| Document | Document Title |
|---|---|
| US09082823B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor device, includes: a first semiconductor layer having a first conductivity type; a pair of first electrodes arranged to be separated from each other in the first semiconductor layer; a second electrode provided on the first semiconductor layer between the pair of first electrodes with a dielectric film in between; and a pair of connection sections electrically connected to the pair of first electrodes, wherein one or both of the pair of first electrodes are divided into a first region and a second region, the first region and the second region being connected by a bridge section. |
| US09082822B2 |
Method of manufacturing semiconductor device
In one embodiment, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a transistor including a gate insulator and a gate electrode on a substrate. The method further includes forming an interconnect structure including one or more interconnect layers on the substrate by performing first and second processes one or more times, the first process forming an interconnect layer on the substrate, and the second process processing the interconnect layer into an interconnect pattern. The method further includes annealing the substrate by irradiating the substrate with a microwave, after at least one interconnect layer included in the one or more interconnect layers is processed into an interconnect pattern on the substrate. |
| US09082819B2 |
Process for thinning the active silicon layer of a substrate of “silicon on insulator” (SOI) type
The invention relates to a process for thinning the active silicon layer of a substrate, which comprises an insulator layer between the active layer and a support, this process comprising one step of sacrificial thinning of active layer by formation of a sacrificial oxide layer by sacrificial thermal oxidation and deoxidation of the sacrificial oxide layer. The process is noteworthy in that it comprises: a step of forming a complementary oxide layer on the active layer, using an oxidizing plasma, this layer having a thickness profile complementary to that of oxide layer, so that the sum of the thicknesses of the oxide layer and of the sacrificial silicon oxide layer are constant over the surface of the treated substrate, a step of deoxidation of this oxide layer, so as to thin active layer by a uniform thickness. |
| US09082817B2 |
Growth of multi-layer group III-nitride buffers on large-area silicon substrates and other substrates
A method includes forming a first epitaxial layer over a semiconductor substrate and etching the first epitaxial layer to form multiple separated first epitaxial regions. The method also includes forming a second epitaxial layer over the etched first epitaxial layer. Each epitaxial layer includes at least one Group III-nitride, and the epitaxial layers collectively form a buffer. The method further includes forming a device layer over the buffer and fabricating a semiconductor device using the device layer. The second epitaxial layer could include second epitaxial regions substantially only on the first epitaxial regions. The second epitaxial layer could also cover the first epitaxial regions and the substrate, and the second epitaxial layer may or may not be etched. The device layer could be formed during the same operation used to form the second epitaxial layer. |
| US09082815B2 |
Semiconductor device having carrier extraction in electric field alleviating layer
A semiconductor device disclosed in this specification includes a p+ contact region, an n+ source region, a p− base region, an n− drift region, a gate electrode, an insulator, a p+ electric field alleviating layer, and a p− positive hole extraction region. The electric field alleviating layer has same impurity concentration as the base region or higher, contacts a lower surface of the base region, and is formed in a same depth as the gate trench or in a position deeper than the gate trench. A positive hole extraction region extends to contact the electric field alleviating layer from a position to contact an upper surface of a semiconductor substrate or a first semiconductor region, and extracts a positive hole that is produced in the electric field alleviating layer at the avalanche breakdown to the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. |
| US09082811B2 |
3C-SiC transistor
A bipolar power semiconductor transistor is disclosed. The transistor includes a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type, a first semiconductor region of the first conductivity type disposed on the semiconductor substrate; a semiconductor drift region of a second conductivity type, opposite the first conductivity type, disposed on the first semiconductor region, a body region of the first conductivity type located within the semiconductor drift region, a source region of the second conductivity type located within the body region, a gate placed above and in contact to the source region, the gate to control charge in a channel region between the semiconductor drift region and the source region and to thereby control flow of charge within the semiconductor drift region. The semiconductor substrate includes a material having silicon (Si) and the first semiconductor region includes a material having 3-step cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC). |
| US09082806B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of forming a vertical interconnect structure for 3-D FO-WLCSP
A semiconductor device has a temporary carrier. A semiconductor die is oriented with an active surface toward, and mounted to, the temporary carrier. An encapsulant is deposited with a first surface over the temporary carrier and a second surface, opposite the first surface, is deposited over a backside of the semiconductor die. The temporary carrier is removed. A portion of the encapsulant in a periphery of the semiconductor die is removed to form an opening in the first surface of the encapsulant. An interconnect structure is formed over the active surface of the semiconductor die and extends into the opening in the encapsulant layer. A via is formed and extends from the second surface of the encapsulant to the opening. A first bump is formed in the via and electrically connects to the interconnect structure. |
| US09082802B2 |
Wafer centering hardware design and process
An apparatus, system, or method for positioning a wafer on a support of a rotatable chuck may improve the accuracy and precision of various wafer edge cuts and wafer profiling at a variety of stages of wafer manufacturing. The apparatus, system, or and/or method may employ one or more of a wafer position calculator to calculate a desired wafer position and to provide desired wafer position information to a wafer arm controller; and a wafer arm controller in communication with the wafer position calculator to provide instructions to adjust a wafer arm to position the wafer on the support according to the desired wafer position. Various sensor detectors and sensor lights or other mechanisms for sensing the position of a wafer may also be used. |
| US09082801B2 |
Rotatable locating apparatus with dome carrier and operating method thereof
A rotatable locating apparatus including a fixing base, a rotatable rack, a first driving module, a carrier, and a second driving module is provided. The rotatable rack is pivoted on the fixing base through a first rotation axis. The first driving module is coupled to the rotatable rack to drive the rotatable rack rotating with respect to the fixing base along the first rotation axis. The carrier is provided with accommodating slots on an arc surface of the carrier, and the carrier is pivoted on the rotatable rack through a second rotation axis. The second rotation axis passes through a curvature center of the arc surface and is perpendicular to the first rotation axis. The curvature center is located on the first rotation axis. The second driving module is coupled to the carrier to drive the carrier rotating with respect to the rotatable rack along the second rotation axis. |
| US09082798B2 |
Substrate collecting method
Even in case that a wafer is so greatly deviated that a peripheral portion of the wafer cannot be detected, position determination of the wafer can be performed without inflicting a damage on the wafer. The wafer peripheral portion, which is a target, is detected based on output images from a plurality of imaging units disposed along a peripheral portion shape of the wafer (step S210), and a wafer position deviation correcting step (step S220) or a rough correcting step (step 230) is performed according to the number of the imaging units capable of detecting the wafer peripheral portion. In case that the wafer peripheral portion cannot be detected by all the imaging units, a wafer position adjusting step (step 240) for moving the wafer is performed in a position adjusting direction acquired by a combination of the output images by each imaging unit. |
| US09082792B2 |
Complementary metal oxide semiconductor transistor and fabricating method thereof
A fabricating method of CMOS transistor includes following steps. A first gate and a second gate are formed on a substrate. A gate insulator is formed on the substrate to cover the first and second gates. A first source, a first drain, a second source, and a second drain are formed on the gate insulator. The first source and the first drain are above the first gate. The second source and the second drain are above the second gate. A first channel layer and a mask layer are formed on the gate insulator. The mask layer is on the first channel layer. The first channel layer is above the first gate and contacts with the first source and the first drain. A second channel layer is formed on the gate insulator. The second channel layer is above the second gate and contacts with the second source and the second drain. |
| US09082791B2 |
Method of forming low-resistance wire and method of manufacturing thin film transistor using the same
This document relates to a method of forming low-resistance metal gate and data wirings and a method of manufacturing a thin film transistor using the same. The method of the wiring includes depositing a metal layer on a base layer; exposing a portion of the base layer by removing a portion of the metal layer; forming grooves in the base layer; forming a seed layer in the grooves of the base layer; and forming a wire consisting of the seed layer and a plated layer by plating a plating material on the seed layer formed in the grooves of the base layer. |
| US09082788B2 |
Method of making a semiconductor device including an all around gate
A method of making a semiconductor device includes forming an intermediate structure including second semiconductor fin portions above a first semiconductor layer, and top first semiconductor fin portions extending from respective ones of the second semiconductor fin portions. The second semiconductor fin portions are selectively etchable with respect to the top first semiconductor fin portions. A dummy gate is on the intermediate structure. The second semiconductor fin portions are selectively etched to define bottom openings under respective ones of the top first semiconductor fin portions. The bottom openings are filled with a dielectric material. |
| US09082774B1 |
Display device
A display device including a substrate having a display area and a non-display area. The non-display area is outside of the display area. A plurality of drivers on the non-display area of the substrate. Each of the drivers having a first alignment mark on a first side of the driver and a second alignment mark on a second side of the driver. A first contact pad having a third alignment mark on a first portion of the non-display area of the substrate. A second contact pad having a fourth alignment mark on a second portion of the non-display area of the substrate. The third alignment mark of the first contact pad corresponds to the first alignment mark of the driver and the fourth alignment mark of the second contact pad corresponds to the second alignment mark of the driver. |
| US09082772B2 |
Stair step formation using at least two masks
Apparatuses and methods for stair step formation using at least two masks, such as in a memory device, are provided. One example method can include forming a first mask over a conductive material to define a first exposed area, and forming a second mask over a portion of the first exposed area to define a second exposed area, the second exposed area is less than the first exposed area. Conductive material is removed from the second exposed area. An initial first dimension of the second mask is less than a first dimension of the first exposed area and an initial second dimension of the second mask is at least a second dimension of the first exposed area plus a distance equal to a difference between the initial first dimension of the second mask and a final first dimension of the second mask after a stair step structure is formed. |
| US09082771B2 |
Semiconductor device including two groove-shaped patterns that include two bent portions
The semiconductor device has insulating films 40, 42 formed over a substrate 10; an interconnection 58 buried in at least a surface side of the insulating films 40, 42; insulating films 60, 62 formed on the insulating film 42 and including a hole-shaped via-hole 60 and a groove-shaped via-hole 66a having a pattern bent at a right angle; and buried conductors 70, 72a buried in the hole-shaped via-hole 60 and the groove-shaped via-hole 66a. A groove-shaped via-hole 66a is formed to have a width which is smaller than a width of the hole-shaped via-hole 66. Defective filling of the buried conductor and the cracking of the inter-layer insulating film can be prevented. Steps on the conductor plug can be reduced. Accordingly, defective contact with the upper interconnection layer and the problems taking place in forming films can be prevented. |
| US09082770B2 |
Damascene gap structure
One or more techniques or systems for forming a damascene gap structure are provided herein. In some embodiments, a gap is formed between a first etch stop layer (ESL) and an ESL seal region. For example, the gap is formed by removing a portion of a low-k (LK) dielectric region above an oxide region and removing the oxide region. In some embodiments, the oxide region below the LK dielectric region facilitates removal of the LK dielectric region, at least because the oxide region enhances a bottom etch rate of a bottom of the LK dielectric region such that the bottom etch rate is similar to a wall etch rate of a wall of the LK dielectric region. In this manner, a damascene gap structure associated with a cleaner gap is provided, for example. |
| US09082767B2 |
Embedded integrated circuit package and method for manufacturing an embedded integrated circuit package
A embedded integrated circuit package is provided, the embedded integrated circuit package including: at least one chip arranged over a chip carrier, the at least one chip including a plurality of chip contact pads; encapsulation material formed over the chip carrier and at least partially surrounding the at least one chip; a plurality of electrical interconnects formed through the encapsulation material, wherein each electrical interconnect is electrically connected to a chip contact pad; and a structure formed between the electrical interconnects of the embedded integrated circuit package, wherein the structure increases the creepage resistance between the electrical interconnects. |
| US09082766B2 |
Method to enhance reliability of through mold via TMVA part on part POP devices
A Through Mold Via (TMV) Integrated Circuit (IC) package is provided as a bottom IC package for a TMV Package on Package (POP) configuration. The TMV IC package has an overmold top portion having a substantially flat surface and spacer or standoff features extending upward from the flat surface. The spacer or standoff features are configured to abut the bottom surface of the top POP package during softer reflow in order to maintain a gap of predetermined height between the top and bottom IC packages. |
| US09082763B2 |
Joint structure for substrates and methods of forming
Disclosed embodiments include wire joints and methods of forming wire joints that can enable realization of fine pitch joints and collapse control for various packages. A first embodiment is a structure comprising a first substrate, a second substrate, and a wire joint. The first substrate comprises a first bonding surface, and the second substrate comprises a second bonding surface. The first bonding surface is opposite and faces the second bonding surface. The wire joint is attached to and between the first bonding surface and the second bonding surface. |
| US09082761B2 |
Polymer layers embedded with metal pads for heat dissipation
An integrated circuit structure includes a metal pad, a passivation layer including a portion over the metal pad, a first polymer layer over the passivation layer, and a first Post-Passivation Interconnect (PPI) extending into to the first polymer layer. The first PPI is electrically connected to the metal pad. A dummy metal pad is located in the first polymer layer. A second polymer layer is overlying the first polymer layer, the dummy metal pad, and the first PPI. An Under-Bump-Metallurgy (UBM) extends into the second polymer layer to electrically couple to the dummy metal pad. |
| US09082759B2 |
Semiconductor packages and methods of formation thereof
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor package includes a die paddle, and an encapsulant disposed around the die paddle. The semiconductor package has a first sidewall and a second sidewall. The second sidewall is perpendicular to the first sidewall. The first sidewall and the second sidewall define a corner region. A tie bar is disposed within the encapsulant. The tie bar couples the die paddle and extends away from the die paddle. A dummy lead is disposed in the corner region. The dummy lead is not electrically coupled to another electrically conductive component within the semiconductor package. The distance between the dummy lead and the tie bar is less than a shortest distance between the tie bar and other leads or other tie bars in the semiconductor package. |
| US09082752B2 |
Electronic device
An electronic device includes a circuit board, a heat generating component positioned on the circuit board, a casing receiving the circuit board and the heat generating component, and a working medium. The working medium is contained in the casing and covers the heat generating component. The working medium is electrically insulated and phase-change material, and represents solid state at normal temperature. |
| US09082751B2 |
Half-FinFET semiconductor device and related method
According to one embodiment, a half-FinFET semiconductor device comprises a gate structure formed over a semiconductor body. The semiconductor body includes a source region comprised of a plurality of fins extending beyond a first side of the gate structure and a continuous drain region adjacent a second side of the gate structure opposite the plurality of fins. The continuous drain region causes the half-FinFET semiconductor device to have a reduced ON-resistance. A method for fabricating a semiconductor device having a half-FinFET structure comprises designating source and drain regions in a semiconductor body, etching the source region to produce a plurality of source fins while masking the drain region during the etching to provide a continuous drain region, thereby resulting in the half-FinFET structure having a reduced ON-resistance. |
| US09082750B2 |
Non-volatile memory devices having reduced susceptibility to leakage of stored charges
Provided is a semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, a tunnel insulating layer, a charge storage pattern, a blocking layer, a gate electrode. The tunnel insulating layer is disposed over the substrate. The charge storage pattern is disposed over the tunnel insulating layer. The charge storage pattern has an upper surface, a sidewall, and an edge portion between the upper surface and the sidewall. The blocking layer includes an insulating pattern covering the edge portion of the charge storage pattern, and a gate dielectric layer covering the upper surface, the sidewall, and the edge portion of the charge storage pattern. The gate electrode is disposed over the blocking layer, the gate electrode covering the upper surface, the sidewall, and the edge portion of the charge storage pattern. |
| US09082749B2 |
Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes a channel layer; and a high resistance layer that is provided on the channel layer, and is made of a semiconductor with high resistance which has a conduction band position higher than that of the semiconductor which forms the channel layer. The semiconductor device includes a first conduction-type low resistance region provided on a surface layer of the high resistance layer, and is made of a semiconductor including first conduction type impurities. The semiconductor device includes: a source electrode and a drain electrode that are connected to the high resistance layer, in a position crossing the low resistance region; a gate insulating film provided on the low resistance region; and a gate electrode provided on the low resistance region via the gate insulating film. The semiconductor device includes current block regions between the low resistance region, and between the source electrode and the drain electrode respectively. |
| US09082742B2 |
Semiconductor device
A semiconductor device includes: a substrate comprised by gallium arsenide; an active layer provided on the substrate; a first nickel-plated layer provided on a lower face of the substrate facing the active layer; a copper-plated layer provided on a lower face of the first nickel-plated layer; and a second nickel-plated layer provided on a lower face of the copper-plated layer. |
| US09082735B1 |
3-D silicon on glass based organic light emitting diode display
An organic light emitting display includes an organic light emitting diode that further includes an anode metal connected to a transparent cathode. An organic diode stack further comprising: electron-transport layer, hole transport layer and the emission layer organized into deep trench high aspect ratio structures in a bottom plane of the organic light emitting display and sandwiched between and the anode and cathode layers described above. A first stratum of thin transparent silicon that is attached to a diode plane in the organic light emitting display through a high aspect ratio via. A second stratum of thin transparent silicon that is attached to the first stratum and forming addressing transistors for the devices on the first strata. The organic light emitting diode emits light in response to bias voltages existing on the first and second strata that is extracted through a sub-pixel pitch microlens film deposited on the glass substrate. |
| US09082732B2 |
Organic EL display panel and method for manufacturing same
An organic EL display panel including organic light-emission layers formed according to an inkjet method and suppressing decrease in image display quality caused by stripe unevennesses, and a method of manufacturing the same. In a bank layer forming process, openings belonging to a first array and openings belonging to a second array that is adjacent to the first in a row direction are offset with respect to one another in the column direction. In an organic light-emission layer forming process, a head unit is caused to move in a row direction, and nozzles used are switched between the first and second arrays. When a nozzle ejecting an erroneous ink volume is switched between being used and not being used, continuous forming of organic light-emission layers having a same, erroneous film thickness in the row direction is prevented. Thus, unevenness in luminance is suppressed. |
| US09082729B2 |
Combinatorial method for solid source doping process development
One or more small spot showerhead apparatus are used to provide dopant exposure and/or to deposit materials using CVD, PECVD, ALD, or PEALD on small spots in a site isolated, combinatorial manner. The small spot showerheads may be configured within a larger combinatorial showerhead to allow multi-layer film stacks to be deposited in a combinatorial manner. Anneal processes where the area of the process can be controlled such as laser annealing or site-isolated rapid thermal processing (RTP) can be used to vary the annealing conditions in a combinatorial manner. |
| US09082727B2 |
Touch detecting structure, touch display device and touch detecting and manufacturing methods
The invention discloses a touch detecting structure, an organic light emitting touch display device, a method of detecting a touch on a device and a method of manufacturing a device. The touch detecting structure includes: a first signal transmission line arranged on a first substrate of an organic light emitting touch display device; an insulating layer arranged on the first signal transmission line and having a via hole and a protrusion; a second signal transmission line located on the insulating layer and passing the top of the protrusion; a signal transmission terminal arranged on the lateral surface of the protrusion and having one end connected with the first signal transmission line through the via hole and the other end located on the top of the protrusion, and insulated from the second signal transmission line; and a cathode film arranged on a second substrate. |
| US09082726B2 |
Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing thereof
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes: a display substrate; a plurality of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on the display substrate, the OLEDs being divided from one another by a pixel defining layer (PDL); an encapsulation substrate on the display substrate and covering the OLEDs; a filling material on the PDL and between the display substrate and the encapsulation substrate; and a cavity between the OLEDs and the encapsulation substrate. |
| US09082713B2 |
Method of grinding wafer stacks to provide uniform residual silicon thickness
A method of processing a device wafer in a wafer stack by chucking the wafer stack device side down and grinding the exposed side of the carrier wafer to parallel with the device wafer, and thereafter flipping the wafer stack and chucking the wafer stack carrier side down and grinding residual silicon from the device wafer. |
| US09082712B2 |
Device wafer processing method
A device wafer has a plurality of devices individually formed in a plurality of separate regions on the front side of the wafer, the separate regions being defined by a plurality of crossing division lines. The wafer is processed by imaging the front side of the wafer to detect and store a target pattern, holding the front side of the wafer and grinding the back side of the wafer to thereby reduce the thickness to a predetermined thickness, imaging the front side of the wafer and next positioning the wafer with respect to a ring frame according to the target pattern stored so that the wafer is oriented to a predetermined direction, and attaching an adhesive tape to the back side of the wafer to thereby mount the wafer through the adhesive tape to the ring frame. |
| US09082708B2 |
Semiconductor device
Disclosed is a semiconductor device consisting of a lead frame or a circuit board, at least one semiconductor element which is stacked on or mounted in parallel on the lead frame or on the circuit board, a copper wire which electrically connects the lead frame or the circuit board to the semiconductor element, and an encapsulating material which encapsulates the semiconductor element and the copper wire, wherein the wire diameter of the copper wire is equal to or more than 18 μm and equal to or less than 23 μm, the encapsulating material is composed of a cured product of an epoxy resin composition, the epoxy resin composition contains an epoxy resin (A), a curing agent (B), a spherical silica (C), and a metal hydroxide and/or metal hydroxide solid solution (D), and the semiconductor device is obtained through a step of encapsulating by the epoxy resin composition and molding, and then segmenting the resultant into pieces. |
| US09082706B2 |
Semiconductor device with a semiconductor chip and electrical connecting elements to a conductor structure
A semiconductor device with a semiconductor chip and electrical connecting elements to a conductor structure, and a method for producing the same is disclosed. In one embodiment, the conductor structure has a chip island and contact terminal areas. These are arranged in a coplanar manner in relation to each other. The semi-conductor structure is selectively coated by a filled plastic film. Both the semiconductor chip and the electrical connecting elements are mechanically fixed and electrically connected by means of the film-covered chip island and the film-covered contact terminal areas, respectively. |
| US09082704B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method therefor
A semiconductor memory device has a cover film (5), between a memory cell (gate electrode 4, and source and drain regions 2a and 2b) and an interlayer insulating film (6), the cover film covering the memory cell, wherein the cover film (5) has a hydrogen storage film (5a) that is a coating film on a surface of a silicon nitride film (5b), and in addition, has a hydrogen storage film (5c) on a bottom surface of the silicon nitride film (5b). The hydrogen storage films (5a and 5b) are silicon nitride oxide films that include Si2N2O. By suppressing diffusion of hydrogen atoms to a memory cell from an interlayer insulating film, reliability of operation of the memory cell is improved. |
| US09082700B2 |
Ultraviolet treatment of metal oxide electrodes
An ultraviolet treatment method is provided for a metal oxide electrode. A metal oxide electrode is exposed to an ultraviolet (UV) light source in a humid environment. The metal oxide electrode is then treated with a moiety having at least one anchor group, where the anchor group is a chemical group capable of promoting communication between the moiety and the metal oxide electrode. As a result, the moiety is bound to the metal oxide electrode. In one aspect the metal oxide electrode is treated with a photoactive moiety. Exposing the metal oxide electrode to the UV light source in the humid environment induces surface defects in the metal oxide electrode in the form of oxygen vacancies. In response to the humidity, atmospheric water competes favorably with oxygen for dissociative adsorption on the metal oxide electrode surface, and hydroxylation of the metal oxide electrode surface is induced. |
| US09082699B2 |
Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having a twin well structure is provided. The method includes ion-implanting of a first conductivity type impurity in a first region and a second region of a semiconductor substrate, the first and second regions being located adjacent to each other; forming a first resist pattern to cover the first region of the semiconductor substrate and to expose the second region of the semiconductor substrate; ion-implanting of a second conductivity type impurity at a higher concentration compared to the first conductivity type impurity in the second region of the semiconductor substrate, with the first resist pattern being used as a mask; and thermal-diffusing the first conductivity type of impurity and the second conductivity type of impurity. |
| US09082696B2 |
Semiconductor device and method for forming same
A system and method for forming a resistor system is provided. An embodiment comprises a resistor formed in a U-shape. The resistor may comprise multiple layers of conductive materials, with a dielectric layer filling the remainder of the U-shape. The resistor may be integrated with a dual metal gate manufacturing process or may be integrated with multiple types of resistors. |
| US09082687B2 |
Nanoscale chemical templating with oxygen reactive materials
A method of fabricating templated semiconductor nanowires on a surface of a semiconductor substrate for use in semiconductor device applications is provided. The method includes controlling the spatial placement of the semiconductor nanowires by using an oxygen reactive seed material. The present invention also provides semiconductor structures including semiconductor nanowires. In yet another embodiment, patterning of a compound semiconductor substrate or other like substrate which is capable of forming a compound semiconductor alloy with an oxygen reactive element during a subsequent annealing step is provided. This embodiment provides a patterned substrate that can be used in various applications including, for example, in semiconductor device manufacturing, optoelectronic device manufacturing and solar cell device manufacturing. |
| US09082686B2 |
Semiconductor package
A semiconductor package includes a first substrate, a plurality of memory chips horizontally disposed on the first substrate, and having one surfaces which face the first substrate, other surfaces which face away from the one surfaces, and first bumps formed on the other surfaces, a second substrate disposed on the plurality of memory chips and electrically connected, a sub-substrate horizontally disposed on the first substrate together with the plurality of memory chips and electrically connecting the first substrate and the second substrate, and a driving chip having second bumps on one surface thereof and mounted to the second substrate such that the second bumps are electrically connected with the second substrate. |
| US09082684B2 |
Method of epitaxial doped germanium tin alloy formation
A method for forming germanium tin layers and the resulting embodiments are described. A germanium precursor and a tin precursor are provided to a chamber, and an epitaxial layer of germanium tin is formed on the substrate. The germanium tin layer is selectively deposited on the semiconductor regions of the substrate and can include thickness regions of varying tin and dopant concentrations. The germanium tin layer can be selectively deposited by either alternating or concurrent flow of a halide gas to etch the surface of the substrate. |
| US09082676B2 |
Method for driving semiconductor device
A semiconductor device capable of acquiring high-precision range information in a short time is provided. Alternatively, a semiconductor device capable of acquiring the range information and image information concurrently in a short time is provided. The accuracy of range information is increased by performing infrared light irradiation more than once to acquire a detection signal and making infrared light irradiation periods identical and extremely short. By detecting light reflected from substantially the same points of an object by adjacent photodiodes, the accuracy of range information can be maintained even when the object is a moving object. By overlapping a photodiode absorbing visible light and transmitting infrared light with a photodiode absorbing infrared light, range information and image information can be acquired concurrently. |
| US09082667B2 |
Flexible display device and method for manufacturing the same
Discussed is a flexible display device to reduce a width of a bezel. The flexible display device includes a substrate being formed of a flexible material, a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines crossing each other, a plurality of pads formed in a pad area of a non-display area, a plurality of links formed in a link area of the non-display area, a plurality of insulation films formed over the entire surface of the substrate, and a first bending hole formed in a bending area of the non-display area, the first bending hole passing through at least one of the insulation films disposed under the link, wherein the bending area is bent such that the pads are disposed on the lower surface of the substrate. |
| US09082666B2 |
Liquid crystal display panel and manufacturing method thereof
A liquid crystal display panel includes a substrate, a thin film transistor array, a circuit, and a dummy circuit. One surface of the substrate is divided into a display region and a wiring region. The thin film transistor array is formed on the display region. The circuit and the dummy circuit are formed on the wiring region, the dummy circuit is adjacent to the circuit, and the circuit and the dummy circuit protrude from the substrate. |
| US09082658B2 |
Semiconductor memory device and method of manufacturing the same
A semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. The device includes interlayer insulating patterns and conductive patterns stacked alternately, vertical channel layers formed through the interlayer insulating patterns and the conductive patterns, a tunnel insulating layer formed to surround sidewalls of each of the vertical channel layers, and a multifunctional layer formed to surround the tunnel insulating layer. The multifunctional layer includes trap regions disposed at intersections between the vertical channel layers and the conductive patterns, respectively, and disposed to be in contact with the tunnel insulating layer, blocking regions disposed to be in contact with the trap regions and the conductive patterns, and sacrificial regions disposed between adjacent ones of the blocking regions. |
| US09082656B2 |
NAND flash with non-trapping switch transistors
A manufacturing method for a memory array includes first forming a multilayer stack of dielectric material on a plurality of semiconductor strips, and then exposing the multilayer stack in switch transistor regions. The multilayer stacks exposed in the switch transistor regions are processed to form gate dielectric structures that are different than the dielectric charge trapping structures. Word lines and select lines are then formed. A 3D array of dielectric charge trapping memory cells includes stacks of NAND strings of memory cells. A plurality of switch transistors are coupled to the NAND strings, the switch transistors including gate dielectric structures wherein the gate dielectric structures are different than the dielectric charge trapping structures. |
| US09082655B2 |
Method of manufacturing nonvolatile memory device including a channel pad
A nonvolatile memory device having a vertical structure and a method of manufacturing the same, the nonvolatile memory device including a channel region that vertically extends from a substrate; gate electrodes on the substrate, the gate electrodes being disposed along an outer side wall of the channel region and spaced apart from one another; and a channel pad that extends from one side of the channel region to an outside of the channel region, the channel pad covering a top surface of the channel region. |
| US09082654B2 |
Method of manufacturing non-volatile memory cell with simplified step of forming floating gate
A semiconductor device of the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate, stripe-shaped trenches for separating the semiconductor substrate into a plurality of active regions, a buried film having a projecting portion that projects from the semiconductor substrate, buried into the trenches, a source region and drain region of a second conductivity type, which are a pair of regions formed in the active region, for providing a channel region of a first conductivity type for a region therebetween, and a floating gate consisting of a single layer striding across the source region and the drain region, projecting beyond the projecting portion in a manner not overlapping the projecting portion, in which an aspect ratio of the buried film is 2.3 to 3.67. |
| US09082652B2 |
Semiconductor device, active matrix substrate, and display device
A semiconductor device that includes a substrate 37, a non-volatile memory (memory cell) 21 having a memory cell transistor (switching element) 33 and a floating gate electrode (memory storage part) 36, and a passivation insulating film (insulating layer) 40 and an organic polymer film (insulating layer) 41 both provided above the non-volatile memory 21, in which conductive wiring line layers (shielding part) 5a to 5c for shielding the floating gate electrode 36 are provided between the floating gate electrode 36 and both the passivation insulating film 40 and the organic polymer film 41 so that ions generated from the passivation insulating film 40 and the organic polymer film 41 can be prevented from reaching the floating gate electrode 36. |
| US09082648B2 |
Vertical insulated-gate turn-off device having a planar gate
An insulated gate turn-off (IGTO) device has a layered structure including a p+ layer (e.g., a substrate), an n-type layer, a p-type layer (which may be a p-well), n+ regions formed in the surface of the p-type layer, and insulated planar gates over the p-type layer between the n+ regions. The layered structure forms vertical NPN and PNP transistors. The p-type layer forms the base of the NPN transistor. When the gates are sufficiently positively biased, the underlying p-type layer inverts to reduce the width of the base to increase the beta of the NPN transistor. This causes the product of the betas of the NPN and PNP transistors to exceed one, and the device becomes fully conductive. When the gate voltage is removed, the base width increases such that the product of the betas is less than one, and the device shuts off. No latch-up occurs in normal operation. |
| US09082644B2 |
Method of manufacturing and testing a chip package
A method of producing and testing a chip package is described. The chip package to be produced includes a semiconductor chip containing an integrated circuit and a reinforcing structure attached to the semiconductor chip. Further, the chip package has a lower main face and an upper main face opposite to the lower main face, wherein the lower main face is at least partly formed by an exposed surface of the semiconductor chip and the upper main face is formed by a terminal surface of the reinforcing structure on which external terminal pads of the chip package are arranged. After production, the package is subjected to a package-level burn-in test. |
| US09082643B2 |
Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device is provided which includes an N-type semiconductor layer and a P-type semiconductor layer coexisting in the same wiring layer without influences on the properties of a semiconductor layer. The semiconductor device includes a first wiring layer with a first wiring, a second wiring layer with a second wiring, and first and second transistors provided in the first and second wiring layers. The first transistor includes a first gate electrode, a first gate insulating film, a first oxide semiconductor layer, a first hard mask layer, and first insulating sidewall films covering the sides of the first oxide semiconductor layer. The second transistor includes a second gate electrode, a second gate insulating film, a second oxide semiconductor layer, and a second hard mask layer. |
| US09082642B2 |
Semiconductor device
Disclosed is a semiconductor device, including: an active region defined in a shape extended in at least four different directions in a semiconductor substrate; and gates of first to fourth transistors formed on extended portions of the active region, respectively, in which the first to fourth transistors share one junction area. |
| US09082641B2 |
Semiconductor device with contact hole and manufacturing method thereof
A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a first barrier layer disposed on the substrate, a first dielectric layer disposed on the first barrier layer, and a second barrier layer disposed on the first barrier layer. The semiconductor device further includes a third barrier layer and a first metal gate each being disposed between a first portion of the second barrier layer and a second portion of the second barrier layer. The first metal gate is disposed between the third barrier layer and the substrate. The semiconductor device further includes a second dielectric layer. The third barrier layer is disposed between the first metal gate and the second dielectric layer. The semiconductor device further includes a second metal gate. The semiconductor device further includes a contact hole positioned between the first metal gate and the second metal gate. |
| US09082640B2 |
Pass gate and semiconductor storage device having the same
According to an embodiment, a semiconductor storage device includes an SRAM cell. The SRAM cell includes first and second transfer gates each comprising a pass gate. The pass gate includes first and second tunnel transistors. The first tunnel transistor includes a first conductivity type first diffusion region as a source or drain region, a second conductivity type second diffusion region as a drain or source region, and a gate electrode supplied with a control voltage. The second tunnel transistor includes a first conductivity type first diffusion region as a source or drain region, a second conductivity type second diffusion region as a drain or source region electrically connected to the second diffusion region of the first tunnel transistor, and a gate electrode electrically connected to the gate electrode of the first tunnel transistor. |
| US09082636B2 |
Packaging methods and structures for semiconductor devices
Packaging methods and structures for semiconductor devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a packaged semiconductor device includes a redistribution layer (RDL) having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. At least one integrated circuit is coupled to the first surface of the RDL, and a plurality of metal bumps is coupled to the second surface of the RDL. A molding compound is disposed over the at least one integrated circuit and the first surface of the RDL. |
| US09082634B2 |
Stack package and method for manufacturing the same
A stack package includes a cover film, a first package having a first semiconductor chip which is attached to the cover film, a first adhesive member which is formed to seal the first semiconductor chip and a surface of the cover film, and a first circuit pattern which is disposed over the first adhesive member and electrically connected with the first semiconductor chip; a second package disposed over the first package, having a second semiconductor chip which is electrically connected with the first circuit pattern, a second adhesive member which is formed to seal the second semiconductor chip, and a second circuit pattern which is formed over the second adhesive member, and a via formed to pass through the second circuit pattern and the second adhesive member and to be electrically connected with the first circuit pattern and the second circuit pattern. |
| US09082632B2 |
Ramp-stack chip package with variable chip spacing
A chip package includes a stack of semiconductor dies or chips that are offset from each other, thereby defining a terrace with exposed pads. Moreover, surfaces of each of the semiconductor dies in the stepped terrace include two rows of first pads approximately parallel to edges of the semiconductor dies. Furthermore, the chip package includes a high-bandwidth ramp component, which is positioned approximately parallel to the terrace, and which has a surface that includes second pads arranged in at least two rows of second pads for each of the semiconductor dies. The second pads are electrically and mechanically coupled to the exposed first pads by connectors. Consequently, the electrical contacts in the chip package may have a conductive, a capacitive or, in general, a complex impedance. Furthermore, the chips and/or the ramp component may be positioned relative to each other using a ball-and-pit alignment technique. |
| US09082631B1 |
Linear equalizer circuit and method thereof
A circuit having a first MOS transistor of a first type configured in a common-source amplifier topology for receiving an input signal and outputting an intermediate signal, a first MOS transistor of a second type configured in a self-biased topology biased via a first self-biasing RC network for providing termination for the intermediate signal, a second MOS transistor of the second type configured in a common-source amplifier topology for receiving the intermediate signal and outputting an output signal, and a second of MOS transistor of the first type configured in a self-biased topology via a second self-biasing RC network for providing termination to the output signal. |
| US09082628B2 |
Trench schottky diode
A trench Schottky diode is described, which has a highly doped substrate of a first conductivity type and an epitaxial layer of the same conductivity type that is applied to the substrate. At least two trenches are introduced into the epitaxial layer. The epitaxial layer is a stepped epitaxial layer that has two partial layers of different doping concentrations. |
| US09082624B2 |
Signal path of a multiple-patterned semiconductor device
A multiple-patterned semiconductor device is provided. The semiconductor device includes one or more layers with signal tracks defined by masks and a structure for transferring a signal between signal tracks and repowering the signal. |
| US09082621B2 |
Method for manufacturing silicon carbide single crystal, and silicon carbide substrate
Each of first and second material substrates made of single crystal silicon carbide has first and second back surfaces, first and second side surfaces, and first and second front surfaces. The first and second back surfaces are connected to a supporting portion. The first and second side surfaces face each other with a gap interposed therebetween, the gap having an opening between the first and second front surfaces. A closing portion for closing the gap over the opening is formed. A connecting portion for closing the opening is formed by depositing a sublimate from the first and second side surfaces onto the closing portion. The closing portion is removed. A silicon carbide single crystal is grown on the first and second front surfaces. |
| US09082619B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for forming semiconductor films
Described herein are systems and methods method for forming semiconductor films. In some embodiment, the methods comprising depositing the source solution containing a solvent and plurality of types of metal ionic species and a second type on a substrate heated to a temperature at or above the boiling point of the solvent. In some embodiments, methods and apparatus for exposing a substrate to a gas are also provided. |
| US09082614B1 |
Periphery coating apparatus, periphery coating method and storage medium therefor
There is provided a periphery coating method of coating a coating liquid on a periphery region of a substrate. The method includes performing a scan-in process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from an outside of an edge of the substrate to a position above the periphery region of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle; and performing a scan-out process of moving the coating liquid nozzle from the position above the periphery region of the substrate to the outside of the edge of the substrate while rotating the substrate and discharging the coating liquid from the coating liquid nozzle. Further, in the scan-out process, the coating liquid nozzle is moved at a speed lower than a speed at which the coating liquid is moved to a side of an edge of the substrate. |
| US09082612B2 |
Composition for forming a silica layer, method of manufacturing the composition, silica layer prepared using the composition, and method of manufacturing the silica layer
A composition for forming a silica layer, a method of manufacturing the composition, a silica layer prepared using the composition, and a method of manufacturing the silica layer, the composition including hydrogenated polysilazane, hydrogenated polysiloxazane, or a combination thereof, wherein a concentration of a sum of hydrogenated polysilazane and hydrogenated polysiloxazane having a weight average molecular weight, reduced to polystyrene, of greater than or equal to about 50,000 is about 0.1 wt % or less, based on a total amount of the hydrogenated polysilazane and hydrogenated polysiloxazane. |
| US09082610B2 |
Method for cleaning semiconductor wafer
The present invention provides a method for cleaning a semiconductor wafer, in which the method includes cleaning steps of HF cleaning, ozonated water cleaning and HF cleaning in this order at least one time, wherein in the HF cleaning carried out last in the method for cleaning the semiconductor wafer, cleaning is so carried out that an oxide film formed on a surface of the semiconductor wafer by the ozonated water is not entirely removed and to remain a part of a thickness thereof on the surface of the semiconductor wafer. As a result, a method for cleaning a semiconductor wafer in which a metal impurity level and a particle level can be reduced simultaneously in the cleaning of the semiconductor wafer is provided. |
| US09082608B2 |
Pneumatic clamping mechanism for cells with adjustable height
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, an apparatus for combinatorial wet processing includes: a chuck, a substrate located on the chuck, a cell located over the substrate; and a height adjustment mechanism for the cell above the substrate wherein applying compressed air on an O-ring in a gland prevents vertical movement of the cell relative to the position of the substrate. |
| US09082601B2 |
Tandem ion trapping arrangement
A mass spectrometer is disclosed comprising a first storage ion trap arranged upstream of a high performance analytical ion trap. According to an embodiment, ions are simultaneously scanned from both the first and second ion trap. At any instant in time, the quantity of charge present within the second ion trap is limited or restricted so that the second ion trap does not suffer from space charge saturation effects and hence the performance of the second ion trap is not degraded. |
| US09082600B1 |
Mass spectrometry methods and apparatus
Methods, apparatus, compositions, systems, and articles of manufacture useful in connection with performing offsite mass spectrometric (MS) analysis of samples are disclosed. In embodiments, library samples are arrayed on MS substrates in a blinded fashion and stability-packaged for transport to an off-site location where the MS substrate is de-packaged and MS analysis is performed, enabling off-site MS analysis without requiring transport of the sample library and without compromising the confidentiality of the library contents. |
| US09082594B2 |
Etch rate modeling and use thereof for in-chamber and chamber-to-chamber matching
A method for performing chamber-to-chamber matching includes receiving a voltage and a current measured at an output of an RF generator of a first plasma system. The method further includes calculating a sum of terms. The first term is a first product of a coefficient and a function of the voltage. The second term is a second product of a coefficient and a function of the current. The third term is a third product of a coefficient, a function of the voltage, and a function of the current. The method further includes determining the sum to be the etch rate associated with the first plasma system and adjusting power output from an RF generator of a second plasma system to achieve the etch rate associated with the first plasma system. |
| US09082591B2 |
Three-coil inductively coupled plasma source with individually controlled coil currents from a single RF power generator
An inductively coupled plasma reactor has three concentric coil antennas and a current divider circuit individually controlling currents in each of the three coil antennas by varying two variable impedance elements in the current divider circuit in response to a desired current apportionment among the coil antennas received from a user interface. |
| US09082587B2 |
Method and apparatus for ion beam polishing
A method for forming a polished facet between an edge and a face of a sample, involves removing a first portion of the sample by directing an ion beam onto the edge adjacent the first portion along an ion beam axis to leave the polished facet. The ion beam axis lies on an ion beam plane oriented at a glancing incident angle, preferably from 1° to 30°, to a sample plane defined by and parallel to the first face. The ion beam is directed to flow from the edge towards the first face. Also disclosed is a sample preparation apparatus comprising a chamber adapted for evacuation with a sample holder adapted to hold a sample comprising a first face bounded by an edge, and an ion gun arranged to direct an ion beam along an ion beam axis towards the sample. |
| US09082581B2 |
Blanking device for multiple charged particle beams
A blanking device for multiple charged particle beams includes plural shift registers, arranged in two dimensions, to form plural groups each including shift registers, connected in series, of the plural shift registers, plural blankers to respectively provide a blanking deflection to a corresponding beam of multiple beams each controlled through a corresponding shift register in the plural shift registers, plural serial parallel conversion units, arranged along the four sides of a quadrangular region which surrounds the whole of the plural shift registers, to be respectively connected by parallel wiring to at least one of the plural groups, and plural pads, arranged along the four sides of the quadrangular region, to be respectively in combination with a corresponding serial parallel conversion unit of the plural serial parallel conversion units such that each of the plural pads is connected by single wiring to the corresponding serial parallel conversion unit. |
| US09082571B2 |
ARC extinguishing unit for molded case circuit breaker
There is provided an arc extinguishing unit of a molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) having a structure in which grids and side plates forming an arc chamber are coupled in an inserted manner, facilitating an operation, and intervals of grids are uniformly maintained and a configuration of the grids is not damaged, thus maintaining stable performance and allowing for maintenance. |
| US09082569B2 |
Electrical devices with removable actuator frames
In one embodiment, a system may include an electrical device, an actuator for the electrical device, and an interchangeable frame configured to be removeably attached to the electrical device and to hold the actuator. The frame may be adapted to pivotally engage the electrical device. In another embodiment, an electrical device may have an interface adapted to enable a frame to be attached to and removed from the electrical device, an opening in the electrical device, a subactuator arranged to actuate a switch in the electrical device through the opening, and to engage an actuator on the frame when the frame is attached to the electrical device, and a first rim disposed about the opening. The subactuator may include a second rim arranged to overlap the first rim. |
| US09082568B2 |
Switch, in particular for an electric parking brake
A switch is shown which has a housing (10, 12), a key (20) that is pivotally mounted on the housing (10, 12), a rocker switch (22) that is assigned to the key (20) and can be actuated by the latter in two directions, so that it is pivoted about two axes spaced apart from each other, and two microswitches (16) that are arranged on the side of the rocker switch (22) facing away from the key (20). |
| US09082567B2 |
Method and apparatus pertaining to keypad frets
A keypad comprises a keypad frame and a metal spacer disposed on a backside thereof. At least one metal fret having a plurality of metal standoffs is disposed amongst the corresponding keycaps. These metal standoffs connect to the metal spacer (for example, via laser welding). The keypad frame can include a plurality of registration components and the metal spacer can include corresponding registration component-receiving openings disposed therein. |
| US09082564B2 |
Key support arrangement for narrow key switch structure
A key switch structure which enables a reduction in the width of the key switch. A key switch structure comprises a first support member (22), a second support member (23), and a third support member which are arranged independently of each other, the first support member (22) having rotation pins (22d, 22e) and slide pins (22a, 22b), the second support member (23) having rotation pins (23e, 23f) and a circular columnar slide section (23a), the third support member having front end sections (24d, 24e), which are slidably held, and a support shaft section (24a). A key top (21) is supported by the support members (22, 23, 24) so that the key top (21) can move in the vertical direction. The length of at least one side of each of the support members is set to be less than or equal to the mounting diameter of a rubber dome (27). |
| US09082563B2 |
Power breaker
A power breaker includes a fine motion mechanism portion having a chattering suppression portion formed of ring members and a ring member provided with sloping surfaces or curved surfaces at positions corresponding to one another in a state stacked up in a center axis direction, so that an impact generated upon collision of a movable electrode with a fixed electrode when a circuit is closed is trapped as a compression force. Hence, kinetic energy generated upon collision is consumed by energy absorption by friction due to a spring property of the ring members and a frictional force on the contact surfaces. It thus becomes possible to reduce a generation time of a chattering action. |
| US09082549B2 |
Electronic component
A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes flat-shaped inner electrodes that are laminated. An interposer includes an insulating substrate that is larger than contours of the multilayer ceramic capacitor. A first mounting electrode that mounts the multilayer ceramic capacitor is located on a first principal surface of the insulating substrate, and a first external connection electrode for connection to an external circuit board located on a second principal surface. The multilayer ceramic capacitor is mounted onto the interposer in such a way that the principal surfaces of the inner electrodes are parallel or substantially parallel to the principal surface of the interposer, that is, the first and second principal surfaces of the insulating substrate. |
| US09082546B2 |
Method of magnetizing into permanent magnet
A method of magnetizing into a permanent magnet comprises placing magnetizing magnetic field applying means to be adjacent to an object to be magnetized into the permanent magnet, and continuing to apply a magnetizing magnetic field to the object by the magnetizing magnetic field applying means while cooling the object from a temperature of its Curie point or above to a temperature of below the Curie point. |
| US09082539B2 |
System and method for producing magnetic structures
An improved system and method for producing magnetic structures involves a first magnetizing circuit having a first inductor coil used to magnetically print a first magnetic source onto a magnetizable material and a second magnetizing circuit having a second inductor coil used to magnetically print a second magnetic source onto said magnetizable material. |
| US09082538B2 |
Sintered Nd—Fe—B permanent magnet with high coercivity for high temperature applications
A type of sintered Nd—Fe—B permanent magnet with high intrinsic coercivity of about 30KOe or more is produced by dual alloy method. The method comprises the following steps: preparing the powders of master phase alloy and intergranular phase alloy respectively, mixing the powders, compacting the powders in magnetic field, sintering the compacted body at 1050˜1125° C. and annealing at 890-1000° C. and 500-650° C. successively. In the process of preparing the powder of intergranular phase alloy, the nano-powder additive selected from the group consisting of NiAl, TiC, SiC, AlN, TiN, ZrN and the combination thereof is used to modify the powder of intergranular phase alloy. |
| US09082530B2 |
Superconducting thin film material and method of manufacturing same
A superconducting thin film material exhibiting excellent superconducting properties and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. A superconducting thin film material includes a substrate, and a superconducting film formed on the substrate. The superconducting film includes an MOD layer formed by an MOD process, and a gas-phase-formed layer formed on the MOD layer by a gas-phase process. Since the MOD layer is formed first and then the gas-phase-formed layer is formed in this manner, degradation of the properties of the gas-phase-formed layer due to heat treatment in the step of forming the MOD layer (heat treatment in the MOD process) can be prevented. |
| US09082526B2 |
Shielded electrical signal cable
Aspects of the present invention provide shielded cables for reducing the incidence of ground loops between connected electronic devices. According to one aspect of the present invention, a shielded cable is disclosed having two inner shield segments and an outer shield. The inner shield segments can each be grounded, but are physically separated from each other by a gap. The external shield is not grounded, and serves to contain EMI generated by signal conductors within the shielded cable and shield the signal conductors against external electrical events. |
| US09082524B2 |
High surface area, electrically conductive nanocarbon-supported metal oxide
A metal oxide-carbon composite includes a carbon aerogel with an oxide overcoat. The metal oxide-carbon composite is made by providing a carbon aerogel, immersing the carbon aerogel in a metal oxide sol under a vacuum, raising the carbon aerogel with the metal oxide sol to atmospheric pressure, curing the carbon aerogel with the metal oxide sol at room temperature, and drying the carbon aerogel with the metal oxide sol to produce the metal oxide-carbon composite. The step of providing a carbon aerogel can provide an activated carbon aerogel or provide a carbon aerogel with carbon nanotubes that make the carbon aerogel mechanically robust. |
| US09082521B2 |
EUV multilayer mirror with interlayer and lithographic apparatus using the mirror
A multilayer mirror to reflect radiation having a wavelength in the range of 2-8 nm has alternating layers. The alternating layers include a first layer and a second layer. The first and second layers are selected from the group consisting of: U and B4C layers, Th and B4C layers, La and B9C layers, La and B4C layers, U and B9C layers, Th and B9C layers, La and B layers, U and B layers, C and B layers, Th and B layers, U compound and B4C layers, Th compound and B4C layers, La compound and B9C layers, La compound and B4C layers, U compound and a B9C layers, Th compound and a B9C layers, La compound and a B layers, U compound and B layers, and Th compound and a B layers. An interlayer is disposed between at least one of the first layers and the second layer. |
| US09082517B2 |
Modular apparatus for confining a plasma
An embodiment of a hardware module for confining a plasma of electrons and ions in a nuclear fusion energy generating device. In this embodiment, a complete energy generating device is composed of six identical modules, spaced close together in the shape of a cube. The modules confine the plasma inside a cubical enclosure, compress it to high density, and heat it to high temperature. The embodiment of the module is robust and easy to maintain. Other embodiments are described and shown. |
| US09082513B2 |
Semiconductor devices and semiconductor systems including the same
Semiconductor devices are provided. The semiconductor device includes a control signal generator and a first data input unit. The control signal generator generates an inverted control signal including a first bit and a second bit using a decoded signal in response to a test enable signal. The first data input unit inverts a first bit of input data in response to the first bit of the inverted control signal to generate a first bit of first internal data. Further, the first data input unit inverts a second bit of the input data in response to the second bit of the inverted control signal to generate a second bit of the first internal data. |
| US09082512B1 |
Die-level monitoring in a storage cluster
In some embodiments, a method for die-level monitoring is provided. The method includes distributing user data throughout a plurality of storage nodes through erasure coding, wherein the plurality of storage nodes are housed within a chassis that couples the storage nodes. Each of the storage nodes has a non-volatile solid-state storage with non-volatile memory and the user data is accessible via the erasure coding from a remainder of the storage nodes in event of two of the storage nodes being unreachable. The method includes producing diagnostic information that diagnoses the non-volatile memory on a basis of per package, per die, per plane, per block, or per page, the producing performed by each of the plurality of storage nodes. The method includes writing the diagnostic information to a memory in the storage cluster. |
| US09082508B2 |
Semiconductor device
In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a substrate, and one or more logic circuit regions disposed on the substrate, and including a plurality of logic circuit elements. The device further includes a memory region disposed on the substrate, including a plurality of memory cells, and having a shape to surround each of the one or more logic circuit regions. |
| US09082505B2 |
Method for triggering a delay-locked loop (DLL) update operation or an impedance calibration operation in a dynamic random access memory device
A method for triggering an adjustment operation in a dynamic random access memory device, the method including receiving a refresh command, generating an execute signal, counting the execute signal to provide a count value, refreshing a memory array based on the count value and triggering the adjustment operation when the count value reaches a predetermined value. |
| US09082502B2 |
Bit line and compare voltage modulation for sensing nonvolatile storage elements
In a block of non-volatile memory, bit line current increases with bit line voltage. For current sensing memory systems, average bit line current during a sensing operation need only exceed a certain threshold amount in order to produce a correct result. For the first word lines being programmed in a block, memory cells connected thereto see relatively low bit line resistances during verify operations. In the disclosed technology, verify operations are performed for these first programmed word lines with lower verify bit line voltages in order to reduce excess bit line current and save power. During read operations, this scheme can make threshold voltages of memory cells connected to the lower word lines appear lower. In order to compensate for this effect, various schemes are disclosed. |
| US09082501B2 |
Shift register apparatus and display system utilizing the same
A shift register apparatus including a first shift register cell is disclosed. The first shift register cell includes a first logic unit, a first control unit and a first output unit. The first logic unit generates a first control signal and a second control signal according to a start signal and a first setting signal. During a first period, the first control unit employs the first and second control signals to make a first clock signal update the first setting signal and the first output unit employs the first and second control signals to make a second clock signal update the first shifted signal. During a second period, the first output unit controls the first shifted signal according to the first and second control signals such that the first shifted signal does not follow the second clock signal. |
| US09082498B2 |
N-well switching circuit
A thin gate-oxide dual-mode PMOS transistor is disclosed that has a first mode of operation in which a switched n-well for the dual-mode PMOS transistor is biased to a high voltage. The dual-mode PMOS transistor has a second mode of operation in which the switched n-well is biased to a low voltage that is lower than the high voltage. The dual-mode PMOS transistor has a size and gate-oxide thickness each having a magnitude that cannot accommodate a permanent tie to the high voltage. An n-well voltage switching circuit is configured to bias the switched n-well to prevent voltage damage to the dual-mode PMOS transistor without the use of native transistors. |
| US09082494B2 |
Memory cells having a common gate terminal
Arrays of memory cells having a common gate terminal and methods of operating and forming the same are described herein. As an example, an array of memory cells may include a group of memory cells each having a resistive storage element coupled to a select device. Each select device includes a first terminal, a second terminal, and a gate terminal, where the gate terminal is common to each memory cell of the group. |
| US09082490B2 |
Ultra-low power programming method for N-channel semiconductor non-volatile memory
An Ultra-low power programming method for N-channel semiconductor Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) is disclosed. In contrast to the grounded voltage at the source electrode of an N-channel semiconductor NVM for the conventional Channel Hot Electron Injection (CHEI) programming, the source electrode in the programming method of the invention is necessarily floating with no voltage bias to prevent applied electrical fields toward the source electrode. The drain electrode of the N-channel semiconductor NVM is reversely biased with a positive voltage VDB relative to the substrate to facilitate the valence band electrons in the P-type substrate to tunnel to the conducting band of the N-type drain electrode. A positive high gate voltage pulse is then applied to the gate electrode of the N-channel semiconductor NVM to collect the surface energetic electrons toward the charge storage material. |
| US09082487B2 |
Program method of nonvolatile memory device for having dense threshold voltage distribution by controlling voltage of bit line according to threshold voltage of memory cell
A program method of a nonvolatile memory device includes a pre-program verify step for verifying a threshold voltage of a selected memory cell; a step of setting a bit line voltage of the selected memory cell according to the threshold voltage of the selected memory cell which is determined through the pre-program verify step; a step of applying a program voltage to the selected memory cell set with the bit line voltage; and a post-program verify step for verifying a programmed state of the selected memory cell applied with the program voltage. |
| US09082486B2 |
Row decoding circuit and memory
A row decoding circuit and a memory are provided. The row decoding circuit is adapted for providing a word line operation voltage and a control-gate line operation voltage to a dual-bit split gate flash memory array, and includes a dummy row decoding unit, at least one row decoding unit and a driving voltage generating circuit. The dummy row decoding unit includes a first dummy control-gate line voltage output, a second dummy control-gate line voltage output and at least one dummy word line voltage output. The row decoding unit includes a first control-gate line voltage output, a second control-gate line voltage output and at least one word line voltage output. The driving voltage generating circuit is adapted for providing a third driving voltage to the first control-gate line voltage output and the second control-gate line voltage output. |
| US09082485B2 |
Apparatuses and methods including memory array and data line architecture
Some embodiments include apparatus and methods having memory cells located in different device levels of a device, at least a portion of a transistor located in a substrate of the device, and a data line coupled to the transistor and the memory cells. The data line can be located between the transistor and the memory cells. Other embodiments including additional apparatus and methods are described. |
| US09082483B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device, method for operating the same, and method for fabricating the same
A nonvolatile memory device includes a substrate including a plurality of active regions which are constituted by a P-type semiconductor; first and second vertical strings disposed over each active region, wherein each of the first and second strings includes a channel vertically extending from the substrate, a plurality of memory cells, and a select transistor, wherein the plurality of memory cells and the select transistor are located along the channel; and a bottom gate being interposed between a lowermost memory cell and the substrate, contacting the channel with a first gate dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and controlling connection of the first vertical string with the second vertical string. |
| US09082479B2 |
Nonvolatile memory element and nonvolatile memory device
A nonvolatile memory device includes: a first electrode; a second electrode; and a variable resistance layer which includes: a first oxide layer including a first metal oxide; a second oxide layer located between and in contact with the first oxide layer and a second electrode including a second metal oxide and having a degree of oxygen deficiency lower than a degree of oxygen deficiency of the first oxide layer; and a local region located in the first oxide layer and the second oxide layer, having contact with the second electrode and no contact with the first electrode, and having a degree of oxygen deficiency higher than the degree of oxygen deficiency of the second oxide layer and different from the degree of oxygen deficiency of the first oxide layer. |
| US09082478B2 |
Nonvolatile memory device using resistance material and method of driving the nonvolatile memory device
Provided is a nonvolatile memory device using a resistance material and a method of driving the nonvolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device comprises a resistive memory cell which stores multiple bits; a sensing node; a clamping unit coupled between the resistive memory cell and the sensing node and provides a clamping bias to the resistive memory cell; a compensation unit which provides a compensation current to the sensing node; a sense amplifier coupled to the sensing node and senses a change in a level of the sensing node; and an encoder which codes an output value of the sense amplifier in response to a first clock signal. The clamping bias varies over time. The compensation current is constant during a read period. |
| US09082477B2 |
Set pulse for phase change memory programming
A memory device and method for programming the memory device, including a method for a melting phase change memory cell by applying an electronic signal at a first value and subsequently decreasing the signal value. The phase change memory cell can be substantially crystallized after the decrease in signal value. |
| US09082473B2 |
Power supply brownout protection circuit and method for embedded FRAM
Corruption of data in a FRAM (2) is avoided by applying a regulated voltage (VLDO) to a conductive pin (5-1). A switch (SW1) is coupled between the conductive pin and a power terminal of the FRAM so a FRAM supply voltage (VFRAM) is equal to the regulated voltage when the switch is closed. The conductive pin is coupled to a power terminal of a digital circuit (3) so a digital circuit supply voltage (VCORE) is equal to the regulated voltage. A power interruption is detected to produce an interruption signal (nBORdet) that opens the switch and also prevents starting of new read and write operations in the FRAM. A sufficient FRAM supply voltage is maintained by an internal capacitor (CINT) while ongoing read and write operations in the FRAM are completed during a predetermined interval. The conductive pin may be coupled to the switch by bonding wire inductance (LWIRE) between the switch and the conductive pin to inhibit flow of transient currents between them. |
| US09082466B2 |
Apparatuses and methods for adjusting deactivation voltages
Apparatuses and methods for adjusting deactivation voltages are described herein. An example apparatus may include a voltage control circuit. The voltage control circuit may be configured to receive an address and to adjust a deactivation voltage of an access line associated with a target group of memory cells from a first voltage to a second voltage based, at least in part, on the address. In some examples, the first voltage may be lower than the second voltage. |
| US09082462B2 |
Methods and systems for addressing memory with variable density
Embodiments relate to systems and methods for simplified addressing of a memory device whose total memory capacity is extendible by an additional memory capacity or a factor to a total extended memory capacity, the method comprising dividing the additional memory capacity into a set of binary memory fractions of the total memory capacity such that a sum of all binary memory fractions equals the additional memory capacity, and addressing each one of the binary memory fractions by a binary based addressing scheme. |
| US09082461B2 |
Multiple processor system and method including multiple memory hub modules
A processor-based electronic system includes several memory modules arranged in first and second ranks. The memory modules in the first rank are directly accessed by any of several processors, and the memory modules in the second rank are accessed by the processors through the memory modules in the first rank. The data bandwidth between the processors and the memory modules in the second rank is varied by varying the number of memory modules in the first rank that are used to access the memory module in the second set. Each of the memory modules includes several memory devices coupled to a memory hub. The memory hub includes a memory controller coupled to each memory device, a link interface coupled to a respective processor or memory module, and a cross bar switch coupling any of the memory controllers to any of the link interfaces. |
| US09082460B2 |
Drive enclosure with gripping pads
Improved electronic device protection enclosures are generally described. In an example, an illustrative apparatus for protecting an electronic device is provided. The apparatus includes a drive enclosure structure, a gripping pad, and a deformation mechanism. The drive enclosure structure includes a sidewall. The gripping pad is located on the sidewall and includes a plurality of angled slots. The deformation mechanism is connected to the sidewall and configured to facilitate selective deformation of the gripping pad. |
| US09082459B2 |
Media caddy handling
A disc caddy and associated method for handling is characterized by a disc cassette having opposing longitudinal side walls joined to opposing lateral end walls forming a substantially rectangular structure defining open first and second ends. A first removable cover is provided for closing the first end, and a second removable cover is provided for closing the second end. The second removable cover defines barb members that latchingly engage respective strikes defined by the first removable cover that extend substantially parallel to the end walls. The disc cassette has protuberant features defining reference hold-down surfaces, and the first removable cover defines clearance apertures through which the hold-down surfaces extend. |
| US09082458B1 |
Data storage device balancing and maximizing quality metric when configuring arial density of each disk surface
A data storage device is disclosed comprising a plurality of disk surfaces, and a head actuated over each disk surface. For each disk surface, a quality metric is measured at a plurality of discrete areal densities including a first areal density comprising a first radial density and a first linear density, and a second areal density comprising a second radial density different from the first radial density and a second linear density different from the first linear density. Based on a target capacity, an areal density is selected for each disk surface such that the combined areal densities satisfies the target capacity and such that the quality metrics across the disk surfaces are substantially equal and substantially maximized. |
| US09082454B2 |
Automatically removing contaminants from a manufactured part
Embodiments of the present invention pertain to automatically removing contaminants from a manufactured part. According to one embodiment, a first robotic arm automatically holds the manufactured part. A second arm automatically sprays the manufactured part with a solution that causes contaminants to be removed from the manufactured part. The solution is collected. The collected solution contains the contaminants that were removed from the manufactured part. |
| US09082448B2 |
Disk drive device with structure that can suppress vaporization and diffusion of lubricant
A disk drive device comprises a chassis, an annular hub having an outer periphery on which a recording disk is to be mounted, and having an inner periphery to which an annular magnet is fastened, a fluid bearing unit that supports the hub in a manner freely rotatable relative to the chassis, an opposing wall formed annularly on the surface of the chassis at the hub side, and facing with at least partially the inner periphery of the hub in the radial direction, a first gap that extends in the axial direction between the inner periphery of the hub and the opposing wall, and a second gap that is continuous from the first gap and extends in the radial direction between the end face of the hub and the chassis. |
| US09082446B2 |
Optical disc loading device, optical disc drive adopting the device and method of driving the drive
Provided are an optical disc drive and method for driving the optical disc drive. The method includes transporting a disc to a chucking position where a spindle is positioned using a loading roller, blocking power transferred from a loading motor to the loading roller, and chucking the disc on the spindle using power from the loading motor. Accordingly, damages to the disc caused by chucking may be prevented. |
| US09082440B2 |
Using first and second resistive sensor bias levels to detect head-to-disk contact and/or clearance
A bias signal is applied to a resistive thermal sensor located proximate a magnetic media reading surface of a magnetic sensor. The bias signal is modulated between first and second bias levels. First and second resistances of the resistive thermal sensor corresponding to the first and second bias levels are measured. Based a difference between the first and second resistances caused by in increase in thermal conductivity between the magnetic sensor and a medium as the magnetic head gets closer to the medium, at least one of a spacing and a contact between the magnetic sensor and the medium are determined. |
| US09082439B2 |
Preventing damage to storage devices within a storage system due to movement of the storage system
A method implemented in a storage system that has moveable storage devices includes a motion controller receiving movement related data of a storage device from at least one sensor associated with the storage device. The method further includes determining if the received movement related data indicates presence of at least one pre-identified movement related condition that can result in damage to the storage device. In response to the received movement related data indicating at least one pre-identified condition, a park command is issued that triggers the reading head of the storage device to enter a parked state in which the storage device is protected from damage that can occur due to motion of the reading head while the pre-identified condition exists. |
| US09082437B2 |
Head suspension with damping
A method of manufacturing a head suspension includes a punching process, a positioning process, and an affixing process. An objective part on the head suspension to which a damper 73 is affixed includes a discontinuous section 72. The punching process punches a damper material into the damper 73 whose shape corresponds to the shape of the objective part excluding the discontinuous section 72. The positioning process positions the damper 73 to the objective part so that the damper 73 avoids and surrounds the discontinuous section 72, and the affixing process affixes the damper 73 to the objective part. The method secures a uniform damping effect among manufactured head suspensions and improves the yield of dampers and head suspensions without deteriorating the functions and performances of the head suspensions. |
| US09082435B1 |
Fabrication of multiple sensor layers with self-aligned back edge
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for forming a magnetic read head having one or more sensors disposed over one or more sensors. The method includes forming one or more first sensors on a shield, forming a spacer layer over the one or more first sensors and forming one or more second sensors over the spacer layer. A single photolithography process is performed on a resist that is disposed over a portion of the one or more second sensors, the spacer layer and the one or more first sensors, and portions of the one or more second sensors, the spacer layer and the one or more first sensors not covered by the resist are removed by multiple removal processes. The stripe heights of the free layers and the pinned layers of the one or more first sensors and the one or more second sensors are defined as a result of the multiple removal processes. |
| US09082434B2 |
Asymmetric sensitivity reader
Embodiments described herein generally relate to a magnetic read head wherein read sensitivity distribution is made asymmetric in the off-track direction. The method of making the magnetic head is also disclosed. The read head may comprise a magneto-resistive effect element with an asymmetric structure around the element in the off-track direction and the read sensitivity profile in the off-track direction may also be asymmetric. |
| US09082433B1 |
PMR writer with patterned shields for adjacent track erasure improvement
A PMR writer is disclosed wherein one or more of the leading shield, side shields, and trailing shield are comprised of first portion that is elongated in a cross-track direction at the ABS, and a second portion consisting of a plurality of pads each having a side adjoining the first portion along a side opposite the ABS. Pads may have a polygonal shape or a shape with curvature and are separated by portions of a dielectric layer. When a length of the pads in a down-track direction is substantially greater than a width in a cross-track direction and height in a vertical direction, then shape anisotropy in the shield is biased in a down-track direction and is perpendicular to the driving flux direction from the main pole tip thereby minimizing 180 degree rotations in magnetization and associated adjacent track erasure. |
| US09082431B2 |
Data archive system and quality inspection method
Disclosed is a data archive system that executes inspection of a recording quality of an optical disc, estimates a recording quality deterioration factor, and informs it to a user, and a method for estimating the recording quality deterioration factor. The data archive system has a server and a data library device. The server has a whole control part, a data library I/F part, and a recording medium. The data library device has multiple recording media, a recording medium storing part, multiple recording/reproducing parts, and a library control part. The recording medium stores attribute information about the recording medium. The whole control part executes first quality inspection on a first recording medium, executes second quality inspection on a second recording medium, refers to attribute information of the recording media recorded on the information recording medium, and controls so that a factor deteriorating the qualities of the recording media may be estimated. |
| US09082422B2 |
Magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording including a main pole and a write shield to provide improved write characteristics without compromising the function of the write shield
A magnetic head includes a main pole, a write shield, and first and second nonmagnetic layers. The main pole has a top surface including an inclined surface portion. The write shield includes an inclined portion facing toward the top surface of the main pole. The first nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the inclined surface portion and the inclined portion. The second nonmagnetic layer is interposed between the first nonmagnetic layer and the inclined portion. The first nonmagnetic layer has a first front end located in a medium facing surface. The second nonmagnetic layer has a second front end that is located closest to but at a distance from the medium facing surface. |
| US09082421B2 |
Reader structure
An apparatus disclosed herein comprises a reader structure having a sensor stack and a bottom shield having a first end and a second end on opposite sides of the bottom shield in a cross-track direction, wherein the first end is formed by intersection of arcs. |
| US09082420B2 |
Optical disc device and focus control method thereof
The present invention aims for shortening a time required before the focus control is started. The initial focus position is detected, while the optical disc is not rotated, by making the objective lens approach to the optical disc from the first separation position farther from the optical disc than the focus position. The focus control is performed so that the objective lens tracks the focus position of the data recording layer, while the optical disc is rotated, by making the objective lens approach to the optical disc after the objective lens is returned to the second separation position farther from the optical disc than the first separation position. The initial focus position can be focus position of the data recording layer. The second separation position can be a position farther from the optical disc by a predetermined distance than the initial focus position. |
| US09082417B2 |
Optical information recording apparatus and optical information recording method
An optical information recording apparatus configured to record information into an information recording medium by using holography, the apparatus including: a signal generation unit configured to generate two-dimensional data; and a two-dimensional spatial light modulator unit configured to display the two-dimensional data and to spatially modulate a transmitted or reflected beam, wherein the two-dimensional spatial light modulator unit includes a signal region and an external region, the signal region displays two-dimensional data based on user data, the external region displays two-dimensional data not including the user data, and the signal generation unit generates two-dimensional data in such a manner that a frequency of the two-dimensional data displayed on the external region becomes equal to or larger than a frequency of the two-dimensional data displayed on the signal region. |
| US09082415B2 |
Sound determination method and sound determination apparatus
A sound determination apparatus receives acoustic signals by a plurality of sound receiving units, and generates frames having a predetermined time length. The sound determination apparatus performs FFT on the acoustic signals in frame units, and converts the acoustic signals to a phase spectrum and amplitude spectrum, which are signals on a frequency axis, then calculates the difference at each frequency between the respective acoustic signals as a phase difference, and selects frequencies to be the target of processing. The sound determination apparatus calculates the percentage of frequencies at which the absolute values of the phase differences of the selected frequencies are equal to or greater than a first threshold value, and determines that the acoustic signal coming from the nearest sound source is included in the frame when the calculated percentage is equal to or less than a second threshold value. |
| US09082414B2 |
Correcting unintelligible synthesized speech
A method and system of speech synthesis. A text input is received in a text-to-speech system and, using a processor of the system, the text input is processed into synthesized speech which is established as unintelligible. The text input is reprocessed into subsequent synthesized speech and output to a user via a loudspeaker to correct the unintelligible synthesized speech. In one embodiment, the synthesized speech can be established as unintelligible by predicting intelligibility of the synthesized speech, and determining that the predicted intelligibility is lower than a minimum threshold. In another embodiment, the synthesized speech can be established as unintelligible by outputting the synthesized speech to the user via the loudspeaker, and receiving an indication from the user that the synthesized speech is not intelligible. |
| US09082411B2 |
Method to reduce artifacts in algorithms with fast-varying gain
A method and device reduce artifacts in an audio processing algorithm for applying a time and frequency dependent gain to an input audio signal. The method provides a time frequency representation of an input audio signal comprising a number of frequency bands; applies an audio processing algorithm providing an estimated algorithm output signal; determines for each frequency band a difference between a value of the estimated gain signal at a given time and at a preceding time; averages the difference over a predefined time; provides a confidence estimate based on the time averaged difference, the said confidence estimate being relatively low in case said time averaged difference is above a predetermined threshold level and relatively high in case said time averaged difference is below a predetermined threshold level; and optionally applies the confidence estimate to the noise reduced output signal thereby providing an improved algorithm output signal. |
| US09082407B1 |
Systems and methods for providing prompts for voice commands
In an example implementation of the disclosed technology, a method includes setting a command entry timer based on a predetermined command entry threshold. The method also includes receiving an indication of user input to prompt receipt of an audio command and, responsive to determining that the command entry timer has expired since receiving the indication of user input, outputting, for display, at least one indicator associated with at least one supported audio command that is associated with at least one function of the computing device. The method also includes receiving a plurality of audio input samples and updating the command entry threshold based on plurality of audio input samples. |
| US09082406B2 |
Method and system for extending dialog systems to process complex activities for applications
A dialog system that includes a dialog manager to manage a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity, and a plan engine to execute a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity, the complex activity being specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process. |
| US09082400B2 |
Video generation based on text
Techniques for generating a video sequence of a person based on a text sequence, are disclosed herein. Based on the received text sequence, a processing device generates the video sequence of a person to simulate visual and audible emotional expressions of the person, including using an audio model of the person's voice to generate an audio portion of the video sequence. The emotional expressions in the visual portion of the video sequence are simulated based a priori knowledge about the person. For instance, the a priori knowledge can include photos or videos of the person captured in real life. |
| US09082399B2 |
Method and apparatus for processing an audio signal using window transitions for coding schemes
An apparatus for processing an audio signal and method thereof are disclosed. The present invention includes receiving, by an audio processing apparatus, an audio signal including a first data of a first block encoded with rectangular coding scheme and a second data of a second block encoded with non-rectangular coding scheme; receiving a compensation signal corresponding to the second block; estimating a prediction of an aliasing part using the first data; and, obtaining a reconstructed signal for the second block based on the second data, the compensation signal and the prediction of aliasing part. |
| US09082388B2 |
In-ear active noise reduction earphone
An active noise reduction earphone. The earphone includes structure for positioning and retaining the earphone in the ear of a user without a headband, active noise reduction circuitry including an acoustic driver with a nominal diameter greater than 10 mm oriented so that a line parallel to, or coincident with, an axis of the acoustic driver and that intersects a centerline of the nozzle intersects the centerline of the nozzle at angle θ>±30 degrees. A microphone is positioned adjacent an edge of the acoustic driver. The earphone is configured so that a portion of the acoustic driver is within the concha of a user and another portion of the acoustic driver is outside the concha of the user when the earphone is in position. An opening coupling the nozzle to the environment includes impedance providing structure in the opening. |
| US09082386B1 |
Two dimensional musical keyboard
A musical keyboard comprises one or more handboards, where each handboard has a two dimensional arrangement of keys. The columns are formed by an octave of conventional piano keys. The rows are formed by subdividing the conventional piano keys. First the keys are subdivided into a front key area with wide white keys and optionally thin extensions of the black keys, and a rear key area with white and black keys. The front and rear key areas are each further subdivided into rows of octaves. Two octaves of a note can be played with the same finger, and a hand can span a three octave range. |
| US09082383B2 |
Optical instrument pickup
A optoelectronic pickup for a musical instrument includes at least one light source which directs light to impinge a string of the musical instrument in at least one photoreceiver located to detect the reflected light, so as to generate an electrical signal that is responsive to string vibrations. A number of dissimilar filter approaches are included to control undesired effects of spurious light, the filter approaches may be structure-based, signal processing-based, and/or optics-based. |
| US09082381B2 |
Method, system, and computer program for enabling flexible sound composition utilities
A computer system for enabling generation/controlling/modification of sound elements is provided. A computer program defines a sound engine. The sound engine includes or is linked to one or more musical composition interfaces that enable one or more users to access a music generator/controller/modifier utility (“music generator”), so as to graphically map one or more musical notes by tracing one or more Bezier paths defined that are processable by the music generator so as to define the four fundamental note qualities: Tone, pitch, volume and duration. The music generator enables user manipulation of the Bezier paths, including touch input modification of the paths (e.g. dragging, forming etc.) that modify fundamental qualities of the corresponding note. |
| US09082379B2 |
Method and apparatus of a modular guitar strap
Examples of the disclosure are directed toward a modular guitar strap, wherein one or more modular guitar strap ends may be detachable from the guitar strap for replacement. A guitar strap end may be made from an exotic material, such as snakeskin, and bonded to a durable material, such as nylon fabric, so that the guitar strap end can hold up to wear and tear even while its outer appearance is that of an exotic material. |
| US09082376B1 |
Snare drum strainer with locking assembly
A snare assembly tensioning and locking mechanism for holding snare wires in either a contact or non-contact position against a bottom drum head of a snare drum. The mechanism uses a lever mounted horseshoe shaped clip including surface bumps or protrusions that, when the lever is in an upward and locked position, engage a set of complementary notches on a surrounding peripheral surface of a snare wire tension adjusting knob. In alternate embodiments, the locking lever may pivot toward the drum or in a direction tangential to the drum. In this manner, the snare wires are held in tension against inadvertent loosening of the tension adjusting knob while the drum is played. |
| US09082372B2 |
Keyboard device for keyboard instrument
A keyboard device for a keyboard instrument capable of having each key easily mounted on a keyboard chassis while ensuring stable pivotal motion of the key, without damaging the key. A keyboard chassis holds keys in arrangement in a left-right direction. A key support part has a lower support portion for supporting a pivot shaft of a key from below, and left and right upper support portions erected with a predetermined spacing in the direction, for supporting a key rear end portion located upward of the shaft from above. When mounting the key to the key support part, the upper support portions have its spacing expanded by the key rear end, thereby being elastically deformed to pass the key rear end, and thereafter, elastically return to their original state to hold the key rear end in a retained state by cooperating with the lower support portion. |
| US09082370B2 |
Display control device and data processing system
Provided is a display control device capable of coping with high-resolution display readily in terms of conducting data write and read on a frame buffer memory in time for the timing of display. The display control device has a plurality of line buffers, and is arranged so that a writing process for writing, into part of the line buffers, display lines of display data from outside, and a reading process for reading out written display lines of display data from other line buffers can be conducted in parallel. In the display control device, display-line data read out from the line buffers are compressed and stored in the frame buffer memory. The compression-display data read out from the frame buffer memory are read out for each line, and decompressed into display lines of display data. The decompressed display data are used to drive signal electrodes of a display device. |
| US09082368B2 |
Semiconductor devices having image sensor and memory device operation modes
A semiconductor device may include a plurality of banks; and a control unit configured to receive a command from an external device and independently control the plurality of banks according to the received command. Each bank comprises a pixel array including a plurality of pixels; a row decoder configured to activate word lines connected to the plurality of pixels under control of the control unit; a column decoder configured to activate bit lines connected to the plurality of pixels under control of the control unit; a sense amplifier and write driver configured to control and detect respective voltages of the activated bit lines to provide respective amplified voltages; and an input/output buffer configured to output data states of the pixels based on the respective amplified voltages. Related methods of operation are also discussed. |
| US09082362B2 |
Display panel and display apparatus having the same
A display panel includes a display area, a peripheral area which includes a first peripheral area, and a second peripheral area opposite to the first peripheral area, a plurality of pixels in the display area, a plurality of data lines, a first gate line, a second gate line, a first gate driving circuit and a second gate driving circuit. Each data line corresponds to two pixel columns. The first gate line is at a first side of a pixel row. The second gate line is at a second side of the pixel row. The first gate driving circuit is in the first peripheral area and includes a first stage which provides a gate signal to the first gate line. The second gate driving circuit is in a second peripheral area of the display area and includes a second stage which provides a gate signal to the second gate line. |
| US09082361B2 |
Polarized three-dimensional display panel and pixel cell thereof
The present disclosure discloses a polarized three-dimensional display panel and a pixel cell thereof. The display panel comprises an array substrate, which includes a plurality of pixel cells arranged in a plurality of pixel zones configured by a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of data lines arranged in a staggered manner. Each pixel cell comprises a primary pixel electrode configured to receive a scanning signal of a first scanning line, and further to receive a data signal in a data line, so as to have a primary zone voltage; a secondary pixel electrode configured to receive the scanning signal of the first scanning line, and further to receive the data signal in the data line, so as to have a secondary zone voltage; and a charge-sharing unit configured to receive a scanning signal of a second scanning line, so as to allow a voltage difference between the secondary zone voltage and the primary zone voltage, wherein the primary pixel electrode and the secondary pixel electrode are disturbed in a left-right manner. The present disclosure can effectively solve the problem of inconsistent degrees of binocular signal crosstalk in viewing a polarized three-dimensional display from a top view and a bottom view. |
| US09082359B2 |
Projection display apparatus having an optical element projecting modulated light, method for controlling the same, and electronic device
An image display apparatus includes a light-source driving circuit that drives a light source to cyclically change brightness. A control unit controls a pixel to turn on and off over a plurality of subfields in a field so that transmittance or reflectance in the pixel over the plurality of subfields in the field corresponds to a gray level specified for the pixel. The control unit also arranges the plurality of subfields such that two or more gray-level defining subfields maintain a predetermined relationship with respect to the cyclical change in brightness of the light source caused by drive of a light-source driving circuit. |
| US09082355B2 |
Circuit for driving LCD device and driving method thereof
A liquid crystal display driving circuit and method. A data register block of a controller applies in advance a polarity control signal to data before the data are stored in latches of a data driver, exchanges the data, and then stores the exchanged data in the latches. Thereby, it is possible to provide multiplexers, which are otherwise required for respective channels, to one controller and to decrease the size of a chip. |
| US09082353B2 |
Circuits for controlling display apparatus
The invention relates to methods and apparatus for forming images on a display utilizing a control matrix to control the movement of MEMS-based light modulators. |
| US09082351B2 |
Method of driving electrophoretic display apparatus, electrophoretic display apparatus, and electronic device
A method of driving an electrophoretic display apparatus, wherein during displaying an image on the display unit, executing a pixel electrode pulse driving in which a pulse periodically alternating between first and second potentials is input to the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is changed, the first or second potential is input to the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is not to be changed, and a potential equal to that of the pixel electrode corresponding to the pixel of which a display state is not to be changed is input to the common electrode. |
| US09082349B2 |
Multi-primary display with active backlight
A method of illuminating a display includes spatially varying the luminance of a multi-colored light source illuminating a plurality of pixels of the display in response to receiving a plurality of pixel values, and varying the transmittance of a light valve of the display having filters corresponding to the multi-colored light source in response to receiving the plurality of pixel values. The illumination is modified for a plurality of pixel values based upon modification of the luminance of the light source and varying the transmittance of the light valve. |
| US09082345B2 |
Display device with reduced effects from pixel shorts
A display device according to the present invention includes pixel units. Each of the pixel units is made up of N consecutive pixels. One of N (N≧3) colors including R (red), G (green) and B (blue) is assigned to each of the N pixels. Each of the N pixels includes a sampling transistor Ms, drive transistor Md, holding capacitor Cs and light-emitting element (organic light-emitting diode OLED). Of the N pixels, a specific color pixel that is susceptible to a dark dot (e.g., B) or that has the highest relative luminosity factor (e.g., G) has more sets of pixel circuit elements including the drive transistor Md, holding capacitor Cs and organic light-emitting diode OLED than other color pixels and has two or more sets thereof. |
| US09082344B2 |
Pixel circuit in flat panel display device and method for driving the same
A display device for displaying a predetermined color during an interval. The display device includes a plurality of pixels, each said pixel having at least two light emitting elements. Each light emitting element emits a corresponding color within the interval. Some of the light emitting elements of two adjacent said pixels are grouped into a first light emitting element group and the remaining light emitting elements of the two adjacent said pixels are grouped into a second light emitting element group. The first light emitting element group and the second light emitting element group are time-divisionally driven, one of the first and second light emitting element groups being driven within a given period, thereby displaying the predetermined color within the interval. The interval is one frame, and the one frame is divided into two subframes. The first and second light emitting element groups are time-sharingly driven. |
| US09082337B2 |
Changing visual content communication
Techniques for presenting changing visual content, including video, animation and so on, as an overlay are discussed. Changing visual content, included in a visual presentation, may be identified from other visual elements included in the visual presentation. The changing visual content may be manipulated based on available resources associated with presenting the changing visual content as an overlay for a client. |
| US09082335B2 |
Display control apparatus
A display control apparatus is provided. Every time when the level of the signal is obtained, the peak display with respect to the level of the signal is initiated by the first peak display control unit in a predetermined display manner in the display position obtained by the peak position obtaining unit. On the other hand, the previous peak displays being displayed according to the level of the signal obtained at a previous time and a time before the previous time is continued, and the display manner of the previous peak display being displayed is changed according to the second peak display control unit. Accordingly, while one and more than one level are simultaneously displayed on one display device, the temporal sequence of the levels, which is simultaneously displayed with different display manners, can be recognized by the user. |
| US09082332B2 |
Mode detecting circuit and method thereof
The invention discloses a mode detection circuit and a method thereof, for detecting an image signal, the image signal includes a horizontal resolution and the vertical resolution. The mode detection circuit includes a measuring unit, a calculation unit, and a decision unit. The measuring unit receives a clock signal and is used to count the clock signal to output a first counting value and the second counting value. The calculation unit is used to perform the calculation with the first counting value and the second counting value and thereby outputting a calculating value, wherein the calculating value outputted by the calculation unit is corresponding to the ratio of the first counting value to the second counting value. The decision unit is used to determine the horizontal resolution or the vertical resolution according to the calculating value. |
| US09082318B2 |
Tunnel entrance elevation specifying device, method for specifying tunnel entrance elevation, computer program for specifying tunnel entrance elevation, and storage medium that stores computer program
Systems for automatically specifying a tunnel entrance and methods that accomplish same. One method includes a target entrance selecting step for selecting, from a map data storing portion, a target entrance for specifying an entrance elevation of a tunnel, a target road link assigning step for assigning, from the map data storing portion, a road link, which includes the target entrance, as a target road link, a corrected point extracting step for extracting a certain point as a corrected point, the certain point being located along the target road link and away from the target entrance outwardly of the tunnel by a predetermined distance, a corrected point elevation specifying step for specifying an elevation of the corrected point as a corrected point elevation, and a first target entrance elevation specifying step for specifying the corrected point elevation as a first elevation of the target entrance. |
| US09082317B2 |
Method and apparatus for displaying digital map in client
A method and apparatus for displaying a digital map in a client is provided. The method includes determining a part to be magnified and displayed on the digital map, displaying a magnified map image corresponding to the determined part, receiving information about the magnified map image from a server, and displaying the information received from the server on the magnified map image. |
| US09082315B2 |
Surrounding bird view monitoring image generation method and training method, automobile-side device, and training device thereof
A surrounding bird view image generation method for use in an automobile-side device of an articulated vehicle is provided. The articulated vehicle includes a first body part, a second body part and a connection part. The proceeding directions of the first and the second body parts form an angle. The image processing method includes the steps of: storing an angle-to-surrounding-image model table; detecting an angle and providing an angle measurement; accessing the angle-to-surrounding-image model table to obtain a selected angle and a selected surrounding image model corresponding to the angle measurement; capturing 6 adjacent images corresponding to the surrounding of the vehicle body by the image capturers disposed on the 6 surrounding sides of the articulated vehicle; obtaining a practical operating surrounding image by processing the first to the sixth images with the selected surrounding image model. |
| US09082314B2 |
Time teaching watch and method
A watch display and a method of displaying time and date on a watch face. The watch face has an outer portion with twelve on/off lights spaced around the outer portion of the watch face showing numbers 1 to 12 to represent either the twelve hours of time or the twelve months of a year. An inner portion of the watch face includes on/off lights for showing two digits which would represent the minutes in the time mode or the day of the month in the date mode. The watch display may also include an animation mode wherein the lights run through a cycle of turning on and then off, sequentially, one at a time at desired times such as when the power is turned on or just before it is turned off. The method of the present invention includes showing time by turning on the lights showing numbers from 1 through the current hour and showing the minutes by the digits in the inner portion and/or showing the date by illuminating one light at the number of the month and showing the day of the month by the digits at the inner portion. The watch display may switch back and forth between the two modes or when either mode is left unattended or a certain period of time, turn off. |
| US09082311B2 |
Computer aided system for teaching reading
A method of teaching reading includes displaying, by an application executing on a computing device, a singing exercise configured to allow a user to sing along as a song is played. Lyrics of the song are displayed as the song plays, thus allowing the user to read the lyrics as the user sings along to the song. An audio input is monitored as the song is played. A score representing how accurately the audio input matches the song is calculated. The score is provided to the user. The method calculates the user's vocal range and uses that vocal range in generating a score. |
| US09082310B2 |
Providing computable guidance to relevant evidence in question-answering systems
A computer-based system includes a computer-processable definition of a region in a data set. The system identifies a region of the data set based on the definition of the region. The system provides output to a user representing a question and the identified region of the data set. The system may also automatically generate an answer to the question based on the question and the data set, and provide output to the user representing the answer. The system may generate the answer based on a subset of the data set, and provide output to the user representing the subset of the data set. The user may provide feedback on the first answer to the system, which the system may use to improve subsequent answers to the same and other questions, and to disable the system's automatic question-answering function in response to disagreement between the user and the system. |
| US09082308B2 |
Driver performance analysis and consequence
Methods, systems, and software are disclosed for operating a driver analysis system, including receiving vehicle operation data corresponding to operation of vehicles by drivers, identifying a peer group associated with a target driver, processing at least a portion of the vehicle operation data to determine driving performance of the target driver relative to driving performance of the peer group, generating a driving report which identifies the driving performance of the target driver, and transferring the driving report to a target device for viewing by the target driver and a member of the justice system. |
| US09082307B2 |
Circular antenna array for vehicular direction finding
The circular antenna array for vehicular direction finding applications is a circular disc having a plurality of microstrip antennas radially spaced around the disc at equal angles. In one embodiment, the circular antenna array includes V-shaped antennas, and in another embodiment, the antennas are Yagi antennas. The circular antenna array can operate under two modes, switched and phased, in the 2.45 GHz band with an operating bandwidth of at least 100 MHz. The circular antenna array is configured to be installed in vehicles. Selective transmittal of an RF signal from a key fob generates a response signal from a specific antenna element receiving the RF signal in line with the direction of origin thereof. An LED panel indicates proximity and direction to the vehicle being located. |
| US09082302B2 |
Method and device for aiding the piloting of an aircraft during an intermediate approach phase of a descent
A method and device for aiding the piloting of an aircraft during an intermediate approach phase of a descent. The method includes receiving, by a flight management system, values of parameters relative to the aircraft and a flight thereof, and determining, by the flight management system and based on the received values, a vertical profile. The vertical profile includes at least one deceleration segment with an adaptive slope, which defines a descent path that enables the aircraft to hold a constant deceleration rate during the intermediate approach phase. The method also includes guiding, by an aircraft guidance system, the aircraft according to the vertical profile during the intermediate approach phase such that the aircraft holds the constant deceleration rate during the intermediate approach phase. |
| US09082299B2 |
Methods and systems for taxiway traffic alerting
Systems and methods for providing the crew of a vehicle with a potential collision alert. The alert is based on presumed flight-crew action and reaction times, ownship speed, and required distance to safely stop the ownship before intersection with traffic. An exemplary system located aboard an ownship includes a communication device that receives information from a ground traffic; a memory device that stores ownship information and predefined constants; and a processing device that determines a distance to the traffic when the traffic passes the ownship after the ownship stops at a estimated full-stop location, based on the received ownship information and the predefined constants, determines distance to the ground traffic vehicle, based on the determined point in time, and generates a potential collision alert if the determined distance is less than a predefined safe distance value. An exterior lighting device outputs a visual illumination after the potential collision alert is generated. |
| US09082296B2 |
Wireless device pairing recovery
A refrigerated container system is described that includes a wireless personal area network (WPAN) including a plurality of wireless sensor nodes and a coordinator node through which the sensors provide sensor data to a controller for the refrigerated container system. The wireless sensors and the coordinator incorporate a variety of features that ensure efficient utilization of battery life by preventing unintended pairing of sensors with other WPANs and excessive sensor signal processing arising from door chatter. Finally, pairing is performed without pressing a button on the wireless door sensor. Instead, the sensor's magnetic reed switch is enlisted to detect swiping of a magnet by a user to enter a pairing mode. |
| US09082293B2 |
Systems and methods of remotely controlling a materials handling vehicle
A supplemental control system for a materials handling vehicle comprises a wearable control device, and a corresponding receiver on the materials handling vehicle. The wearable control device is donned by an operator interacting with the materials handling vehicle, and comprises a wireless transmitter and a travel control communicably coupled to the wireless transmitter. Actuation of the travel control causes the wireless transmitter to transmit a first type signal designating a request to advance the vehicle in a first direction. The receiver is supported by the vehicle for receiving transmissions from the wireless transmitter. A traction control of the vehicle is responsive to a receipt of the first type signal by the receiver to cause the vehicle to advance. |
| US09082291B2 |
Virtual metering with partitioned metrology
A distributed metering platform virtualizes functions of a conventional metrology sensor and separates the virtualized functions from a metrology sensor. One or more virtual meters or applications may be instantiated at a network communication device that is remote from the metrology sensor and processes metrology data received from the metrology sensor. Each virtual meter may include multiple partitioned application spaces that are isolated from one another. In one example, a first application space includes a locked version of code and a second application space includes an unlocked version of code. Furthermore, each virtual meter may be isolated from other virtual meters such that each virtual meter is unable to affect operations and/or data associated with other virtual meters. |
| US09082290B2 |
Crowd activity and ambient condition measurement and reporting system
The present invention relates to a system for measuring ambient conditions in venues using a number of real-time signals, including sound, temperature, light, motion, water usage, vibration, infrared signal and others. Ambient signal data is transmitted to a cloud-based application that stores the signal levels in a database and presents the information in a visual format for use by venues and by consumers. The system can, among other things, provide an overall measure of crowd activity in a venue. |
| US09082288B2 |
Engineering machine and stability control system and control method thereof
A stability control system for an engineering machine and a control method are provided. The stability control system includes a detection device (1), a control device (2) and an alarm device (3). The detection device (1) detects the current center-of-gravity positions of each component of the engineering machine to obtain the center-of-gravity position signals of each component and transmits the center-of-gravity position signals to the control device (2). The control device (2) receives the center-of-gravity position signals from the detection device (1), calculates the center-of-gravity position of the engineering machine according to a center-of-gravity calculation strategy, and compares it with a preset balance range. The control device (2) controls the alarm device (3) for warning when the center-of-gravity position of the engineering machine exceeds the balance range. The stability control system adopts a brand new method to control the stability of the engineering machine in working process, and has higher control precision. An engineering machine comprising the above stability control system is also provided. |
| US09082287B2 |
Methods for displaying and determining movement state of memory card slot, and memory card slot movement state displaying and determining system
A method for displaying the movement state of a memory card slot is disclosed. Detection is performed to determine whether a slot button has been touched for activating. A light intensity signal is received and transformed into an electrical signal when the slot button has been activated, in which the light intensity signal represents the movement of the memory card slot. Next, the electrical signal is processed through a processor for deriving a position of the memory card slot, and the movement state is displayed according to the position of the memory card slot. |
| US09082286B2 |
Customizable policy engine
Embodiments disclose a system and method that distributes warning with a description the probability of the severity of the hazardous condition producing the warning and incorporating a policy engine for expressing rules for responding to the warning. |
| US09082283B2 |
Driver condition assessment device
A driver condition assessment device is provided which assesses a driver condition of a host vehicle. The device assesses whether a predetermined driving operation is performed, and includes detecting a travelling condition of the host vehicle and detecting a size of a preceding vehicle present ahead of the host vehicle. The device assesses whether a consciousness of a driver of the host vehicle is degraded when a detected travelling condition exceeds a predetermined threshold value and sets the predetermined threshold value depending on the detected size of the preceding vehicle. |
| US09082281B2 |
Tool locator device and system
A device and system for electronically tracking one or more objects, such as tools or equipment is provided. The tool locator device and system of the present invention provides an electronic checklist specially designed to keep track of a set of tools or accessories. |
| US09082280B2 |
Security device for a power tool accessory
A security assembly for a hole saw having a body and cap includes a generally cylindrical body configured to fit within a cavity of the hole saw. The cylindrical body includes a side wall portion and a base portion coupled to the side wall portion. The security assembly also includes a security tag housing coupled to the base portion. Tthe security tag housing defines a receptacle for housing a security tag. |
| US09082274B2 |
Odor generation alarm and method for informing unusual situation
An odor generation alarm and a method for informing an unusual situation having a high attention attracting effect and a high degree of safety are provided. An odor generation alarm includes an odorant receptacle, a drive section, a detector and a circuit section which is a controller. The odorant receptacle contains an odorant. A concentration of the odorant in air at which a person can no longer tolerate a strength of smell is lower than a no observed effect concentration of the odorant. The drive section causes the odorant to be emitted from the odorant receptacle. The detector detects occurrence of an unusual situation, and outputs a detection signal. When the detection signal from the detector is inputted, the controller causes the drive section to emit the odorant in accordance with the detection signal. |
| US09082267B2 |
Apparatus and method using near field communications
A near field communications enabled mobile communication is used to provide or receive information. |
| US09082264B2 |
Gaming machine which rearranges symbols after varying and displaying the symbols
Provided is a gaming machine in which elaborate presentation effects for rearranging symbols are rearranged are devised and which has a high game feeling. In the gaming machine 1, upon rearranging wild symbols in a plurality of columns, instead of randomly rearranging the wild symbols, when a plurality of wild symbols to be rearranged in the same one column, a character is caused to appear at one time with respect to the plurality of wild symbols, thereby rearranging the plurality of wild symbols. |
| US09082260B2 |
Networked gaming system communication protocols and methods
A system, method and apparatus for a gaming system is provided. The gaming system includes a rewards server and a separate gaming or slot accounting server. The system may further include a separate player tracking server. The system further includes one or more game machines. The game machines may include a base game, rewards tracking module, and a game management module. Further details will be apparent from the description, drawings and claims. |
| US09082257B2 |
Gaming system and method providing a community selection game providing bonus game selection
Gaming systems and methods providing a community selection game providing bonus game selection. In one embodiment, for each gaming device in the gaming system, when a triggering event occurs, the gaming system provides a player of that gaming device with a player identifier that uniquely identifies that player. The community selection game includes a plurality of bonus game identifiers each identifying a bonus game. The bonus game identifiers each include a limited quantity of bonus game player identifier display areas. The gaming system enables the players to place earned or received player identifiers at the bonus game player identifier display areas. When each bonus game player identifier display area of one of the displayed bonus game identifiers displays a player identifier, the players associated with those player identifiers are provided with one or more plays of the bonus game identified by that bonus game identifier. |
| US09082252B2 |
Automated banking machine that operates responsive to data bearing records
An automated banking machine system operates to cause financial transfers responsive to data read from data bearing records. The system is operative to read a financial card bearing account indicia with a card reader. A user is able to perform at least one banking operation responsive to account indicia read by the card reader from the card. The banking operations include dispensing cash and accessing financial accounts. In an example embodiment, the machine is operative to produce an audio output including verbal information through a headphone port to a headphone. |
| US09082249B2 |
Snail wheel
A method and apparatus for operating a snail wheel in a vending machine are disclosed. The method for operating the snail wheel includes accepting a 5 gallon water bottle into the snail wheel, lifting the 5 gallon water bottle up off a bottom shelf of the vending machine, rotating the snail wheel 90° from a starting point, stopping the snail wheel after rotating 90°, wherein at the 5 gallon water bottle rolls out of the snail wheel and onto a platform, and rotating the snail wheel 270° back to the starting point. |
| US09082248B2 |
Fuel dispenser
A system and method for displaying information at a fuel dispenser comprises an electrophoretic display that may be configured to operate in low temperature environments. The fuel dispenser may comprise a keypad located beneath the electrophoretic display in order to present a graphical user interface to a customer and receive the customer's selections. The fuel dispenser may comprise additional electrophoretic displays to present additional information to the consumer. |
| US09082245B2 |
Electronic voter card and method for electronic voting
A method for electronic voting includes providing an electronic data storage device, the device containing a bar code or magnetic strip, providing an automated system for activation of the device, providing an associated user with a unique identifier, wherein the unique identifier is used to activate the device, activating the device utilizing an automated system, verifying the unique identifier, providing election options to the associated user, wherein the election options consist of voting for a political party for all races and voting for individual races, electronically entering voting selections, confirming voting selections, uploading the voting selections to a central database, providing a confirmation number to the associated user once the voting selections have be uploaded, scanning the bar code, connecting the scan of the bar code to the central database, downloading the voting selections from the central database to a voting ballot, scanning the ballot, and recording the voting selections. |
| US09082243B2 |
Fuel saving-aimed motor vehicle driving style evaluation
A driving style evaluation system (1) for a motor vehicle (2), configured to receive and process motor vehicle-related data and motor vehicle mission-related data to compute a Driving Style Evaluation Index (DSEI) indicative of the driving style of a motor vehicle driver during a motor vehicle mission in relation to a motor vehicle fuel consumption, based on the following summary index: Fuel Economy Index (FEI), which is indicative of the driving style of the motor vehicle driver from the fuel saving perspective, and is computed based on pre-summary indices computed based on respective partial indices in turn computed based on a combination of the following physical quantities which affect the motor vehicle fuel consumption: time interval, ending with a motor vehicle stop, during which the motor vehicle speed reduction is mainly due to a combination of a gas pedal release and a gear downshift, possibly with operation of at least one motor vehicle braking system only during the final part of the maneuver; engine speed and torque fluctuations within preset time intervals; time elapsed between a gas pedal release and operation of at least one motor vehicle braking system; time during which at least one motor vehicle braking system is operated; amount of energy dissipated by at least one motor vehicle braking system; engine power and instantaneous fuel consumption in different gears; and time interval between two consecutive gear shifts; and wherein the pre-summary and partial indices are weighted by means of respective dynamic weighting coefficients, each of which is computed based on a respective motor vehicle mission-independent weight, which is indicative of the influence that the physical quantities based on the which the Fuel Economy Index (FEI) is computed have on the overall fuel consumption reduction, and based on a respective motor vehicle mission-dependent benefit, which represents an evaluation of the benefit that the Fuel Economy Index (FEI) provides in the driving style evaluation during the motor vehicle mission. |
| US09082242B2 |
Vehicle network health assessment
Determining a vehicle health status includes sending a request to a gateway device to initiate a diagnostic test for a vehicle network. The request includes an instruction to measure, for a predefined period of time, a voltage produced by the gateway device. The vehicle health status is further determined by converting the request to a probe signal, and asserting the probe signal at differential bus lines of the vehicle network. The health status is further determined by measuring, for the predefined period of time, a voltage at a high level bus line and a voltage at a low level bus line of the differential bus lines, calculating a difference between the voltage measured at the high level bus line and the voltage measured at the low level bus line, and comparing the difference to a predetermined norm voltage value, the results of which indicate the health status. |
| US09082240B2 |
Device for detecting the presence of a user by a vehicle
The invention relates to a device for detecting (CAPT) the presence of an object, that comprises at least one detection member (EA, EB) to which is associated a physical value that varies based on the environment in which said detection member (EA, EB) is located. The invention is characterised in that the physical value provides a variable reference level corresponding to the absence of an object and in that it further comprises a saving device (LOG IC) for saving, upon the emission of a low-frequency signal, a value of the reference level measured before the emission of said low-frequency signal. |
| US09082237B2 |
Vehicle access and security based on biometrics
Method for interacting with a vehicle includes controlling interaction with the vehicle based on receipt of a signal by a component on the vehicle, and generating the signal based on biometric data entered via a portable communications device proximate the vehicle. The entered biometric data may be verified as biometric data of a driver of the vehicle prior to generating the signal. The biometric data may be a fingerprint, a palm print, a hand print, a facial image, and/or a voiceprint, all of which may be obtained using the communications device, e.g., a smartphone. The controlled interaction with the vehicle may be maintaining a brake lockout mechanism coupled to at least one brake of the vehicle in a locked state until the signal is received and/or maintaining at least one door of the vehicle in a locked state until the signal is received. |
| US09082234B1 |
Automatic guarantee delivery tracking and reporting for united states postal service postage refunds for paid computer-based postage
Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention will provide methods and systems for automatic tracking and reporting of refunds for parcels for which the United States Postage Service (the “USPS”) fails to provide delivery to the designated delivery address by a guaranteed delivery date. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically detect a parcel for which a delivery date has been guaranteed, but for which the USPS failed to make delivery by the guaranteed delivery date. For such guaranteed delivery failures, various embodiments of the present invention will display an online report to the user, or will send an electronic report of the failure, such as by electronic mail (“email”), to the user that printed the corresponding USPS Express Mail postage, or will otherwise notify the user of, or make available to the user information regarding, such failures. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically and periodically analyze electronic and/or digital scanning events provided by the USPS regarding postage printed by users that used the subject Internet postage provider to print Express Mail Postage with a corresponding USPS Express Mail Label Number. Various embodiments of the present invention will automatically and periodically analyze such electronic and/or digital scanning events in order to determine whether a scanned tracking event indicates a delivery corresponding to postage printed by a user using the subject Internet postage provider and in order, then, to determine whether the actual delivery date and/or time, if delivered, exceeds the guaranteed delivery and/or time. |
| US09082230B2 |
Method for estimation of the quantity of light received at a point of a virtual environment
A method for estimation of the quantity of light received at a point P of a virtual environment that comprises several first points lit by a light source, these first points forming a plurality of groups each comprising at least one first point is disclosed. In order to improve the display while minimizing the required calculation time, the method estimates the quantity of incident light received at point P by estimating a surface including point P grouping at least some of the points of the virtual environment, estimating a first group of points contributing to the lighting of point P by reflection of the incident light received from the light source based on occlusion information associated with the surface including point P and estimating the quantity of incident light received by the first group of point based on reflectance information associated with such group. |
| US09082228B2 |
Analytical motion blur rasterization with compression
A rasterizer, based on time-dependent edge equations, computes analytical visibility in order to render accurate motion blur. An oracle-based compression algorithm for the time intervals lowers the frame buffer requirements. High quality motion blurred scenes can be rendered using a rasterizer with rather low memory requirements. The resulting images may contain motion blur for both opaque and transparent objects. |
| US09082226B2 |
Graph drawing using precise shape clipping
A computer-implemented method is provided for drawing a graph in which multiple nodes are connected by multiple edges. An image is displayed representing a node, and the image is processed to distinguish image foreground pixels and image background pixel. An edge is displayed incident to the node, the edge extending over selected background pixels and stopping short of selected foreground pixels. There results a graph drawing that is more aesthetically pleasing. |
| US09082224B2 |
Systems and methods 2-D to 3-D conversion using depth access segiments to define an object
The present invention is directed to systems and methods for controlling 2-D to 3-D image conversion. The system and method includes receiving an image and masking the objects in the image using segmentation layers Each segmentation layer can have weighted values for static and dynamic features. Iterations are used to form the final image which, if desired, can be formed using less than all of the segmentation layers. A final iteration can be run with the weighted values equal for static and dynamic features. |
| US09082220B2 |
System, method, and computer program product for smoothing
A system and method for a hybrid, variational, user-controlled, 3D mesh smoothing for orphaned shell meshes. The smoothing model is based on a variational combination of energy and equi-potential minimization theories. A variety of smoothing techniques for predicting a new location for the node-to-smooth are employed. Each node is moved according to a specific smoothing algorithm so as to keep element included angles, skew and distortion to a minimum. The variational smoother selection logic is based on nodal valency and element connectivity pattern of the node to smooth. Results show its consistency with both quadrilateral and quad-dominant meshes with a significant gain over conventional Laplacian schemes in terms of mesh quality, stability, user control and flexibility. |
| US09082218B2 |
Method for manipulating three-dimensional voxel data for on-screen visual
A method for modifying an onscreen rendering of three-dimensional data stored in a voxel cell of a voxel grid to produce an altered visual effect for the cell comprising the steps (a) for each vertex of the voxel cell, determining the data density ratio in neighboring voxel cells, or determining the material type of the voxel cell and or neighboring voxel cells, (b) for each vertex in the voxel cell, and based on the results of (a), determining to change the spatial position of the vertex, and (c) for each vertex in the voxel cell, and based on the decision in (b), generating three vertex location offset coordinates defining a new vertex location. |
| US09082216B2 |
System and method for filter kernel interpolation for seamless mipmap filtering
There is provided a system and method for filter kernel interpolation for seamless mipmap filtering. There is provided a method of implementing a filter kernel interpolation for seamless filtering of transitions within a plurality of mipmaps derived from a base-image texture filtered using a prefilter, the method comprising choosing a filter kernel, determining a filter width for the filter kernel, selecting a first mipmap and a second mipmap from the plurality of mipmaps, applying interpolation on the filter kernel based on the prefilter, the first mipmap, and the second mipmap to generate an interpolated filter kernel, and applying the interpolated filter kernel to the first mipmap to generate a seamless filtered texture. Two alternative methods of interpolation are introduced, including filter kernel value interpolation and filter kernel position interpolation with x-lerping. By avoiding access to the second mipmap, greater efficiency and image quality can be achieved versus conventional interpolation. |
| US09082215B2 |
Method of and system for overlaying NBS functional data on a live image of a brain
The present invention discloses a method of overlaying Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) functional data on a live image of a brain. The method comprises the steps of obtaining a live image of a brain, obtaining a functional map of the brain comprising an anatomical model of the brain and NBS functional data associated with the brain, identifying at least one anatomical landmark of the brain from the live image of the brain, identifying at least one of said identified anatomical landmarks on the anatomical model of the brain, modifying the functional map so that the identified at least one anatomical landmark of the model corresponds in size and orientation to the corresponding at least one anatomical landmark in the live image of the brain, and digitally overlaying at least said NBS functional data on said live image of the brain according to the corresponding, aligned anatomical landmarks. |
| US09082210B2 |
Method and apparatus for adjusting image depth
A method for adjusting image depth includes receiving a three-dimension (3D) image including a first image and a second image. The method includes measuring the 3D image to generate a first parallax gradient value, calculating a second parallax gradient value according to the first parallax gradient value and a user setting value, calculating a parallax modification value, and moving the first image according to the corresponding parallax modification value so as to generate a adjusted first image for replacing the first image. |
| US09082208B2 |
System and method for locating and displaying aircraft information
A system and method for locating and displaying aircraft information, such as three-dimensional models and various information about an aircraft component. The system may include a portable display, a remote processor, and one or more location and/or orientation-determining components. The models and other various information displayed on the portable display may correspond with a location and orientation of the portable display relative to the aircraft component. The location and/or orientation-determining components may include one or more infrared cameras for communicating with the remote processor and a plurality of infrared targets or infrared markers. The remote processor may be configured to filter the information provided to the portable display based on the portable display's location and orientation relative to the aircraft component, geographic location, user input, or other various parameters. |
| US09082201B2 |
Surface contamination determination system
A computer receives a first set of spectral information for a first surface, wherein the first set of spectral information includes a pixel count for each color value of a range of color values, with regard to each color, measured at time one. The computer determines, with regard to the first set, whether dispersion of the pixel count across the range of color values, with regard to each color, exceeds a first threshold value. The computer determines, with regard to the first set, a surface contamination level based on at least whether the dispersion of the pixel count across the range of color values, with regard to each color, exceeds the first threshold value. |
| US09082199B1 |
Video processing architecture
A video processing device has an input for receiving video data, at least one processing circuit, for generating processed video data from the received video data, and a memory, for receiving the processed video data. An output circuit reads the processed video data from the memory, and generates frames of data including at least the processed video data. In order to be able to operate with an output clock frequency that may differ from the ideal output clock frequency, it is possible to vary the frame size, that is, the number of pixels of data in a frame. If an amount of processed video data stored in the memory exceeds an upper threshold, then the frame size can be reduced by reducing the number of pixels of blanking data in the output frame, thereby increasing the rate at which data is read from the memory. Conversely, if an amount of processed video data stored in the memory is lower than a lower threshold, then the frame size can be increased by increasing the number of pixels of blanking data in the output frame, thereby reducing the rate at which data is read from the memory. |
| US09082198B2 |
Method for creating automatic cinemagraphs on an imagine device
Embodiments are directed towards automatically creating a cinemagraph on at least an imaging device, where the cinemagraph can be created without additional user interaction beyond capturing an initial sequence of images, and indicating that a cinemagraph is to be created from the sequence. Automatic creation of the cinemagraph includes selecting an anchor frame within the sequence and aligning the other frames to the anchor frame. Detection and segmentation of moving objects within the sequence, with respect to the anchor frame are performed. A mask is generated and refined. Segmentation of masks are then unified, and combined with a background from the anchor frame to generate an animated sequence. |
| US09082196B2 |
Application-transparent resolution control by way of command stream interception
A method for controlling image resolution in graphics systems at runtime is provided. In use, the stream of commands and Shaders of the running application is intercepted and analyzed at run time. In the event that an on-the-fly change of resolution is required, the change is made by modification of the Shader assembly code or of the graphics library commands. |
| US09082195B2 |
Generating a composite score for a possible pallet in an image scene
A method is provided for evaluating a possible pallet object in a gray scale image including one or more pallets. The method may comprise: generating, by a computer, a first confidence score ScoreLowerLeftCorner for a lower left corner associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a second confidence score ScoreLowerRightCorner for a lower right corner associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a third confidence score ScoreBaseboardLine for a bottom pallet board line associated with the possible pallet object; generating, by the computer, a fourth confidence score Scorehole for a center stringer associated with the possible pallet object; and calculating, by the computer, a composite score ScoreObject based on the first, second, third and fourth confidence scores. |
| US09082190B2 |
Computationally efficient method for image segmentation with intensity and texture discrimination
A computationally efficient image segmentation method is provided that processes a grayscale digital image to more clearly show textures in the underlying object shown in the digital image. A grayscale digital image is converted to an intensity matrix based on the brightness of the pixels in the image, where each matrix element represents a pixel in the digital image and has a value corresponding to the intensity, i.e., the brightness, of that pixel. The value of each matrix element is compared to the value of its nearest neighbor matrix element, and the pixel represented by the matrix element is categorized as being “dark” or “bright” based on its value, and is categorized as being “smooth” or “rough” based on the values of the nearest neighbor matrix elements. As each pixel is categorized, it is assigned a shading level corresponding to the brightness/texture matrix element value. A processed image having only the assigned shading levels is then produced, with the processed image indicating textures of the underlying object shown in the original grayscale digital image. |
| US09082180B2 |
System, method, and computer program product for implementing a spatially varying unsharp mask noise reduction filter
A system, method, and computer program product for applying a spatially varying unsharp mask noise reduction filter is disclosed. The spatially varying unsharp mask noise reduction filter generates a low-pass filtered image by applying a low-pass filter to a digital image, generates a high-pass filtered image of the digital image, and generates an unsharp masked image based on the low-pass filtered image and the high-pass filtered image. The filter also blends the low-pass filtered image with the unsharp masked image based on a shaping function. |
| US09082179B2 |
Automatic projection of landmarks to generate additional correspondences in image registration
When registering multiple multidimensional images based on landmarks, the system improves the distribution and density of the points in correspondence across images, which are of crucial importance for the accuracy and reliability of the resulting registration transform. Projection of input corresponding point landmarks is performed in order to automatically generate additional point correspondences. The input existing landmarks may have been manually or automatically located in the input multiple images. Projection is performed from each source landmark along one or more determined projection directions onto one or more determined projection targets in each image. The projection target(s) can be explicitly materialized or implicitly defined. Candidate new points are identified at the locations where the projection ray paths intersect with the projection target(s). Correspondence between the new points across images is transferred from the input landmarks from which they have been projected, with further distinction by projection direction and/or projection target in the case where a plurality of these was used. Subsequent registration can use all or a selected subset of all combined input landmark correspondences and correspondences between additional projected landmark points. The additional correspondences between projected landmark points contribute in refining the image registration. Such accurate, efficient and robust tools for image registration and any downstream processing, such as contour propagation or image fusion, are highly demanded for various medical applications, such as adaptive radiotherapy. |
| US09082178B2 |
Sensor coordinate calibration in an ultrasound system
There is disclosed an embodiment for performing a calibration of a sensor by using an image registration between a three-dimensional ultrasound image and computerized tomography (CT) image. An ultrasound image forming unit includes an ultrasound probe and forms a three-dimensional ultrasound image of a target object. A sensor is coupled to the ultrasound probe. A memory stores a three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) image of the target object and position information on a position between the three-dimensional ultrasound image and the sensor. A processor performs image registration between the three-dimensional CT image and the three-dimensional ultrasound image to form a first transformation function for transforming a position of the sensor to a corresponding position on the three-dimensional CT image and performs calibration of the sensor by applying the position information to the first transformation function. |
| US09082174B2 |
System and method for using a website containing video playlists as input to a download manager
Systems and methods for enabling the download of a set of media files with a specific order and specific contents and, more particularly, to enabling a download manager to automatically receive the information it requires to retrieve those elements required to replicate a streaming edit through local playback after the downloads complete. |
| US09082172B2 |
Device for generating watermark metadata, associated device for embedding watermark
A device for generating metadata associated with a content intended to be watermarked with an identifier stored in a device for embedding a watermark is disclosed. The device for generating metadata comprises a processor configured to generate metadata. The metadata comprises (i) an instruction for deriving a current payload bit from the identifier wherein the current payload bit is determined from a lookup index wherein the instruction for deriving a current payload bit indicates to which position in the identifier corresponds the current payload bit, or from a XOR function applied to a plurality of bits of the identifier, wherein the instruction for deriving a current payload bit comprises a binary mask indicating which bits in the identifier corresponds to XORed bits. |
| US09082169B2 |
Longitudinal monitoring of pathology
The present invention relates to a method for processing image data comprising image information about a body region of a patient, the method being at least partly executed by an electronic data processing device and comprising the following steps: d) providing the image data; e) assigning, to elements of the image information, a predetermined probability for the image information contained in the respective element representing a predetermined tissue class, wherein the predetermined probability is provided independently of information about at least part of a body which is different from the body of the patient; f) determining, on the basis of the predetermined probability and for a subset of the image information comprising a plurality of the elements, an element-specific probability for individual elements of the subset representing an element-specific tissue class. |
| US09082167B2 |
Method for iterative image reconstruction for bi-modal CT data
A method is disclosed for the reconstruction of image data of an examination object from measurement data. First and second image data are reconstructed from the measurement data with a first and second respective image characteristic, with an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio of the second image characteristic relative to the first image characteristic. Enhanced image data is calculated using an iterative algorithm using the first and the second image data. In the case of the iterative algorithm, a low pass is applied to a difference between the first image data and the image data of an iteration cycle, and a high pass to a difference between the second image data and the image data of the iteration cycle. |
| US09082166B2 |
Method and apparatus for automated platelet identification within a whole blood sample from microscopy images
A method and apparatus for identifying platelets within a whole blood sample. The method includes the steps of: a) adding at least one colorant to the whole blood sample, which colorant is operable to tag platelets; b) disposing the blood sample into a chamber defined by at least one transparent panel; c) imaging at least a portion of the sample quiescently residing within the chamber to create one or more images; and d) identifying one or more platelets within the sample using an analyzer adapted to identify the platelets based on quantitatively determinable features within the image using a analyzer, which quantitatively determinable features include intensity differences. |
| US09082163B2 |
Image processing device
An image processing device having a brightness adjustment unit having a unit processing the brightness of each pixel and a frame buffer unfolding each brightness before and after processing, and a color adjustment unit having a unit processing the color of each pixel and a frame buffer unfolding each pixel color before and after processing. The ratio (f) of the brightness of each pixel before and after adjusting is input. When the ratio (f) is equal or larger than a color emphasis parameter (ColorRate), calculates anti-numerical value that subtract the ColorRate from the ratio (f), adds the ColorRate to this anti-numerical value, and multiplies a coordinate value of the color space by the added value. When the ratio (f) is smaller than the ColorRate, multiplies the ColorRate by the coordinate value of the color space, and outputs the color of each pixel to the frame buffer. |
| US09082161B2 |
Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and non-transitory computer readable medium
An image processing apparatus comprises: a decision unit which decides, based on a first resolution and a second resolution, a sampling pixel to be used for resolution conversion in the first image data; a determination unit which determines whether the first image data includes a white line of not larger than a predetermined width; a replacing unit which, in a case where a pixel of interest in the first image data is a pixel included in the white line and is not the sampling pixel, replaces a value of the pixel of interest with a value of a pixel adjacent to the pixel of interest; and a conversion unit which converts the first image data including the replaced value of the pixel into the second image data having the second resolution. |
| US09082160B2 |
Image processing method, image compression device and mobile terminal
The present invention provides an image compression method, comprising: determining non-edge portions of an image to be compressed by performing an image edge detection on the image to be compressed; dividing each of non-edge portions into a plurality of connected domains of pixels according to color similarity of the pixels in the non-edge portion, wherein each of the connected domains of pixels is composed of a pixel selected during the division into the connected domains of pixels and the pixels similar in color to and continuously adjacent to the selected pixel; setting the color of each of the connected domains of pixels to be the color of the selected pixel; merging the colors of a plurality of divided connected domains of pixels according to similarity of the colors of the connected domains of pixels; and compressing the image to be compressed by using the merged colors. According to the method, the number of colors used for image compression can be determined according to the characteristics of the image, thus the file size of the compressed image can be effectively reduced with the display effect thereof kept substantially unchanged. |
| US09082157B2 |
Systems and methods for managing information relating to medical fluids and containers therefor
The present invention relates to management of information relating to medical fluids, containers therefor, and medical fluid administration devices for administering such medical fluids to patients. Data tags (e.g., RFID tags) are generally associated with containers of the invention and may be electromagnetically read from and/or written to using an electromagnetic device, for example, that may be associated with a medical fluid administration device of the invention. |
| US09082155B2 |
Real estate analysis system
A real estate analysis system that provides an integrated approach for gathering available real estate data and synthesizing the real estate data for various uses by various users. The real estate data may be real time data, historical data, and/or most recent data. The processing of the data utilizes cloud resources in a cloud computing architecture. In addition, cloud resources are used to store various accumulated real estate data in a manner such that the cloud resources can quickly process calculations and have the results returned to an end user who requested the data. |
| US09082150B2 |
Apparatus and method for management of electronic notices
In certain embodiments, an apparatus includes a memory and a processor. The processor is operable to present, in a first region of a display, information associated with a first service based at least in part upon the user. The processor is further operable to present information associated with a second, third and fourth service. Additionally, the processor may receive an update to the information associated with the first service and present, in the first region of the display, the update to the information associated with the first service. Finally, the processor is operable to detect a first touch on the first region of the display indicating a selection of the first service and present details associated with the first service in response to detecting the first touch. |
| US09082149B2 |
System and method for providing sales assistance to a consumer wearing an augmented reality device in a physical store
A computer-implemented method is disclosed herein. The method includes the step of receiving, with a processing device of a commerce server, a help request signal from an augmented reality device worn by a current consumer shopping in a retail store. The method also includes the step of selecting, with the processing device, a sales assistant to help the current consumer. The method also includes the step of linking, with the processing device, the augmented reality device in communication with an electronic computing device operated by the sales assistant. The method also includes the step of receiving, at the processing device, a receipt signal containing a list of items purchased by the current consumer. The method also includes the step of determining, with the processing device, if any item on the list of items was the subject of the help provided to the current consumer by the sales assistant. The sales assistant can enjoy a commission, a performance bonus, a quota, or receive some other form of enhanced remuneration in response to the determining step. |
| US09082146B1 |
System, method, and medium for generating cached product information pages
Enabling price updates is described, including: receiving a request from a customer to review a set of product information associated with a product; sending the set of product information including a price associated with the product to the customer; receiving an update to the price from a seller associated with the product; receiving a request to buy the product from the customer; in response to the request to buy the product, determining that the price has been updated by the seller; and sending a message associated with a change in price to the customer. |
| US09082143B1 |
Merchant attribution for sales
A brick-and-mortar merchant may receive a commission when a user interacts with an item at the brick-and-mortar merchant but later purchases the same or similar item from another source such as an online retailer. Interaction between the user and the brick-and-mortar merchant may be determined by geolocating a mobile device near or within a location of the merchant. In some embodiments, the online retailer may refer a customer to retail partners that may offer the item for viewing. The online retailer may track and compensate the retail partner for interacting with a user when the user visits the retail partner's location and possibly receives sales help and then later obtains the item from the online retailer. |
| US09082141B2 |
Systems and methods to implement demand response events
A computing device for use with a demand response system is provided. The computing device includes a communication interface for receiving customer data of a plurality of customers, wherein the customer data includes at least a location, a policy limitation, a participation history, and an enrollment status for each customer. A processor is coupled to the communication interface and programmed to select at least one participant from the plurality of customers, based on the customer data, to participate in at least one demand response event. The processor is further programmed to verify that the selected participant, based on the customer data, satisfies at least one precondition to receive at least one signal representative of the demand response event. |
| US09082140B2 |
Systems and methods to extract and utilize textual semantics
Systems and methods to extract and utilize textual semantics are described. The system receives item information that describes an item for sale on a network-based marketplace and analyzes the item information to generate application information that identifies a plurality of applications. The plurality of applications includes a first application that further includes the item as a first component of the first application. The system stores a listing in a database that includes the application information and the item information and publishes the listing on the network-based marketplace to sell the item via the network-based marketplace. |
| US09082139B2 |
Printer credit management
A printer credit management method is disclosed, the method includes receiving a code at a printer. From the code, a printer identifier and a credit value are discerned. It is determined if the printer identifier corresponds to a unique identifier assigned to the printer. Only upon a positive determination, a credit balance maintained by the printer is updated to include the credit value. |
| US09082135B2 |
Third party delivery of preferred perishable content
A user can specify particular news, weather, traffic, or other perishable content received on a particular Internet radio station or other media channel. The user can customize the station so that wherever the user is currently located, he can receive perishable content related to a preferred geographic location or other category. In some embodiments, a user can specify that a customized station plays local news from one city at the top of the hour, traffic from another city at 10 minutes past the hour, and music or other content at other times. The user can also customize the station to select the perishable content, or other original content, from the personal libraries of specified users. Thus, a user can customize not only the genre of content or select a particular local station, but can also modify the perishable content provided by the customized station. |
| US09082134B2 |
Displaying advertising using transit time data
Planning the presentation of advertisements to travelers, includes using a computer and software to receive data pertaining to a departure time, a location of one or more travelers, a starting location of the traveler, and a vendor event, including a time and location for the event. The received information is used to calculate available time between the departure time and the time of the event, and to calculate, for a given mode of travel, a travel time from the starting location to the event location and then to the departure location. The calculated travel time plus a predetermined amount of time at the event location is compared with the calculated amount of time available, and if the calculated amount of time available is at least equal, present an advertisement corresponding to the vendor event to the traveler. |
| US09082133B2 |
Estimating off-line advertising impressions
A computer-implemented method for monitoring the effectiveness of advertisements broadcast is described. The method includes detecting that an advertisement has been aired by a broadcast station, monitoring a network for a duration subsequent to the airing of the advertisement for activity attributable to the airing of the advertisement, and developing a quantitative relationship between the activity and a number of listeners of the advertisement. |
| US09082131B2 |
Method and apparatus for tracking items and providing item information
A method and apparatus for tracking products and providing product information receives information from a user device at a product server. A user scans a Quick Response code (QR code) using a mobile communication device which transmits product identification information from the QR code and user device information to a product server. The product server determines product information associated with the product identified by product identification information received from the user device. The product information is transmitted by the product server to the user device. The information received from the user device can also be used to track the location of products and acquire user information. |
| US09082126B2 |
Service plan web crawler
A web crawler for downloading and analyzing the contents of a merchant's website. The web crawler may analyze the products advertised and determine whether a service plan is properly associated. The crawler may also analyze the placement of the service plans on the website, and store the information in a database. A dynamic mapper is also provided which can determine what service plan should be associated with a particular product. The dynamic mapper may also suggest what type of control to use for a particular customer. A webserver containing software for updating a webpage is also disclosed. A process for updating a webpage is also disclosed. |
| US09082120B2 |
Secure payment card transactions
Payment card transactions at a point of sale (POS) are secured in certain embodiments by intercepting, with a POS security layer installed on a POS terminal, payment data from the POS terminal, transmitting the payment data from the POS security layer to a server security application installed on a POS server, and providing false payment data from the POS security layer to a POS terminal application installed on the POS terminal. The false payment data in various embodiments is processed as if it were the payment data, such that the POS terminal transmits an authorization request to the POS server using the false payment data. In addition, the authorization request may be transmitted from the POS server to a payment gateway. |
| US09082119B2 |
Virtualization and secure processing of data
Systems, methods, and non-transient machine-interpretable data representing executable instruction sets and/or other products for the processing of data for the secure creation, administration, manipulation, processing, and storage of electronic data useful in the processing of payment transactions and other secure data processes. In various aspects and embodiments the disclosure provides secure means for the authorization of sensitive and other data processes subject to controlled access. Such processes include, for example the creation, administration, authorization, virtualization, storage, and other manipulation or processing of electronic data representing characteristics of, instructions for, and information associated with consumer, business, and other payment accounts, and other forms of secure payment elements, such as payment tokens; and data useful in processing transactions using such accounts and elements. Information associated with particular payment means, such as accounts or payment tokens, can be stored, for example, in a data set, usually secure, sometimes referred to as a virtual or electronic wallet, or a secure payment token. |
| US09082115B1 |
Communication device
The communication device comprising a voice communicating implementer, a calculation implementer, a payment monetary value data transmitting implementer, a remaining monetary value data updating implementer, an automated supplementary monetary value data adding implementer, and a simultaneous implementation implementer. |
| US09082114B2 |
Self-service terminal
A self-service terminal comprising: a terminal body defining a transaction fulfillment area, and a terminal head. The terminal head extends from the terminal body and defines a transaction request area transverse to the transaction fulfillment area. The transaction request area and transaction fulfillment area create a customer zone. |
| US09082112B2 |
Autonomous transport vehicle charging system
A charging system for autonomous transport vehicles including at least one charging contact disposed on each pick floor level of a storage and retrieval system, each of the at least one charging contact being located at a transfer station, at least one power supply configured to supply power to the at least one charging contact, and a controller in communication with the transfer station and being configured to communicate information relating to a transfer of items between the transfer station and a predetermined one of the autonomous transport vehicles and to apply power from the power supply to the at least one charging contact for charging the predetermined autonomous transport vehicle corresponding to the transfer and located at the transfer station, wherein the controller is configured to supply power to the charging contacts simultaneously with the predetermined autonomous transport vehicle exchanging items related to the transfer at the transfer station. |
| US09082108B2 |
Real time collaboration for digital scene creation
Multiple users can edit the same digital scene concurrently, with different users using different computing devices and/or different programs running on one or more computing devices to edit the digital scene. Each program maintains its own representation of the digital scene. When a user of a program makes a change to the digital scene, the program communicates an indication of that change to the programs used by the other users, and those programs update their representations of the digital scene to reflect the change. Additionally, one of the users editing the digital scene can be an arbiter of the digital scene, determining which other users are permitted to edit the digital scene. |
| US09082107B2 |
Intellectual asset automatic docketing and file association
One embodiment of the invention includes a method of associating a file with an intellectual asset record. The method includes reading information such as the file name and metadata pertaining to a file. The file name has a predetermined format made up of fields. The fields in the file name and the metadata are extracted. Based upon the fields, the file is linked to intellectual asset record. The intellectual asset record includes a set of related data organized into meaningful units pertaining to an intellectual asset. |
| US09082104B2 |
Method and apparatus for managing system specifications
The invention includes a method and apparatus for managing a system specification. The method includes identifying a first system specification defined at a first refinement level where the first system specification includes specification data, generating a second system specification at a second refinement level where the second system specification inherits the specification data of the first system specification, modifying the inherited specification data of the second system specification, and storing the second system specification including the modified specification data. |
| US09082103B2 |
Asset monitoring with content discrepancy detection
Method for monitoring assets that include a sensor system that obtains data about contents thereof, a processor that derives information about the contents from the sensor data, and a communication system that, when linked to a communications network, wirelessly transmits the information derived by the processor via the Internet. The information is received at a data processing and storage facility, associated with a unique identification code for each asset, and stored in association with the identification code. Access to the stored information is effected via the Internet. |
| US09082102B2 |
System and method for remote equipment data management
A global tracking device includes a hardened case configured to be removably coupled to an object. The hardened case includes a barcode associated with information regarding the object. The data access element is configured to cause an external device to populate an interactive display application containing at least a portion of the information regarding to the object. The global tracking device can communicate with a central facility via a satellite communication. |
| US09082095B2 |
System and method of submitting daily field reports
A system provides field workers with on-site access to forms and tools that guide the field worker through the data entry and submission of information and images from field inspections and maintenance. The system also provides an interface for recipients of submitted field reports to view and manage the received data. |
| US09082093B2 |
System and method for non-production environment management
The present invention discloses a system and method for management of test or non-production environment. The method comprises planning the non-production environment design, wherein planning is based on plurality of inputs. The planning stage is preceded by engagement wherein engagement with functional groups takes place. The planned non-production environment design is analyzed based upon the requirements wherein analysis consists of reviewing plurality of non-production environment designs. This stage is followed by creation of non-production environment wherein non-production environment is built on analyzed design. After this stage the non-production environment is deployed. After deployment there is provision for on-going supports to test services via established Information Technology service management processes. Non-production environment services manage the on-going booking and allocation of the non-production environment through various in-house and third party tools. The non-production environment services constantly assess the non-production environment so that the non-production environment can be re-used wherever possible. |
| US09082091B2 |
Unified user login for co-location facilities
A logical customer organization model is applied to group the individual agreements into separate logical customer organizations, wherein the groupings can be region based groupings, organization groupings and departmental groupings. Unified login identification (ID) model is applied to enable a first user to login to a portal using a first login ID to access a first asset in a first asset group according to a first logical customer organization. The unified login ID model enables the first user to use the same first login ID to access a second asset in the first asset group according to the first logical customer organization. The unified login ID model also enables the first user to login to the portal using a second login ID to access one or more assets in a second asset group according to a second logical customer organization. Each of the first and second logical customer organization may be associated with one or more asset groups and one or more user groups. |
| US09082088B2 |
Dynamic assignment of qualification block to person
A method for matching an object with a set of qualifications to an object with a set of requirements includes examining the object with the set of qualifications to produce a list of qualifications without a hierarchy, removing duplicate qualifications, and matching list of qualifications without a hierarchy with removed duplicates to the set of qualifications. |
| US09082087B2 |
System and method for generating a custom revenue cycle model with automated lead movement
A system and method for generating a custom revenue cycle model with automated lead movement are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises receiving user input, wherein the user input comprises at least one of data related to a stage, data related to a success path definition, and data related to transition rules for lead movement, wherein the stage is a revenue stage or a detour stage; generating a custom revenue cycle model based on the user input; storing the custom revenue cycle model; providing for automated lead movements based on the transition rules; and providing for automated tracking of lead movements in the custom revenue cycle model. |
| US09082086B2 |
Adaptively learning a similarity model
A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium for computing a representation of similarity among items in a set of items. Computing a representation of similarity items may comprise generating a first similarity model that represents characteristics of the set of items, the characteristics being indicative of similarity among the items in the set of items. Additionally, computing the representation of similarity may comprise adaptively selecting a subset of the set of items for similarity evaluation based on the first similarity model, receiving a similarity evaluation for the adaptively-selected subset of items, and generating a second similarity model based on the first to similarity model and the received similarity evaluation. |
| US09082085B2 |
Computing environment climate dependent policy management
A computing environment climate-aware policy management system provides decision support by receiving a request to perform an action, where the request is communicated from or on behalf of a computing resource. Upon receiving the request, an indication of a computing environment climate is obtained, which may include for example, information related to the workflow associated with the requested action, information external to the workflow or other information that contextualizes the computing environment of components thereof. At least one policy is obtained that is associated with at least one of the action associated with the request, the resource associated with the request to perform the action received by the policy system manager, and the indicated climate. Each obtained policy is evaluated and a response to the request to perform the action is provided based upon the results of the policy evaluation. |
| US09082084B2 |
Facilitating machine learning in an online social network
Automatic machine-learning processes and systems for an online social network are described. During operation of the online social network, a system can automatically collect labeled training events, obtain snapshots of raw entity data associated with subjects from the collected training events, produce training examples by generating features for each training event using the snapshots of entity data and current entity data, and split the training examples into a training set and a test set. Next, the system can use a machine-learning technique to train a set of models and to select the best model based on one or more evaluation metrics using the training set. The system can then evaluate the performance of the best model on the test set. If the performance of the best model satisfies a performance criterion, the system can use the best model to predict responses for the online social network. |
| US09082083B2 |
Machine learning method that modifies a core of a machine to adjust for a weight and selects a trained machine comprising a sequential minimal optimization (SMO) algorithm
Methods for training machines to categorize data, and/or recognize patterns in data, and machines and systems so trained. More specifically, variations of the invention relates to methods for training machines that include providing one or more training data samples encompassing one or more data classes, identifying patterns in the one or more training data samples, providing one or more data samples representing one or more unknown classes of data, identifying patterns in the one or more of the data samples of unknown class(es), and predicting one or more classes to which the data samples of unknown class(es) belong by comparing patterns identified in said one or more data samples of unknown class with patterns identified in said one or more training data samples. Also provided are tools, systems, and devices, such as support vector machines (SVMs) and other methods and features, software implementing the methods and features, and computers or other processing devices incorporating and/or running the software, where the methods and features, software, and processors utilize specialized methods to analyze data. |
| US09082079B1 |
Proportional-integral-derivative controller effecting expansion kernels comprising a plurality of spiking neurons associated with a plurality of receptive fields
Adaptive proportional-integral-derivative controller apparatus of a plant may be implemented. The controller may comprise an encoder block utilizing basis function kernel expansion technique to encode an arbitrary combination of inputs into spike output. The basis function kernel may comprise one or more operators configured to manipulate basis components. The controller may comprise spiking neuron network operable according to reinforcement learning process. The network may receive the encoder output via a plurality of plastic connections. The process may be configured to adaptively modify connection weights in order to maximize process performance, associated with a target outcome. Features of the input may be identified and used for enabling the controlled plant to achieve the target outcome. |
| US09082075B1 |
Combined spike domain and pulse domain signal processing
A method of, and apparatus for, the processing analog data. The method includes the steps of: time encoding the analog data; setting weighting factors in an array of 1-bit DACs for processing the time encoded analog data; summing and filtering outputs of the array of 1-bit DACs; time encoding the filtered outputs of the outputs of the array of 1-bit DACs; and coupling the time encoded filtered outputs and analog input data into inputs of the array of 1-bit DACs. |
| US09082074B2 |
Computerized system and method for calibrating sports statistics projections by player performance tiers
The system and method provides team guidance recommendations. The system and method provides player selection guidance by realistically valuing top-tier and lower-tier players. The system and method provides situational-based starting lineup recommendations by creating and using tier-specific, non-normal distributions in a probability distribution-based system for providing fantasy sports player selection guidance. The system and method generates variance and accuracy information from historical data of a particular player projection system, and generates non-normal fantasy point distributions from the same player projection system using the previously generated variance and accuracy information. |
| US09082065B2 |
Image editing device, image editing method, program, and computer readable storage medium
Provided is an image editing device that enables a user to easily assign images to a plurality of pages of an album or the like so as to satisfy editorial restrictions. The image editing device acquires a plurality of pieces of image data; determines, based on respective photographed times of the plurality of pieces of image data and a reference time interval, details of an assignment of the plurality of pieces of image data to each of the plurality of pages so that an interval between photographed times of pieces of image data to be assigned to the each of the plurality of pages is the reference time interval or smaller; and outputs image output data on the each of the plurality of pages based on a result of the assignment. |
| US09082058B2 |
Antenna construction, for example for an RFID transponder system
The invention relates to an antenna construction for an RFID chip for long ranges, which comprises a substrate, an antenna of conducting material supported by the substrate, and coupling means for coupling the antenna to a circuit. In accordance with the invention the antenna is a magnetic dipole, and the coupling means are formed by extensions of the antenna conductor. |
| US09082057B2 |
RF device with tamper detection
A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system according to one embodiment includes communication circuitry for enabling wireless communication with an RF reader; energy harvesting circuitry for generating an electric current from RF energy; a sensor loop coupled to the energy harvesting circuitry; and a status register coupled to the sensor loop for indicating a broken or unbroken status of the sensor loop. A method according to one embodiment includes generating an electric current in a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) device, the current energizing a sensor loop; detecting a status of whether the sensor loop is broken or unbroken; storing the status in at least one of a status register and a nonvolatile memory; receiving a query from an RFID reader for the status; and sending the status to the RFID reader. |
| US09082051B2 |
Information processing system and apparatus generating image pattern in which are embedded authenticated user information and application information, controlling method therefor and medium storing a program instructing a computer to execute the method
A control unit 112 of an image forming apparatus generates a first image pattern in which a user information authenticated by an authentication processing unit 113 and an application information concerned with a predetermined application that can be used in the image forming apparatus by the user authenticated are embedded, and displays the first image pattern on a display unit 105. A control unit 208 of a mobile terminal analyzes the first image pattern read out by a camera unit 203 from the display unit 105 of the image forming apparatus to derive the user information and the application information. Furthermore, the control unit 208 of the mobile terminal displays, on a display unit 201 of the mobile terminal, an operation image frame for use a predetermined application corresponding to the derived application information during a period of reading out of the first image pattern by the camera unit 203. |
| US09082049B2 |
Detecting broken lamps in a public lighting system via analyzation of satellite images
A computer receives a first image of a plurality of lamps. The computer receives a second image of a plurality of lamps. The computer transforms the second image so a location depicted in a plurality of pixels of the first image is depicted in a corresponding plurality of pixels in the second image. The computer determines a brightness variation exists between a pixel of the plurality of pixels of the second image and a corresponding pixel of the plurality of pixels of the first image. The computer identifies a location corresponding to the pixel of the plurality of pixels of the second image where the brightness variation exists. |
| US09082044B2 |
Image process with spatial periodicity measure
An image manipulation process is controlled by a spatial periodicity measure formed for an image or an image block by measuring the sparseness of the two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum of the image on a scale of zero to unity in which a two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum having all equal values has a sparseness of zero and in which a two-dimensional spatial frequency spectrum having only one non-zero value has a sparseness of unity. Sparseness may be measured by allocating values of the spectrum to frequency bins and counting the number of bins that contain non-zero values; comparing values of the spectrum with a threshold and counting the number of values that exceed the threshold; or forming a function of the mean-square value and the mean value of the spectrum values. |
| US09082043B2 |
Image congealing via efficient feature selection
A novel technique for unsupervised feature selection is disclosed. The disclosed methods include automatically selecting a subset of a feature of an image. Additionally, the selection of the subset of features may be incorporated with a congealing algorithm, such as a least-square-based congealing algorithm. By selecting a subset of the feature representation of an image, redundant and/or irrelevant features may be reduced or removed, and the efficiency and accuracy of least-square-based congealing may be improved. |
| US09082039B2 |
Method and apparatus for recognizing a character based on a photographed image
An apparatus and method for recognizing a character based on a photographed image. The apparatus includes an image determining unit, an image effect unit, a binarizing unit and a character recognizing unit. The image determining unit is configured to select, from an input image, a Region Of Interest (ROI) to be used for image analysis when the input image is input, and to analyze the selected ROI to determine a type of the input image. The image effect unit is configured to apply to the input image, an image effect for distinguishing a character region and a background region in a display screen if the type of the input image indicates that the input image is obtained by photographing a display screen. The binarizing unit is configured to binarize the input image or the output of the image effect unit according to the determined type of the input image. The character recognizing unit is configured to recognize a character from the binarized input image. |
| US09082032B2 |
System for reading information code and medium on which information code is formed
A system reads an information code formed on a medium. The code has light modules and dark modules. The areas of the light modules are produced as inversion areas inverted light reflection characteristics. The areas of the dark module areas are produced as non-inversion areas non-inverting light reflection characteristics. A reader emits illumination light of wavelengths including infrared light wavelengths to the code, and images the code under the illumining light emission. The inversion areas, that is, the light module areas, can be dark under the visible light, but can be a light color due to its inverted light reflection characteristics. The light modules can thus be imaged by the reader under the illumining light emission, providing distinguishable detection of the inversion and non-inversion areas, allowing the light and dark modules to be extracted for decoding. |
| US09082029B2 |
Optical code scanner with a high dispersion optical lens
An optical code scanner is presented that includes image capture technology to scan optical codes. The image capture technology uses a fixed aperture, a fixed standard optical lens, a fixed high dispersion optical lens and at least one illumination device that generates different colors of light. Together, these elements increase the effective depth of field of the optical code scanner by capturing images of an item presented to the optical code scanner using different colors of light. |
| US09082020B2 |
Apparatus and method for calculating and displaying the height of an object detected in an image on a display
Disclosed is an apparatus for calculating the actual height of an object and displaying the calculated height on an image, including: an object detection unit that detects an object in an image of the vehicle's surroundings acquired by a camera disposed on a vehicle; an object position measurement unit that measures a position of the object in the image and measures an object distance and an object length of the object in the image based on a distance value acquired by a distance measuring sensor disposed on the vehicle; an object height calculation unit that calculates an object height using the object distance and the object length of the object displayed in the image; and a display controller controlling display of the calculated the height of the object on a display. |
| US09082016B2 |
Mobile apparatus and method for controlling the same
A method of controlling a mobile apparatus includes acquiring a first original image and a second original image, extracting a first feature point of the first original image and a second feature point of the second original image, generating a first blurring image and a second blurring image by blurring the first original image and the second original image, respectively, calculating a similarity between at least two images of the first original image, the second original image, the first blurring image, and the second blurring image, determining a change in scale of the second original image based on the calculated similarity, and controlling at least one of an object recognition and a position recognition by matching the second feature point of the second original image to the first feature point of the first original image based on the change in scale. |
| US09082014B2 |
Methods and apparatus to estimate demography based on aerial images
Methods and apparatus to estimate demography based on aerial images are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing a first aerial image of a first geographic area to detect a first plurality of objects, and estimating a demographic characteristic of the first geographic area based on the first plurality of objects. |
| US09082011B2 |
Person identification using ocular biometrics with liveness detection
A method of assessing the identity of a person by one or more of: internal non-visible anatomical structure of an eye represented by the Oculomotor Plant Characteristics (OPC), brain performance represented by the Complex Eye Movement patterns (CEM), iris patterns, and periocular information. In some embodiments, a method of making a biometric assessment includes measuring eye movement of a subject, making an assessment of whether the subject is alive based on the measured eye movement, and assessing a person's identity based at least in part on the assessment of whether the subject is alive. In some embodiments, a method of making a biometric assessment includes measuring eye movement of a subject, assessing characteristics from the measured eye movement, and assessing a state of the subject based on the assessed characteristics. |
| US09082009B2 |
Method of defect image classification through integrating image analysis and data mining
A method for classifying defect images is provided. Defect images are processed through an automatic optical detection. The present invention integrates image analysis and data mining. Defects are found on the images without using human eye. The defects are classified for reducing product defect rate. Thus, the present invention effectively enhances performance on finding and classifying defects with increased consistency, correctness and reliability. |
| US09082008B2 |
System and methods for feature selection and matching
Systems and methods for feature selection and matching are provided. In certain embodiments, a method for matching features comprises extracting a first plurality of features from current image data acquired from at least one sensor and extracting a second plurality of features from a prior map, wherein the prior map represents an environment containing the navigation system independently of data currently acquired by the at least one sensor. The method also comprises identifying at least one first feature in the first plurality of features and at least one second feature in the second plurality of features that have associated two-dimensional representations; and identifying at least one corresponding pair of features by comparing a three-dimensional representations of the at least one first feature to a three-dimensional representation of the at least one second feature. |
| US09082004B2 |
Methods and apparatus to capture images
Methods and apparatus to capture images are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a resolution determiner to determine that a first frame of image data is to undergo processing at a first resolution and that a second frame of image data is to undergo processing at a second resolution lower than the first resolution; and a controller to activate an illuminator when an image sensor is to capture the first frame and to deactivate the illuminator when the image sensor is to capture the second frame. |
| US09081999B2 |
Head recognition from depth image
Described herein is a method for recognizing a human head in a source image. The method comprises detecting a contour of at least part of a human body in the source image, calculating a depth of the human body in the source image. From the source image, a major radius size and a minor radius size of an ellipse corresponding to a human head at the depth is calculated, and, for at least several of a set of pixels of the detected contour, generating in an accumulator array at least one segment of an ellipse centered on the position of the contour pixel and having the major and minor radius sizes. Positions of local intensity maxima in the accumulator array are selected as corresponding to positions of the human head candidates in the source image. |
| US09081994B2 |
Portable RFID reading terminal with visual indication of scan trace
An RFID reading terminal can be configured, responsive to receiving a user interface action, to capture an image of at least one part of a physical structure sustaining a plurality of inventory items, locate and decode optical decodable indicia into a message comprising an identifier of the physical structure. The RFID reading terminal can be further configured to retrieve from a database, using the identifier of the physical structure, a reference image and/or a description of the physical structure. The portable RFID reading terminal can be further configured, while being moved to follow an imaginary trajectory within the physical structure, to repetitively capture an image of the physical structure using the imaging device, determine orientation and the current spatial position of the RFID reading terminal relative to the physical structure responsive to identifying one or more objects within each captured image, and displaying the RFID scan trace. |
| US09081983B2 |
Data distribution database and method for data distribution and verification
A distribution database includes at least one central database, in which data of use-value given by data a releaser and the values of use are stored, and several local databases, each of which is based at a data releaser's site, and which are bisynchronous with the central database. A method for data distribution and verification is provided. The data distribution database provides security and timeliness and requires lower levels of hardware resources. The method for data distribution and verification pertaining to this invention may enhance the data transmission range and use efficiency, and at the same time prevent the interest of the original data releaser against any harm as a result of data retransmission, and also assure shared interest and security for data users. |
| US09081980B2 |
Methods and systems for enterprise data use monitoring and auditing user-data interactions
A method for managing data use of an enterprise is disclosed. The method includes receiving login parameters from a user associated with user identification information. The method authenticates the login parameters and the user information to determine if the login parameters match the user identification information. The method provides access to specific data in a database that stores enterprise information. Upon providing access, initiating video capture of a viewing space for the screen, the viewing space being configured to include a location where the user associate with the user identification information is predefined to reside when accessing the specific data. During the video capture, capturing image data presented on the screen and input received for the user interface of the screen. The method acts to bind the video capture and the captured image data presented on the screen and the input received. |
| US09081979B2 |
Document control based on copyright permission when printing compilation of works
A method for controlling copyright permissions when assembling multiple copyrighted works into a compiled file. The copyright permission level of each file is analyzed, either based on the copyright permission information present in metadata associated with the file or based on the digital file format of the file which reflects the permission level. The compiled file is assigned a permission level which is the same as or more restrictive than all of the permission level of the files in the compilation, and is generated in a format that enforces the assigned permission level. A notification may be displayed to the user to notify the use of the permission level assigned to the compiled file. |
| US09081978B1 |
Storing tokenized information in untrusted environments
Techniques are described for tokenizing information to be stored in an untrusted environment. During tokenization, one or more strings in a file or data stream are replaced with a token. The token may be generated as a random number or a counter, such that the replaced string may not be derived based on the token. Token-to-string mapping data may be stored in a trusted environment, and the tokenized information may be stored in the untrusted environment. Users may search the tokenized information based on non-sensitive search terms present in a whitelist that is accessible from the untrusted environment, the whitelist providing a token-to-string mapping for the non-sensitive terms. The search results may be provided as redacted information, in which the non-sensitive strings have been detokenized based on the whitelist while the sensitive strings remain tokenized. |
| US09081977B2 |
Method and apparatus for privilege control
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for privilege control to provide comprehensive privilege control with fine granularity. Document data stored in the docbase management system includes at least one document data object, and the at least one document object supports at least one privilege. When setting a privilege for a role over a document data object, a privilege is selected from the at least one privilege supported by the document data object, and the selected privilege is set as the privilege of the role over the document data object. When the role is to perform an operation on the document data object, the operation of the role on the document data object is controlled according to the privilege of the role over the document data object. |
| US09081975B2 |
Sharing information between nexuses that use different classification schemes for information access control
Systems and methods for sharing information between distributed computer systems connected to one or more data networks. In particular, a replication system implementing methodologies for sharing database information between computer systems where the databases use different classification schemes for information access control is disclosed. |
| US09081969B2 |
Apparatus and method for remotely deleting critical information
An apparatus and method for remotely deleting critical information is provided. The apparatus includes a storage unit, an identity determination unit, and a broadcast unit. The storage unit stores an input value and an output value for the input value with respect to a physically unclonable function (PUF) of each of a plurality of mobile terminals. The identity determination unit determines the identity of a corresponding mobile terminal based on received information about the loss of the mobile terminal. The broadcast unit extracts the input and output values of the PUF of the corresponding mobile terminal from the storage unit based on information transferred from the identity determination unit, and broadcasts the extracted input and output values to all the mobile terminals. |
| US09081964B2 |
Firmware upgrade error detection and automatic rollback
A system includes a utility meter. The utility meter includes a network interface and a processor. The processor is configured to determine whether the network interface is operational subsequent to a bootup of the utility meter. The processor is also configured to initiate a reboot of the utility meter using known valid firmware instruction set of the utility meter if the network interface is determined to be non-operational. |
| US09081961B2 |
System and method for analyzing malicious code using a static analyzer
Analyzing computer code using a tree is described. For example, a client device generates a data request for retrieving data from a non-trusted entity via a network. A gateway is communicatively coupled to the client device and to the network. The gateway is configured to receive computer code from the non-trusted entity via the network. The gateway builds a tree representing the computer code. The tree has one or more nodes. A node of the tree represents a statement from the computer code. The gateway analyzes the statement to identify symbol data. The symbol data describes a name of the variable and the value of the variable. The gateway stores the symbol data in a symbol table. |
| US09081960B2 |
Architecture for removable media USB-ARM
A storage device is coupled to a computing system comprising an operating system and application software. Access to the storage device is blocked by a kernel filter driver, except exclusive access is granted to a first anti-virus engine. The first anti-virus engine is directed to scan the storage device for malicious software and report results. Exclusive access may be granted to one or more other anti-virus engines and they may be directed to scan the storage device and report results. Approval of all or a portion of the information on the storage device is based on the results from the first anti-virus engine and the other anti-virus engines. The storage device is presented to the operating system and access is granted to the approved information. The operating system may be a Microsoft Windows operating system. The kernel filter driver and usage of anti-virus engines may be configurable by a user. |
| US09081959B2 |
Methods and apparatus for control and detection of malicious content using a sandbox environment
A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to cause a processor to perform a process includes code to cause the processor to receive a set of indications of allowed behavior associated with an application. The processor is also caused to initiate an instance of the application within a sandbox environment. The processor is further caused to receive, from a monitor module associated with the sandbox environment, a set of indications of actual behavior of the instance of the application in response to initiating the instance of the application within the sandbox environment. The processor is also caused to send an indication associated with an anomalous behavior if at least one indication from the set of indications of actual behavior does not correspond to an indication from the set of indications of allowed behavior. |
| US09081951B2 |
Mobile application, identity interface
Techniques for managing identities are provided. In some examples, identity management, authentication, authorization, and token exchange frameworks may be provided for use with mobile devices, mobile applications, cloud applications, and/or other web-based applications. For example a mobile client may request to perform one or more identity management operations associated with an account of a service provider. Based at least in part on the requested operation and/or the particular service provider, an application programming interface (API) may be utilized to generate and/or perform one or more instructions and/or method calls for managing identity information of the service provider. |
| US09081948B2 |
Configurable smartcard
An embodiment relates generally to a method of using a token. The method includes embedding the token with at least one action and detecting a presence of the token. The method also includes authenticating the token; and executing an applet in response to a valid authentication of the token. |
| US09081944B2 |
Access control for personalized user information maintained by a telematics unit
A system and method are described herein that enable a vehicle user to establish, store (in a limited access storage location), and restore personalization information for the vehicle user on a vehicle. In particular the system manages personalization information to configure settings for a registered vehicle user in a vehicle including a telematics unit. The system is configured to carry out the method including establishing, for the registered vehicle user, a personalization information dataset within a networked vehicle user database. The system is further configured to submit a request to download the personalization information dataset from the networked vehicle user database, the request identifying the registered vehicle user and the vehicle. The system is also configured to download in accordance with the request to download, via a mobile wireless link to the telematics unit, values from the personalization information dataset to the telematics unit of the vehicle. |
| US09081930B1 |
Throughput during high level synthesis
Improving throughput during high level synthesis includes determining a data dependency for a flow control construct of a high level programming language description and translating the high level programming language description into a circuit design specifying circuitry for implementation within an integrated circuit. The circuitry is pipelined. As part of the circuit design and using a processor, a stall detection circuit is generated. The stall detection circuit is coupled to selectively initiate a stall of a stalling portion of the circuitry according to the data dependency. |
| US09081929B2 |
Systems, processes and computer-accessible medium for providing logic encryption utilizing fault analysis
Exemplary systems, methods and computer-accessible mediums can encrypting a circuit by determining at least one location to insert at least one gate in the circuit using a fault analysis, and inserting the at least one gate in at least one section of the at least one location. The determination can include an iterative procedure that can be a greedy iterative procedure. The determination can be based on an effect of the particular location on a maximum number of outputs of the circuit. |
| US09081926B2 |
Soft error and radiation hardened sequential logic cell
This invention comprises a layout method to effectively protect logic circuits against soft errors (non-destructive errors) and circuit cells, with layout, which are protected against soft errors. In particular, the method protects against cases where multiple nodes in circuit are affected by a single event. These events lead to multiple errors in the circuit, and while several methods exist to deal with single node errors, multiple node errors are very hard to deal with using any currently existing protection methods. The method is particularly useful for CMOS based logic circuits in modem technologies (.ltoreq.90 nm), where the occurrence of multiple node pulses becomes high (due to the high integration level). It uses a unique layout configuration, which makes the circuits protected against single event generated soft-errors. |
| US09081922B2 |
Method of fabricating a mechanical part, including a method of predicting the risks of crack initiation in the part in a “fretting-fatigue” situation
A method of fabricating a mechanical part of structure that is defined relative to a predictive search of the risks of crack initiation therein by using a method of calculation by finite elements. A coarse mesh (9) is taken into account, and the individual size of the meshes (20) and a critical distance (d) are defined jointly by an operator. The meshes (20) making up the mesh (9) are defined to be of identical mesh size, with the critical distance (d) being defined as the sum of an integer number of depth dimensions of said meshes (20). If the results of the calculation by finite elements diverge, then a calibration weighting function is advantageously applied that takes account of the size of the meshes (20) by taking account of the critical distance (d). |
| US09081920B2 |
Structural optimization system, structural optimization method, and structural optimization program
The present invention enables structural optimization having a high degree of freedom, such as the allowance of a change in topology in a material domain Ω, and provides clear expression of the shape of optimum structures. The present invention defines a level set function φ; updates the level set function φ, under a predetermined constraint condition, so as to bring a performance of a structure, such as a rigidity, close to a target value; moves the boundary ∂Ω between the material domain Ω and a void domain; allows a change in topology in the material domain Ω, which is associated with the update of the level set function φ, to form a new void domain in the material domain Ω; and moves the boundary ∂Ω between the new void domain and the material domain Ω. |
| US09081917B2 |
Systems and methods for advanced sanitary sewer infrastructure management
Systems and methods for managing a sanitary sewer infrastructure. In an embodiment, a plurality of representations of infrastructure assets are re-projected from a plane coordinate system into a geospatial coordinate system, such that each of the re-projected plurality of representations of infrastructure assets is associated with a geospatial coordinate. Each of the re-projected plurality of representations of infrastructure assets and its associated geospatial coordinate is stored in one or more databases. Subsequently, geospatial coordinates, collected in the field, may be received from one or more user devices, wherein each geospatial coordinate corresponds to a geospatial location of an infrastructure asset. A stored geospatial coordinate associated with one or more of the stored re-projected plurality of representations of infrastructure assets may then be adjusted based on the received geospatial coordinates. |
| US09081916B2 |
Method and system of using standardized structural components
A method and system disclosed herein provides generating an architectural diagram describing an architectural layout of a building, wherein one or more walls of the building are designated as standardized structural walls, automatically positioning each of the standardized structural walls to a geometric grid, and mapping (or “placing”), using a computer, one or more of a plurality of standardized structural components, including standardized panels, standardized columns, and standardized trusses to coordinates of the geometric grid. |
| US09081915B2 |
Modal assurance criterion for comparing two mode shapes of a multi-component structure
An improved Modal Assurance Criterion for comparing two mode shapes obtained from modal analysis of a multi-component structure is disclosed. In one embodiment, a first mode shape vector and second mode shape vector for a first mode shape and second mode shape of the multi-component structure, respectively, are formed by grouping modal displacement at each node associated with each component in the multi-component structure. Further, modal assurance criterion (MAC) between the first mode shape vector and second mode shape vector is computed by dividing a square of sum of magnitudes of correlation of the modal displacement at each component for the first mode shape vector and second mode shape vector in the multi-component structure with a product of squared magnitudes of the first mode shape vector and second mode shape vector. Furthermore, the first mode shape and second mode shape of the multi-component structure are compared using the MAC. |
| US09081913B2 |
Integrated circuit and clock frequency control method of integrated circuit
A bus interface includes a chip select terminal, a first transmission bus terminal, a second transmission bus terminal, and a clock control device. The chip select terminal transmits a chip select signal to start the data transmission. When the data transmission starts, the first transmission bus terminal sends data to the second device, and the second transmission bus terminal sends the data from the second device to the first device. The clock control device includes a frequency processing unit and a transmission clock generating unit. The frequency processing unit outputs a clock control signal when a frequency to set value changes. The transmission clock generating unit receives the clock control signal and generates a transmission clock in accordance with the frequency setting value. |
| US09081905B2 |
Low latency interconnect bus protocol
A method for enabling a low latency medium access control for an interconnect bus protocol over a wireless medium is provided. The method comprises constructing a wireless medium access control (WMAC) frame, wherein the WMAC frame includes a plurality of medium access control service data units (MSDUs) being aggregated according to their transmission order, the MSDUs include transaction layer packets generated by a component of the interconnect bus, wherein transmission of the WMAC frame over the wireless medium provides any one of an implied acknowledgment (ACK) mechanism and a block ACK mechanism. |
| US09081904B2 |
Methods for eliminating intermediate bussing and bridging requirements between a solid state memory device with PCI controller and a main system bus
A method is provided for enabling electronic representation of a removable or fixed data storage device having a non-volatile memory as an operating system-standard disk directly accessible to a main bus of a computing appliance having a peripheral component interface connector and a motherboard. The method includes the acts (a) providing a peripheral component interface ported to a memory controller on the device, the memory controller for controlling host access to the non-volatile memory, (b) providing disk control registers and or bus control registers including appropriate disk and or bus protocols and commands in the peripheral component interface on the device, and (c) connecting the device to the peripheral component interface connector of the computing appliance. |
| US09081899B2 |
System and method for processing web service test cases
In an exemplary embodiment, a system may include a memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The processor is operable to receive a location for sample input data, retrieve the sample input data from the location and execute a web service, the web service processing the sample input data. The processor is further operable to receive sample output data, the sample output data generated by the web service, retrieve expected data, the expected data based in part on the sample input data and the web service, and retrieve data mapping information, the data mapping information associating a first data element from the sample output data with a second data element from the expected data. The processor is also operable to compare the sample output data to the expected data using the data mapping information and store the result of the comparison of the sample output data. |
| US09081892B2 |
Software verification
A method of verifying software includes receiving at least a portion of a software program. The portion of the software program may include a software function within a class. The method may also include generating a proxy class based on the class where the proxy class includes a proxy function that includes a call to the software function and analyzing the proxy function. The analysis of the proxy function may include analyzing the software function based on a proxy condition used by the proxy function, the proxy condition based on the software program and configured to apply conditions to parameters and/or variables in the software function. |
| US09081891B2 |
Reconfigurable crossbar networks
Reconfigurable crossbar networks, and devices, systems and methods, including hardware in the form of logic (e.g. application specific integrated circuits (ASICS)), and software in the form of machine readable instructions stored on machine readable media (e.g., flash, non-volatile memory, etc.), which implement the same, are provided. An example of a reconfigurable crossbar network includes a crossbar. A plurality of endpoints is coupled to the crossbar. The plurality of endpoints is grouped into regions at design time of the crossbar network. A plurality of regional interconnects are provided. Each regional interconnect connects a group of endpoints within a given region. |
| US09081890B2 |
Rehabilitation training system and method
Provided are a rehabilitation training system and method that provide active rehabilitation training to a patient requiring rehabilitation treatment. The rehabilitation training system and method provide rehabilitation-related information to the patient to provoke a rehabilitation intent of the patient, and continuously measure a biological signal of the patient to monitor a state of the patient, thereby providing active rehabilitation training suitable for the state of the patient. |
| US09081889B2 |
Supporting the monitoring of a physical activity
Improved techniques and systems for utilizing a portable electronic device to monitor, process, present and manage data captured by a remote sensor during a physical activity session are disclosed. The portable electronic device offers a convenient user interface that can be visual and/or audio based customized to a particular application, user-friendly and/or dynamic. The portable electronic device can pertain to a personal media device and thus also provide media playback. |
| US09081884B2 |
Systems and methods for processing and displaying patient electrocardiograph data
A method is disclosed for displaying patient ECG data. The method includes receiving ECG data including an ECG waveform; receiving analyzed ECG data including arrhythmic events; generating an indicia of the detected arrhythmic event; and displaying the indicia of the detected arrhythmic event in relation to the ECG waveform at a position associated with a time of the detected arrhythmic event. A system for displaying patient ECG data is also disclosed. |
| US09081881B2 |
Computer system and computer-implemented method for use in load testing of software applications
A computer system for use in load testing a service-oriented architecture (SOA) service has a processor and a memory storage device in communication with the processor. The processor is adapted to receive an XML message, an address for a service to be tested, an action compliant with a protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment and associated with the service; create and store in memory a template message package compliant with the protocol; create a populated message package compliant with the protocol by incorporating in the template message package the XML message, the address and the action; establish a connection to the service and furnish one or more documents and attachments to the service; and receive a response from the service. |
| US09081880B2 |
Determining sustainability of a data center
Determining a sustainability impact for available data center architectures. A data center is accessed by a computer. Two or more functional parameters of the data center are then evaluated by the computer. Then, the computer combines the two or more evaluated functional parameters into a quantified judgment to determine a sustainability impact of available architectures of the data center. |
| US09081879B2 |
Matrix interface for medical diagnostic and treatment advice system and method
An automated medical diagnostic system and method are disclosed. In an embodiment of the system and method, a matrix of cells is displayed via a graphical user interface on a computing device, each cell being representative of a patient health item (PHI) associated with a particular disease. A PHI is entered on the display in one of the cells and a differential diagnosis is updated based on the input PHI. The updated differential diagnosis is then displayed to a user. The system includes multiple diagnostic functions that use the matrix for input and output, wherein the diagnostic functions are selectively executed according to each newly input PHI so as to result in the differential diagnosis. In certain embodiments, the input PHIs are stored in a patient medical record. The computing device can operate independently or in a connection with a system server. |
| US09081875B2 |
Systems and methods for organizing clinical data using models and frames
Certain examples provide systems and methods to organize clinical data using detailed clinical models and frames. An example system includes a clinical element query processor to query data organized according to one or more detailed clinical models. The clinical element processor is to form a frame from instances of the queried data. The example system also includes a transformer to receive the frame and operate on the data in the frame to transform the frame into a component to be used as a part of a clinical application. |
| US09081874B2 |
Information retrieval method, information retrieval apparatus, and computer product
An information retrieval apparatus including a first detecting unit that detects a feeder indicative of a presence of a numerical value in a file subject to retrieval in which a numeral and a character are present together; a second detecting unit that detects a number of places in the numerical value correlated to the feeder detected by the first detecting unit; and a compressing unit that compresses the numerical value into compressed information including a compression code for a numeral indicative of the number of places detected by the second detecting unit and a compression code for a numeral at each place in the numerical value, wherein the numerical value is correlated to the feeder based on an appearance frequency of a numeral included in the file. |
| US09081872B2 |
Methods and systems for managing permissions data and/or indexes
Systems and methods for indexing and searching data, such as file contents and/or metadata. In one exemplary method, an index corresponding to files on a storage device is created. Index is partitioned into subindexes according to certain criteria, such as the location of files or exclusivity of access to files. Subindex contains the entire content of files or metadata describing files, in addition to identifiers leading back to files' physical storage. Index is maintained by moving files' index entries from one subindex to another as files change in relation to the partition criteria, such as changing location. Searching some subindexes, like one corresponding to files in a shared folder, is done with permission checking. Searches of certain other subindexes, like one corresponding to the home folder of the user searching, are done without permission checking the underlying files resulting in a performance improvement. |
| US09081871B2 |
Search control combining classification and text-based searching techniques
A search control in a user interface enables a user to search documents on text or a tag. |
| US09081870B2 |
Streaming system performance optimization
According to an example, a dataflow directed acyclic graph including nodes and edges connecting the nodes. Parameters for the nodes are calculated, and the parameters may include batch size and a degree of parallelism. |
| US09081868B2 |
Voice web search
A search system will receive a voice query and use speech recognition with a predefined vocabulary to generate a textual transcription of the voice query. Queries are sent to a text search engine, retrieving multiple web page results for each of these initial text queries. The collection of the keywords is extracted from the resulting web pages and is phonetically indexed to form a voice query dependent and phonetically searchable index database. Finally, a phonetically-based voice search engine is used to search the original voice query against the voice query dependent and phonetically searchable index database to find the keywords and/or key phrases that best match what was originally spoken. The keywords and/or key phrases that best match what was originally spoken are then used as a final text query for a search engine. Search results from the final text query are then presented to the user. |
| US09081865B2 |
Identifying selected elements in dynamic content
Selectable elements in dynamic content may be identified. Analytics data may be received that may include a hierarchical position identifier corresponding to a location of a selectable element in the content. A current selectable element of a current version of the network content may be matched to the analytics data. Analytics data, which may include hierarchical position identifier, may be generated in response to a first selection of a selectable element of content. The hierarchical position identifier may be usable to match to the same corresponding current selectable element of a current version of the content. |
| US09081863B2 |
One-click segmentation definition
A system displays and filters reports including website vitiation data in response to receiving user input. The system allows users to launch various reports onto a workspace and filter the entire result set by selected criteria. The system allows the user to specify and configure segments while viewing reports, simply by clicking next to the desired criteria within the report alone or in combination with various keyboard functions. Filtered reports can be further adjusted per additional filters and criteria. The results are returned virtually instantaneously, enabling users to analyze the effects of combinations of factors. |
| US09081856B1 |
Pre-fetching of video resources for a network page
Disclosed are various embodiments for prefetching of objects referenced on a network page. An encoded network page referring to at least one item is retrieved. The same item is included on a second network page. In response to an indication of user interest in the item on the first network page, at least an initial portion of a video resource associated with the indicated item and included on the second network page is retrieved. In response to a user selection of the same item, the retrieved initial portion of the video resource is rendered on the second network page. |
| US09081853B2 |
Information display system based on user profile data with assisted and explicit profile modification
A data processing system for delivering an open profile personalization system based profile data structures that contain one or more interest nodes. The interest nodes include respective sets of targets and qualifiers, where the targets and qualifiers comprise typed-attributes to be used in the filtering of information files for delivery as a result set for the interest nodes. Targets and qualifiers are applied the typed-attributes of available information files to produce the filtered set. Web pages showing the personalized results include tools based on sophisticated content analysis to assist the user in creation and editing of the open profile. A method for presenting and updating the web pages is responsive to the use of these tools. |
| US09081852B2 |
Recommending terms to specify ontology space
In one embodiment, a set of target search terms for a search is received. Candidate terms are selected, where a candidate term is selected to reduce an ontology space of the search. The candidate terms are sent to a computer to recommend the candidate terms as search terms. In another embodiment, a document stored in one or more tangible media is accessed. A set of target tags for the document is received. Terms are selected, where a term is selected to reduce an ontology space of the document. The terms are sent to a computer to recommend the terms as tags. |
| US09081844B2 |
Coordination of data received from one or more sources over one or more channels into a single context
A middleware messaging system is connected between user devices and content providers possibly through one or more networks. The middleware messaging system includes a coordination manager for coordinating partial messages transmitted between the user devices and the content providers. Partial messages are received by the middleware messaging system from one or more sources through one or more channels. Partial messages that are associated with each other comprise a single context and as such are coordinated and transmitted to one or more destinations through one or more channels. |
| US09081842B1 |
Synchronous and asymmetric asynchronous active-active-active data access
In one aspect, a method to provide synchronous and asymmetric active-active-active access to a first storage volume using a global cache coupled to a first, second and third virtual storage volumes includes replicating asynchronously the first storage volume at a first site to a second storage volume at a second site and mirroring the first storage volume with a third storage volume at a third site. Either one of the first storage volume or the third storage volume has primary storage functionality. The method also includes virtualizing the first storage volume with the first virtual storage volume, virtualizing the second storage volume with the second virtual storage volume and virtualizing the third storage volume with the third virtual storage volume. |
| US09081840B2 |
Methods and systems for modeling a replication topology
Methods and systems for modeling a replication topology involve, for example, representing a plurality of replication components of a replication topology in a first binary matrix using a processor coupled to memory and generating a result matrix based at least in part on the first binary matrix likewise using the processor. Thereafter, also using the processor, replication components of the replication topology may be identified that are either enabled or non-enabled to receive replications from other replication components of the replication topology based at least in part on the result matrix. |
| US09081839B2 |
Push replication for use with a distributed data grid
Push replication techniques are described for use in an in-memory data grid. When applications on a cluster perform insert, update or delete operations in the cache, a push replication provider asynchronously pushes updates from the source cluster to one or more remote destination clusters. The push replication provider includes a pluggable internal transport to send the updates to the destination cluster. This pluggable transport can be switched to employ a different communication service or protocol. A publishing transformer can chain multiple filters and apply filters on a stream of updates from source cluster to the destination cluster. A batch publisher can be used to receive batches multiple updates and replicate those batch to the destination cluster. XML based configuration can be provided to configure the push replication techniques on a cluster. A number of cluster topologies can be utilized, including active/passive, active/active, multi-site active/passive, multi-site active/active and centralized replication arrangement. |
| US09081838B2 |
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for database record recovery
Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for database record recovery. A method may include determining a target database record format. The method may further include using the target database record format to evaluate source data for presence of database records matching the target database record format. The method may additionally include, in an instance in which a database record is determined, based on the evaluation, to be present in the source data, recovering the database record from the source data. Corresponding apparatuses and computer program products are also provided. |
| US09081831B2 |
Methods and systems for presenting document-specific snippets
The present disclosure describes systems and methods for presenting document-specific snippets for documents in site-specific search results. One example method according to the present disclosure includes determining a set of documents that are responsive to a search query, the set of documents including (i) a first document and (ii) a second document that is referenced by the first document, identifying a set of representative keywords associated with the second document, identifying a snippet that (i) is associated with the second document, and (ii) includes one or more terms from the set of representative keywords, and providing a search results page that identifies the first document, the second document, and the snippet. |
| US09081829B2 |
System for organizing and fast searching of massive amounts of data
A system to collect and analyze performance metric data recorded in time-series measurements, converted into unicode, and arranged into a special data structure. The performance metric data is collected by one or more probes running on machines about which data is being collected. The performance metric data is also organized into a special data structure. The data structure at the server where analysis is done has a directory for every day of performance metric data collected with a subdirectory for every resource type. Each subdirectory contain text files of performance metric data values measured for attributes in a group of attributes to which said text file is dedicated. Each attribute has its own section and the performance metric data values are recorded in time series as unicode hex numbers as a comma delimited list. Analysis of the performance metric data is done using regular expressions. |
| US09081827B2 |
Digital file distribution in a social network system
Systems and methods for obtaining a digital file similar to one used by a device associated with a member of a social network are provided. Digital file information about the digital file is stored on a web-based social network database. The digital file may be located on the same server as the web-based social network database or a third party server such as a mobile phone carrier. A user of the web-based social network database requesting the digital file may require a different format of the digital file than that used by the device of the member. If a different format is requested by the user, a server finds or converts the digital file to be compatible for use by a device specified by the user. |
| US09081823B2 |
Ranking social network objects
An online social networking system can be used to rank social network objects of various different object types, each according to its type. The objects may comprise types such as users, communities, blogs, blog entries, events, forums, forum topics, postings, photographs, and/or images. The product comprises code for carrying out a method that begins with receiving ranking data about social network objects that comprises data about events performed on the social network. For each social network object, a ranking function is applied to ranking data about the social network object based on its type. In addition, the recency of an event on the social network related to the social network object is evaluated, in order to calculate the score for the social network object. A relative ranking for each of the plurality of social network objects based on its score is determined, and the score and relative ranking of each of the social network objects stored. |
| US09081821B2 |
Spell check using column cursor
An input query can be spell checked by first parsing the input query into one or more tokens. The one or more tokens are then compared against spell storage tables to derive alternative tokens. A spell cursor is launched, with the spell cursor calculating scores for permutations of the tokens and alternative tokens, and the scores representing a likelihood that a user intended to use the permutation as the input query. A memory table may then be formed including the permutations and scores. The memory table can then be passed to a column cursor, the column cursor designed to form an output table of results based on queries to a database using the permutations. |
| US09081820B2 |
Flexible connector framework for data feed generation
A data feed engine allows a user to create a data feed without protocol and/or formatting knowledge for the data source. The data feed engine dynamically selects a connector for any one of a variety of different types of data sources. The date feed engine can then build a search command with search parameters and a data source identity based on the automatically selected data source connector. The data feed engine publishes a reference to the generated data feed definition in a catalog of data feeds. A framework that utilizes such functionality allows creation of a mashup to with a combination of data feeds from different types of data sources. |
| US09081809B2 |
Scalable deduplication system with small blocks
Exemplary method, system, and computer program product embodiments for scalable data deduplication working with small data chunk in a computing environment are provided. In one embodiment, by way of example only, for each of the small data chunk, a signature is generated based on a combination of a representation of characters that appear in the small data chunk with a representation of frequencies of the small data chunk. A signature is generated based on a combination of a representation of characters that appear. The signature is used to help in selecting the data to be deduplicated. Additional system and computer program product embodiments are disclosed and provide related advantages. |
| US09081797B2 |
Systems and methods for associating microposts with geographic locations
Embodiments include a computer-implemented method that includes receiving microposts including tokens, identifying a subset of the microposts that include a given token, determining a geographic location corresponding to the subset of the microposts that include the given token, associating the given token with the geographic location, and updating an index to reflect an association between the given token and the geographic location. |
| US09081796B2 |
Methods and apparatuses for providing and displaying cluster data
Embodiments of a method and apparatus for providing cluster data are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving, from a geographic information system (GIS) client device, geographical coordinates of a viewable extent of the GIS client device. The method may include dividing the viewable extent into portions. The method may include receiving geographically-referenced data points. The method may include determining the portions of the viewable extent in which the data points are located. The method may include transmitting, to the GIS client device, clustering information for the portions. The clustering information may be generated based on the data points determined to be within the portions. Other embodiments are also described. |
| US09081795B2 |
Methods and systems for sharing real-time electronic content among social contacts
Systems and methods are discussed to share real-time electronic content among social contacts. The current location of a mobile device is determined to be at a live event. For example, GPS functionality may be used to determine the current location of the mobile device at a live event. A live event vicinity associated with the live event is determined. The live event vicinity comprises a geographic area proximate the live event. One or more social contacts may be determined to be within the live event vicinity. Electronic content may be captured using the mobile device. For example, a photograph may be taken using the mobile device. The captured electronic content may be shared with one or more social contacts that are determined to be within the live event vicinity. |
| US09081794B2 |
Method and system for automatically recognizing operating system by USB device
Disclosed are a method and system for automatically recognizing an operating system by a USB device. The method includes: determining whether an operating system string descriptor request sent by a host is received; if yes, determining that the operating system of the host is a WINDOWS operating system; if not, determining whether an operating system feature descriptor request sent by the host is received; when it is received, determining that the operating system of the host is a WINDOWS operating system; when it is not received, determining that the operating system of the host is a LINUX core operating system. The solution uses MOSD built in the WINDOWS operating system as a technical basis, so as to automatically recognize the operating system without adding any filtering drive or optical disk function, thereby reducing development costs, making the operation easy and convenient, and improving the user experience of the USB device. |
| US09081792B1 |
Optimizing backup of whitelisted files
Optimizing backup of whitelisted files. In one example embodiment, a method of optimizing backup of whitelisted files may include a whitelist analysis phase that may include identifying a set of allocated blocks in a source storage at a point in time, identifying whitelisted files that are already stored in a deduplication storage, and determining whether one of the whitelisted files is stored in the source storage by analyzing file attribute data stored in file system metadata in the source storage. If so, the whitelist analysis phase may include pruning the set of allocated blocks to exclude the allocated blocks that correspond to content of the one whitelisted file and associating logical locations of the content of the one whitelisted file as stored in the source storage with logical locations of the content of the one whitelisted file as stored in the deduplication storage. |
| US09081789B2 |
System for prefetching digital tags
Systems and methods described herein can take advantage of the caching abilities of the browser and the idle time of the user to prefetch tag libraries of one or more tags for execution in a subsequent content page. For example, these systems and methods can provide the ability to prefetch and not execute a tag library on a content page before it is required so the tag library is cached in the browser. When the browser hits the page that uses the tag library, the tag library can be quickly retrieved from memory and executed. |
| US09081787B2 |
Customizable file-type aware cache mechanism
A caching mechanism is provided in a computer server system including at least one host coupled to at least one disk, one or more virtual machines, one or more images of the one or more virtual machines created in a file system of the disk, and a virtual machine manager for assigning hardware resources of the computer server system to the one or more virtual machines. The mechanism provides a masking cache layer between the one or more virtual machines and the virtual machine manager, the masking cache layer including at least one separate entry for every cacheable data block of the file system to be referenced, collects profiling information related to one or more of the cacheable data blocks (58) and stores the profiling information in the masking cache layer and configures the masking cache layer according to the profiling information, or provides a configuration for the masking cache layer. |
| US09081786B1 |
Systems and methods for creating self-extracting files
Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a self-extracting file from any given input file type with minimum user interaction. The systems and methods include, in response to a single action, receiving an input file, compressing the input file, transforming the compressed input file into a self-extracting file, configuring the self-extracting file to, upon execution, decompress and launch the original input file with the appropriate application software, and generating a name for the resulting self-extracting file. The systems and methods may operate directly on the input file regardless of file type, transforming the input file into an executable file and increasing the ease and speed of creating a self-extracting file that automatically launches the original input file upon execution of the self-extracting file. |
| US09081785B2 |
Inferring valid values for objects in a glossary using reference data
Method, system, and computer program product to improve a coverage of a plurality of classifications between a plurality of terms in a glossary and a set of values in a reference data management system, by identifying a first classification, of the plurality of classifications in the glossary, between a first term in the glossary and a first set of values in the reference data management system, detecting a relationship between the first set of values and a second set of values in the reference data management system, and upon determining that a relevance score for a relevant value from the second set of values exceeds a predefined threshold, identifying the relevant value to be classified with the term in the glossary, wherein the glossary is configured to create a second classification between the first term and the relevant value. |
| US09081781B2 |
Wireless portable device for creating and wirelessly transmitting digital audio and/or video
A portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system and method for selecting, requesting, downloading, and playing audio and/or video data content files from an Internet-based database server. The wireless link is preferably implemented in accordance with the WiFi protocol, which allows connectivity to the Internet by being in proximity with a local base station or WiFi hotspot (i.e., publicly available local wireless access hub connected to the Internet). The portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system preferably include a security means for monitoring and blocking unauthorized use of the player apparatus and system. The player apparatus further preferably has the capability to communicate with other neighboring player apparatus for the purpose of exchanging content data files, playlists and personal messages. |
| US09081767B2 |
Browsing of contextual information
Systems and methods for searching and browsing a data store of contextually related data objects. The system includes a search/browse module that receives a search query. The search/browse module identifies data objects that match the search query and generates sentences from data objects that are contextually related to the matching data objects. The sentences are human-readable sentences, for example in subject-verb-object format, where each sentence represents the relationship between two data objects. The sentences are output for display as a hierarchy of sentences. Additionally, a user can browse the data store of contextually related data objects by selecting a sentence that is displayed to the user. The search/browse module then outputs attributes of the data object represented by the sentence for display in two separate regions of a user interface. |
| US09081765B2 |
Displaying examples from texts in dictionaries
In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for a system to provide information based on a query, the method comprising: performing a first search of at least one first source for information responsive to the query; providing a result of the search to a user; searching documents using at least a part of the result of the search; providing the user with at least one example of usage of the result of the search obtained from the searching of stored documents; based on user input, performing a second search of at least one second source for information responsive to the query; and providing a result of said second search to the user. The invention provides ways of showing the most relevant examples from parallel text corpora according to a ranking. |
| US09081756B2 |
Method and apparatus for populating a form with data
A method and apparatus for populating a form with data is described. In one embodiment of the invention, a form is displayed to the user via the target application. Each form has one or more data receptacles. The data receptacles of a form are filled with data when the user executes a data population command. The form completion program executes the data population command when a graphical representation of a particular data set is placed over the form. Each data set is stored in an encrypted manner and is accessible to users who enter the appropriate information into an authentication mechanism. To populate a form with data the form completion program obtains an image of the form and then searches for a template file that resembles the form image to within a certain threshold. The template files are typically stored on the computer hosting the target application in a template directory that is arranged according to a predefined structure. The form completion program is configured to search for templates that resemble the form image in the template directory to within a certain threshold. |
| US09081754B1 |
Method and apparatus for cascaded replication using a multi splitter
Conventional method of replication do not allow cascaded replication with journaling. However, in example embodiments of the present invention, a splitter in storage or in the data path may split a single volume to multiple DPA targets. The splitter will intercept data arriving to the volume and split the data to another DPA, thereby allowing cascaded replication. In certain embodiments, the DPA may notify the splitter about a point of consistency because the DPA does not distribute IOs with write order fidelity at all times and only some points are write order fidelity consistent. Thus, the DPA may notify the splitter about a consistent point and the splitter will send notifications about the consistent points to the second DPA, allowing the volumes to have consistent points. |
| US09081752B2 |
Redundant disk encoding via erasure decoding
A method is provided of encoding data within a RAID stripe, the RAID stripe being spread across k data disks and r redundancy disks of a RAID group, r≧3, the RAID group having k+r disks, the k data disks and the r redundancy disks within the RAID stripe being distinct, such that, upon failure of any r disks of the k+r disks of the RAID group, the data can be fully recovered using the Forney algorithm. The method includes (a) partitioning the data into k data symbols, (b) storing each of the k data symbols to a respective data disk of the k data disks, (c) generating r Reed-Solomon redundancy symbols by applying the Forney algorithm to the k data symbols, and (d) storing each of the r Reed-Solomon redundancy symbols generated by the Forney algorithm to a respective redundancy disk of the r redundancy disks. |
| US09081751B2 |
Video server and rebuild processing control method
A video server has a table generator, a rebuild processor, and a rebuild controller. The table generator generates a management table of content data ID that specifies the content data and the write location of the content data in the storage unit where the content data are recorded. When a problem takes place in at least one of the storage devices, the rebuild processor executes a rebuild process to recover the content data of the troubled storage device. When a rebuild start request is generated by the rebuild processor, the rebuild controller controls the start and stop of the rebuild process by referring to the management table. |
| US09081746B1 |
Method for client configuration management in remote computing
A method and apparatus for endpoint configuration management comprising receiving an endpoint topology and storing the endpoint topology in a configuration store, modifying a configuration for a remote session to conform to the endpoint topology and corresponding the configuration to the endpoint topology in the data structure and presenting to the endpoint the modified configuration of the remote session. |
| US09081744B2 |
Trellis ring network architecture
A network for a large number of processing elements utilizes a trellis ring architecture to provide an efficient and fault tolerant data routing system. The processing elements (which may be chip-based processors, circuit cards, unit level assemblies, or computing devices) are interconnected together in an endless ring structure. In addition to the ring arrangement, the processing elements are interconnected via primary and additional trellis connections that reduce the average and/or the maximum number of network node hops between two processing elements in the network architecture. |
| US09081739B2 |
Fencing network direct memory access data transfers in a parallel active messaging interface of a parallel computer
Fencing direct memory access (‘DMA’) data transfers in a parallel active messaging interface (‘PAMI’) of a parallel computer, the PAMI including data communications endpoints, each endpoint including specifications of a client, a context, and a task, the endpoints coupled for data communications through the PAMI and through DMA controllers operatively coupled to a deterministic data communications network through which the DMA controllers deliver data communications deterministically, including initiating execution through the PAMI of an ordered sequence of active DMA instructions for DMA data transfers between two endpoints, effecting deterministic DMA data transfers through a DMA controller and the deterministic data communications network; and executing through the PAMI, with no FENCE accounting for DMA data transfers, an active FENCE instruction, the FENCE instruction completing execution only after completion of all DMA instructions initiated prior to execution of the FENCE instruction for DMA data transfers between the two endpoints. |
| US09081735B2 |
Collaborative information source recovery
Systems and methods of recovering a shared information source can involve identifying a first user of a shared information source in response to detection of a data loss with respect to the shared information source. One or more additional users of the shared information source may be identified based on data associated with the first user. Additionally, the shared information source can be recovered based at least in part on data associated with the one or more additional users. |
| US09081726B2 |
Controller to be incorporated in storage medium device, storage medium device, system for manufacturing storage medium device, and method for manufacturing storage medium device
Provided is a controller capable of preventing card makers from conducting unauthorized acts. The controller includes: a controller key storage unit configured to hold a controller key that has been embedded by a controller manufacturing device in advance; a decryption unit configured to receive encrypted media key information that has been generated by a key issuance center that is authorized and to decrypt the received encrypted media key by using the controller key, the encrypted key information generated through encryption of key information with use of the controller key; and an encryption unit configured to encrypt the decrypted media key again by using an individual key that is unique to the controller. |
| US09081723B2 |
Data processing device
A data processing device 10 receives a process request from an external interface 20 of a client terminal etc., carries out the transaction request with respect to a message according to the process request and passes to an API which forms the interface of various types of program carried out in the server 30. The data processing device 10 includes a process (n) which carries out transaction processing with respect to a message with a trade category [n], and a backup process (n) which carries out transaction processing with respect to a message in the case where the transaction processing carried out by the process (n) fails. In addition, the data processing device 10 includes an error process part 123 which isolates the cause of a failure according to a result of a process by the backup process (n). |
| US09081722B2 |
Systems and methods for improving performance of remote USB storage
Methods and systems described herein facilitate improving universal serial bus (USB) storage performance in remote computing environments. A virtual USB host is associated with a virtual machine running a guest operating system (OS) and is configured to communicate with a USB storage device that is connected to a remote terminal. The virtual USB host is further configured to transmit one of a data-in request to the USB storage device before the guest OS transmits the data-in request or an acknowledgement of a data-out request to the guest OS before the USB storage device transmits the acknowledgement. |
| US09081718B2 |
Systems and methods for storing and recovering controller data in non-volatile memory devices
Systems and methods are disclosed for storing the firmware and other data of a flash memory controller, such as using a RAID configuration across multiple flash memory devices or portions of a single memory device. In various embodiments, the firmware and other data used by a controller, and error correction information, such as parity information for RAID configuration, may be stored across multiple flash memory devices, multiple planes of a multi-plane flash memory device, or across multiple blocks or pages of a single flash memory device. The controller may detect the failure of a memory device or a portion thereof, and reconstruct the firmware and/or other data from the other memory devices or portions thereof. |
| US09081716B1 |
Solid-state disk cache-assisted redundant array of independent disks
A system including a write module to receive first data for writing over second data stored on a first member of a stripe of a RAID. A read module reads the second data and first parity from a SSD or the RAID. Before receiving third data for writing over fourth data stored on a second member of the stripe, the read module reads the fourth data from the second member and stores the fourth data in the SSD. A parity module generates second parity based on the first data, the second data, and the first parity. The write module writes the second parity on the SSD. On receiving the third data, the parity module generates the third parity based on the third data, the fourth data, and the second parity. |
| US09081712B2 |
System and method for using solid state storage systems as a cache for the storage of temporary data
A method of storing data includes a storage device controller that receives a storage access operation to store data on at least one non-volatile storage device having a plurality of individually accessible blocks. In response to receiving the storage access operation to store data, the controller initiates a first program cycle to store the data as temporary data within one or more of the blocks. The program cycle has an associated first set of parameters for storage of temporary data. In response to a pre-determined period of time for the storage of temporary data being exceeded or a pre-determined capacity for temporary data has been exceeded, the controller initiates a second program cycle to store the temporary data as persistent data within one or more of the blocks. The second program cycle has an associated second set of parameters for storage of persistent data. |
| US09081710B2 |
Restoring ECC syndrome in non-volatile memory devices
A method of restoring an ECC syndrome in a non-volatile memory device having memory cells arranged in a plurality of sectors within a memory cell array, the method comprising identifying a first sector including at least one page having a disabled ECC (error correction code) flag; reading the value of all data bits in said at least one page; calculating values for ECC bits in said at least one page; and writing said data bit values and said calculated ECC bit values to a second sector in the memory cell array. |
| US09081708B2 |
Dynamic read scheme for high reliability high performance flash memory
In accordance with at least one embodiment, a method and apparatus for improving the ability to correct errors in memory devices is described. At least one embodiment provides a way to salvage the part even it has double-bit or multi-bit error from the same ECC section, thus improving product reliability and extending the product lifetime. During a normal read, if a double-bit or multiple-bit error happens, which ECC can detect but cannot fix, the error is corrected by adjusting the read voltage level and reading again to determine the proper read level (and, therefore, the correct value being read). This dynamic read scheme can apply to extrinsic bits from either erase state or program state. It can be also used in a single bit scenario to minimize ECC occurrence and save ECC capacity. |
| US09081707B2 |
Apparatus and method for tracking TLB flushes on a per thread basis
A method is described that includes recognizing that TLB information of one or more hardware threads is to be invalidated. The method also includes determining which ones of the one or more hardware threads are in a state in which TLB information is flushed. The method also includes directing a TLB shootdown to those of the or more hardware threads that are in a state in which TLB information is not flushed. |
| US09081704B1 |
Techniques for non-disruptive upgrade
Described are techniques for upgrading a driver. A driver is installed which includes an upgrade facility, a base driver and a first set of one or more driver extension modules for processing input/output operations for one or more devices. Processing is performed to upgrade the driver using the upgrade facility. The processing includes loading one or more upgrade modules associated with a second version of said driver and performing cutover processing for each of the one or more devices. |
| US09081702B2 |
Working set swapping using a sequentially ordered swap file
Techniques described enable efficient swapping of memory pages to and from a working set of pages for a process through the use of large writes and reads of pages to and from sequentially ordered locations in secondary storage. When writing pages from a working set of a process into secondary storage, the pages may be written into reserved, contiguous locations in a dedicated swap file according to a virtual address order or other order. Such writing into sequentially ordered locations enables reading in of clusters of pages in large, sequential blocks of memory, providing for more efficient read operations to return pages to physical memory. |
| US09081700B2 |
High performance read-modify-write system providing line-rate merging of dataframe segments in hardware
A method of merging data frames includes: receiving a first data frame having a plurality of sectors; receiving a second data frame having a plurality of sectors; generating a merged output data frame by merging, using a plurality of data paths including a plurality of multiplexers, sectors of the second data frame with sectors of the first data frame; and performing an error check on at least one check-data frame having sectors corresponding to those in the first data frame or the second data frame, where at least some of the sectors in the check-data frame are transmitted on a subset of the plurality of data paths that transmits sectors of the merged output data frame, and where the error check verifies the merged output data frame. |
| US09081698B2 |
Memory with selectively writable error correction codes and validity bits
Memory and method for storing a plurality of memory bits. The memory has a data storage element and a processor. The data storage element has a plurality of lines, each having a plurality of segments having a plurality of data bits. A plurality of error correction codes are each associated with one of the lines. A plurality of validity bits, each being associated with one of the lines, are configured to indicate that one of the error correction codes associated with the one of the lines is valid or invalid. The processor is configured to generate one of the error correction codes for all of the data bits in the segments associated with one of the lines. |
| US09081697B2 |
Storage control apparatus and storage control method
A storage control apparatus receives a write request for a storage apparatus. When the storage control apparatus receives the write request, the storage control apparatus duplicates into a specific storage area, data stored in a storage area of the storage apparatus and parity data whose generation source is the data. The storage control apparatus determines whether one of the storage apparatuses is started up for which a writing process is executed in response to the write request. When the storage apparatus is re-started, the storage control apparatus writes the data duplicated in the specific storage area into the storage area of the duplication source of the storage apparatus and writes the parity data duplicated in the specific storage area into the storage area of the duplication source of the storage apparatus. |
| US09081693B2 |
Data type dependent memory scrubbing
A method for controlling a memory scrubbing rate based on content of the status bit of a tag array of a cache memory. More specifically, the tag array of a cache memory is scrubbed at smaller interval than the scrubbing rate of the storage arrays of the cache. This increased scrubbing rate is in appreciation for the importance of maintaining integrity of tag data. Based on the content of the status bit of the tag array which indicates modified, the corresponding data entry in the cache storage array is scrubbed accordingly. If the modified bit is set, then the entry in the storage array is scrubbed after processing the tag entry. If the modified bit is not set, then the storage array is scrubbed at a predetermined scrubbing interval. |
| US09081686B2 |
Coordinated hypervisor staging of I/O data for storage devices on external cache devices
A management technique for input/output operations (JO) leverages a hypervisor's position as an intermediary between virtual machines (VMs) and storage devices servicing the VMs to facilitate improvements in overall I/O performance for the VMs. According to this new I/O management technique, the hypervisor sends write requests from VMs destined for storage devices to an I/O staging device that provides higher I/O performance than the storage devices, for caching in the I/O staging device in a write-back mode. Once the I/O staging device has received and acknowledged the write request, the hypervisor immediately provides an acknowledgement to the requesting VM. Later on and asynchronously with respect to the write requests from the VMs, the hypervisor reads the write data from the I/O staging device and sends it over to the storage devices for storage therein. |
| US09081679B2 |
Feature centric diagnostics for distributed computer systems
A distributed computer system includes components. The components include embedded computer processors that make up an application within the distributed computer system. The computer processors are accessible by an end user of the system. The computer processors are operable to communicate with a plurality of system analyzers, to generate an operational status of the application in the system based on the communication with the plurality of system analyzers, to generate one or more recommendations to address or troubleshoot a non-desired operational status of the application within the system, and to provide a unified interface to the end user that provides to the end user the one or more recommendations to address or troubleshoot the non-desired operational status of the application within the system. |
| US09081677B2 |
Method and device for estimating input bit error ratio
An input bit error ratio estimating method executed by a communication control unit includes a computing, a condition determining, a first input BER estimating, a second input BER estimating, a third input BER estimating, and an input BER estimation result outputting. In the condition determining, the communication control unit determines which of a plurality of conditions set in advance to be narrowed down to one has been established, based on a post-internal decoding residual error detection ratio. Based on the condition that is determined in the condition determining as one that has been established, the communication control unit selects one out of a plurality of processing procedures for estimating the input BER, namely, selects one of the first input BER estimating to the third input BER estimating and executes the selected processing. |
| US09081673B2 |
Microprocessor and memory access method
A microprocessor according to the present invention includes instruction execution unit that executes an instruction to output an access request to a memory according to a first protocol; memory control unit that converts the access request according to the first protocol to an access request according to a second protocol to perform an access control to an external memory to output the access request; selection unit that selects whether to access the external memory using the memory control unit; and interface unit that externally outputs one of the access request according to the first protocol and the access request according to the second protocol based on the selection result in the selection unit. |
| US09081672B1 |
Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a caching technique with external-chain hashing and dynamic resource-dependent data shedding
A method and apparatus for performing storage and retrieval in an information storage system cache is disclosed that uses the hashing technique with the external chaining method for collision resolution. In order to prevent performance deterioration due to an unrestrained growth in the length of chains, an on-the-fly record removal technique is combined with background chain-pruning processes that continually trim long chains to keep chain lengths at an acceptable equilibrium without triggering abrupt, disruptive action at the time the system senses that it is stressed. More specifically, each insertion, retrieval, or deletion of a record is an occasion to rid an entire linked list of its records that have aged out. Additionally, concurrent background processes continually navigate the hash table, trimming those chains that are deemed excessively long. The aggressiveness of chain-pruning varies dynamically as the local and global state of the system fluctuates, pruning more when chains are long and the system is heavily loaded, and pruning less when chains are short and the system load is light. |
| US09081668B2 |
Architecture to allow efficient storage of data on NAND flash memory
Systems, methods, apparatus, and techniques are provided for writing data to a storage medium. A stripe of the storage medium is interfaced via one or more data transfer channels, where the stripe comprises a plurality of pages of the storage medium. A data stream is received and the data stream is portioned into a plurality of allocation units (AUs), where each AU in the plurality of AUs has a pre-determined byte length. A first portion of a selected AU from the plurality of AUs is written to a first page of the plurality of pages and a second portion of the selected AU is written to a second page of the plurality of pages by consecutively writing bytes of the selected AU from a starting byte on the first page to an ending byte on the second page. |
| US09081656B2 |
Methods and systems for predicting a fault
Disclosed is a fault prediction system and method that uses non-fatal event data received from a terminal to make predictions concerning future fatal faults for the terminal. A complex fault pattern associated with a fault is applied to the non-fatal event data to predict the fault. A corrective action is provided for each predicted fault and historical data is used to predict a time to the predicted fault to govern the type of service response to create to prevent the fault. |
| US09081655B2 |
Self-aware and self-healing computing system
A method and a computing system for performing the method. Microstates of components of a computing system are organized into macrostates of the computing system. Each microstate represents a state that a component of the computing system is able to individually enter. Each macrostate represents a state that the computing system is able to enter as a whole. The macrostates of the computing system are organized into meta-dynamic states of the computing system. The computing system is monitored such that perturbations of the computing system are detected, wherein a perturbation of the computing system will result in movement thereof to a new meta-dynamic state. It is determined that the new meta-dynamic state is undesirable. A path is determined. The path causes the computing system to move back to a desirable meta-dynamic state. The computing system is caused to move on the path to the desirable meta-dynamic state. |
| US09081653B2 |
Duplicated processing in vehicles
The present disclosure describes a vehicle implementing one or more processing modules. These modules are configured to connect and interface with the various buses in the vehicle, where the various buses are connected with the various components of the vehicle to facilitate information transfer among the vehicle components. Each processing module is further modularized with the ability to add and replace other functional modules now or in the future. These functional modules can themselves act as distinct vehicle components. Each processing module may hand-off processing to other modules depending on its health, processing load, or by third-party control. Thus, the plurality of processing modules helps to implement a middleware point of control to the vehicle with redundancy in processing and safety and security awareness in their applications. |
| US09081641B2 |
Communication device, update method, and computer-readable storage medium
A communication device includes a first receiving unit configured to receive first metainformation indicating a target update required for a program of the communication device from an update information providing device, the first metainformation including information about a dependency version that is another version of update dependent upon the target update; a determining unit configured to determine whether the dependency version is newer than a device version which is a current version of update of the communication device; a second receiving unit configured to receive second metainformation indicating an update for the dependency version from the update information providing device if the dependency version is newer than the device version; and an update process unit configured to execute the update for the dependency version on the basis of the second metainformation and execute the target update based on the first metainformation after executing the update for the dependency version. |
| US09081640B2 |
Apparatus, method and medium for calculating an update order on a service level objective
An update apparatus used in a system that provides service using software and performing update of the software, including a processing apparatus configured to calculate a difference between a possible down time of the service according to a service level and a down time of the service indicated by operation performance stored in storage unit, and when there are a plurality of pieces of software as update targets, to calculate an update order of the plurality of pieces of update target software according to a degree of influence to the difference by service down when update of software fails, and to perform update of the plurality of pieces of update target software according to the update order. |
| US09081636B2 |
Display apparatus, system, and application program control method thereof
Provided are an a display apparatus, a system and a control method thereof for a display apparatus, comprising: a video signal processing unit which processes a video signal; a display unit which displays the processed video signal; a storage unit which stores ID information of the display apparatus; a communication unit which performs network communication based on an internet protocol (IP) with an external apparatus; and a control unit which downloads an application program determined to correspond to the ID information transmitted through the communicating unit from the external apparatus to execute the application program so that a predetermined function can be performed. |
| US09081635B2 |
Provision to an application of a random number not generated by an operating system
A data processing system includes data storage that stores an operating system and an application that performs a security operation and a processor communicatively coupled with the data storage and a random number generator separate from the operating system. The processor executes the operating system and the application. The processor receives a random number from the random number generator and provides the received random number to the application for use in the security operation. |
| US09081633B2 |
Remote application connection sharing
One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for sharing a connection to a remote-based application running on a server. A plurality of client-side browser instantiations can be associated with the remote-based application, such as by running instantiations of the remote application locally on respective client machines. The client-side browser instantiations are able to write to and read from a local global storage regarding the remote-based application, and are notified of a state change to the local global storage, without polling. A first browser instantiation registers as a primary instantiation with the local global storage, and connects to the server for the remote-based application. One or more second browser instantiations registered with the local global storage, along with the primary browser instantiation, can send and receive updates for the remote-based application through the primary browser instantiation, utilizing state change notifications. |
| US09081630B2 |
Hardware-implemented semaphore for resource access based on presence of a memory buffer in a memory pool
A method includes receiving a request to access a resource; determining a presence of a memory buffer in a hardware-assisted memory pool; and determining a response to the request to access the resource based on the presence of the memory buffer. A system includes a plurality of processors, a resource, and a hardware-assisted memory pool including a memory buffer; one of the plurality of processors receives a request to access the resource, determines a presence of the memory buffer, and determines a response to the request to access the resource based on the presence of the memory buffer. |
| US09081629B2 |
Excluding counts on software threads in a state
The present disclosure provides a method, computer program product, and system for compensating for event counts for a thread occurring during targeted states on the thread. In example embodiments, the state is a spin loop state and instructions completed during the spin loop are eliminated from a performance report and are presented in the absence of the spin loop. In another embodiment, the event counts are interrupt counts eliminated during the spin loop. |
| US09081626B2 |
Method and apparatus for converting software
A method, apparatus, and computer readable medium are provided. According to an embodiment of the invention, a method includes, translating source code written in a first language into source code written in an intermediary language. The method further includes converting the source code written in the intermediary language into source code written in a second language by applying contextual recognition and reconstruction to the source code written in the intermediary language to generate the source code written in the second language. The method further includes prompting a user to customize the conversion of the source code written in the intermediary language into the source code written in the second language. |
| US09081624B2 |
Automatic load balancing, such as for hosted applications
A dynamic load balancing system is described that determines the load of resources in a hosted environment dynamically by monitoring the usage of resources by each customer and determines the number of customers hosted by a server based on the actual resources used. The system receives a performance threshold that indicates when a server is too heavily loaded and monitors the resource usage by each customer. When the load of an overloaded server in the hosted environment exceeds the received performance threshold, the system selects a source customer currently hosted by the overloaded server to move to another server. |
| US09081623B1 |
Service resource allocation
Disclosed are various embodiments for a resource allocation application. Usage data for application program interfaces is aggregated over time. Limits for an allocation of resources for each of the application program interfaces are calculated as a function of the usage data. Limits are recalculated as new application program interfaces are added. |
| US09081621B2 |
Efficient input/output-aware multi-processor virtual machine scheduling
Computerized methods, computer systems, and computer-readable media for governing how virtual processors are scheduled to particular logical processors are provided. A scheduler is employed to balance a CPU-intensive workload imposed by virtual machines, each having a plurality of virtual processors supported by a root partition, across various logical processors that are running threads and input/output (I/O) operations in parallel. Upon measuring a frequency of the I/O operations performed by a logical processor that is mapped to the root partition, a hardware-interrupt rate is calculated as a function of the frequency. The hardware-interrupt rate is compared against a predetermined threshold rate to determine a level of an I/O-intensive workload being presently carried out by the logical processor. When the hardware-interrupt rate surpasses the predetermined threshold rate, the scheduler refrains from allocating time slices on the logical processor to the virtual machines. |
| US09081610B2 |
Method and apparatus to maximize return on investment in hybrid cloud environment
Exemplary embodiments improve return on investment in hybrid cloud environment. In one embodiment, a computer comprises: a memory; and a processor operable to manage two types of clouds, which are private and public clouds, by using information stored in the memory, and to manage migration of a set of an application and a data between a first type of clouds and a second type of clouds of the two types of clouds, the application running on a server of the first type of clouds, the data to be read or written by the application and being stored in a storage system of the first type of clouds. The processor manages the migration of the set of the application and the data between the first type of clouds and the second type of clouds based on resource utilization of resources including at least one of the server or the storage system. |
| US09081609B2 |
Image processing system and method employing a threaded scheduler
A system and method are disclosed for an image processing system including a threaded scheduler providing compact and efficient dataflow as a pipeline management and data flow layer. |
| US09081606B2 |
Asynchronous persistent stores for transactions
A processor includes a processor core, a cache, and a tracker. The processor core is configured to execute persistent write instructions and receive notifications of completed persistent write instructions. The tracker is configured to track the completion state of a persistent write instruction. |
| US09081604B2 |
Automatic discovery of externally added devices
An exemplary system may automatically discovery externally added devices. In one embodiment, the system obtains initial device information for a virtual machine running on a host computing system. The system determines whether an external event occurred on the host computing system. A management computing system associated with the host computing system does not receive notification of the external event. Upon determining that the external event occurred on the host computing system, the system obtains updated device information for the virtual machine running on the host computing system. |
| US09081603B2 |
Packet forwarding optimization with virtual machine mobility by comparing device identifiers to determine VM movement
In one embodiment, a method includes tracking at a network device in communication with a plurality of virtual machines, virtual machine movement based on a device identifier in a packet received from one of the virtual machines and storing location information for the virtual machine in a virtual machine move list at the network device. The location information from the virtual machine move list is inserted into a forwarding information base for use in optimized forwarding of packets destined for the virtual machine. An apparatus and logic are also disclosed herein. |
| US09081594B1 |
Managing data storage systems in virtual systems based on storage awareness
A method is used in managing data storage in virtual systems. A data storage system is queried through a universal framework module of the data storage system. The universal framework module includes a first set of interfaces associated with a format used by a virtual system to communicate with the data storage system. Information associated with the data storage is retrieved from a platform specific module of the data storage system. The platform specific module provides the information to the universal framework module. The platform specific module includes a second set of interfaces based on a type of the data storage system. |
| US09081590B2 |
Multimodal input using scratchpad graphical user interface to edit speech text input with keyboard input
A system and method for multimodal input into an application program. The method may include performing speech recognition on speech audio input to thereby produce recognized speech text input for insertion into a document of an application program, the document having keyboard focus. The method may also include identifying the document as being text service framework unaware. The method may further include displaying the recognized speech text input in a scratchpad graphical user interface for editing the recognized speech text input. The method may further include reflecting keyboard input bound for the document to the scratchpad graphical user interface, while preserving the keyboard focus of the document. The method may also include displaying the reflected keyboard input on the scratchpad graphical user interface, to thereby effect edits in the recognized speech text input. |
| US09081587B1 |
Multiversioned functions
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving source code that contains a hot function that calls a multiversioned function, where a function definition of the multiversioned function specifies a first version and an alternative second version, and generating compiled code that includes a first and a second clone of the hot function, and a first and a second version of the multiversioned function. In the compiled code, the first clone of the hot function includes a direct call to the first version of the multiversioned function, and the second clone of the hot function includes a direct call to the second version of the multiversioned function. |
| US09081581B2 |
Size mis-match hazard detection
An out-of-order processor 4 groups program instructions together to control their commitment to complete processing. If an instruction within a group has a source operand dependent upon a plurality of destination operands of other instructions then this is identified as a size mismatch hazard. When the program instruction having the size mismatch hazard reaches a commit point within the processor, then it is flushed together with any speculatively executed succeeding program instructions. Furthermore, the group of program instructions containing the program instruction containing the program instruction having the size mismatch is divided into a plurality of groups of program instructions each containing a single program instruction which are then replayed through the processing mechanisms. |
| US09081575B2 |
Method and apparatus for a zero voltage processor sleep state
Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus for a zero voltage processor sleep state. A voltage regulator may be coupled to a processor to provide an operating voltage to the processor. During a transition to a zero voltage power management state for the processor, the operational voltage applied to the processor by the voltage regulator may be reduced to approximately zero while an external voltage is continuously applied to a portion of the processor to save state variables of the processor during the zero voltage management power state. |
| US09081574B2 |
Selective monitor control
Reducing energy usage by a monitor includes a map manager between a monitor interface and a processor that divides a display area of a monitor into areas and stores display information in a staging area. The map manager distinguishes an active window selected by a user from the remainder inactive, unselected areas of a display, and further determines a used subset of areas within the active window distinguished from the remainder unused areas as a function of a user preference. Accordingly, the map manager drives the monitor at each of the used area active window areas with the processor display information stored in the staging area at a normal luminance specified by the processor display information, and at each of the remainder unused, inactive and unselected areas of the total display area at a reduced luminance lower than the specified normal luminance. |
| US09081571B2 |
Gesture detection management for an electronic device
The amount of power and processing capacity needed to process gesture input for a computing device is reduced by splitting the management of sensors, used to detect the input, among different processing components. A relatively high power processor system can monitor the sensors and determine the presence of gestures when the device is in an active state. When the device, or at least the processor system, enters a sleep mode, sensor management is transferred to a microcontroller connected to at least a portion of the sensors, such that the microcontroller can analyze the sensor data to determine the likelihood of a wake action being performed. In response to detecting a wake action, the microcontroller can contact a component such as a power management component to place the processor system in an active state, and enable the processor system to resume management of the sensors. |
| US09081569B2 |
Active stylus force sensing mechanism for generating a wakeup interrupt to the controller
An active stylus having a control circuit configured to wake up the stylus from a sleep mode to an active mode in response to pressure applied to a tip of the stylus. The stylus includes a force sensor electrically coupled to a power source, an operational amplifier, and a voltage level comparator, the voltage level comparator configured to output a digital wake up interrupt signal when pressure is applied to the tip when the control circuit is in the sleep mode. The operational amplifier is configured to provide an analog signal representative of varying pressure on the tip. This signal is processed by the control circuit such that the stylus goes into the sleep mode after a specified period of time following cessation of variations in the analog signal. |
| US09081568B1 |
Electrical power system with automatic transfer switch failure protection
A data center includes electrical loads and an electrical power distribution system. The electrical power system includes a primary power source, one or more secondary power sources, and one or more groups of automatic transfer switches. Each automatic transfer switch and its corresponding load define a branch of the group. Each of the groups of automatic transfer switches includes a power cross-coupling system that cross-couple the branches in the group such that a load coupled to the output of the automatic transfer switch in one branch in the group is coupled to the output of an automatic transfer switches in the other branches of the group. |
| US09081562B2 |
Unpacking packed data in multiple lanes
Receiving an instruction indicating first and second operands. Each of the operands having packed data elements that correspond in respective positions. A first subset of the data elements of the first operand and a first subset of the data elements of the second operand each corresponding to a first lane. A second subset of the data elements of the first operand and a second subset of the data elements of the second operand each corresponding to a second lane. Storing result, in response to instruction, including: (1) in first lane, only lowest order data elements from first subset of first operand interleaved with corresponding lowest order data elements from first subset of second operand; and (2) in second lane, only highest order data elements from second subset of first operand interleaved with corresponding highest order data elements from second subset of second operand. |
| US09081561B2 |
Method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instruction during compiling
The present invention relates to a method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instructions during compiling, comprising the following steps of: compiling a source code by a compiler to acquire internal representation; optimizing; generating a machine code on the basis of a target processor, and allocating a physical register to a pseudo-register in the machine code; and improving results of register allocation to multiply-accumulate instructions. The method for improving execution performance of multiply-add instructions during compiling provided by the present invention has the following advantages: the compiler is allowed to realize procedure optimization by acquiring the optimal MAC (multiply-accumulate) instruction use gain. |
| US09081559B2 |
Electronic systems and power management methods thereof
An electronic system is provided, including electronic devices, power supplies and a control module. The electronic devices each have male and female connectors, wherein the male connectors are mated with the female connectors, such that the electronic devices are overlapped in a direction and electrically connected to each other. The power supplies each are connected to one of the electronic devices, respectively, for providing power to the electronic devices. The control module has first and second modes to control the male and female connectors, wherein, in the first mode, a first electronic device of the electronic devices, which is not connected to either one of the power supplies, receives power through a first female connector of the first electronic device, and outputs power to another electronic device of the electronic devices through the first male connector. |
| US09081558B2 |
System and method for dynamically controlling a plurality of cores in a multicore central processing unit based on tempature
A method of controlling power within a multicore central processing unit (CPU) is disclosed. The method may include monitoring a die temperature, determining a degree of parallelism within a workload of the CPU, and powering one or more cores of the CPU up or down based on the degree of parallelism, the die temperature, or a combination thereof. |
| US09081555B2 |
Method and apparatus for current derating with integrated temperature sensing
A method and apparatus for derating current and for derating current for a camera flash. The method comprises monitoring a local junction temperature of a module. The local junction temperature is converted into a local junction current. The local junction current is then compared with a reference current, which is independent of temperature. After the current comparison and subtraction is made, a derate control current is obtained to generate the LED reference current. After the temperature crosses the temperature threshold, the derate control current is derated. Both the temperature threshold and current derate slope are programmable and precisely controlled. The LED output current is regulated and proportional to the LED reference current. If the local junction temperature is greater than the temperature threshold, the LED output current is derated at the moment of the camera flash to avoid thermal overload. |
| US09081554B2 |
Heat exchanger assembly for electronic device
In one embodiment a heat exchanger assembly comprises at least one heat pipe and a casing which is to receive a blower, the casing comprising a plurality of heat exchanging plates, wherein at least one of the heat exchanging plates comprises at least one tongue which is to cover a portion of an exterior surface of the at least one heat pipe. Other embodiments may be described. |
| US09081553B2 |
Power supply
A power supply includes an integrated cable manager board. The integrated cable manager board is configured to integrate elements of the power supply on the integrated cable manager board. The integrated cable manager board includes a circuit monitoring device and a plurality of connectors. The circuit monitoring device is disposed on the integrated cable manager board and monitors the circuit status of the power supply. The connectors are disposed on the integrated cable manager board and each of the connectors is operable to provide power. |
| US09081547B2 |
System and method of automatic switching to a text-entry mode for a computing device
A first device such as a portable or handheld electronic computing device can be configured to act as a text-entry device and a cursor control device for a second device. The first device can include a touch-sensitive display capable of receiving text inputs and cursor inputs for controlling the display of a second device which is communicatively coupled to the first device. The first device can be configured such that selection of certain items such as a text-entry field displayed by the second device can cause the first device to switch or change from a text-entry mode to a cursor control mode. |
| US09081544B2 |
Cradle for portable terminal
A cradle for a portable terminal includes a cradle body, cradle grooves extending from a surface of the cradle body in parallel with each other, and a support plate able to emerge by a pivoting action from the surface of the cradle body that is between the cradle grooves. When the portable terminal is cradled, the support plate emerges from the surface of the cradle body to support the surface of the portable terminal, and one of the cradle grooves is selectively used to support a portion of an edge of the portable terminal so as to provide a selected facing direction for the portable terminal. |
| US09081542B2 |
Systems and methods for a wearable touch-sensitive device
Systems and methods are provided for controlling functions associated with a touch-sensitive device (100) capable of being worn by a user. The touch-sensitive device (100) includes a substrate (110) with an outside surface (112) and an inside surface (114) opposite from the outside surface (112). A first contact sensing component (120) generates a first signal upon detection of a first contact with the outside surface (112), and a second contact sensing component (130) generates a second signal upon detection of a second contact with the inside surface (114). A processor (140) may be configured to interface with the first contact sensing component (120) and the second contact sensing component (130) and perform operations including: analyzing the first signal and the second signal to determine that a predetermined condition is satisfied, and in response to the analyzing, initiating a function associated with the predetermined condition. |
| US09081539B2 |
Holding mechanism for display device and assembling method of the same
A holding mechanism for a display device has a front cover member attached to a surface of a housing containing the display device so as to cover the display device, and an elastic member arranged between the display device and a front cover member. A thin plate-like member having shape retention is attached to the elastic member on a side facing the front cover member, and the elastic member attached to the thin plate-like member is attached to an internal side of the front cover member to prevent an unsightly appearance and to make the adherence of the elastic member to the surface of the display device easier. |
| US09081535B2 |
Automatic topology configuration through automatic hardware profiles across multiple display units
Disclosed are methods, an apparatus and a system of automatic topology configuration through automatic profiles across multiple display units. A method of a display driver involves automatically identifying a hardware profile data associated with a plurality of display units, applying a logic function to the hardware profile data to create a set of automatic topology display settings when a match of the hardware profile data with a set of settings in a hardware profile lookup table is not found, and automatically applying the set of automatic topology display settings to simultaneously display a sequence of graphics signals across the plurality of display units. The method may also include automatically designating one display unit from the plurality of display units as a sample display unit and setting a scaling factor based on an automatic designation of the one display unit from the plurality of display units as the sample display unit. |
| US09081532B2 |
Method and computer program product for outputting document data divided into pages
In a method to output document data divided into pages at an output printing apparatus, a print file encoded in a page description language is provided with per-page variable document data and bin command data, the bin command data referring to at least one page input tray of a reference printing apparatus for page-shaped recording material. The page input tray is provided to accept form pages with at least one pre-print image. At least one macro data set is created that contains a group of commands of the page description language and pre-print image data with which the pre-print image can be reproduced as a rastered image. Association data are generated for an association between the bin command data and the macro data set. The print file is sent as a data stream from a document data computer to a controller. In the controller the variable document data are merged and rastered with the pre-print image data using the bin command data and the association data. The rastered document data and the pre-print image data are printed on an output recording material in the output printing apparatus. |
| US09081530B2 |
Control system for forming and outputting image, control apparatus for forming and outputting image, and recording medium storing a control program for forming and outputting image
A control system for forming and outputting an image, in which an image output control apparatus cooperates with another information processing apparatus that instructs an image forming apparatus to form and output an image. The control system includes an intermediate data generator that acquires an image to be output and generates intermediate data as print data, an intermediate data storage processor that stores the generated intermediate data in a predetermined storage area, an intermediate data acquisition unit that acquires the intermediate data, an additional processor that executes an additional process in outputting the image based on the acquired intermediate data, and a print job generation controller that instructs a print job generator that generates a print job to instruct the image forming apparatus to execute forming and outputting the image to generate the print job based on the intermediate data. |
| US09081524B2 |
Printing system and printing apparatus
A printing system includes an information processing apparatus and a printing apparatus, the information processing apparatus including a printer driver, the print job packet containing a print job described in printer description language, the printing apparatus including: an engine including a fuser; a main CPU that performs operation control of the engine; a power supply portion that performs the following: providing power to the main CPU and delivering power to the engine by the main CPU performing the energization control while normal operation mode is ON; and shutting down power to the main CPU and the engine while power saving mode is ON; and a sub CPU that performs the following: receiving power from the power supply portion while power saving mode is ON; and giving a proxy response to the print job packet to activate the main CPU, the sub CPU consuming less power than the main CPU. |
| US09081522B2 |
Method and system for searching for missing resources
A method of searching for missing resources associated with an image forming apparatus, which includes the steps of: forwarding a print job having a resource call-out from a host computer to an image forming apparatus; receiving the print job on the image forming apparatus; checking the image forming apparatus for a resource, which has been called out by the print job, and if the resource is not available on the image forming apparatus, obtaining the resource by: sending a request for the resource from the image forming apparatus to a device having the resource; receiving a response from the device having the resource indicating that the resource is a non-sharable resource and including at least one link to where the non-sharable resource can be obtained; and choosing a link having the non-sharable resource and obtaining the non-sharable resource. |
| US09081518B2 |
Information processor and control method of the same
Disclosed herein is an information processor including: a processing section adapted to perform a predetermined process on a data signal output in synchronism with one of positive and negative edges of a clock signal and output an execution result thereof; a holding section adapted to hold the execution result in synchronism with the other of the positive and negative edges; a timing determination section adapted to determine whether a grace period lasting until the execution result is held by the holding section meets a setup time of the holding section; a clock control section adapted, if it is determined that the grace period does not meet the setup time, to control at least the timing of either the positive or negative edge in such a manner that the grace period meets the setup time; and a clock generation section adapted to generate the clock signal according to the controlled timing. |
| US09081514B2 |
Method for controlling operation of a memory using a single write location and an associated memory
The operation of a FIFO buffer memory includes writing the data at input to the memory in a single write location, and making the single write location available for writing an input datum with a shift of the datum written in the single write location to another location of the memory. At each operation of writing of an input datum in the single write location, there is scheduled shifting of the datum written therein to another location, without waiting for a new write request, thus eliminating the combinational constraint between the two operations. |
| US09081511B2 |
Source-target relations mapping
A data preservation function is provided which, in one embodiment, includes mapping in a plurality of maps for a target storage device, map extent ranges of each map, to corresponding target extent ranges of storage locations on the target storage device. Usage of a particular map extent range by a relationship between a source extent range of storage locations on a source storage device containing data to be preserved in the source extent range, and the target extent range mapped to the map particular extent range, may be indicated by the map. In another aspect, in response to receipt of a data preservation command, a data preservation operation is performed including determining whether a map indicates availability of a map extent range mapped to the identified target extent range. Upon determining that a particular map indicates availability of a map extent range mapped to the identified target extent range, a relationship between the identified source extent range and the identified target extent range is established. In yet another aspect, upon determining that no map indicates availability of a map extent range mapped to the identified target extent range, establishing of a relationship between the identified source extent range and the identified target extent range may be delayed until it is determined that a particular map indicates availability of a map extent range mapped to the identified target extent range. Other features and aspects may be realized, depending upon the particular application. |
| US09081508B2 |
File processing method and storage device
A file processing method and a storage device are disclosed. In the method, a storage device receives T files that are to be stored in the RAID, and determines a sequence number of a check block in a stripe of the RAID. The storage device repeatedly obtains a data block of the Kth file in the T files as the Kth data block in the stripe, where a value of K progressively increases from 1 to T, and the value of K is not equal to the sequence number of the check block in the stripe. After computing the check block according to data blocks, the storage device writes, into the T disks, the data blocks and the obtained check block in the stripe. By using the foregoing method, one file can be written into one disk of the RAID while ensuring security of file storage. |
| US09081507B2 |
Shared storage access management systems and methods
Shared storage access management systems and methods are presented. A method can comprise: performing an endpoint I/O source authority tracking process in which permission of an endpoint I/O source to perform an I/O with at least a portion of an endpoint storage target is tracked at least in part based on a corresponding endpoint I/O source ID value, and performing an I/O operation based upon results of the endpoint I/O source authority tracking process. In one embodiment, the endpoint I/O source ID value is associated with an endpoint I/O source that is a virtual machine. The endpoint I/O source ID value can be unique and can be bound to an endpoint I/O source. In one exemplary implementation, the endpoint I/O source ID value does not depend upon intermediate communication channel characteristics between a corresponding endpoint I/O source and endpoint storage target. |
| US09081505B1 |
Method and system for improving disk drive performance
A method of writing data to a storage device that uses a first data block size, from a host system that uses a second data block size, different from the first data block size, includes receiving a request from the host system to write a host data block to the storage device, reading a storage device data block from a first location on the storage device to a buffer, where the storage device data block corresponds to the host data block, modifying the storage device data block based on the host data block, restricting writing of the modified storage device data block into the first location, and storing the modified storage device data block to a second location, different from the restricted first location. After acknowledging success of the storing, the restricting of writing of the modified storage device data block into the first location may be lifted. |
| US09081504B2 |
Write bandwidth management for flash devices
Embodiments of the present invention provide a flash memory device write-access management amongst different virtual machines (VMs) in a virtualized computing environment. In one embodiment, a virtualized computing data processing system can include a host computer with at least one processor and memory and different VMs executing in the host computer. The system also can include a flash memory device coupled to the host computer and accessible by the VMs. Finally, a flash memory controller can manage access to the flash memory device. The controller can include program code enabled to compute a contemporaneous bandwidth of requests for write operations for the flash memory device, to allocate a corresponding number of tokens to the VMs, to accept write requests to the flash memory device from the VMs only when accompanied by a token and to repeat the computing, allocating and accepting after a lapse of a pre-determined time period. |
| US09081502B2 |
Method and apparatus of storage volume migration in cooperation with takeover of storage area network configuration
Systems and methods directed to the automation of Storage Area Network (SAN) configuration when storage volume migration or server virtual machine migration is conducted. Systems and methods described herein may involve the takeover of a SAN network attribute for the migration, and may involve translation of zone object formats to facilitate the migration and ensure compatibility when the takeover is conducted. |
| US09081496B2 |
Mobile terminal and method of controlling operation of the mobile terminal
A mobile terminal and a method of controlling the operation of the mobile terminal are provided. The method of one embodiment includes displaying an electronic document on a display module; responsive to detecting a scroll command, scrolling the electronic document in a particular direction at a particular speed; and changing a speed of scrolling the electronic document upon encountering a scroll limit during the scrolling of the electronic document. Therefore, it is possible to set a scroll limit in an electronic document and thus to automatically slow down or stop the scrolling of the electronic document upon encountering the scroll limit. |
| US09081488B2 |
Stimulation leadwire and volume of activation control and display interface
A method and system include a processor that outputs a model of anatomical structures of a region in which a leadwire is implanted, the structures being distinguished by graphical indicia associated with respective textual descriptions in a legend. Electrodes of a model of the leadwire overlaid on the anatomical structure models are selectable, in response to which selection the processor displays a control for modifying an electrical setting of the selected contact. |
| US09081482B1 |
Text input suggestion ranking
A computing device receives an indication of user input that corresponds to a series of one or more characters. The computing device determines, based at least in part on the series of one or more characters, a plurality of character strings. The computing device determines a score for each respective character string based at least in part on a probability in a particular language of the respective character string occurring, an estimate of time to be saved by a user if the user were to select the respective character string, and an estimate of time to be expended by the user to analyze the respective character string. The computing device outputs at least a portion of the plurality of character strings. The portion of the plurality of character strings is determined based at least in part on the score for each respective character string from the plurality of character strings. |
| US09081475B2 |
System and method and server for providing content to a handset
A system and method for providing time-sensitive information to a handset using a scrolling ticker. The method includes receiving the time-sensitive information at a server, determining the time period before the next update for a second set of information, and if less than a pre-determined value, then streaming the time sensitive information at the end of the time period to the handset. If the time period is greater that than the pre-determined value, then streaming the time-sensitive information immediately. In an alternative embodiment, a method is provided which includes determining a base schedule for periodically streaming the information to a handset via a scrolling ticker, receiving time-sensitive information relating to an event, determining a second schedule for periodically streaming time-sensitive information related to the event, and streaming the time-sensitive information in accordance with the second schedule during a time period associated with the event. |
| US09081474B2 |
User interface for multiple display regions
User interfaces for multiple display regions are described. One embodiment provides an array of non-overlapping windows that are created from a set of overlapping windows, and a user can select one of the non-overlapping windows to obtain an enlarged view of that selected window while keeping the other windows in their non-overlapping state. In one embodiment, the array of non-overlapping windows can include minimized windows or windows in other virtual desktops (e.g. windows in other “Spaces”) or both. In one embodiment, only windows of a selected application are shown in non-overlapping mode while opened windows of other applications are not shown. |
| US09081472B2 |
Dynamic enhancement of context matching rules for business scenario models
A definition of a new user interface feature of a business software architecture supporting a business configuration used by an organization can be received and a rule in a scenario model of a business scenario can be accordingly modified to associate the new user interface feature with business process feature(s) of the business scenario. A selection of a business process feature received as a user interaction with first user interface elements arranged in a linear order in a navigation pane of a user interface to represent at least some of the plurality of business process features of the business process can result in the concurrent display via the user interface of a work frame comprising the new user interface feature. |
| US09081466B2 |
Dynamic chart control that triggers dynamic contextual actions
A system and method are described herein that provide for dynamically controlling a chart visualized in a user interface by turning business objects visualized in the chart into clickable action buttons to trigger corresponding business actions. Business objects are retrieved from a backend server and displayed as visual representations in a chart rendered in a calendar application user interface. A user clicking or tapping a visual representation in the chart triggers a corresponding predefined action that has been customized in the connected system or backend server and is dynamically assigned to the chart control based on the business context of the calendar application. |
| US09081465B1 |
System and method for enabling a user to add and view resource content within a calendar
A system and method is provided for enabling a user to add and view resource content within a calendar. The method includes displaying in a user interface both a calendar view and a resources view. A user is able to drag a representation of a resource from the resources view to the calendar view. In response to the user dragging the representation of a resource to the calendar view, a link to the resource is added to a calendar event in the calendar view. The user is then able to open the resource from the calendar event. |
| US09081464B2 |
Object selection
In an example embodiment, a system and method is illustrated that includes receiving a first cursor actuation signal from a cursor controlling device where the first cursor actuation signal received at a first cursor position in a graphical user interface. Further, the system and method includes determining an old hierarchy level, determining a new hierarchy level based on the first cursor position and the old hierarchy level, and selecting a target object based on the new hierarchy level and the first cursor position. |
| US09081458B2 |
In-cell touch display device
An in-cell touch display device is disclosed. The device includes a color filter substrate, a Thin Film Transistor array substrate, and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the color filter substrate and the Thin Film Transistor array substrate. The color filter substrate includes a grid black matrix layer, a touch layer, and a color filter layer, where the touch layer includes a plurality of metal grid electrodes. In addition, each electrode is aligned with the grid of the black matrix layer in a light transmission direction, and a density of the metal grid electrodes adjacent to the edge of the metal grid electrodes is greater than a density of the metal grid electrodes adjacent to the center of metal grid electrodes. |
| US09081456B2 |
Touch panel control system, capacitance detection apparatus and method thereof
A capacitance detection apparatus for a touch panel includes an N number of capacitors. The detection apparatus generates an N number of different input signals, and provides an ith input signal of the input signals to an ith capacitor. The N number of input signals correspond to a delayed sequence of a maximum length sequence or the maximum length sequence. The detection apparatus sums up an N number of response signals, which are generated after providing the N number of input signals to the N number of capacitors, to generate a summed signal. The summed signal is multiplied by the ith input signal and integrated to generate an ith integrated signal. The detection apparatus estimates capacitance values of the N number of capacitors according to the N number of integrated signals, respectively. |
| US09081454B2 |
Touch sensor with capacitive voltage divider
In certain embodiments, a touch-sensor controller is operable to apply a first voltage to a first drive line. The first drive line comprises a first one or more drive electrodes. The touch-sensor controller is further operable to measure a second voltage across a capacitor. The capacitor is coupled to a first sense line. The first sense line comprises a first one or more sense electrodes. The touch-sensor controller is further operable to determine, based on the second voltage across the capacitor, a touch at a first capacitive node formed by an overlapping of a first region of the first drive line and a first region of the first sense line. |
| US09081450B1 |
Identifying hover and/or palm input and rejecting spurious input for a touch panel
A touch panel controller may include a communications module configured to receive pixel values, where each pixel value represents a capacitance associated with a pixel formed at a drive electrode and a sensor electrode of a touch panel. The touch panel controller may also include a processing module configured to discard pixel values below a noise threshold, discard pixel values for non-zero pixels that are not adjacent to non-zero pixels, reject detected input for pixel values associated with a palm input, compute an initial centroid associated with the pixel values, reject detected input for pixel values associated with a hover input, and provide detected input that is not associated with palm input or hover input. |
| US09081449B2 |
Liquid crystal display device with touch screen
A liquid crystal display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, and a liquid crystal material sandwiched between the first and second substrate. The second substrate has a touch screen electrode directly on a front-side surface of the second substrate. The first substrate has a wiring line for supplying a position detection voltage. A conductive tape electrically connects between the touch screen electrode and a driver circuit. A polarization plate is disposed above the touch screen electrode. |
| US09081442B2 |
Split sense lines for negative pixel compensation
A touch panel configured to compensate for negative pixel effect is disclosed. The panel can be configured to increase a capacitive sense signal, indicative of a touching or hovering object, in order to compensate for an increase in negative capacitance when the object is poorly grounded. To perform the compensation, the panel can be configured to have split sense lines so as to increase the number of electric fringe fields forming the sense signal, thereby providing a sense signal that is substantially stronger than the negative capacitance signal. Each sense line can be split into two or more strips. |
| US09081440B2 |
Device and method for writing on capacitive touch sensor by stylus with conductive head and insulating body
The present invention provides a method and device for writing on a capacitive touch screen, which includes a guarding pattern and a conductive strip pattern exposed from each other, and a stylus. The conductive strip pattern includes a plurality of first conductive strips provided with a driving signal and a plurality of second conductive strips that provide mutual capacitive coupling signals, and the guarding pattern is provided with a DC signal. The stylus has a conductive pen head and a pen body. When the human body holding the pen body is not electrically coupled to the conductive pen head, the location of the conductive pen head can be determined by sufficient change in capacitive coupling caused by the conductive pen head capacitively coupling to the guarding pattern and the conductive strip pattern. |
| US09081439B2 |
Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for invoking an electronic ink or handwriting interface
User interfaces, methods, systems, and computer-readable media for activating and/or displaying text input systems on display devices may include: (a) displaying a text input system activation target at a user changeable location on a display device; (b) receiving user input directed to the activation target; and (c) activating a text input system in response to the user input. Such user interfaces, methods, and systems further may include (d) displaying a pre-interaction condition of the activation target; (e) receiving user input directed to the activation target in this pre-interaction condition; and (f) changing an appearance of the activation target from the pre-interaction condition to a larger size and/or a different visual appearance in response to this user input. Additional aspects of this invention relate to computer-readable media for providing user interfaces, systems, and methods as described above. |
| US09081436B1 |
Force and/or motion measurement system and a method of testing a subject using the same
A force measurement system includes a force measurement assembly configured to receive a subject thereon, at least one visual display device having an output screen, and one or more data processing devices configured to generate a screen image comprising a plurality of substantially concentric bands on the output screen of the at least one visual display device that is configured to create a visual stimuli for the subject disposed on the force measurement assembly. A plurality of methods for testing a subject is also disclosed herein. The methods for testing a subject utilize a force measurement assembly and/or augmented reality glasses. A measurement system including a motion detection system, an object position detection system, and/or an eye movement tracking device is additionally disclosed herein. |
| US09081428B2 |
Apparatus and method for impact resistant touchscreen display module
A method and apparatus for an impact resistant touchscreen display module, such as for use in ruggedized mobile computing and display devices. The structure provided also allows for severability of the touchscreen and display screen portions, enhancing the practicability of replacing individual components for repair of a damaged touchscreen display module. |
| US09081426B2 |
Image controller
An image controller structured for allowing inputs to be converted or translated into electrical outputs, one preferred controller structured with at least a sufficient number of sensors to aid in controlling three-dimensional objects and navigating a three-dimensional viewpoint shown by a display. An active tactile feedback vibrator is mounted as a component of the controller for providing vibration to be felt by a user. Inputs to the controller include a move forward command, a move back command, a move left command, a move right command, a move up command, and a move down command. |
| US09081423B2 |
Transaction automation and archival system using electrode contract disclosure units
A system is provided for controlling, real-time logging, and archiving complex commercial transactions such as the purchase and financing of an automobile. An electronic contract disclosure unit or ECDU includes a digitizing display for imaging documents involved in the transaction and a digitizer for manual interaction with images on the display. A computer controls the transaction, and may for instance, control the order of presentation of documents to a vehicle purchaser, receive the purchaser's signature on the displayed documents when required, offer choices of various packages that can be accepted or declined by the purchaser, and insures that the entire transaction is carried out properly. The ECDU logs the transaction for future review and preferably records video and audio. Fingerprint readers allow participants to select between options by pressing their thumb or finger on the readers. |
| US09081417B2 |
Method and device for identifying contactless gestures
Methods and devices for identifying contactless gestures are described. In one example, the present disclosure describes a method of detecting a contactless gesture on an electronic device. The electronic device has an electromagnetic radiation transmitter and an electromagnetic radiation receiver. The electromagnetic radiation receiver is configured for receiving electromagnetic radiation emitted from the electromagnetic radiation transmitter and reflected by an object. The method includes: monitoring an amplitude of received electromagnetic radiation at the electromagnetic radiation receiver; detecting a proximity event by comparing the amplitude to a predetermined proximity threshold; after detecting the proximity event, continuing to monitor the amplitude of the received electromagnetic radiation at the electromagnetic radiation receiver; and, in response to detecting the proximity event, performing an analysis on the received electromagnetic radiation to determine whether the received electromagnetic radiation indicates a predetermined gesture. |
| US09081414B2 |
Image manipulation based on tracked eye movement
The disclosure relates to controlling and manipulating an image of an object on a display device based on tracked eye movements of an observer. When the object is displayed according to an initial view, the observer's eye movement is tracked and processed in order to determine the focus of the observer's attention or gaze on the image. Thereafter, the displayed image is modified to provide a better view of the part of the object in which the observer is most interested. This is accomplished by modifying at least one of the spatial positioning of the object within the viewing area, the angle of view of the object, and the viewing direction of the object. |
| US09081403B1 |
Optimal compensating ramp generator for fixed frequency current mode DC-DC converters
Systems and methods for generating a compensating ramp for a DC-DC converter having fixed frequency current mode control architecture are adaptive to an input voltage of the converter and an output voltage of the converter, and are programmable based on an inductor of the converter. The systems and methods include receiving the input voltage and the output voltage of the converter and outputting, based on the input voltage and the output voltage, a voltage reference or a current reference. The systems and methods include generating a voltage ramp based on the voltage reference or the current reference. A conversion gain associated with converting the voltage ramp to a compensating ramp current is set based on a user input corresponding to an inductance value of the inductor. |
| US09081399B2 |
Charge pump regulator circuit with variable amplitude control
A charge pump regulator circuit includes an oscillator and one or more charge pumps. One or more oscillating signals are generated by the oscillator. Each oscillating signal has a frequency or amplitude or both that are variable dependent on a variable drive signal. For some embodiments having multiple oscillating signals, each oscillating signal is phase shifted from a preceding oscillating signal. For some embodiments having multiple charge pumps, each charge pump is connected to receive a corresponding one of the oscillating signals. Each charge pump outputs a voltage and current. For some embodiments having multiple charge pumps, the output of each charge pump is phase shifted from the outputs of other charge pumps. A combination of the currents thus produced is provided at about a voltage level to a load. |
| US09081395B2 |
DC power supply apparatus configured to correct input polarity of DC power
A direct current (DC) power supply apparatus includes an input unit configured to receive an outside DC power; a plurality of polarity correction units configured to correct the polarity of the outside DC power; a plurality of switch units installed to correspond to each of the plurality of polarity correction units; a detection unit configured to detect a flow of current of the plurality of polarity correction unit; and a control unit configured to determine a polarity correction unit, at which current of DC power flows, among the plurality of correction units based on a detection signal of transmitted from the detection unit, and control the switch unit corresponding to the determined polarity correction unit at an ON position such that the current of DC power flows through the switch unit which is controlled at the ON position. |
| US09081386B2 |
Working apparatus for a limited area
It is described a working apparatus for a limited working area, comprising a base station configured to generate a magnetic field and a self-propelling robot. The self-propelling robot comprises means for moving the self-propelling robot in the working area, a gyroscope, a magnetic field sensor and a processing unit configured to control the movement of the self-propelling robot. The processing unit comprises a magnetic field search module configured to move the self-propelling robot so as to search for the set of contiguous magnetic field lines of force inside the working area according to a defined search path, and comprises a magnetic field tracking module configured to move the self-propelling robot to track at least a portion of the set of found contiguous lines of force by means of a plurality of maneuvers of crossing the set of found contiguous lines of force until reaching the base station. |
| US09081385B1 |
Lane boundary detection using images
Methods and systems for lane boundary detection using images are described. A computing device may be configured to receive, from an image-capture device coupled to a vehicle, an image of a road of travel of the vehicle. The computing device may be configured to identify a pixel in the image based on an intensity of the pixel and a comparison of the intensity of the pixel to respective intensities of neighboring pixels. Based on the intensity of the pixel and the comparison, the computing device may be configured to determine a likelihood that the pixel belongs to a portion of the image depicting a lane marker on the road. Based at least on the likelihood, the computing device may be configured to and provide instructions to control the vehicle. |
| US09081382B2 |
Autonomous vehicle comprising extracorporeal blood treatment machine
An autonomous vehicle is provided that includes an autonomous vehicle control system, a dialysis machine, and an interface providing an electrical communication between the dialysis machine and the autonomous vehicle control system. The dialysis machine is configured to perform a dialysis treatment on a patient while the autonomous vehicle is under the control of the autonomous vehicle control system. A vehicle is also provided that includes a navigation system, a dialysis machine, and an interface between the navigation system and the dialysis machine. The vehicle can be a car, a train, a plane, or another vehicle. |
| US09081380B2 |
Apparatus for determining and/or monitoring a chemical or physical process variable in automation technology
An apparatus for determining and/or monitoring a chemical or physical, process variable in automation technology, comprising: a superordinated control unit; and a transmitter electronics having a first interface, a second interface and a third interface. The transmitter electronics communicates with the superordinated control unit by means of the first interface via a bus protocol. The transmitter electronics can be connected with a service unit via the second interface; and the third interface has a plurality of data channels for corresponding data source components; and wherein individual data channels are addressable and tunable via the service unit as a function of the connected data source components, so that data selected from the data for the connected data source components can be transmitted at the same time in at least one telegram to the superordinated control unit. |
| US09081373B2 |
Using model communication as a protocol in a managed electrical system
One embodiment of the present invention provides managing component driver for an energy-management system that manages energy within a predominantly closed power system. The component driver includes a receiving mechanism configured to receive current status information for a component associated with the component driver, a model-construction mechanism configured to construct a performance model for the component, and a transmitting mechanism configured to transmit the performance model to an optimization and control module. |
| US09081371B2 |
Method for synchronizing an operating clock with a time clock of an automation network
A method for synchronizing an operating clock with a time clock in an automation network comprising a plurality of sync slaves that are to be coordinated and a time sync master, wherein the plurality of sync slaves are synchronized with respect to the time clock by the time sync master, and wherein the plurality of sync slaves derive their operating clock from the time clock. |
| US09081370B2 |
Time-to-digital converter and an A/D converter including the same
A time-to-digital converter includes first and second phase distribution circuits and N time-to-digital conversion circuits. The first and second phase distribution circuits each includes a plurality of frequency dividers connected in a tree structure. The first and second phase distribution circuits each divides a signal received by the frequency dividers of root nodes into N signals. The first and second phase distribution circuits each outputs the N signals each having a different phase. The N time-to-digital conversion circuits each converts a phase difference between an i-th signal (where i is an integer from 0 to N−1) that is output from the first phase distribution circuit and another i-th signal that is output from the second phase distribution circuit into a digital value. |
| US09081369B1 |
Modular mechanical timepiece unit with functional modules
A method for assembling a mechanical modular unit includes storing in a controller a list of assembly parts of the unit. The method includes irreversibly transforming a sub-assembly of each functional module into a ready to use functional module, after adjustment and function checking of a particular timepiece function have been performed on a test bench. The method includes storing in a storage place components required for the assembly list. The method includes programming a manipulator controlled by the controller to look, in a pre-defined sequence peculiar to each assembly list, for each component or module to be assembled. The method includes programming a shape recognition part to operate the manipulator to pick up each functional module according to a locating part included therein, to arrange the module in an assembly position. The method includes each time, irreversibly assembling precisely arranged elements of the mechanical modular unit to each other. |
| US09081368B2 |
Mechanism for driving an indicator
Mechanism for driving an information indicator connected to a timepiece movement and varies according to a plurality of periods, during each of which the information changes, step by step, to a maximum value that varies between n and n−m. The mechanism includes a drive wheel including a first set of gear teeth arranged to advance by n steps per period, m retractable teeth borne by the wheel, encoding cams corresponding to the retractable teeth, each cam corresponding to one maximum value n−x of the information, x being between 1 and m, for a period, and a drive unit to provide adequate rotation speed to the cams relative to the wheel such that, when the information reaches a maximum value n−x for a period, x retractable teeth pass in an operative position and then return to an inoperative position, the wheel advancing by x additional steps for the period. |
| US09081363B2 |
Apparatus and method for fast generation of three-dimensional (3D) hologram
An apparatus for generating a hologram that may generate a three-dimensional (3D) hologram pattern at a high speed may include a pattern setting unit to set points for which hologram patterns are to be generated with respect to a one-eighth area of an entire area for which a hologram pattern is to be generated, a calculation unit to calculate pattern values for a plurality of reference points selected with respect to the one-eighth area of the entire area, and to generate a pattern for the one-eighth area using recurrent interpolation, and a pattern duplicating unit to complete a pattern for the entire area by duplicating the generated pattern for the one-eighth area. |
| US09081362B2 |
Image forming apparatus including a fan-motor unit to prevent contamination of a charging unit
An image forming apparatus has a structure which prevents contamination of charging units charging photoconductors. The image forming apparatus includes photoconductor units, charging units charging the photoconductor units, and a fan-motor unit changing the flow of air between the photoconductor units and the charging units to prevent substances of fine particles from flowing into the charging units. |
| US09081357B2 |
Image forming apparatus having handle unit
An image forming apparatus includes a main body and at least one handle unit disposed on the main body. The handle unit includes a fixing bracket disposed on the main body and having a stop portion, a hinge shaft disposed on the fixing bracket, a handle member disposed to rotate with respect to the fixing bracket by the hinge shaft, a hook formed at an end of the handle member, and a hook catching portion formed on the main body, the hook catching portion to which the hook is caught. The hook is caught to the hook catching portion by weight of the handle member. |
| US09081354B2 |
Image forming apparatus
A high-voltage power source can change a set value of a current to be supplied to an electroconductive brush from a first set current that has been set when the image formation has been started, to a second set current smaller than the first set current, at a previously set timing after the image formation for a recording material has been started. An absolute value of a potential difference between potentials of a photosensitive drum and an intermediate transfer belt, when a secondary transfer residual toner that has been charged by the electroconductive brush to which the second set current has been supplied is positioned in a primary transfer portion, is not larger than an absolute value of a potential difference which is shown when a toner image formed on the photosensitive drum is primarily transferred in the primary transfer portion. |
| US09081353B2 |
Cleaner, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus using the cleaner
A cleaner is provided. The cleaner includes a cleaning blade having an edge to be contacted with a surface of a member to be cleaned while moving relative to the member to clean the surface of the member. The cleaning blade includes the edge, and first and second side surfaces, wherein the edge is disposed between the first and second side surfaces. When the cleaning blade is not contacted with the surface of the member to be cleaned, the first side surface is opposed to the surface of the member, and when the cleaning blade is contacted with the surface of the member, the edge, and the first and second side surfaces of the cleaning blade are contacted with the surface of the member. |
| US09081352B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus including a belt cleaner including a scraping blade and roller pairs each including an elastic roller and a metal roller, the roller pairs including a first roller pair including a first elastic roller as a cleaning roller contacting a belt while rotating in a rotational tangential direction opposite to a belt traveling direction at a contact portion with the belt, and one or more second roller pairs each including a second elastic roller contacting an adjacent metal roller of a roller pair adjacent to the second roller pair while rotating at a circumferential velocity lower than that of the adjacent metal roller in a rotational tangential direction opposite to that of the adjacent metal roller at a contact portion with the adjacent metal roller, the scraping blade contacting an outer circumferential surface of a specific metal roller of the one or more second roller pairs. |
| US09081344B2 |
Image forming apparatus with intermediate toner transfer medium, control method therefor, and storage medium storing control program therefor
An image forming apparatus that is capable of reducing velocity fluctuation due to variation of friction torque between an image bearing member and an intermediate transfer medium depending on a toner image. An exposure unit forms a latent image on the image bearing member rotated by a first drive unit. A development unit develops the latent image to form a toner image. A primary transfer unit transfers the toner image to an intermediate transfer medium rotated by a second drive unit. A secondary transfer unit transfers the toner image to a sheet. A control unit controls the drive units so that a peripheral velocity difference between the image bearing member and the intermediate transfer medium becomes a first value at starting, and controls so that the peripheral velocity difference becomes a second value larger than the first value when minute toner reaches the position of the primary transfer unit. |
| US09081340B2 |
Image forming apparatus having first and second cooling portions or fans cooling end regions of a fixing portion with respect to a direction perpendicular to a recording material conveyance direction
An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing portion for fixing an image on a recording material by heating the image carried on the recording material while conveying the recording material by a fixing nip; a first cooling portion for cooling one end region of the fixing portion with respect to a direction perpendicular to a recording material conveyance direction; and a second cooling portion for cooling the other end region of the fixing portion with respect to the direction perpendicular to the recording material conveyance direction. The first cooling portion and the second cooling portion are operable independently from each other. |
| US09081338B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing device having a heating member, a heat source, a rotating member, and a temperature sensor; and a control device configured to control the heat source, wherein, in a case of a low temperature state where the temperature of the heating member is lower than a predetermined temperature, the control device to control the heat source such that the temperature of the heating member rises with a gradient equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and wherein, in a case of a high temperature state where the temperature of the heating member at the print-instruction receiving time is equal to or higher than the predetermined temperature, the control device to control the heat source such that the temperature of the heating member rises with a gradient smaller than that in the normal mode. |
| US09081336B2 |
Image forming apparatus
An image forming apparatus includes process cartridges forming a toner image on a sheet by using a toner containing a parting agent, an exposure device, an intermediate transfer belt, primary transfer rollers, secondary transfer rollers, a fixing roller and a pressing rotating member which fix the toner image formed on the sheet, a blower fan configured to adjust the temperature of the sheet on which the toner image is fixed, a pair of discharge rollers which conveys the sheet, the temperature of which is adjusted, and a controller which controls the blower fan such that the temperature of the sheet S after contact with the pair of discharge rollers rises to a melting point of the parting agent or higher, or the temperature of the sheet S before contact with the pair of discharge rollers falls to below the melting point of the parting agent. |
| US09081332B2 |
Image forming system for transferring a foil image
An image forming apparatus transfers a negative toner image on a waste sheet of paper having larger size than that of a printing sheet of paper and transfers all the toner images on the printing sheet of paper. A first thermal transferring portion transfers an unnecessary foil of a foil sheet on the negative toner image of the waste sheet of paper image. A second thermal transferring portion transfers a foil remained on the foil sheet on the positive toner image of the printing sheet of paper. The positive toner image is formed using transparent toner. Any gradation processing is performed on an edge of the positive toner image. |
| US09081327B2 |
Apparatus and method for preventing an information storage device from falling from a removable device
An information storage device installed in a removable device configured to be removably installed in an image forming apparatus body, includes: an information storage unit that stores information communicated between the image forming apparatus body and the removable device; a terminal that comes in contact with a body side terminal; and a substrate that holds the information storage unit and the terminal and includes a hole configured to be engaged with a protruding section installed in the image forming apparatus body. The terminal includes a plurality of terminals each including one of a plurality of metallic plates arranged in a transverse direction thereof. An earth terminal, which comes in contact with a body side earth terminal formed in the protruding section, is formed in the hole. The hole is disposed at a position sandwiched between two metallic plates among the plurality of metallic plates. |
| US09081325B2 |
Image forming device, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium
Provided is an image forming device including an image holding member that is rotatable at a first speed and a second speed, a developing unit that includes a developing part that is rotatable at a third speed and a fourth speed, and a carrying part that is rotatable at a fifth speed and a sixth speed, and a control unit that executes a change of a high speed mode in which the image holding member is operated at the first speed, the developing part is operated at the third speed and the carrying part is operated at the fifth speed to perform development and a low speed mode in which the image holding member is operated at the second speed, the developing part is operated at the fourth speed and the carrying part is operated at the sixth speed to perform development. |
| US09081323B2 |
Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus
A developing device includes a frame configured to store developer, a developing roller arranged at an opening of the frame and configured to bear the developer and to form a developer image on an image bearing member, and a supply roller including a rotational shaft passing through a through-hole provided in the frame and configured to supply the developer to the developing roller, wherein the through-hole is formed so that the supply roller is insertable from an outside of the frame in an axial direction of the supply roller, and has such a size that the supply roller is insertable without rubbing an inner edge of the through-hole. |
| US09081322B2 |
LED printhead with relay lens to increase depth of focus
LED printhead apparatus and printing systems are presented in which an LED array and a first high angle lens array are housed in an LED printbar assembly and a second low angle lens array is provided between the first lens array and a photoreceptor belt or drum in order to relay the output of the first lens array to the photoreceptor to provide a larger depth of focus and to reduce waterfront and tolerance issues near the photoreceptor. |
| US09081321B2 |
Charging member and electrophotographic apparatus
There is provided a charging member having charging performance that is not easily changed even by long-term use.The charging member includes an electro-conductive support, an elastic layer, and a surface layer. The elastic layer contains particles in such a manner that at least a part of the particles are exposed from the elastic layer, and thus a surface of the elastic layer is roughened. The particles are high-molecular-weight polyethylene particles. The surface of the elastic layer is covered with the surface layer in such a manner that the surface shape of the elastic layer is reflected in the surface shape of the charging member. The surface layer contains a high-molecular compound having a specific constitutional unit. |
| US09081318B2 |
Ferrite carrier core material and ferrite carrier for electrophotographic developer, methods for manufacturing these, and electrographic developer using the ferrite carrier
It is an object of the present invention to provide a ferrite carrier core material and a ferrite carrier for an electrophotographic developer, which have an excellent charging property, hardly cause carrier scattering due to cracking and chipping of the core material, and have a prolonged life, and methods for manufacturing these, and an electrophotographic developer using the ferrite carrier. For this object, the ferrite carrier core material and a ferrite carrier for an electrophotographic developer, wherein (1) the ferrite composition contains 0.5 to 2.5% by weight of Sr, and the presence amount of Sr—Fe oxides satisfies a specific conditional expression, (2) the distribution in the number of the shape factor SF-2 is in a specific range, (3) the BET specific surface area is 0.15 to 0.30 m2/g, (4) the average particle diameter D50 is 20 to 35 μm, and (5) the magnetization is 50 to 65 Am2/kg. |
| US09081317B2 |
Positively chargeable toner, electrostatic charge image developer, toner cartridge, image forming method, and image forming apparatus
There is provided a positively chargeable toner including toner mother particles containing a binder resin having an ethylenically unsaturated bond, wherein the amine value of a component extracted with a water phase by the addition of ion exchanged water after mixing the toner with methyl ethyl ketone is from 600 to 1,250 and the weight average molecular weight of the component extracted with the water phase is from 1,000 to 200,000. |
| US09081314B2 |
Method for producing structured particles
Method for producing structured particles specifically nanoparticles, toners for laser printers and photocopiers, particularly chemical toner with particular product properties. The method produces toners of improved performance. Method relates particularly to the selection and properties of the base materials and utilizing these properties to design the toner product properties that result in improved performance. |
| US09081312B2 |
Method to define multiple layer patterns with a single exposure by E-beam lithography
The present disclosure provides a method that includes forming a first resist layer on a substrate; forming a second resist layer over the first resist layer; and performing an electron-beam (e-beam) lithography exposure process to the first resist layer and the second resist layer, thereby forming a first latent feature in the first resist layer and a second latent feature in the second resist layer. |
| US09081311B2 |
Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
An apparatus, in an embodiment, having a patterning device support including a first planar element having a first flow-restricting surface; a second planar element including a second flow-restricting surface facing the first flow-restricting surface; a support driver to linearly move the support along a certain direction relative to the second planar element, wherein the first and/or second flow-restricting surface has one or more projections and/or recesses between the first and second flow-restricting surfaces, and wherein the projection and/or recess on the first and/or second flow-restricting surface is arranged to provide a flow resistance, per unit width of the first and/or second flow-restricting surface perpendicular to the flow, that is lower against flow that is parallel to the certain direction than against flow that is perpendicular to the certain direction. The flow-restricting surfaces may direct gas flow onto a driver part that generates heat. |
| US09081310B2 |
Optical system of microlithographic projection exposure apparatus and method of correcting wavefront deformation in same
An optical system of a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus includes a wavefront correction device which has a plurality of fluid outlet apertures. The apertures are arranged so that fluid flows emerging from the outlet apertures enter a space through which projection light propagates during operation of the apparatus. A temperature controller sets the temperature of the fluid flows individually for each fluid flow. The temperature distribution is determined such that optical path length differences caused by the temperature distribution correct wavefront deformations. |
| US09081307B2 |
Variable reluctance device, stage apparatus, lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
A variable reluctance device includes first and second magnetic members, a coil, a measurement coil, and a control unit. The first and second magnetic members are displaceable relative to each other to provide a magnetic circuit having a variable reluctance. The coil for, in use, receiving a current for generating a magnetic flux through the magnetic circuit. The measurement coil for generating a measurement signal representative of the magnetic flux through the magnetic circuit, whereby the measurement coil is arranged to substantially enclose the magnetic flux through the magnetic circuit. The control unit arranged to receive the flux signal at an input terminal and, in response, provide a control signal based on the measurement signal at an output terminal for controlling an amplitude of the current or a force of a further device. The device can e.g., be applied in a stage apparatus or a lithographic apparatus. |
| US09081304B2 |
Substrate, an inspection apparatus, and a lithographic apparatus
A target for measuring an overlay error or a critical dimension of a substrate comprises a grating. In one example, lines of the grating are arranged at an angle of about 45° with respect to edges of the target. As a consequence, the diffraction order of the grating reflection has its sub-maxima not aligned along the line on which the other diffraction orders are positioned, and overlap of intensity with other diffraction orders is reduced. |
| US09081298B2 |
Apparatus for maintaining immersion fluid in the gap under the projection lens during wafer exchange using a co-planar member in an immersion lithography machine
An apparatus and method maintain immersion fluid in the gap adjacent to the projection lens during the exchange of a work piece in a lithography machine. The apparatus and method include an optical assembly that projects an image onto a work piece and a stage assembly including a work piece table that supports the work piece adjacent to the optical assembly. An environmental system is provided to supply and remove an immersion fluid from the gap between the optical assembly and the work piece on the stage assembly. After exposure of the work piece is complete, an exchange system removes the work piece and replaces it with a second work piece. An immersion fluid containment system maintains the immersion liquid in the gap during removal of the first work piece and replacement with the second work piece. |
| US09081297B2 |
Lithography apparatus having dual reticle edge masking assemblies and method of use
A lithography apparatus includes at least two reticle edge masking assemblies (REMAs). The lithography apparatus further includes a light source configured to emit a light beam having a wavelength and a beam separating element configured to divide the light beam into more than one collimated light beam. Each REMA is positioned to receive one of the more than one collimating light beams and each REMA comprises a movable slit for passing the one collimated light beam therethrough. The lithography apparatus further includes at least one mask having a pattern, where the at least one mask is configured to receive light from at least one of the REMA and a projection lens configured to receive light from the at least one mask. A method of using a lithography apparatus is also discussed. |
| US09081293B2 |
System and method for lithography exposure with correction of overlay shift induced by mask heating
A method of exposing a wafer substrate includes receiving an integrated circuit (IC) design layout defining a pattern; determining a temperature profile of a mask based on the IC design layout, the pattern being formed on the mask; calculating a pre-corrected overlay shift for the mask based on the calculated temperature profile; and exposing a resist layer coated on a substrate using the mask with overlay compensation based on the pre-corrected overlay shift. |
| US09081292B2 |
Arrangement for actuating an element in a projection exposure apparatus
The invention relates to an arrangement for actuating an element in an optical system of a projection exposure apparatus, wherein the projection exposure apparatus has a carrying frame, comprising at least one actuator for exerting controllable forces on the element, wherein the actuator has a first actuator part, which is coupled to the carrying frame via at least one mechanical filter, and a second actuator part, which is mechanically coupled directly to the carrying frame, and wherein the loading on the first actuator part is at least partly relieved by the second actuator part when forces are exerted on the element. |
| US09081291B2 |
Resist stripping solution composition, and method for stripping resist by using same
Disclosed is a resist stripping solution composition, which is highly capable of removing a resist pattern and an etching residue after dry etching or wet etching, manifests excellent anticorrosive effects on metal wiring including aluminum and/or copper because a predetermined polyol compound is used, and also can process a number of substrates because a predetermined amide compound is used, thus greatly contributing to reducing the cost. A method of stripping a resist using the resist stripping solution composition is also provided. |
| US09081290B2 |
Patterning process and resist composition
A negative pattern is formed by coating a resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units having a carboxyl group substituted with an acid labile group of tertiary ester and an optional acid generator onto a substrate, prebaking, exposing to high-energy radiation, baking, and developing in an organic solvent developer so that the unexposed region of resist film is dissolved away and the exposed region of resist film is not dissolved. The resist composition exhibits a high dissolution contrast during organic solvent development and forms a fine hole or trench pattern at a high sensitivity and dimensional control. |
| US09081287B2 |
Methods of measuring overlay errors in area-imaging e-beam lithography
One embodiment relates to a method of measuring overlay errors for a programmable pattern, area-imaging electron beam lithography apparatus. Patterned cells of an overlay measurement target array may be printed in swaths such that they are superposed on patterned cells of a first (base) array. In addition, the overlay array may have controlled-exposure areas distributed within the swaths. The superposed cells of the overlay and base arrays are imaged. The overlay errors are then measured based on distortions between the two arrays in the image data. Alternatively, non-imaging methods, such as using scatterometry, may be used. Another embodiment relates to a method for correcting overlay errors for an electron beam lithography apparatus. Overlay errors for a pattern to be printed are determined based on within-swath exposure conditions. The pattern is then pre-distorted to compensate for the overlay errors. Other embodiments, aspects and features are also disclosed. |
| US09081285B2 |
Method for fabricating a circuit
A method for fabricating a circuit, by defining a first set of resist features on a substrate and corresponding to a first mask layout, followed by defining a second set of resist features on the substrate corresponding to a second mask layout, wherein the second set adds to the first set for rectifying an error in either mask layout. In another aspect, the method is by defining a first set of resist features on a substrate and corresponding to a first mask layout that has an error, etching the substrate while the first set protects selected regions, defining a second set of resist features on the substrate and corresponding to a second mask layout, followed by etching the substrate to selectively remove portions of the selected regions for rectifying the error. |
| US09081284B2 |
Method of manufacturing forming conductive line pattern in boundary region
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a first region and a second region contacting the first region along a boundary line, includes forming a pattern having an on-boundary-line line portion with a width defined by a first line which is arranged in the first region and is parallel to the boundary line, and a second line which is arranged in the second region and is parallel to the boundary line. The forming the pattern includes independently performing, for a photoresist applied on a substrate, first exposure for defining the first line, and second exposure for defining the second line, and developing the photoresist having undergone the individually performing the first exposure and the second exposure. |
| US09081281B2 |
Electroless plating method
A conductive metal pattern is formed in a polymeric layer that has a polymer that comprises (1) pendant groups that are capable of providing pendant sulfonic acid groups upon exposure of the reactive polymer to radiation, and (2) pendant groups that are capable of reacting in the presence of the sulfonic acid groups to provide crosslinking. The polymeric layer is patternwise exposed to form non-exposed regions and exposed regions, which are contacted with a reducing agent to incorporate reducing agent therein. These exposed regions are then contacted with electroless seed metal ions to oxidize the reducing agent to form corresponding electroless seed metal nuclei that can be then electrolessly plated with a conductive metal. |
| US09081279B2 |
Positive resist composition, resin used for the positive resist composition, compound used for synthesis of the resin and pattern forming method using the positive resist composition
A positive resist composition comprises: (A) a resin of which solubility in an alkali developer increases under an action of an acid; (B) a compound capable of generating an acid upon irradiation with actinic rays or radiation; (C) a resin having at least one of a fluorine atom and a silicon atom; and (D) a solvent; and a pattern forming method using the positive resist composition. |
| US09081267B2 |
Light emitting device and projector
A light emitting device includes a first layer that generates light by injection of a current and forms a waveguide of the light, and an electrode that injects the current into the first layer, wherein the waveguide of the light has a belt-like first region and a belt-like second region, the first region has a first part with curvature, the second region has a second part with curvature, the first region and the second region are connected in a reflection part provided on a side surface of the first layer, and a first light output from the first region on a side surface of the first layer as an output surface opposed to the side surface on which the reflection part is provided and a second light output from the second region on the output surface are output in the same direction. |
| US09081264B2 |
Auto-focus camera module with MEMS capacitance estimator
A MEMS actuator for a compact auto-focus camera module is configured to measure physical values and to estimated values each indicative of position or motion or both of a MEMS component. A smart logic component determines a set of MEMS driver control values based on analyzing the measured physical values and substituting estimated values to more accurately position the MEMS component. A MEMS driver component receives the set of MEMS driver control values and controls the position or motion, or both, of the MEMS component based on the MEMS driver control values. |
| US09081258B2 |
Flash lens and flash module employing the same
A flash lens and a flash module employing the same. The flash lens includes a lens unit including an incident surface, a reflecting surface, and a light-emitting surface; and a lens seating portion disposed at a lower portion of an edge of the light-emitting surface, extending and protruding from the reflecting surface, and including a pattern formed in a lower surface thereof. In addition, the flash module according to an embodiment of the present invention may include the flash lens and a light emitting diode (LED) chip integrally formed with the flash lens. |
| US09081257B2 |
Imaging apparatus and lighting control method
An imaging apparatus that uses luminance information obtained through a test flash by a flash unit for illuminating a subject to determine a flash quantity of a flash unit for main photographing sets exposure conditions for the test flash based on exposure conditions for the main photographing. The imaging apparatus changes a predetermined test flash quantity for the test flash to compensate a difference between the set exposure conditions and predetermined initial values of exposure conditions for the test flash and performs the test flash based on the set exposure conditions and the changed test flash quantity. |
| US09081253B2 |
Integrated optical device and optical module
An integrated optical device includes first, second, third, and fourth edge portions; a plurality of modulators each of which includes an optical waveguide and an electrode portion provided on the optical waveguide, the optical waveguide extending in a direction of a first axis; a plurality of electric signal input sections arrayed along the first edge portion extending in a direction of a second axis intersecting with the first axis, each of the electric signal input sections being connected to one of the electrode portions of the modulators; an optical signal input section; and an optical signal output section provided in the second edge portion extending in the direction of the second axis. The modulators are arrayed in the direction of the second axis. In addition, the optical signal input section is provided in one of the second edge portion, the third edge portion, and the fourth edge portion. |
| US09081251B2 |
Display device
A display device comprises a substrate which carries an array of pixels. Each pixel comprises an array of apertures in the substrate, each aperture of the array having a maximum opening dimension less than the wavelength of the light to be transmitted through the aperture. The effective dielectric constant of the aperture and/or the dielectric constant of the substrate is varied, thereby to vary the light transmission characteristics of the pixel between transmission of at least one frequency in the visible spectrum and transmission of substantially no frequency in the visible spectrum. |
| US09081250B2 |
Electrophoretic display and process for its manufacture
This invention relates to an electrophoretic display comprising a plurality of cells, each of said cells comprises: a) partition walls; b) an electrophoretic fluid filled therein; c) a polymeric sealing layer to enclose the electrophoretic fluid within the cell; and d) an interface between the electrophoretic fluid and the sealing layer. |
| US09081249B2 |
Electrophoresis display apparatus
An electrophoresis display apparatus includes an electronic-ink layer, a passive-matrix substrate, and a conducting layer. The passive-matrix substrate has an electrode surface, and the electrode surface has a plurality of electrodes. The conducting layer has a predetermined shape. The conducting layer is disposed between the electronic-ink layer and the electrode surface of the passive-matrix substrate and is used for transmitting the signals on the electrodes contacting the conducting layer to the electronic-ink layer, so that the electronic-ink layer can display an image with the predetermined shape. |
| US09081247B1 |
Driving thin film switchable optical devices
Controllers and control methods apply a drive voltage to bus bars of a thin film optically switchable device. The applied drive voltage is provided at a level that drives a transition over the entire surface of the optically switchable device but does not damage or degrade the device. This applied voltage produces an effective voltage at all locations on the face of the device that is within a bracketed range. The upper bound of this range is associated with a voltage safely below the level at which the device may experience damage or degradation impacting its performance in the short term or the long term. At the lower boundary of this range is an effective voltage at which the transition between optical states of the device occurs relatively rapidly. The level of voltage applied between the bus bars is significantly greater than the maximum value of the effective voltage within the bracketed range. |