive the first touch gesture as being from the touch pen when the attribute of the first touch gesture is within a predetermined value or range of the discrimination value, and execute an operation corresponding to the touch pen based on the first touch gesture being received as the touch pen.
US09075470B2 Electronic information device
An electronic information device that does not start an operation unintended by an operator when a display of an object is changed while a contact to a touch sensor is detected, is provided.An electronic information device 1 includes a touch sensor 11, a display unit 14 configured to display the object, and a control unit 15 configured to, when deleting the object while the touch sensor 11 is detecting a contact at a position corresponding to a predetermined object area displayed on the display unit 14, control to disregard detection of the contact by the touch sensor 11 after deletion of the object until the contact is released.
US09075469B2 Stereoscopic liquid crystal display device having touch panel and method for manufacturing the same
A stereoscopic liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal panel configured by including a first substrate and a second substrate facing into each other, and a first liquid crystal layer filling a space between the first substrate and the second substrate, an adhesion layer formed on the liquid crystal panel, and a touch and stereoscopic image lens layer including a third substrate and a fourth substrate facing into each other and formed on the adhesion layer, a second liquid crystal layer formed between the third substrate and the fourth substrate, a plurality of first electrodes formed on the third substrate, a second electrode formed on an entire surface of a surface of the fourth substrate facing into the second liquid crystal layer, and a third electrode and a fourth electrode formed on the fourth substrate for detecting a touch position.
US09075467B2 Touch panel
A touch panel including a transparent substrate, a touch module and a flexible circuit board is provided. The touch module is disposed on the transparent substrate. The flexible circuit board has a bonding segment, a bending segment and extending segment. The bonding segment is bonded to the touch module. The bending segment is located between the bonding segment and the extending segment. The bending segment has a bending line, and the bending segment is bended along the bending line.
US09075464B2 Stylus based object modification on a touch-sensitive display
A stylus is used to modify the appearance of objects rendered on a touch-sensitive display. One of a plurality of objects on the display is selected by making contacting the object with the stylus. The stylus tilt and stylus contact pressure are determined. The appearance of the selected object is modified in response to the stylus tilt of the stylus and the stylus contact pressure.
US09075459B2 Imaging apparatus, imaging method, and computer-readable storage medium providing a touch panel display user interface
An imaging apparatus includes a control unit that sets a touch area corresponding to a periphery of an initial touch position on a touch panel as an area used for adjusting an image that is displayed at the initial touch position on the basis of a signal that is output by the touch panel disposed in connection with a display unit.
US09075457B2 System and method for interfacing applications processor to touchscreen display for reduced data transfer
System and method for substantially reducing an involvement of an applications processor in receiving data from a touchscreen display. In one aspect, the system includes a controller may be configured in an autonomous mode where it automatically measures the touchscreen display based configuration information received from the applications processor, determines notable events based on the measurement data, stores data and event identifiers related to the notable events in a memory, and sends a notification to the applications processor when event data is available In another aspect, the system includes a controller that filters user interactions events and transmits data related to only notable events to the applications processor. Because of the autonomous and event filtering operations of the touchscreen controller, there are substantially less communications between the controller and the applications processor. This improves the speed and efficiency of the applications processor.
US09075456B2 Touch sensing electrode structure
Present disclosure is related to a touch sensing electrode structure. The structure includes multiple first electrode lines formed along a first direction spaced from each other. Each first electrode line has several first electrode blocks which are electrically connected with a space there-between. The structure also includes multiple second electrode lines along a second direction spaced from each other. The second electrode lines and the first electrode lines are overlapped and insulated. The second electrode line also includes several second electrode blocks which are electrically connected with a space. The every first or second electrode block has a plurality of second wires formed along the second direction and at least one first wire which is electrically connected with the second wires and formed along the first direction.
US09075455B2 Method for determining the relative position of an object in an area, and optical input system
A method for determining the relative position of an object in an area in six spatial degrees of freedom is provided. A marker pattern with at least three markers is applied on the object, and an optical detecting device is provided with a two-dimensional sensor surface. The object is moved in the detection region of the optical detecting device such that the marker pattern can be detected by the detecting device, images of the markers are projected onto image positions on the sensor surface, and the image coordinates of the markers are ascertained. The relative position of the marker pattern is determined by analyzing the image coordinates. The position of an invariant point is ascertained on a reference circle on a reference plane, and describes a unique relationship between a coordinate system assigned to the marker pattern and a coordinate system assigned to the detecting device.
US09075454B2 Electronic apparatus, control program, and control method
A control unit changes a display orientation of a display screen according to a tilt direction of a display unit when a display orientation detection unit detects the display orientation of the display screen coincides with, among orientations in which the display screen is allowed to be displayed, an orientation closest to a vertical downward direction in a state where the detected display orientation of the display screen is not changed according to the tilt direction of the display unit. The display orientation detection unit detects the display orientation of the display screen displayed on the display unit. A tilt detection unit detects the tilt direction of the display unit, which displays information, in relation to the vertical downward direction.
US09075453B2 Human eye controlled computer mouse interface
A system, method, and device are provided that receive an image sequence from a camera, processes the image sequence, extract gaze information, map the user's eye movements to movement of the mouse cursor, and initiates mouse clicks based on user behavior.
US09075448B2 Symbol encoding apparatus and method
One hand operated device with the functionality of standard computer keyboard is provided. User encodes a symbol with a sweeping motion of a finger, “flicking” gently at one of plurality of touch sensitive actuators.
US09075446B2 Method and apparatus for processing and reconstructing data
Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a method for quantizing signals and reconstructing signals, and/or encoding or decoding data for storage or transmission. Points of a signal may be determined as local extrema or points where an absolute rise of the signal is greater than a threshold. The tread and value of the points may be quantized, and certain of the quantizations may be discarded before the quantizations are transmitted. After being received, the signal may be reconstructed from the quantizations using an iterative process.
US09075437B2 Tactile presentation apparatus, tactile cell, and method for controlling tactile presentation apparatus
Disclosed is a tactile presentation apparatus including a plurality of tactile cells. Each of the plurality of tactile cells includes a supporter for shielding magnetic force, a tactile feeder moving up according to the magnetic force in the supporter, and an electromagnet generating magnetic force depending on depth information of a pixel. The tactile presentation apparatus includes a permanent magnet, a vibration device that vibrates according to texture information, and a pressure sensor measuring pressure applied to the tactile feeder.
US09075436B1 Motion-based interface control on computing device
A computer-implemented user interface method include displaying an image on a graphical user interface of a mobile computing device, receiving a first user input indicating an intent to perform a zooming operation on the graphical user interface, transitioning the mobile computing device into a zooming mode in response to the user input, sensing motion of the mobile computing device in one or more of a plurality of directions, correlating the sensed motion in one or more of a plurality of directions with either a zooming in or a zooming out zooming direction, and changing a zoom level of the display of the image on the graphical user interface to correspond to the correlated zooming direction.
US09075435B1 Context-aware notifications
Systems and approaches are provided for presenting incoming notifications to a computing device based on a determined context of the computing device. Various sensors of the device can be used to determine the context of the device with respect to a user, the state of the device itself, or the context of the device with respect to the environment in which the device is situated. The user can then be informed of received notifications in a manner likely to get the user's attention while not being overly obtrusive to the user or others within the vicinity of the user.
US09075434B2 Translating user motion into multiple object responses
A system for translating user motion into multiple object responses of an on-screen object based on user interaction of an application executing on a computing device is provided. User motion data is received from a capture device from one or more users. The user motion data corresponds to user interaction with an on-screen object presented in the application. The on-screen object corresponds to an object other than an on-screen representation of a user that is displayed by the computing device. The user motion data is automatically translated into multiple object responses of the on-screen object. The multiple object responses of the on-screen object are simultaneously displayed to the users.
US09075431B2 Display apparatus and control method thereof
A display apparatus and control method are provided. The display apparatus includes a storage unit which is provided to store biometric information of an individual user and metadata corresponding to the biometric information; a biometric information input unit through which biometric information of a plurality of users is input; a display unit; and a controller which determines metadata corresponding to a first user by comparing the input biometric information of the first user with the stored biometric information, determines metadata corresponding to a second user by comparing the input biometric information of the second user with the stored biometric information, and generates information of a user group comprising the first and second users based on common metadata between the metadata of the first user and the metadata of the second user.
US09075430B2 Coordinate information updating device and coordinate information generating device
An object can be displayed on a screen of a two-dimensional coordinate system based on xyz-coordinate values of the object in a three-dimensional coordinate system, operation information of a two-dimensional coordinate system with respect to the object can be received from an input device, and whether the operation information is in accordance with a predetermined rule or not is determined. If the operation information is not in accordance with the predetermined rule, xy-coordinate values of the object can be updated in accordance with the operation information. If the operation information is in accordance with the predetermined rule, a z-coordinate value of the object can be updated in accordance with the operation information.
US09075428B2 Results generation for state machine engines
A state machine engine includes a storage element, such as a (e.g., match) results memory. The storage element is configured to receive a result of an analysis of data. The storage element is also configured to store the result in a particular portion of the storage element based on a characteristic of the result. The storage element is additionally configured to store a result indicator corresponding to the result. Other state machine engines and methods are also disclosed.
US09075426B2 Low profile human interface device
A human interface device is provided, having a substrate. A strain sensitive die is coupled to the substrate wherein the die is capable of providing an electrical signal indicative of a force applied to the strain sensitive die. A force transfer element is positioned adjacent to the strain sensitive die and coupled to the strain sensitive die. A translation element is mechanically coupled to the force transfer element. An elastic element is at least partially surrounding the translation element and the force transfer element, wherein the elastic element provides the mechanical coupling between the translation element and the force transfer element. A force applied to the translation element causes stretching of the elastic element, wherein the stretching of the elastic element causes a force to be applied to the force transfer element; and wherein the force applied to the force transfer element by the elastic element is then applied to the strain sensitive die.
US09075423B2 Generating a regulated signal from another regulated signal
An embodiment of a method includes generating a regulated output signal from a regulated intermediate signal in response to a reference signal and the regulated output signal, and generating the regulated intermediate signal from an input signal in response to the regulated output signal and the regulated intermediate signal. By generating one regulated signal (e.g., a regulated output voltage) from another regulated signal (e.g., a regulated intermediate voltage), the magnitude of the ripple component of the one regulated signal may be reduced. Furthermore, by generating the regulated intermediate signal in response to the regulated output signal, the efficiency of the regulation may be increased.
US09075419B2 Systems and methods for a graphical user interface of a controller for an energy-consuming system having spatially related discrete display elements
Devices and methods are provided for generating and/or displaying a graphical user interface used to control an energy-consuming system, such as a heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system. Such an electronic device may include, for example, a processor that generates the graphical user interface and an electronic display that displays the graphical user interface. The graphical user interface may include a menu formed from discrete display elements that, owing to the way in which the discrete display elements are shifted into and out of view on the screen, appear to be spatially related to one another.
US09075414B2 Pressure control device, flow rate control device and recording medium having programs used for pressure control device, recording medium having programs used for flow rate control device
To provide a pressure control device that can prevent ringing and overshoot without changing gain even with a high gain setting, can quickly change pressure to a steady state even with a large set pressure value, and can equalize the time required from an initial to steady state regardless of the set pressure value, a valve control part is provided that includes an open degree operated amount output part that outputs an open degree operated amount based on a measured pressure value and a set pressure value, and a limiter part that sets an upper limit value of the open degree operated amount according to the set pressure value and that controls a pressure control valve by the open degree operated amount of the upper limit value when the open degree operated amount exceeds the upper limit value.
US09075413B2 Engaging and disengaging for autonomous driving
Aspects of the present disclosure relate switching between autonomous and manual driving modes. In order to do so, the vehicle's computer may conduct a series of environmental, system, and driver checks to identify certain conditions. The computer may correct some of these conditions and also provide a driver with a checklist of tasks for completion. Once the tasks have been completed and the conditions are changed, the computer may allow the driver to switch from the manual to the autonomous driving mode. The computer may also make a determination, under certain conditions, that it would be detrimental to the driver's safety or comfort to make a switch from the autonomous driving mode to the manual driving mode.
US09075410B2 Abnormality detection for isolating a control system
A mechanism is provided for effectively detecting an abnormality occurring in a control system and isolating the control system in which abnormality is acknowledged. The mechanism receives, from one or more control systems in the plurality of control systems, respective abnormality notifications for respective counter control systems to be monitored by the plurality of control systems. The mechanism adds up abnormality notifications transmitted from respective monitoring sections of the plurality of control systems so as to evaluate the reputation of a control system suspected to have an abnormality. The mechanism causes a protected area for operating the control system suspected to have an abnormality to restrict outbound traffic from at least the inside of the protected area, when an indication is identified that the control system is abnormal according to criteria from a result of the evaluation.
US09075409B2 Apparatus and method for forming three-dimensional objects using linear solidification
An apparatus and method for making a three-dimensional object from a solidifiable material using a linear solidification device is shown and described. In certain examples, the linear solidification device includes a laser diode that projects light onto a scanning device, such as a rotating polygonal mirror or a linear scanning micromirror, which then deflects the light onto a photohardenable resin. As a result, the linear solidification device scans a line of solidification energy in a direction that is substantially orthogonal to the direction of travel of the laser diode. In other examples, the linear solidification device is a laser device array or light emitting diode array that extends in a direction substantially orthogonal to the direction of travel of the array.