最新美国发明专利第2015-09-01期 - 专利汇|PatentHub专利检索|专利查询网|发明专利查询分析

Document	Document Title
US09123923B2	Use of porous membrane and composite membrane thereof in redox flow energy storage battery Disclosed is use of a porous membrane and a composite membrane thereof in a redox flow batteries, and in particular the use thereof in a vanadium redox flow battery. The membrane can effectively realize the separation of ions with different valence states, and an ion transfer without any ion exchange group. The pore size and structure of the porous membrane can be controlled by filling an inorganic substance or grafting an ion exchange group in the pore, in order to improve the barrier properties of the porous membrane for vanadium ions and to increase proton conductivity.
US09123922B2	Lithium ion battery exterior material A lithium ion battery exterior material, includes: a base material layer, and a sequentially laminated adhesive layer, aluminum foil layer provided with a corrosion prevention treated layer, and an adhesive resin layer on one surface of the base material layer; wherein, the adhesive resin layer contains an acid-modified polyolefin resin and a miscible elastomer dispersed in the acid-modified polyolefin at a dispersed phase size of 1 nm to less than 1 μm.
US09123919B2	Rechargeable battery and heat treatment device An embodiment of the present invention provides a rechargeable battery that prevents generation of a crack under the longitudinal compression condition by increasing an elongation ratio to a part of the bottom of the case to prevent an internal short-circuit. A rechargeable battery according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: a case receiving an electrode assembly; a cap plate covering an opening of the case; and an electrode terminal provided in the cap plate and electrically connected to the electrode assembly, the case includes side walls connected with each other and forming the opening in one side and a bottom connecting neighboring side walls at the opposite side of the opening for sealing, and the bottom a first elongation portion having a first elongation ratio and a second elongation portion having a second elongation ratio that is higher than the first elongation ratio.
US09123918B2	Electric storage device There is provided an electric storage device in which an electrode assembly enclosed in an insulating cover can be smoothly inserted in a case and the electrode assembly is positioned in place inside the case when housed in the case. The electric storage device according to the present invention includes an electrode assembly, an insulating cover covering the electrode assembly, and a case including a case body having a rectangular box shape and having an opening, the case body being configured to house the electrode assembly and the insulating cover, wherein the insulating cover is formed into a rectangular box shape conforming to the case body, and a portion of each of edges at which adjacent side surfaces of the insulating cover meet each other is beveled into a beveled part, the portion being close to the bottom of the insulating cover.
US09123913B2	Organic electroluminescence element, lighting device, and display device An object of the present invention is to provide an organic EL element having high light extraction efficiency and to provide a lighting device and a display device provided using the organic EL element. The organic EL element 1 includes: a transparent substrate 2 having a refractive index of 1.8 or more; a stacked body 6 that is provided on the substrate 2 and includes at least one pair of electrodes 3 and 4 and an organic light-emitting layer 5 located between the pair of electrodes 3 and 4; and a porous light-scattering body 2a that is provided on a surface of the substrate 2, the surface being opposite to the stacked body 6.
US09123912B2	Light-emitting device and manufacturing method thereof To provide a method for manufacturing light-emitting devices with different emission colors using EL layers formed using the same apparatus and condition, and a light-emitting device with high added value. A substrate in which a transparent conductive layer is formed in advance on a surface over which an EL layer is to be formed and another substrate in which a transparent conductive layer with a thickness different from that of the transparent conductive layer are prepared, and EL layers are formed over the substrates using the same apparatus and condition. Thus, even when the EL layers are formed using the same apparatus and condition, optical path lengths of the substrates can be different.
US09123911B2	Display apparatus Provided is a display apparatus that is bendable. The display apparatus includes: a substrate including a display region that includes a plurality of light-emitting devices and an edge region that surrounds the display region; and a thin-film encapsulation layer on the display region and the edge region of the substrate. The thin-film encapsulation layer includes a plurality of inorganic films and at least one organic film disposed between the plurality of the inorganic films. At least one of the plurality of the inorganic films of the thin-film encapsulation layer includes inorganic patterns.
US09123910B2	Organic light emitting diode display device and display panel thereof An organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device and a display panel thereof are provided. The organic light emitting diode display panel comprises a first substrate, a first electrode, an organic light emitting layer, a second electrode, and a second substrate. The first electrode is disposed on the first substrate. The organic light emitting layer is disposed on the first electrode. The second electrode is disposed on the organic light emitting layer. The second substrate is located on the second electrode. The material of the second electrode comprises an alkaline earth element and silver. The second electrode comprises a first portion and a second portion, and the first portion is located between the second portion and the first substrate. The ratios of the alkaline earth element to silver in the first portion and in the second portion are different.
US09123909B2	Organic light emitting diode display An organic light emitting diode display is disclosed In one aspect, the display includes a display panel, a grid layer positioned on the display panel, wherein the grid layer includes a plurality of protrusions formed of a first protrusion and a second protrusion formed on a surface of the first protrusion, and a window positioned on the grid layer.
US09123902B2	Semiconductor compound A thiaxanthenothiaxanthene compound of Formula (I): wherein R1 to R10 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, an alkyl group, a substituted alkyl group, an alkoxy group, an alkylthio group, an alkenyl group, a substituted alkenyl group, an ethynyl group, a substituted ethynyl group, an aryl group, a substituted aryl group, a heteroaryl group, a substituted heteroaryl group, a trialkylsilyl group, a fluorohydrocarbon group, a cyano group and a halogen; and wherein the semiconductor of Formula (I) is predominantly crystalline or liquid crystalline. The compounds are designed to ensure air stability, good solubility, and high mobility.
US09123896B2	Organic electronic device containing an organic semiconductor material film which contains a leaving substituent-containing compound A leaving substituent-containing compound including a partial structure represented by the following General Formula (I): where a pair of X1 and X2 or a pair of Y1 and Y2 each represent a hydrogen atom; the other pair each represent a group selected from the group consisting of a halogen atom and a substituted or unsubstituted acyloxy group having one or more carbon atoms; a pair of the acyloxy groups represented by the pair of X1 and X2 or the pair of Y1 and Y2 may be identical or different, or may be bonded together to form a ring; R1 to R4 each represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and Q1 and Q2 each represent a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or a monovalent organic group, and may be bonded together to form a ring.
US09123895B2	Photovoltaic cell with thiazole-containing polymer Photovoltaic cells with thiazole-containing polymers, as well as related components, systems, and methods, are disclosed.
US09123891B2	Diode for variable-resistance material memories, processes of forming same, and methods of using same A variable-resistance material memory (VRMM) device includes a container conductor disposed over an epitaxial semiconductive prominence that is coupled to a VRMM. A VRMM device may also include a conductive plug in a recess that is coupled to a VRMM. A VRMM array may also include a conductive plug in a surrounding recess that is coupled to a VRMM. Apparatuses include the VRMM with one of the diode constructions.
US09123887B2	Magnetic electronic device A magnetic electronic device comprises a substrate, a buffer layer, a first CoFeB layer, a first metal oxidation layer and a capping layer. The buffer layer is disposed above the substrate. The first CoFeB layer is disposed above the buffer layer. The first metal oxidation layer is disposed above the first CoFeB layer. The capping layer is disposed above the first metal oxidation layer and covers the first metal oxidation layer. A manufacturing method of the magnetic electronic device is also disclosed.
US09123864B2	Semiconductor light-emitting element A semiconductor light-emitting element capable of increasing a strength of adhesion between an electrode and a protection film.The semiconductor light-emitting element includes a semiconductor structure having an n-type semiconductor layer and a p-type semiconductor layer. A transparent conductive film is disposed on the p-type semiconductor layer. An insulation film is disposed on the transparent conductive film. A p-side electrode layer is disposed on the insulation film. A protection film is disposed over the insulation film, and the protection film covers part of the p-side electrode layer.
US09123861B2	Solar battery, manufacturing method thereof, and solar battery module A solar battery includes a transparent electrode and a collector electrode in this order on the surface of a light incident surface side of a photoelectric conversion layer. The collector electrode is formed in a predetermined region on the photoelectric conversion layer and a first transparent electrode of the transparent electrode is formed only in a region right under the collector electrode in contact with the photoelectric conversion layer and the collector electrode. A second transparent electrode of the transparent electrode is formed in a region on the photoelectric conversion layer where the collector electrode is not formed and on the collector electrode in contact with the photoelectric conversion layer or the collector electrode. The carrier concentration of the first transparent electrode is higher than the carrier concentration of the second transparent electrode.
US09123859B2	Module-level processing of silicon photovoltaic cells A method for module-level processing of photovoltaic cells is provided. The method includes: bonding at least one crystalline silicon photovoltaic substrate to a carrier by means of an adhesive layer, thereby leaving part of the adhesive layer uncovered; after bonding, exposing the uncovered part of the adhesive layer and the at least one crystalline silicon photovoltaic substrate to a plasma; and removing a surface portion of the at least one crystalline photovoltaic substrate. The method may further include performing an annealing step of the adhesive before bonding the at least one photovoltaic substrate to the carrier, and performing an outgassing step of the adhesive after bonding the at least one photovoltaic substrate to the carrier. The method may further include module-level rear side processing of the at least one crystalline silicon photovoltaic substrate to make a photovoltaic module.
US09123857B2	Thermoelectric material and method for manufacturing the same A thermoelectric material and a method for manufacturing the same are provided. The thermoelectric material includes a mixture of nano-thermoelectric crystal particles, micron-thermoelectric crystal particles and nano-metal particles.
US09123853B2	Series connected segmented LED A light source and method for making the same are disclosed. The light source includes a conducting substrate, and a light emitting structure that is divided into segments. The light emitting structure includes a first layer of semiconductor material of a first conductivity type deposited on the substrate, an active layer overlying the first layer, and a second layer of semiconductor material of an opposite conductivity type from the first conductivity type overlying the active layer. A barrier divides the light emitting structure into first and second segments that are electrically isolated from one another. A serial connection electrode connects the first layer in the first segment to the second layer in the second segment. A power contact is electrically connected to the second layer in the first segment, and a second power contact electrically connected to the first layer in the second segment.
US09123850B2	Systems and methods for generating electric current from hyperthermal chemical reaction An electric generator is disclosed that includes a duct configured to direct hyperthermal air molecules toward a source of exothermic fuel, a fuel dispenser configured to dispense fuel into a flow of the hyperthermal air molecules to cause a hyperthermic chemical reaction between the fuel and the hyperthermal air molecules that produces highly internally excited air molecules. The excited molecules amplify a seed current. Power harvesting cells are configured to capture and convert the amplified current to electricity.
US09123849B2	Photovoltaic device Some photovoltaic cells have a front face accepting incoming incident light and opaque gridlines overlying part of the front face, electrically bonded to the face, with upper reflective facets oblique to the plane of the front face and producing outgoing reflected light. An optical interface parallel to and in front of the front face transmits incoming light to the front face and to the gridlines and reflects back towards the front face by total internal reflection at least some of the outgoing reflected light. Some photovoltaic devices have a triple junction photovoltaic cell, a single junction photovoltaic cell, and a reflective surface arranged to distribute incoming light between the cells. The surface may be a frequency-selective mirror that apportions light so when the cells are in series the power produced, and preferably the photocurrent, is greater than if all the light fell on the triple junction cell alone.
US09123845B2	Dust removal from solar cells A solar panel cleaning device includes a solar panel having a plurality of photovoltaic cells arranged in rows and embedded in the solar panel with space between the rows. A transparent dielectric overlay is affixed to the solar panel. A plurality of electrode pairs each of which includes an upper and a lower electrode are arranged on opposite sides of the transparent dielectric and are affixed thereto. The electrodes may be transparent electrodes which may be arranged without concern for blocking sunlight to the solar panel. The solar panel may be a dielectric and its dielectric properties may be continuously and spatially variable. Alternatively the dielectric used may have dielectric segments which produce different electrical field and which affects the wind “generated.”
US09123840B2	Solar cell element manufacturing method, solar cell element, and solar cell module A method for manufacturing a solar cell element is disclosed. The method includes two different etching processes followed by forming a semiconductor layer. A semiconductor substrate having a first conductor type is etched by using a first acid aqueous solution containing hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid. Then, the semiconductor substrate is etched by using a second acid aqueous solution containing hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid with substantially no sulfuric acid to make an uneven surface. A semiconductor layer of second conductivity type different from the first conductivity type is formed on at least a part of the uneven surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US09123836B2	Solar cell sealing film and solar cell using the same The solar cell sealing film according to the present invention includes ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer, a crosslinker and a silane coupling agent, wherein the crosslinker is contained in an amount of 0.05 to 0.7 part by weight, based on 100 parts by weight of the ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer, and the silane coupling agent is contained in an amount of 0.1 to 0.7 part by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer, and wherein the ethylene-methyl methacrylate copolymer has a methyl methacrylate content of 25 to 35% by weight.
US09123835B2	Connected structure and method for manufacture thereof A method for electrically connecting a surface electrode of a solar battery cell and a wiring member via a conductive adhesive film, wherein the conductive adhesive film contains an insulating adhesive and conductive particles, and wherein when the ten point height of roughness profile and maximum height of the surface of the surface electrode in contact with the conductive adhesive film are Rz (μm) and Ry (μm) respectively, the average particle diameter r (μm) of the conductive particles is equal to or greater than the ten point height of roughness profile Rz, and the thickness t (μm) of the conductive adhesive film is equal to or greater than the maximum height Ry.
US09123831B2	Semiconductor device, nitride semiconductor wafer, and method for forming nitride semiconductor layer According to one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a functional layer of a nitride semiconductor. The functional layer is provided on a nitride semiconductor layer including a first stacked multilayer structure provided on a substrate. The first stacked multilayer structure includes a first lower layer, a first intermediate layer, and a first upper layer. The first lower layer contains Si with a first concentration and has a first thickness. The first intermediate layer is provided on the first lower layer to be in contact with the first lower layer, contains Si with a second concentration lower than the first concentration, and has a second thickness thicker than the first thickness. The first upper layer is provided on the first intermediate layer to be in contact with the first intermediate layer, contains Si with a third concentration lower than the second concentration, and has a third thickness.
US09123829B2	Method for producing chip stacks The present disclosures relates to a method for producing ultrathin chip stacks and chip stacks. Generally, a plurality of first semiconductor chips is formed in a wafer. A second semiconductor chip is applied to each of the plurality of first semiconductor chips via a connection layer and a stabilization layer is applied to fill in the interspace between each of the second semiconductor chips. The wafer, semiconductor chip, and stabilization layer are thinned and the wafer is diced to produce a plurality of singulated chip stacks.
US09123825B2	Methods for fabricating FinFET integrated circuits using laser interference lithography techniques A method for fabricating an integrated circuit includes providing a semiconductor substrate with a pad layer overlying the semiconductor substrate and a photoresist layer overlying the pad layer, exposing the photoresist layer to a split laser beam to form a plurality of parallel linear void regions in the photoresist layer, and etching the pad layer and the semiconductor substrate beneath the plurality of parallel linear void regions to form a plurality of extended parallel linear void regions. The method further includes depositing a first dielectric material over the semiconductor substrate, patterning a photoresist material over the semiconductor substrate to cover a portion of the semiconductor substrate, and etching portions of the pad layer, the first dielectric material, and the semiconductor substrate. Still further, the method includes depositing a second dielectric material into the second void regions.
US09123823B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device According to embodiment, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory device, includes: a memory cell region; and a peripheral region, the memory cell region including: a semiconductor layer including semiconductor regions; control gate electrodes; a first insulating film; a semiconductor-containing layer having a smaller thickness than the first insulating film; and a second insulating film, the peripheral region including: the semiconductor layer; a third insulating film; the semiconductor-containing layer, and a periphery of the semiconductor-containing layer being surrounded by an element isolation region; the first insulating film provided on the semiconductor-containing layer; and a pair of conductive layers extending from a surface of the first insulating film to reach the third insulating film via the semiconductor-containing layer, and the pair of conductive layers being in contact with part of a lower surface of the semiconductor-containing layer.
US09123822B2	Split gate non-volatile flash memory cell having a silicon-metal floating gate and method of making same A non-volatile memory cell includes a substrate of a first conductivity type with first and second spaced apart regions of a second conductivity type, forming a channel region therebetween. A select gate is insulated from and disposed over a first portion of the channel region which is adjacent to the first region. A floating gate is insulated from and disposed over a second portion of the channel region which is adjacent the second region. Metal material is formed in contact with the floating gate. A control gate is insulated from and disposed over the floating gate. An erase gate includes a first portion insulated from and disposed over the second region and is insulated from and disposed laterally adjacent to the floating gate, and a second portion insulated from and laterally adjacent to the control gate and partially extends over and vertically overlaps the floating gate.
US09123821B2	Electrode for oxide semiconductor, method of forming the same, and oxide semiconductor device provided with the electrode To make it possible to form a metal electrode of low electrical contact resistance on a conductive indium-containing oxide semiconductor layer constituting a device active layer of a thin-film transistor or the like. Between an indium-containing oxide semiconductor layer and a metal electrode layer provided above this layer for passing device operating current, which can reduce indium oxide or the like of the oxide semiconductor layer. A metallic oxide layer and a metal layer are formed using as material a metal film including an easily oxidable metal, and further an indium-rich layer in which reduced indium is accumulated is formed at a boundary between the metallic oxide layer and the metal layer.
US09123819B2	Liquid crystal display and TFT array substrate comprising a zinc oxide semiconductor layer and an OHMIC contact layer The embodiments of the disclosed technology provide a liquid crystal display, a thin film transistor array substrate and a method for manufacturing thin film transistor array substrate. The TFT array substrate comprises: a semiconductor layer, a source electrode and a drain electrode formed adjoining the semiconductor layer, a thin film transistor channel region being defined between the source electrode and the drain electrode; and an ohmic contact layer formed between the semiconductor layer and the drain electrode and between the semiconductor layer and the source electrode, wherein the material of the semiconductor layer is zinc oxide (ZnO) and the material of the ohmic contact layer is GaxZn1-xO, where 0≦x≦1.
US09123810B2	Semiconductor integrated device including FinFET device and protecting structure A semiconductor integrated device includes a substrate, a plurality of active fins, and a plurality of first protecting fins. The substrate includes an active region, and the active fins are positioned in the active region. The active region is surrounded by the first protecting fins. The active fins and the first protecting fins all extend along a first direction.
US09123805B2	Method to manufacture short channel trench MOSFET Aspects of the present disclosure describe a trench MOSFET with a channel length that may be controlled by counterdoping the body-drain junction to form a straggle region adjacent to the trenches. The channel length is defined between the straggle region at the bottom and a source region at the top. Both of the straggle region and the source region are of the same conductivity type though they may be different ion species.
US09123804B2	LDMOS minority carrier shunting A device includes a semiconductor substrate, source and drain regions in the semiconductor substrate and having a first conductivity type, a gate structure supported by the semiconductor substrate between the source and drain regions, a first well region in the semiconductor substrate, having a second conductivity type, and in which a channel region is formed under the gate structure during operation, and a second well region adjacent the first well region, having the second conductivity type, and having a higher dopant concentration than the first well region, to establish a path to carry charge carriers of the second conductivity type away from a parasitic bipolar transistor involving a junction between the channel region and the source region.
US09123794B2	Dicing die bond film The present invention provides a dicing die bond film in which peeling electrification hardly occurs and which has good tackiness and workability. The dicing die bond film of the present invention is a dicing die bond film including a dicing film and a thermosetting type die bond film provided thereon, wherein the thermosetting type die bond film contains conductive particles, the volume resistivity of the thermosetting type die bond film is 1×10−6 Ω·cm or more and 1×10−3 Ω·cm or less, and the tensile storage modulus of the thermosetting type die bond film at −20° C. before thermal curing is 0.1 to 10 GPa.
US09123789B2	Chip with through silicon via electrode and method of forming the same The present invention provides a method of forming a chip with TSV electrode. A substrate with a first surface and a second surface is provided. A thinning process is performed from a side of the second surface so the second surface becomes a third surface. Next, a penetration via which penetrates through the first surface and the third surface is formed in the substrate. A patterned material layer is formed on the substrate, wherein the patterned material layer has an opening exposes the penetration via. A conductive layer is formed on the third surface thereby simultaneously forming a TSV electrode in the penetration via and a surface conductive layer in the opening.
US09123784B2	Memory process and memory structure made thereby A memory process is described. A substrate is provided, having therein trenches and conductive lines buried in the trenches and having thereon an array area, wherein each of the conductive lines has an array portion in the array area. A contact area apart from the array area is defined on the substrate, wherein each of the conductive lines has a contact portion in the contact area. The substrate between the contact portions of the conductive lines is etched down to below the tops of the conductive layers to form gaps between the contact portions of the conductive lines. The gaps are then filled with an insulating layer.
US09123783B2	Integrated circuits and methods of forming integrated circuits with interlayer dielectric protection Integrated circuits and methods of forming integrated circuits are provided herein. In an embodiment, a method of forming an integrated circuit includes providing a base substrate having an embedded electrical contact disposed therein. An interlayer dielectric is formed overlying the base substrate, and a recess is etched through the interlayer dielectric over the embedded electrical contact. A protecting liner is formed in the recess and over an exposed surface of the embedded electrical contact in the recess. The protecting liner includes at least two liner layers that have materially different etch rates in different etchants. A portion of the protecting liner is removed over the surface of the embedded electrical contact to again expose the surface of the embedded electrical contact in the recess. An embedded electrical interconnect is formed in the recess. The embedded electrical interconnect overlies the protecting liner on sides of the recess.
US09123780B2	Method and structures for heat dissipating interposers A method for making an interconnect element includes depositing a thermally conductive layer on an in-process unit. The in-process unit includes a semiconductor material layer defining a surface and edges surrounding the surface, a plurality of conductive elements, each conductive element having a first portion extending through the semiconductor material layer and a second portion extending from the surface of the semiconductor material layer. Dielectric coatings extend over at least the second portion of each conductive element. The thermally conductive layer is deposited on the in-process unit at a thickness of at least 10 microns so as to overlie a portion of the surface of the semiconductor material layer between the second portions of the conductive elements with the dielectric coatings positioned between the conductive elements and the thermally conductive layer.
US09123779B2	Semiconductor device and production method therefor A semiconductor device having a multi-level interconnection structure including a plurality of interconnection layers stacked one on another on a semiconductor substrate is provided, and a production method for the semiconductor device. In the production method, forming each of the interconnection layers of the multi-level interconnection structure includes: forming a real interconnection and a dummy interconnection, forming an insulative film covering the real interconnection and the dummy interconnection, and planarizing a surface of the insulative film. The production method may include computing an in-plane distribution of an overall thickness of the multi-level interconnection structure to be expected when no dummy interconnection is formed; and defining a dummy present zone and a dummy absent zone. The dummy interconnection is formed in the defined dummy present zone outside the defined dummy absent zone in each of the interconnection layers.
US09123773B1	T-shaped single diffusion barrier with single mask approach process flow Methods of forming a T-shaped SBD using a single-mask process flow are disclosed. Embodiments include providing a substrate having STI regions; forming a hard mask layer over the substrate and the STI regions, the hard mask having an opening laterally separated from the STI regions; forming a recess in the substrate through the opening, the recess having a first width; forming spacers on sidewalls of the recess, with a gap therebetween; forming a trench in the substrate through the gap, the trench having a second width less than the first; removing the spacers; removing the hard mask layer; filling the trench and the recess with an oxide layer, forming a T-shaped STI region; forming another hard mask layer on a portion of the T-shaped STI region; and revealing a Fin by removing portions of the STI regions and the T-shaped STI region.
US09123766B2	Transistor and method of manufacturing a transistor In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention a transistor is disclosed. The transistor comprises a collector, a base and an emitter, wherein a first end width of the base is larger than a middle width of the base, wherein a first end width of the collector is larger than a middle width of the collector, or wherein a first end width of the emitter is larger than a middle width of the emitter.
US09123765B2	Susceptor support shaft for improved wafer temperature uniformity and process repeatability Embodiments of the invention generally relate to susceptor support shafts and process chambers containing the same. A susceptor support shaft supports a susceptor thereon, which in turn, supports a substrate during processing. The susceptor support shaft reduces variations in temperature measurement of the susceptor and/or substrate by providing a consistent path for a pyrometer focal beam directed towards the susceptor and/or substrate, even when the susceptor support shaft is rotated. The susceptor support shafts also have a relatively low thermal mass which increases the ramp up and ramp down rates of a process chamber.
US09123761B2	Substrate transferring device A substrate transferring device is disclosed. In one aspect, the substrate transferring device includes substrate to transfer the substrate in one direction and a plurality of side rollers. Each roller includes a side roller main body configured to rotate while contacting a side surface of the substrate to prevent the substrate from being deviated from the one direction. The roller also includes a side roller support which is coupled to a lower part of the side roller main body or a lower part of the side roller main body when the side roller main body is turned upside down in a vertical direction to vary a position of a contact line where the side surface of the substrate is in contact with the side roller main body. The roller further includes a fixing member which is coupled to the side roller support inside the side roller main body.
US09123758B2	Gas injection apparatus and substrate process chamber incorporating same Methods and apparatus for mixing and delivery of process gases are provided herein. In some embodiments, a gas injection apparatus includes an elongate top plenum comprising a first gas inlet; an elongate bottom plenum disposed beneath and supporting the top plenum, the bottom plenum comprising a second gas inlet; a plurality of first conduits disposed through the bottom plenum and having first ends fluidly coupled to the top plenum and second ends disposed beneath the bottom plenum; and a plurality of second conduits having first ends fluidly coupled to the bottom plenum and second ends disposed beneath the bottom plenum; wherein a lower end of the bottom plenum is adapted to fluidly couple the gas injection apparatus to a mixing chamber such that the second ends of the plurality of first conduits and the second ends of the plurality of second conduits are in fluid communication with the mixing chamber.
US09123755B2	System and method for controlling a thermal array A system and method is provided. The system and method calculate target setpoints for each thermal element and index through each thermal element to provide power to the thermal element, sense an electrical characteristic of the thermal element, and determine if the thermal element exceeds a target setpoint for the thermal element based on the sensed electrical characteristic.
US09123747B2	Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device and manufacturing method thereof According to one embodiment, a plurality of memory cell transistors including a floating gate and a control gate and a plurality of peripheral circuit transistors including a lower electrode portion and an upper electrode portion are included. The floating gate includes a first polysilicon region, and the lower electrode includes a second polysilicon region. The first polysilicon region is a p-type semiconductor in which boron is doped, and the second polysilicon region is an n-type semiconductor in which phosphorus and boron are doped.
US09123743B2	FinFETs and methods for forming the same Methods for forming a semiconductor device and a FinFET device are disclosed. A method comprises forming a dummy gate electrode layer over a substrate, the dummy gate electrode layer having a first height, forming a first etch stop layer on the dummy gate electrode layer, forming a first hard mask layer on the first etch stop layer, and patterning the first hard mask layer. The method further comprises patterning the first etch stop layer to align with the patterned first hard mask layer, and patterning the gate electrode layer to form a dummy gate electrode, the dummy gate electrode aligning with the patterned first etch stop layer, wherein after the patterning the gate electrode layer the first hard mask layer has a vertical sidewall of a second height, the second height being less than the first height, and the first hard mask layer having a rounded top surface.
US09123742B2	Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing semiconductor device A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a first gate electrode on a semiconductor substrate in a first transistor region; forming a channel dose region; and forming a first source extension region, wherein the channel dose region is formed by using a first mask as a mask and by ion-implanting a first dopant of the first conductivity type, and the first mask covering a drain side of the first gate electrode and covering a drain region, and the first source extension region is formed by using a second mask and the gate electrode as masks and by ion-implanting a second dopant of a second conductivity type that is a conductivity type opposite to the first conductivity type, the second mask covering the drain side of the first gate electrode and covering the drain region.
US09123741B2	Metamorphic growth of III-V semiconductor on silicon substrate by MOCVD for high speed III-V transistors A III-V semiconductor device on a silicon substrate is constructed with a silicon (Si) substrate onto which gallium arsenide (GaAs) indium phosphide (InP) and aluminum indium arsenide (AlInAs) to form a structure of AlInAs over InP over GaAs over Si. The GaAs is applied in at least one layer over the Si, followed by at least one layer of InP and at least one layer of AlInAs. A portion of the structure is doped and a cap or passivation layer is applied.
US09123739B2	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method of semiconductor device A semiconductor device includes: a first nitride semiconductor layer; a second nitride semiconductor layer formed over the first nitride semiconductor layer; and a gate electrode facing the second nitride semiconductor layer via a gate insulating film. Because the second nitride semiconductor layer is formed by stacking plural semiconductor layers with their Al composition ratios different from each other, the Al composition ratio of the second nitride semiconductor layer changes stepwise. The semiconductor layers forming the second nitride semiconductor layer are polarized in the same direction so that, among the semiconductor layers, a semiconductor layer nearer to the gate electrode has higher (or lower) intensity of polarization. In other words, the intensities of polarization of the semiconductor layers change with an inclination based on their distances from the gate electrode so that, at each interface between two semiconductor layers, the amount of negative charge becomes larger than that of positive charge.
US09123736B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a cell region and a peripheral circuit region defined therein, semiconductor memory elements formed over the semiconductor substrate in the cell region, an interlayer insulating layer formed over the semiconductor substrate in the peripheral circuit region, first conductive layers substantially vertically passing through the interlayer insulating layer, and arranged in a matrix, and second conductive layers coupling the first conductive layers in rows or columns, each pair of the second conductive layers and the first conductive layers coupled to the each pair of the second conductive layers, respectively, forming electrodes of a capacitor.
US09123735B2	Semiconductor device with combined passive device on chip back side Semiconductor chips are described that combine a semiconductor device and a capacitor onto a single substrate such that the semiconductor device and the capacitor are electrically isolated from each other. In one example, a semiconductor chip includes a substrate having a first side and a second side, wherein the second side is opposite the first side. The semiconductor chip further includes a semiconductor device formed on the first side of the substrate and an electrically insulating layer formed on at least a portion of the second side of the substrate. The semiconductor chip further includes a capacitor device formed on at least a portion of the electrically insulating layer on the second side of the substrate, wherein the capacitor device is electrically insulated from the semiconductor device.
US09123734B2	Semiconductor-encapsulating adhesive, semiconductor-encapsulating film-form adhesive, method for producing semiconductor device, and semiconductor device The present invention relates to a semiconductor-encapsulating adhesive, a semiconductor-encapsulating film-form adhesive, a method for producing a semiconductor device, and a semiconductor device. The present invention provides a semiconductor-encapsulating adhesive comprising (a) an epoxy resin, and (b) a compound formed of an organic acid reactive with an epoxy resin and a curing accelerator.
US09123733B1	Integrated circuit packaging system with package underfill and method of manufacture thereof A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing a sacrificial carrier assembly having a stack interconnector thereover; mounting an integrated circuit having a connector over the sacrificial carrier assembly with the connector over the stack interconnector; dispensing an underfill material between the sacrificial carrier assembly and the integrated circuit with the underfill material substantially free of a void; encapsulating the integrated circuit over the sacrificial carrier assembly and the underfill material; exposing the stack interconnector by removing the sacrificial carrier assembly; and forming a base array over the underfill material and the stack interconnector.
US09123732B2	Die warpage control for thin die assembly Die warpage is controlled for the assembly of thin dies. In one example, a device having a substrate on a back side and components in front side layers is formed. A backside layer is formed over the substrate, the layer resisting warpage of the device when the device is heated. The device is attached to a substrate by heating.
US09123730B2	Semiconductor device having through silicon trench shielding structure surrounding RF circuit The present invention provides a semiconductor device with a shielding structure. The semiconductor device includes a substrate, an RF circuit, a shielding structure and an interconnection system. The substrate includes an active side and a back side. The RF circuit is disposed on the active side of the substrate. The shielding structure is disposed on the active side and encompasses the RF circuit. The shielding structure is grounded. The shielding structure includes a shielding TST which does not penetrate through the substrate. The interconnection system is disposed on the active side of the substrate. The interconnection system includes a connection unit providing a signal to the RF circuit.
US09123729B2	Alignment mark design for semiconductor device Better alignment mark designs for semiconductor devices may substantially lessen the frequency of layer misalignment scanner alignment problems. Exemplary alignment mark designs substantially avoid or minimize damage during the fill-in and etching and chemical mechanical processing processes. Thus, additional processing steps to even out various layers or to address the misalignment problems may also be avoided.
US09123727B2	Airgap interconnect with hood layer and method of forming An airgap interconnect structure with hood layer and methods for forming such an airgap interconnect structure are disclosed. A substrate having a dielectric layer with a plurality of interconnects formed therein is provided. Each interconnect is encapsulated by a barrier layer. A hardmask is formed on the dielectric layer and patterned to expose the dielectric layer between adjacent interconnects where an airgap is desired. The dielectric layer is etched to form a trench, wherein the etching process additionally etches at least a portion of the barrier layer to expose a portion of the side surface of each adjacent copper interconnect. A hood layer is electrolessly plated onto an exposed portion of the top surface and the exposed portion of the side surface to reseal the interconnect. A gap-sealing dielectric layer is formed over the device, sealing the trench to form an airgap.
US09123726B2	Selective local metal cap layer formation for improved electromigration behavior A method of forming a wiring structure for an integrated circuit device includes forming a first metal line within an interlevel dielectric (ILD) layer, and forming a second metal line in the ILD layer adjacent the first metal line; masking selected regions of the first and second metal lines; selectively plating metal cap regions over exposed regions of the first and second metal lines at periodic intervals such that a spacing between adjacent metal cap regions of an individual metal line corresponds to a critical length, L, at which a back stress gradient balances an electromigration force in the individual metal line, so as to suppress mass transport of electrons; and wherein the metal cap regions of the first metal line are formed at staggered locations with respect to the metal cap regions of the second metal line, along a common longitudinal axis.
US09123723B2	Line structure for repair and flat panel display device having the same A line structure for repair may include a first line in a first direction, a second line parallel with the first line, the second line having side portions extending along a second direction from respective end portions and coupled to the first line, and a third line intersecting the first and second lines, wherein at least one portion of the second line is made of undoped poly-silicon.
US09123721B2	Placement of monolithic inter-tier vias (MIVs) within monolithic three dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs) (3DICs) using clustering to increase usable whitespace Placement of Monolithic Inter-tier Vias (MIVs) within monolithic three dimensional (3D) integrated circuits (ICs) (3DICs) using clustering to increase usable whitespace is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of placing MIVs in a monolithic 3DIC using clustering is provided. The method comprises determining if any MIV placement clusters are included within a plurality of initial MIV placements of a plurality of MIVs within an initial 3DIC layout plan. The method further comprises aligning each MIV of the plurality of MIVs within each MIV placement cluster in the initial 3DIC layout plan at a final MIV placement for each MIV placement cluster to provide a clustered 3DIC layout plan.
US09123718B1	Shielded package having shield lid A shielded package includes a shield assembly having a shield fence, a shield lid, and a shield lid adhesive electrically coupling the shield lid to the shield fence. The shield fence includes a porous sidewall through which molding compound passes during molding of the shielded package. Further, the shield fence includes a central aperture through which an electronic component is die attached and wire bonded.
US09123715B2	Method of sealing a glass envelope A method of hermetically sealing a glass assembly comprising glass plates or substrates with a glass-based frit when there is a large difference between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTEs) of the frit and the CTEs of the glass plates. The method comprises a rapid increase of an irradiating heat source, used to heat and soften the frit, from a non-sealing power to a sealing power over a very short distance along the frit to form an initial stabilizing seal between the substrates.
US09123714B2	Metal layer air gap formation Air gaps are provided to reduce interference and resistance between metal bit lines in non-volatile memory structures. Metal vias can be formed that are electrically coupled with the drain region of an underlying device and extend vertically with respect to the substrate surface to provide contacts for bit lines that are elongated in a column direction above. The metal vias can be separated by a dielectric fill material. Layer stack columns extend in a column direction over the dielectric fill and metal vias. Each layer stack column includes a metal bit line over a nucleation line. Each metal via contacts one of the layer stack columns at its nucleation line. A low temperature dielectric liner extends along sidewalls of the layer stack columns. A non-conformal dielectric overlies the layer stack columns defining a plurality of air gaps between the layer stack columns.
US09123713B2	Lead structures with vertical offsets A microelectronic structure includes a first row of contacts (14) and a second row of contacts (24) offset from the first row, so that the first and second rows cooperatively define pairs of contacts. These pairs of contacts include first pairs (30a) and second pairs (30b) arranged in alternating sequence in the row direction. The first pairs are provided with low connectors (32a), whereas the second pairs are provided with high connectors (32b). The high connectors and low connectors have sections vertically offset from one another to reduce mutual impedance between adjacent connectors.
US09123706B2	Electroless filled conductive structures Techniques are disclosed that enable interconnects, vias, metal gates, and other conductive features that can be formed through electroless material deposition techniques. In some embodiments, the techniques employ electroless fill in conjunction with high growth rate selectivity between an electroless nucleation material (ENM) and electroless suppression material (ESM) to generate bottom-up or otherwise desired fill pattern of such features. Suitable ENM may be present in the underlying or otherwise existing structure, or may be provided. The ESM is provisioned so as to prevent or otherwise inhibit nucleation at the ESM covered areas of the feature, which in turn prevents or otherwise slows down the rate of electroless growth on those areas. As such, the electroless growth rate on the ENM sites is higher than the electroless growth rate on the ESM sites.
US09123705B2	Conductive ink for filling vias Vias (holes) are formed in a wafer or a dielectric layer. A low viscosity conductive ink, containing microscopic metal particles, is deposited over the top surface of the wafer to cover the vias. An external force is applied to urge the ink into the vias, including an electrical force, a magnetic force, a centrifugal force, a vacuum, or a suction force for outgassing the air in the vias. Any remaining ink on the surface is removed by a squeegee, spinning, an air knife, or removal of an underlying photoresist layer. The ink in the vias is heated to evaporate the liquid and sinter the remaining metal particles to form a conductive path in the vias. The resulting wafer may be bonded to one or more other wafers and singulated to form a 3-D module.
US09123703B2	Systems and methods for producing flat surfaces in interconnect structures Methods and apparatus for forming a semiconductor device are provided which may include any number of features. One feature is a method of forming an interconnect structure that results in the interconnect structure having a co-planar or flat top surface. Another feature is a method of forming an interconnect structure that results in the interconnect structure having a surface that is angled upwards greater than zero with respect to a top surface of the substrate. The interconnect structure can comprise a damascene structure, such as a single or dual damascene structure, or alternatively, can comprise a silicon-through via (TSV) structure.
US09123700B2	Integrated circuit constructions having through substrate vias and methods of forming integrated circuit constructions having through substrate vias An integrated circuit construction includes a stack of two or more integrated circuit substrates. At least one of the substrates includes through substrate vias (TSVs) individually comprising opposing ends. A conductive bond pad is adjacent one of the ends on one side of the one substrate. A conductive solder mass is adjacent the other end projecting elevationally on the other side of the one substrate. Individual of the solder masses are bonded to a respective bond pad on an immediately adjacent substrate of the stack. Epoxy flux surrounds the individual solder masses. An epoxy material different in composition from the epoxy flux surrounds the epoxy flux on the individual solder masses. Methods of forming integrated circuit constructions are also disclosed.
US09123699B1	Formation of package pins in semiconductor packaging Embodiments provide a method of fabricating a semiconductor package, the method comprising forming a leadframe, wherein the leadframe includes an inner lead, and wherein a bottom surface of the inner lead comprises a first section and a second section; depositing an oxidation resistant material on the first section of the bottom surface of the inner lead; and forming an oxidation layer on the second section of the bottom surface of the inner lead, wherein the oxidation resistant material deposited on the first section of the bottom surface of the inner lead prevents the oxidation layer from forming on the first section of the bottom surface of the inner lead.
US09123696B2	Semiconductor device In a semiconductor device including semiconductor modules, it is possible to average the temperatures of the semiconductor modules. At least two semiconductor modules, wherein a plurality of semiconductor circuits, on which are mounted one or more semiconductor chips having a gate terminal and gate resistors connected to the gate terminals, are disposed in parallel, are disposed above a cooling body so that an array direction of the semiconductor circuits is a direction intersecting a refrigerant flow. At least one temperature detecting resistor is disposed in each semiconductor module, a gate signal is supplied to a gate signal input terminal of one semiconductor module of the at least two semiconductor modules via the temperature detecting resistor of the other semiconductor module, and a gate signal is supplied to a gate signal input terminal of the other semiconductor module via the temperature detecting resistor of the one semiconductor module.
US09123694B2	N/P boundary effect reduction for metal gate transistors The present disclosure provides a device having a doped active region disposed in a substrate. The doped active region having an elongate shape and extends in a first direction. The device also includes a plurality of first metal gates disposed over the active region such that the first metal gates each extend in a second direction different from the first direction. The plurality of first metal gates includes an outer-most first metal gate having a greater dimension measured in the second direction than the rest of the first metal gates. The device further includes a plurality of second metal gates disposed over the substrate but not over the doped active region. The second metal gates contain different materials than the first metal gates. The second metal gates each extend in the second direction and form a plurality of respective N/P boundaries with the first metal gates.
US09123692B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device By reducing the contact resistance between an oxide semiconductor film and a metal film, a transistor that uses an oxide semiconductor film and has excellent on-state characteristics is provided. A semiconductor device includes a pair of electrodes over an insulating surface; an oxide semiconductor film in contact with the pair of electrodes; a gate insulating film over the oxide semiconductor film; and a gate electrode overlapping with the oxide semiconductor film with the gate insulating film interposed therebetween. In the semiconductor device, the pair of electrodes contains a halogen element in a region in contact with the oxide semiconductor film. Further, plasma treatment in an atmosphere containing fluorine can be performed so that the pair of electrodes contains the halogen element in a region in contact with the oxide semiconductor film.
US09123691B2	Thin-film transistor and method for manufacturing the same Disclosed herein is a thin film transistor. The thin film transistor is characterized in having a source interconnect layer and a drain interconnect layer. The source electrode and the drain electrode are respectively disposed above and in contact with the source interconnect layer and the drain interconnect layer. The semiconductor layer is in contact with both the source interconnect layer and the drain interconnect layer, but is not in contact with the source electrode and the drain electrode.
US09123685B2	Microelectronic packages having frontside thermal contacts and methods for the fabrication thereof Microelectronic packages and methods for fabricating microelectronic packages are provided. In one embodiment, the method includes forming one or more redistribution layers over an encapsulated die having a frontside bond pad area and a frontside passivated non-bond pad area. The redistribution layers are formed to have a frontside opening over the non-bond pad area of the encapsulated die. A primary heat sink body is provided in the frontside opening and thermally coupled to the encapsulated die. A contact array is formed over the redistribution layers and is electrically coupled to a plurality bond pads located on the frontside bond pad area of the encapsulated die.
US09123684B2	Chip package structure and manufacturing method thereof A chip package structure including a leadframe, a chip, at least one heat dissipation pillar, and a molding compound is provided. The leadframe includes a die pad and a plurality of leads. The die pad has at least one through hole. The leads surround the die pad. The chip is located on the die pad and electronically connected to the leads. The chip includes an active surface and a back surface opposite to the active surface. The back surface of the chip is adhered to the die pad. The heat dissipation pillar is located on the back surface and passes through the through hole. The molding compound encapsulates the chip, at least parts of the leads, and the die pad. The molding compound includes at least one opening to expose the heat dissipation pillar. A manufacturing method of the chip package structure is also provided.
US09123683B2	Unit power module and power module package comprising the same Disclosed herein is a unit power module including: a first semiconductor chip having one surface on which a 1-1-th electrode and a 1-2-th electrode spaced apart from the 1-1-th electrode are formed and the other surface on which a 1-3-th electrode is formed, a second semiconductor chip having one surface on which a 2-1-th electrode is formed and the other surface on which a 2-2-th electrode is formed, a first metal plate contacting the 1-1-th electrode of the first semiconductor chip and the 2-1-th electrode of the second semiconductor chip, a second metal plate contacting the 1-2-th electrode of the first semiconductor chip and spaced apart from the first metal plate, a third metal plate contacting the 1-3-th electrode of the first semiconductor chip and the 2-2-th electrode of the second semiconductor chip, and a sealing member formed to surround the first metal plate, the second metal plate, and the third metal plate.
US09123681B2	Display panel A display panel includes a plurality of scan lines, a plurality of data lines, a plurality of power lines, a plurality of light emitting units, a plurality of first pixel circuits and a plurality of second pixel circuits. The plurality of light emitting units are arranged in an array and adapted to display different colors. In the organic light emitting units with the same color, some parts are connected to the first pixel circuits, and other parts are connected to the second pixel circuits. A first terminal and a second terminal of a first control transistor in the first pixel circuit are sequentially arranged on a forward direction of a first direction, and a first terminal and a second terminal of a second control transistor in the second pixel circuit are sequentially arranged on a reverse direction of the first direction.
US09123677B2	Organic light-emitting display apparatus An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes an emission pixel in a display area and a spare pixel circuit in a repair area outside the display area. The emission pixels includes a plurality of sub emission pixels each including a driving unit for generating a driving current corresponding to input data signals and an emission device for emitting light by using the driving current. The spare pixel circuit is coupled to a repair line that is coupled to the emission device of one of the sub emission pixels. The spare pixel circuit includes a plurality of driving transistors corresponding to the plurality of sub emission pixels.
US09123674B2	Display unit, method of manufacturing display unit, and electronic apparatus A display unit includes: a first substrate including a plurality of light-emission devices in a display region, the plurality of light-emission devices each including an organic layer between a first electrode and a second electrode; a second substrate disposed to face the first substrate with the light-emission devices interposed therebetween; a first peripheral electrode provided on the second substrate and positioned outside the display region; a first wiring provided on the second substrate and configured to be electrically connected to the first peripheral electrode; and a first connection section configured to electrically connect the first wiring and each of the light-emission devices.
US09123673B2	Wafer back side processing structure and apparatus Disclosed herein is a method of processing a device, comprising providing a substrate having a buffer layer disposed on a back side and forming an outer protection layer over the back side of the buffer layer, forming a thermal layer on the back side of the outer protection layer and heating the substrate through the thermal layer and the back side of the outer protective layer. A back side protection layer may be formed on the back side of the buffer layer. The thermal layer has a thermal emissivity coefficient of about 0.7 or greater and a thickness greater than a roughness of the back side of the outer protection layer. The back side protection layer is an oxide with a thickness between about 20 angstroms and about 50 angstroms. The outer protection layer is a nitride with a thickness between about 50 angstroms and about 300 angstroms.
US09123672B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device in which a reduction in size and thinness are realized is provided. The semiconductor device of the present invention can realize a reduction in size by forming light emitting elements as a light source, and photodiodes as photoelectric conversion elements on the same substrate. Further, it becomes possible to control two signal lines by using one driver circuit with using an output switching circuit. As a result, it becomes possible to reduce the area occupied by the driver circuits of the semiconductor device, and the semiconductor device can be made smaller.
US09123670B2	Display device and method of manufacturing the same In one aspect, a display device comprising: a lower substrate, a light-emitting element formed on the lower substrate and comprising a plurality of pixels, an upper substrate disposed on the light-emitting element with a gap therebetween sealed with a sealant, a filler filling the gap between the light-emitting element and the upper substrate, and a light-absorbing material formed between the lower substrate and the upper substrate and selectively absorbing light of a certain wavelength range is provided.
US09123669B2	Display unit and electronic apparatus A display unit is provided. The display unit includes a plurality of pixels having first to third sub-pixels each of which corresponds to respective colors of red, green, and blue, and a fourth sub-pixel exhibiting higher luminance than the first to third sub-pixels. In each of the pixels, the first to fourth sub-pixels have light-emitting devices. In the first to third sub-pixels, color filters are provided, and in the fourth sub-pixel, the transmittance of light emitted from the light-emitting device is configured to be reduced at a partial or whole region of the fourth sub-pixel. A difference in the transmittance among the first to third sub-pixels having the color filters and the fourth sub-pixel having no color filter is reduced to ensure an excellent luminance balance, which makes it easy to represent desired chromaticity.
US09123668B2	Organic light-emitting diode displays with white subpixels An electronic device may include a display having an array of organic light-emitting diode display pixels that produce light that forms an image. Color filter elements may be used to allow the display to present color images. Each display pixel may have a red subpixel, a blue subpixel, a green subpixel, and a white subpixel. To adjust the color coordinates of the white pixel and thereby ensure that the light from the white pixel has a desired white point, part of the white subpixel may be overlapped by an area of colored color filter material. The white subpixel may, for example have a rectangular white area within which a patch of blue color filter material may be provided to make the white light from the white subpixel more bluish than it would be without the patch of blue color filter material.
US09123660B2	Chemical mechanical polishing slurry compositions and polishing method using the same Disclosed herein is a CMP slurry composition. The CMP slurry composition includes cerium oxide particles, an adsorbent for adsorbing the cerium oxide particles to a polishing pad, an adsorption adjusting agent for adjusting adsorption performance of the adsorbent, and a pH adjusting agent. The CMP slurry composition may improve polishing efficiency of a patterned oxide layer and lifespan of a diamond disc conditioner.
US09123659B1	Method for manufacturing finFET device A method for manufacturing a finFET device is provided. Firstly, a first multiple layer structure and a second multiple layer structure are formed on a substrate in sequence. Then, a first sacrificial pattern is formed on the second multiple layer structure. A first spacer is next formed on a sidewall of the first sacrificial pattern. Subsequently, a portion of the second multiple layer structure is etched so as to form a second sacrificial pattern by using the first spacer as a hard mask. Next, a second spacer is formed on a sidewall of the second sacrificial pattern. After that, the first multiple layer structure is patterned by using the second spacer as a hard mask. Finally, the substrate is etched so as to form at least a first fin structure by using the patterned first multiple layer structure as a hard mask.
US09123644B2	Semiconductor device, method of manufacturing semiconductor device and system of processing substrate A semiconductor device includes a gate insulating film formed on a semiconductor substrate; a first conductive metal-containing film formed on the gate insulating film; a second conductive metal-containing film, formed on the first metal-containing film, to which aluminum is added; and a silicon film formed on the second metal-containing film.
US09123638B2	Multi-heterojunction nanoparticles, methods of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same Disclosed herein is a semiconducting nanoparticle comprising a one-dimensional semiconducting nanoparticle having a first end and a second end; where the second end is opposed to the first end; a first node that comprises a first semiconductor; where the first node contacts a radial surface of the one-dimensional semiconducting nanoparticle producing a first heterojunction at the point of contact; and a second node that comprises a second semiconductor; where the second node contacts the radial surface of the one-dimensional semiconducting nanoparticle producing a second heterojunction at the point of contact; where the first heterojunction is compositionally different from the second heterojunction.
US09123635B2	Manufacturing method of semiconductor device A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device includes the steps of: forming a first electrode layer on a n-type semiconductor layer; forming a second electrode layer on a p-type semiconductor layer; and performing heat treatment for the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer formed on the semiconductor layers. Temperature of the heat treatment is not lower than 400 degrees centigrade and not higher than 650 degrees centigrade.
US09123633B2	Methods for forming semiconductor regions in trenches A structure includes a semiconductor substrate including a first semiconductor material. A portion of the semiconductor substrate extends between insulation regions in the semiconductor substrate. The portion of the semiconductor substrate has a (111) surface and a bottom surface. The (111) surface is slanted and has a top edge and a bottom edge. The bottom surface is parallel to a top surface of the insulation regions, and is connected to the bottom edge. A semiconductor region overlaps the portion of the semiconductor substrate, wherein the semiconductor region includes a second semiconductor material different from the first semiconductor material. The top edge and the bottom edge of the (111) surface are at a first depth and a second depth, respectively, relative to a top surface of the semiconductor region. A ratio of the first depth to the second depth is smaller than about 0.6.
US09123632B2	Semiconductor device A highly reliable structure is provided when high-speed driving of a semiconductor device is achieved by improving on-state characteristics of the transistor. The on-state characteristics of the transistor are improved as follows: an end portion of a source electrode and an end portion of a drain electrode overlap with end portions of a gate electrode, and the gate electrode surely overlaps with a region serving as a channel formation region of an oxide semiconductor layer. Further, embedded conductive layers are formed in an insulating layer so that large contact areas are obtained between the embedded conductive layers and the source and drain electrodes; thus, the contact resistance of the transistor can be reduced. Prevention of coverage failure with a gate insulating layer enables the oxide semiconductor layer to be thin; thus, the transistor is miniaturized.
US09123631B2	Method for molecular adhesion bonding with compensation for radial misalignment A method for bonding a first wafer on a second wafer by molecular adhesion where the wafers have an initial radial misalignment between them. The method includes bringing the two wafers into contact so as to initiate the propagation of a bonding wave between the two wafers while a predefined bonding curvature is imposed on at least one of the two wafers during the contacting step as a function of the initial radial misalignment.
US09123630B2	Stacked die package, system including the same, and method of manufacturing the same A stacked die package includes a package substrate, a first die mounted on the package substrate and electrically connected to the package substrate, a second die electrically connected to the package substrate, and an interposer mounted on the package substrate and including a plurality of vertical electrical connection means electrically connecting the package substrate to the second die. At least part of the first die is disposed between the second die and the package substrate in a vertical direction.
US09123627B1	Methods of forming alternative material fins with reduced defect density for a FinFET semiconductor device One method disclosed herein includes removing at least a portion of a fin to thereby define a fin trench in a layer of insulating material, forming first and second layers of semiconductor material in the fin trench, after forming the second layer of semiconductor material, performing an anneal process to induce defect formation in at least the first layer of semiconductor material, wherein, after the anneal process is performed, the upper surface of the second layer of semiconductor material is substantially defect-free, forming a layer of channel semiconductor material on the upper surface of the second layer of semiconductor material and forming a gate structure around at least a portion of the channel semiconductor material.
US09123623B2	Semiconductor light emitting device having multi-cell array and method of manufacturing the same A method of manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device having a multi-cell array, including: sequentially forming a first conductive semiconductor layer, an active layer and a second conductive semiconductor layer on a substrate; etching and removing portions of the second conductive semiconductor layer and the active layer so as to expose portions of an upper surface of the first conductive semiconductor layer corresponding to respective regions of the second conductive semiconductor layer spaced apart from one another; and separating light emitting cells by partially etching the exposed portions of the first conductive semiconductor layer, wherein the separating of the light emitting cells is not performed at an edge portion of the substrate.
US09123618B2	Method for producing image pickup apparatus, and method for producing semiconductor apparatus A method for producing an image pickup apparatus includes: a process of fabricating a plurality of image pickup chips by cutting an image pickup chip substrate where light receiving sections and electrode pads are formed; a process of fabricating a joined wafer by bonding the image pickup chips to a glass wafer; a process of filling a gap between the plurality of image pickup chips with a sealing member; a process of machining the joined wafer to reduce a thickness; a process of forming through-hole vias; a process of forming an insulating layer that covers the image pickup chips; a process of forming through-hole interconnections; a process of forming external connection electrodes, each of which is connected to each of the through-hole interconnections; and a process of cutting the joined wafer.
US09123617B2	Elevated photodiode with a stacked scheme A device includes an image sensor chip having formed therein an elevated photodiode, and a device chip underlying and bonded to the image sensor chip. The device chip has a read out circuit electrically connected to the elevated photodiode.
US09123615B2	Vertically integrated image sensor chips and methods for forming the same A method includes bonding a Backside Illumination (BSI) image sensor chip to a device chip, forming a first via in the BSI image sensor chip to connect to a first integrated circuit device in the BSI image sensor chip, forming a second via penetrating through the BSI image sensor chip to connect to a second integrated circuit device in the device chip, and forming a metal pad to connect the first via to the second via.
US09123613B2	Image sensor and display An image sensor, for example for incorporation within an active matrix display, comprises an array of sensor elements 10. Each sensor element (10) comprise an amplifying transistor (M1) whose gate is connected to an integrating node (11). The integrating node (11) is connected to one plate of an integrating capacitor (C1) and to one electrode of a photodiode (D1), whose other electrode is connected to a resetting line (RST). The sensor element (10) performs a repeating sensing cycle comprising a resetting phase, an integrating phase and a reading phase. During the resetting phase, the resetting line (RST) receives a voltage which forward-biases the photodiode (D1) so as to charge the integrating node (11) to a predetermined voltage. The resetting line (RST) is then returned to a voltage for reverse-biasing the photodiode (D1) so that the integrating and reading phases may be performed.
US09123610B2	Arrangement of circuits in pixels, each circuit shared by a plurality of pixels, in image sensing apparatus In an image sensing apparatus having a plurality of unit cells, each including a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and a common circuit shared by the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, arranged in either one or two dimensions, the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are arranged at a predetermined interval.
US09123607B1	Modified hybrid infrared focal plane array architecture for large scaling An apparatus for infrared imaging may include a hybrid infrared focal plane array including a front-end (FE) portion and a back-end (BE) portion. The FE portion may be coupled to the BE portion via multiple electrically conductive bump bonds. The FE portion may include nano-electronic circuits integrated with an array of infrared imaging pixels. The CNT electronic circuits may be configured to generate multiplexed output signals. The BE portion may include electronic circuits implemented on a substrate and configured to generate readout output signals. A count of the multiple electrically conductive bump bonds may be substantially less than a count of the infrared imaging pixels of the array.
US09123605B2	Image sensor An image sensor includes a package having a window; a sensor chip facing the window, the sensor chip having a pixel region, the sensor chip having an electrode; a read-out circuit disposed farther from the window than the sensor chip, the read-out circuit having a read-out electrode connected to the electrode of the sensor chip; and a shielding plate disposed outside the pixel region of the sensor chip. The shielding plate is configured to block transmission of light.
US09123603B2	Photoelectric conversion device and imaging system In a photoelectric conversion device capable of adding signals of photoelectric conversion elements included in each of photoelectric conversion units, each of the photoelectric conversion elements includes a first semiconductor region of a first conductivity type for collecting a signal charge, a second semiconductor region of a second conductivity type is arranged between the photoelectric conversion elements arranged adjacent to each other and included in the photoelectric conversion unit, and a third semiconductor region of the second conductivity type is arranged between the photoelectric conversion elements arranged adjacent to each other among the plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and included in different photoelectric conversion units arranged adjacent to each other. An impurity concentration of the second semiconductor region is lower than an impurity concentration of the third semiconductor region.
US09123602B2	Pixel array area optimization using stacking scheme for hybrid image sensor with minimal vertical interconnects Embodiments of a hybrid imaging sensor that optimizes a pixel array area on a substrate using a stacking scheme for placement of related circuitry with minimal vertical interconnects between stacked substrates and associated features are disclosed. Embodiments of maximized pixel array size/die size (area optimization) are disclosed, and an optimized imaging sensor providing improved image quality, improved functionality, and improved form factors for specific applications common to the industry of digital imaging are also disclosed.
US09123591B2	Display panel with fewer data lines A display device includes a plurality of pixel units. Each of the pixel units at least includes three sub-pixels for displaying different colors. The three sub-pixels are electrically connected to three different gate lines, and at least two of the three sub-pixels are electrically connected to the same data line.
US09123590B2	Array substrate, display device and method for fabricating array substrate An array substrate, a display device and a method for fabricating an array substrate are disclosed. The array substrate comprises at least two Gate Driver on Array (GOA) elements and a Start Vertical (STV) signal line, a transmission channel between two of the adjacent GOA elements is formed by a via hole and a gate metal layer or a source/drain metal layer; a forward via hole region and a backward via hole region are disposed on the array substrate; the forward via hole region is for disposing a forward via hole for forming a forward transmission channel connecting an output of mth GOA element and an input of (m+1)th GOA element, a connection point connecting to the STV signal line is disposed on the first GOA element; the backward via hole region is for disposing a backward via hole for forming a backward transmission channel connecting an output of (m+1)th GOA element and an input of mth GOA element, a connection point connecting to the STV signal line is disposed on the last GOA element; m is an integer no less than 1.
US09123585B1	Method to form group III-V and Si/Ge FINFET on insulator A method includes providing a structure having a substrate, a first electrically insulating layer overlying the substrate, a first semiconductor layer comprised of a first semiconductor material overlying the first electrically insulating layer, a second electrically insulating layer overlying the first semiconductor layer in a first portion of the structure and a second semiconductor layer comprised of a second, different semiconductor material overlying the second electrically insulating layer in the first portion. The method further includes growing additional first semiconductor material on the first semiconductor layer in a second portion of the structure to form a regrown semiconductor layer; forming fins; forming gate structures orthogonal to the fins and removing at least a portion of the first semiconductor layer in the first portion of the structure to form a void and filling the void with insulating material. Structures formed by the method are also disclosed.
US09123584B2	In-line metrology system A metrology system for gauging and spatially mapping a semiconductor material on a substrate can be used in controlling deposition and thermal activation processes.
US09123583B2	Overlay abnormality gating by Z data The present disclosure relates to a method of monitoring wafer topography. A position and orientation of a plurality first alignment shapes disposed on a surface of a wafer are measured. Wafer topography as a function of wafer position is modeled by subjecting the wafer to an alignment which simultaneously minimizes misalignment between the wafer and a patterning apparatus and maximizes a focus of radiation on the surface. A non-correctable error is determined as a difference between the modeled wafer topography and a measured wafer topography. A maximum non-correctable error per field is determined for a wafer, and a mean variation in the maximum non-correctable error across each field within each wafer of a lot is determined, both within a layer and across layers. These values are then verified against a set of statistical process control rules to determine if they are within a specification limit of the manufacturing process.
US09123580B2	Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same A semiconductor device includes word lines and interlayer insulating layers alternately stacked over a substrate, vertical channel layers protruding from the substrate and passing through the word lines and the interlayer insulating layers, a tunnel insulating layer surrounding each of the vertical channel layers, a charge trap layer surrounding the tunnel insulating layer, wherein first regions of the charge trap layer between the tunnel insulating layer and the word lines have a thickness smaller than a thickness of second regions thereof between the tunnel insulating layer and the interlayer insulating layers, and first charge blocking layer patterns surrounding the first regions of the charge trap layer.
US09123579B2	3D memory process and structures A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a stack structure and a transistor. The substrate includes a first region and a second region. The stack structure is formed over the substrate in the first region. The transistor structure has a gate formed in the second region. A bottom portion of the gate structure is disposed at a height from the substrate that is less than a height between the substrate and a bottom portion of the stack structure.
US09123578B1	Non-volatile memory device Provided is a non-volatile memory device having a zigzag body wiring. A well is disposed in a substrate. Word lines are arranged in an array, are disposed on the substrate and extend in a first direction. Inter-poly dielectric films are respectively between the substrate and the word lines. Floating gates are respectively disposed between the well and the inter-poly dielectric films. Tunnel oxide films are respectively disposed between the well and the floating gates. First bit lines and second bit lines, arranged periodically, are disposed over the word lines and extend in a second direction, wherein a first distance from the first bit lines to the substrate is smaller than a second distance from the second bit lines to the substrate.
US09123577B2	Air gap isolation in non-volatile memory using sacrificial films Electrical isolation in non-volatile memory is provided by air gaps formed using sacrificial films of differing etch rates. A high etch rate material is formed in an isolation trench. Flowable chemical vapor deposition processes are used to form high etch rate films, and curing is performed to increase their etch rate. A low etch material is formed over the high etch rate material and provides a controlled etch back between charge storage regions in a row direction. A discrete low etch rate layer can be formed or the high etch rate material can be oxidized to form an upper region with a lower etch rate. A controlled etch back enables formation of a wrap-around dielectric and control gate structure in the row direction with minimized variability in the dimensions of the structures. At least a portion of the high etch rate material is removed to form air gaps for isolation.
US09123571B2	Semiconductor device A semiconductor device, includes a first substrate having a main surface and a rear surface opposing to the main surface, a first circuit including a plurality of transistors formed over the main surface, a first insulating film formed over the main surface to cover the first circuit, a first inductor formed in the first insulating film over the main surface, the first inductor being electrically connected to the first circuit; and a bonding pad formed over the main surface, the bonding pad being located at a first area, the first inductor being located at a second area, the first area being different from the second area in a plan view, and a second substrate having a main surface, a rear surface opposing to the main surface and a second inductor formed over the main surface.
US09123570B2	Integration scheme for changing crystal orientation in hybrid orientation technology (HOT) using direct silicon bonded (DSB) substrates Optimizing carrier mobilities in MOS transistors in CMOS ICs requires forming (100)-oriented silicon regions for NMOS and (110) regions for PMOS. Methods such as amorphization and templated recrystallization (ATR) have disadvantages for fabrication of deep submicron CMOS. This invention is a method of forming an integrated circuit (IC) which has (100) and (110)-oriented regions. The method forms a directly bonded silicon (DSB) layer of (110)-oriented silicon on a (100)-oriented substrate. The DSB layer is removed in the NMOS regions and a (100)-oriented silicon layer is formed by selective epitaxial growth (SEG), using the substrate as the seed layer. NMOS transistors are formed on the SEG layer, while PMOS transistors are formed on the DSB layer. An integrated circuit formed with the inventive method is also disclosed.
US09123569B1	Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor structure with III-V and silicon germanium transistors on insulator Embodiments for the present invention provide a CMOS structure and methods for fabrication. In an embodiment of the present invention, a CMOS structure comprises a NFET, formed on a wafer, having a gate stack and a channel. A PFET having a gate stack and a channel is also formed on the wafer. The channel of the PFET and the channel of the NFET include semiconductor material formed on III-V semiconductor material, such that the III-V semiconductor material acts like a buried oxide because of a valence band offset between the semiconductor material and the III-V material. There is a height difference between a terminal of the NFET and a terminal of the PFET. In addition, the gate stack NFET is the same height as the gate stack PFET.
US09123568B2	Encapsulation of closely spaced gate electrode structures A semiconductor device includes a plurality of NMOS transistor elements, each including a first gate electrode structure above a first active region, at least two of the plurality of first gate electrode structures including a first encapsulating stack having a first dielectric cap layer and a first sidewall spacer stack. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of PMOS transistor elements, each including a second gate electrode structure above a second active region, wherein at least two of the plurality of second gate electrode structures include a second encapsulating stack having a second dielectric cap layer and a second sidewall spacer stack. Additionally, the first and second sidewall spacer stacks each include at least three dielectric material layers, wherein each of the three dielectric material layers of the first and second sidewall spacer stacks include the same dielectric material.
US09123567B2	CMOS implementation of germanium and III-V nanowires and nanoribbons in gate-all-around architecture Architectures and techniques for co-integration of heterogeneous materials, such as group III-V semiconductor materials and group IV semiconductors (e.g., Ge) on a same substrate (e.g. silicon). In embodiments, multi-layer heterogeneous semiconductor material stacks having alternating nanowire and sacrificial layers are employed to release nanowires and permit formation of a coaxial gate structure that completely surrounds a channel region of the nanowire transistor. In embodiments, individual PMOS and NMOS channel semiconductor materials are co-integrated with a starting substrate having a blanket layers of alternating Ge/III-V layers. In embodiments, vertical integration of a plurality of stacked nanowires within an individual PMOS and individual NMOS device enable significant drive current for a given layout area.
US09123560B2	Light emitting device having improved color rendition A light emitting device includes a first light emitting diode chip comprising a red wavelength, a second light emitting diode chip comprising a different red wavelength from the wavelength of the first light emitting diode chip, and a plurality of third light emitting diode chips disposed around the first and second light emitting diode chips. The light emitting device emits light in a wavelength region similar to that of solar light, thereby improving color rendition.
US09123559B2	Method for producing a semiconductor component Methods for producing a semiconductor component that includes a transistor having a cell structure with a number of transistor cells monolithically integrated in a semiconductor body and electrically connected in parallel. In an example method, first trenches extending from the top side into the semiconductor body are produced, as are second trenches that each extend from the top side deeper into the semiconductor body than each of the first trenches. A first dielectric abutting on a first portion of the semiconductor body is produced at a surface of each of the first trenches. Also produced is a second dielectric at a surface of each of the second trenches. In each of the first trenches, a gate electrode is produced, after which a second portion of the semiconductor body is electrically insulated from the first portion of the semiconductor body by removing a bottom layer of the semiconductor body.
US09123558B2	Bipolar junction transistor In accordance with one embodiment, the present invention provides a bipolar junction transistor including an emitter region; a base region; a first isolation between the emitter region and the base region; a gate on the first isolation region and overlapping at least a portion of a periphery of the emitter region; a collector region; and a second isolation between the base region and the collector region.
US09123557B2	Fast recovery rectifier The present disclosure provides a rectifier. The rectifier includes a N-type epitaxial layer, a plurality of P-type diffusion regions and a plurality of N-type diffusion regions. The P-type diffusion regions are disposed in the N-type epitaxial layer, and the N-type diffusion regions are respectively disposed in the P-type diffusion regions. Wherein, the P-type diffusion regions are electronically coupled to the N-type diffusion regions.
US09123556B2	Decoupling capacitor and method of making same A semiconductor substrate has at least two active regions, each having at least one active device that includes a gate electrode layer, and a shallow trench isolation (STI) region between the active regions. A decoupling capacitor comprises first and second dummy conductive patterns formed in the same gate electrode layer over the STI region. The first and second dummy conductive regions are unconnected to any of the at least one active device. The first dummy conductive pattern is connected to a source of a first potential. The second dummy conductive pattern is connected to a source of a second potential. A dielectric material is provided between the first and second dummy conductive patterns.
US09123555B2	Co-support for XFD packaging A microelectronic package has a dielectric element with first and second parallel apertures. A first microelectronic element has contacts overlying the first aperture, and a second microelectronic element has contacts overlying the second aperture. The second microelectronic element can overlie a rear face of the first microelectronic element and the same surface of the dielectric element as the first microelectronic element. First terminals on a second surface of the dielectric element between said first and second apertures can be configured to carry all data signals for read and write access to memory locations within the first and second microelectronic elements.
US09123554B2	Semiconductor device This invention is to improve noise immunity to the power supply and ground of a wiring board and a second semiconductor chip in an interior of a semiconductor device. A first semiconductor chip is mounted over a wiring board, and a second semiconductor chip is mounted in a central part located over the first semiconductor chip. Bottom surface electrodes of power and ground systems in the second semiconductor chip are led to their corresponding external coupling electrodes formed in the central part of the wiring board though chip through vias formed in the central part of the first semiconductor chip. The power and ground system bottom surface electrodes, the through vias and the external coupling electrodes are respectively arranged discretely from each other between the power and ground systems.
US09123552B2	Apparatuses enabling concurrent communication between an interface die and a plurality of dice stacks, interleaved conductive paths in stacked devices, and methods for forming and operating the same Various embodiments include apparatuses, stacked devices and methods of forming dice stacks on an interface die. In one such apparatus, a dice stack includes at least a first die and a second die, and conductive paths coupling the first die and the second die to the common control die. In some embodiments, the conductive paths may be arranged to connect with circuitry on alternating dice of the stack. In other embodiments, a plurality of dice stacks may be arranged on a single interface die, and some or all of the dice may have interleaving conductive paths.
US09123550B2	Semiconductor devices using air spaces to separate conductive structures and methods of manufacturing the same A semiconductor device includes a substrate, a conductive pattern (e.g., a contact plug) on an active region of the substrate and having respective first and second sidewalls on opposite first and second sides of the conductive pattern, and first and second conductive lines (e.g., bit lines) on the substrate on respective ones of the first and second sides of conductive pattern and separated from the respective first and second sidewalls by asymmetric first and second air spaces.
US09123545B2	Semiconductor device with single-event latch-up prevention circuitry A semiconductor device includes a parasitic silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) and a first transistor. The parasitic SCR includes a parasitic pnp bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and a parasitic npn BJT. The first transistor is coupled between a first power supply node and an emitter of the parasitic pnp BJT. The first transistor includes a first terminal coupled to the first power supply node, a second terminal coupled to the emitter of the parasitic pnp BJT, and a control terminal. The first transistor is not positioned between a base of the pnp BJT and the first power supply node. The first transistor limits current conducted by the parasitic pnp BJT following a single-event latch-up (SEL) event.
US09123544B2	Semiconductor device and method An electrical device includes a semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip includes a routing line. An insulating layer is arranged over the semiconductor chip. A solder deposit is arranged over the insulating layer. A via extends through an opening of the insulating layer to electrically connect the routing line to the solder deposit. A front edge line portion of the via facing the routing line is substantially straight, has a concave curvature or has a convex curvature of a diameter greater than a maximum lateral dimension of the via.
US09123543B1	Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof A semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same are provided. The semiconductor device comprises a semiconductor die including a bond pad, a redistribution layer, and a solder ball. The redistribution layer is formed by sequentially plating copper and nickel, sequentially plating nickel and copper, or sequentially plating copper, nickel, and copper. The redistribution layer includes a nickel layer in order to prevent a crack from occurring in a copper layer. Further, a projection is formed in an area of the redistribution layer or a dielectric layer to which the solder ball is welded and corresponds, so that an area of the redistribution layer to which the solder ball is welded increases, thereby increasing bonding power between the solder ball and the redistribution layer.
US09123542B2	Plasma etching method A plasma etching method forms a tapered recess portion in a wide-gap semiconductor substrate. The method includes forming on the substrate K an etching film having an etching speed higher than that of the substrate K, and forming a mask M having an opening on the high-speed etching film. The substrate K with the etching film and the mask is then placed on a platen and heated to a temperature equal to or higher than 200 ° C., a plasma is generated from an etching gas supplied into a processing chamber, and a bias potential is applied to the platen to etch substrate.
US09123540B2	Apparatus for high speed signal processing interface Signal IO protection devices referenced to a single supply are provided herein. In certain implementations, a protection device includes a first silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) and a first diode for providing protection between a signal node and a power supply network, such as a power low supply network or a power high supply network. The SCR and diode structures are integrated in a common circuit layout, such that certain wells and active regions are shared between structures. In other implementations, a protection device includes first and second SCRs for providing protection between the signal node and the power low supply network or between the signal node and the power high supply network, and the SCR structures are integrated in a common circuit layout. The protection devices are suitable for single cell data conversion interface protection to a single supply in sub 3V operation.
US09123531B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, semiconductor device and substrate processing apparatus An oxide film capable of suppressing reflection of a lens is formed under a low temperature. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a metal-containing oxide film on a substrate by performing a cycle a predetermined number of times, the cycle comprising: (a) supplying a metal-containing source to the substrate; (b) supplying an oxidizing source to the substrate; and (c) supplying a catalyst to the substrate.
US09123530B2	Method of manufacturing semiconductor device, substrate processing method and substrate processing apparatus Provided are: forming an oxycarbonitride film, an oxycarbide film or an oxide film on a substrate by alternately performing a specific number of times: forming a first layer containing the specific element, nitrogen and carbon, on the substrate, by alternately performing a specific number of times, supplying a first source containing the specific element and a halogen-group to the substrate in a processing chamber, and supplying a second source containing the specific element and an amino-group to the substrate in the processing chamber; and forming a second layer by oxidizing the first layer by supplying an oxygen-containing gas, and an oxygen-containing gas and a hydrogen-containing gas to the substrate in the processing chamber.
US09123529B2	Method for reprocessing semiconductor substrate, method for manufacturing reprocessed semiconductor substrate, and method for manufacturing SOI substrate A method suitable to reprocess a semiconductor substrate is provided. A semiconductor substrate in which a projection including a damaged semiconductor region and an insulating layer is provided in a peripheral portion of the semiconductor substrate is subjected to etching treatment for removing the insulating layer and to etching treatment for removing the damaged semiconductor region selectively with a non-damaged semiconductor region left using a mixed solution including nitric acid, a substance dissolving a semiconductor material included in the semiconductor substrate and oxidized by the nitric acid, a substance controlling a speed of oxidation of the semiconductor material and a speed of dissolution of the oxidized semiconductor material, and nitrous acid, in which the concentration of the nitrous acid is higher than or equal to 10 mg/l and lower than or equal to 1000 mg/l. Through these steps, the semiconductor substrate is reprocessed.
US09123522B2	Broadband ion beam analyzer A broadband ion beam analyzer, used for isolating required ions from a broadband ion beam, comprises an upper magnetic pole (1), a lower magnetic pole (2), an upper excitation coil (3), a lower excitation coil (4), an analysis grating (7), and a magnetic yoke (5 and 6). The upper magnetic pole (1) and the lower magnetic pole (2) are both provided with a camber-shaped incident-end boundary (101) and a camber-shaped emergence side boundary (102). The camber radii (Rb) of the incident-end boundary (101) and of the emergence-end boundary (102) are equal to the deflection radius (R) of the required ions in the magnetic field. The required ions in the broadband ion beam are allowed to focus ideally at the mid-section of the magnetic field, to acquire an ideal focal spot having a size that equals to zero. This allows for acquisition of the optimal resolution by selecting an appropriate width for a minimal analysis gap (701), thus implementing complete isolation of the required ions from other ions in the broadband ion beam.
US09123511B2	Process kit for RF physical vapor deposition Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a process kit for a semiconductor processing chamber, and a semiconductor processing chamber having a kit. More specifically, embodiments described herein relate to a process kit including a cover ring, a shield, and an isolator for use in a physical deposition chamber. The components of the process kit work alone and in combination to significantly reduce particle generation and stray plasmas. In comparison with existing multiple part shields, which provide an extended RF return path contributing to RF harmonics causing stray plasma outside the process cavity, the components of the process kit reduce the RF return path thus providing improved plasma containment in the interior processing region.
US09123505B1	Apparatus and methods for implementing predicted systematic error correction in location specific processing A method of modifying an upper layer of a workpiece using a gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) is described. The method includes collecting parametric data relating to an upper layer of a workpiece, and determining a predicted systematic error response for applying a GCIB to the upper layer to alter an initial profile of a measured attribute by using the parametric data. Additionally, the method includes identifying a target profile of the measured attribute, directing the GCIB toward the upper layer of the workpiece, and spatially modulating an applied property of the GCIB, based at least in part on the predicted systematic error response and the parametric data, as a function of position on the upper layer of the workpiece to achieve the target profile of the measured attribute.
US09123497B2	Color filter substrate for display device integrated with touch screen and method for fabricating the same A color filter substrate for a display device includes a first protection layer on a plurality of touch sensing electrodes and touch driving electrode arrays; a bridge on the first protection layer and connecting the plurality of touch sensing electrodes; a second protection layer on the bridge; a black matrix on the second protection layer; a color filter layer on the black matrix, wherein the plurality of touch sensing electrodes include a first mesh pattern formed by crossing of first metal lines, the plurality of touch driving electrode arrays include a plurality of second mesh patterns formed by crossing of second metal lines, wherein the black matrix is formed at regions corresponding to the first and second metal lines, and wherein a line width of the black matrix is equal to or greater than each of the metal lines forming the first and second mesh patterns.
US09123495B2	Auxiliary trip device for tripping a circuit breaker An auxiliary trip unit for a circuit breaker comprises: a drive part with a movable blade, a latch fitted pivoting around a swivelling axis and designed to secure the blade in a neutral position, against a flexible bias force, until movement of the latch takes place to a released position, a nose of the latch salient in a direction passing through the swivelling axis so as to comprise a salient end where positive latching of the blade on the latch takes place in the neutral position. The latch collaborates with the blade to receive a thrust force acting in the direction of resetting of the latch to its latching position.
US09123494B2	Electromagnetic relay An electromagnetic relay including an electromagnet block having a rod-shaped iron core, a coil wound around the rod-shaped iron core, and a spool interposed between the coil and iron core. A yoke having one end section extends to a section at a side of a magnet pole section of the iron core. An end section of the yoke is arranged so that the magnet pole section has a gap on a base side. A moving iron is pivotably supported by an elastic support of a hinge spring. The electromagnet block is magnetized wherein a section drawn in the moving iron is drawn to the magnet pole section and pivoted to drive a contact switching unit. The hinge spring includes an elastic contacting portion extending toward an opposite side to the elastic support. The moving iron is integrated with a card member that comes in contact with the elastic contacting portion.
US09123493B2	Microelectromechanical switches for steering of RF signals A switch includes a shuttle having an elongated length resiliently supported at opposing ends thereof and configured to move along a motion axis in response to an applied voltage. A shuttle switch portion includes a plurality of shuttle contact fingers extending transversely from opposing sides of the shuttle. A common contact at a common terminal side of the shuttle includes a plurality of contact fingers respectively interdigitated with the shuttle contact fingers. First and second terminal contacts are adjacent a switched terminal side of the shuttle, and include first terminal contact fingers and second terminal contact fingers respectively interdigitated with shuttle contact fingers. The shuttle switch portion is configured to selectively connect the common contact to the first terminal contact or the second terminal contact.
US09123487B2	Mechanical inertial igniter with high-height drop safety feature for thermal batteries and the like A method for initiating a thermal battery including: releasing an engagement between an element and a striker mass upon an acceleration time and magnitude greater than a first threshold; and moving at least one member into a path of the element to prevent the element from releasing the striker mass only where the acceleration time and magnitude is greater than a second threshold, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
US09123486B2	Tactile feedback apparatus A tactile feedback apparatus is disclosed. The tactile feedback apparatus includes at least one tactile feedback unit. The feedback tactile sense unit includes at least one feedback electrode, a dielectric layer and at least one reference electrode. A common reference potential is formed by a user's finger and the tactile feedback apparatus using the reference electrode. An electric filed is generated on the user's finger by the dielectric layer and the feedback electrode to provide a tactile feedback. Besides, the tactile feedback apparatus also provides a touch sensing function.
US09123484B2	Half-automatic switch A half-automatic switch is operated in concert with a movement detecting sensor, and is also manually driven to supply power to an electric apparatus. The driving of the half-automatic switch is stopped when it is manually turned off or a signal from the movement detecting sensor is not provided. When the driving of the half-automatic switch is stopped, it is again manually driven irrespective of whether the signal from the movement detecting sensor is provided.
US09123481B2	Mounting of splitter plates in the switch pole of a circuit breaker An embodiment of the invention relates to a switch pole of a circuit breaker having two pole shells between which are disposed, in the assembled state, at least one switching contact, current-carrying elements and an arc quenching device having an arc runner plate and at least one splitter plate delimiting an arc chute, wherein at least one slot for accommodating the splitter and/or arc runner plate is provided between the pole shells. In at least one embodiment, there is provided inside between the pole shells a functional component having a least one slot spaced apart from the pole shells which is used to accommodate the at least one splitter and/or arc runner plate.
US09123478B2	Power tool switching device A power tool switching device, in particular for portable power tools, includes at least one switching unit having at least one movably mounted control element configured to actuate a mechanical, electrical and/or electronic switching element. The power tool switching device further includes at least one guide unit, which, upon an actuation of the control element along a direction of main extent of the control element, is configured to convert a movement of the control element along the direction of main extent at least into a movement of the control element running transversely in relation to the direction of main extent.
US09123477B2	Ultracapacitors employing phase change materials Implementations and techniques for employing phase change materials in ultracapacitor devices or systems are generally disclosed.
US09123474B2	Multilayered ceramic capacitor and mounting board therefor There is provided a multilayer ceramic capacitor including a ceramic body, first to third capacitor parts, first and second internal connection conductors, and first to fourth external electrodes, wherein the first capacitor part is connected in series with the second internal connection conductor, and the second capacitor part is connected in series with the first internal connection conductor.
US09123473B2	Structural capacitor, connector and communication apparatus using the connector The present disclosure discloses a structural capacitor, a connector comprising the structural capacitor and a communication apparatus using the connector. The structural capacitor comprises a rod and a holder. The rod comprises a first section and a second section connected with the first section, and the holder comprises a through hole. The first section and the second section are fitted into the through hole to accomplish the connection between the first section and the second section in an axial direction. The connector of the present disclosure features a simple structure, a convenient manufacturing process and a low cost. The communication apparatus of the present disclosure has advantages such as a simple manufacturing process, parameters that can be easily guaranteed, a low processing cost and a stable product performance.
US09123472B2	High capacity multilayer ceramic capacitor and method of manufacturing the same There is disclosed a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same. The multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a multilayer body having a first side and a second side opposite to each other and having a third side and a fourth side connecting the first side to the second side, a plurality of inner electrodes formed in the multilayer body and having distal edges exposed to the first side or the second side, first and second side members formed on the first and second sides to cover the distal edges of the plurality of inner electrodes, and outer electrodes formed on the third side and the fourth side to be electrically connected to the inner electrodes. An angle between a virtual line connecting the distal edges of the plurality of inner electrodes and the first side member or the second side member is less than 90° (π/2).
US09123467B2	Switch wear leveling An apparatus for switch wear leveling includes a switching module that controls switching for two or more pairs of switches in a switching power converter. The switching module controls switches based on a duty cycle control technique and closes and opens each switch in a switching sequence. The pairs of switches connect to a positive and negative terminal of a DC voltage source. For a first switching sequence a first switch of a pair of switches has a higher switching power loss than a second switch of the pair of switches. The apparatus includes a switch rotation module that changes the switching sequence of the two or more pairs of switches from the first switching sequence to a second switching sequence. The second switch of a pair of switches has a higher switching power loss than the first switch of the pair of switches during the second switching sequence.
US09123463B2	Magnetic tunnel junction device The output voltage of an MRAM is increased by means of an Fe(001)/MgO(001)/Fe(001) MTJ device, which is formed by microfabrication of a sample prepared as follows: A single-crystalline MgO (001) substrate is prepared. An epitaxial Fe(001) lower electrode (a first electrode) is grown on a MgO(001) seed layer at room temperature, followed by annealing under ultrahigh vacuum. A MgO(001) barrier layer is epitaxially formed on the Fe(001) lower electrode (the first electrode) at room temperature, using a MgO electron-beam evaporation. A Fe(001) upper electrode (a second electrode) is then formed on the MgO(001) barrier layer at room temperature. This is successively followed by the deposition of a Co layer on the Fe(001) upper electrode (the second electrode). The Co layer is provided so as to increase the coercive force of the upper electrode in order to realize an antiparallel magnetization alignment.
US09123462B2	Magneto-rheological fluid and clutch using the same A magneto-rheological fluid includes: a magnetic particle mixture; and a dispersion medium in which the magnetic particle mixture is dispersed. The magnetic particle mixture includes first magnetic particles and second magnetic particles. The first magnetic particles have an average particle size greater than or equal to 1 μm and less than or equal to 50 μm. The second magnetic particles have an average particle size greater than or equal to 20 nm and less than or equal to 200 nm, and have surfaces provided with a surface modified layer. A proportion of the second magnetic particles in the magnetic particle mixture is greater than or equal to 2 wt % and less than or equal to 10 wt %.
US09123457B2	Differential transmission cable and method of manufacturing the same A differential transmission cable includes at least one pair of inner conductors arranged in parallel and extending parallel to each other, and a foamed insulating material formed on the inner conductors by a collective extrusion coating and molding of a resin material by using a chemical foaming method and have a variation of foaming degree of not more than 1%. The variation of foaming degree is defined as a difference between a maximum value and a minimum value among foaming degrees (%) of the foamed insulating material at 20 positions at intervals of 50 cm in a longitudinal direction in an arbitrary part of 10 m cut out from the differential transmission cable.
US09123453B2	Cable gland The invention relates to a cable gland (10) for a cable (20), comprising an outer shield (26), a cable sleeve (21) enclosing the outer shield (26) and an anti-kink grommet (22) which is injection molded externally onto the cable sleeve (21) and has stop means for the cable gland (10). Simple and reliable contact is achieved in that the cable gland (10) a) has a substantially hollow cylindrical electrically conductive cable gland body (11) which is pushed from one side as far as the stop means over the anti-kink grommet (22) and projects over the anti-kink grommet (22) with the end opposite the stop means, b) has a union nut (12) which can be screwed on the cable gland body (11) and is pushed from the other side as far as the stop means over the anti-kink grommet (22), and c) has an electrically conductive substantially hollow cylindrical contact ring (14) which can be pushed over the cable (20) in a contacting manner into the projecting end of the cable gland body (11) and is designed for receiving and fastening the outer shielding (26) of the cable (20) with contact.
US09123447B2	Memory, memory system including the same and method for operating memory A memory may include a plurality of word lines to which one or more memory cells are connected, and a control unit suitable for activating and precharging a first word line that is selected based on an address of a high-activated word line during a target refresh operation while sequentially activating and precharging the plurality of word lines in a refresh operation, wherein the control unit is suitable for writing a test data to one or more first memory cells connected to the first word line during the target refresh operation in a test mode, wherein the high-activated word line is a word line activated over a reference number or a reference frequency, among the plurality of word lines.
US09123444B2	Method of testing coherency of data storage in multi-processor shared memory system A method of testing the coherency of data storage in a memory shared by multiple processor cores through core interconnects in a device under test (DUT) includes running test patterns including data transactions between the processor cores and the shared memory, and comparing the results of the data transactions with expected results. The test patterns include false sharing operations and irritator operations causing memory thrashing.
US09123443B2	Memory device, memory management device, and memory management method Disclosed is a memory device which receives a check command and check information from a Central Processing Unit (CPU), reads data written in a predetermined area of a memory based on the check information in response to the check command, and checks a data pattern of the data read based on the check information.
US09123441B1	Backward compatible dynamic random access memory device and method of testing therefor A method for testing a memory device. The method can include coupling the memory device to a test apparatus and determining whether each of the memory cells in the memory device is within a first specification range. Each of the cells that fall outside of the first range can be identified. Each of the cells that meet the second specification range can be tested. The method can include selecting a tile associated with a highest number of cells that fall outside of the second range. A resource can then be used to repair each of the cells that fall outside of the second range for a tile associated with a fewer number of cells that fall outside of the second range such that a first number of tiles meets the first range and a second number of tiles meets the second range such that the first number the second number.
US09123437B1	Scaleable look-up table based memory An integrated circuit having a logic element that includes an array of storage elements convertibly functioning as either a configuration random access memory (CRAM) or a static random access memory (SRAM) is provided. The logic element includes first and second pairs of data paths having dedicated multiplexers. In one embodiment, the first and second pairs of data paths are multiplexed into bit lines of a row of the array. The logic element also includes a data path control block generating control signals for each of the dedicated multiplexers. The control signals determine whether the storage elements function as a CRAM or a SRAM. A method for selectively configuring a memory array between a CRAM mode and SRAM mode are provided.
US09123427B2	Semiconductor integrated circuit for low and high voltage operations A semiconductor integrated circuit comprising a first circuit area for a low voltage operation and a second circuit area for a high voltage operation. The circuit areas comprise two vertically stacked backend patterned metal layers that are separated by an inter-metallic dielectric (IMD). The two metal layers and the IMD form a combination that is operable at the low voltage. The first circuit area uses a first portion of the combination for operating at the low voltage and the second circuit area uses a second portion of the combination for routing at the high voltage, the two metal layers in the second portion being interconnected through the IMD by via hole, for withstanding the high voltage. The first portion may comprise an array of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices and the second circuit area may comprise a display drive circuit.
US09123424B2	Optimizing pass voltage and initial program voltage based on performance of non-volatile memory A programming techniques adaptively sets a pass voltage and an initial program voltage based on a programming speed of a set of memory cells. In one pass of a multi-pass programming operation, a programming speed-indicating program voltage is obtained. For example, this can be a final program voltage or a program voltage at another programming milestone. A pass voltage is determined for another programming pass of the multi-pass programming operation, by providing an adjustment to a reference pass voltage. An initial program voltage is determined for the another programming pass based on an offset from the programming speed-indicating program voltage. The initial program voltage is further adjusted to counteract an effect of the adjustment to a reference pass voltage. The adjustment to the initial program voltage is opposite in polarity and smaller in magnitude than the adjustment to the reference pass voltage.
US09123417B1	Content addressable memory with base-three numeral system A CAM cell is disclosed that can be selectively configured to store either base-2 data words or base-3 data words. When configured to store base-3 data words, the quaternary CAM cell compares 3 comparand bits representative of a base-3 comparand value with the base-3 data value stored in the CAM cell. Storing base-3 data words in such CAM cells increases the data storage density of associated CAM arrays.
US09123414B2	Memory systems and memory programming methods Memory systems and memory programming methods are described. According to one aspect, a memory system includes program circuitry configured to provide a program signal to a memory cell to program the memory cell from a first memory state to a second memory state, detection circuitry configured to detect the memory cell changing from the first memory state to the second memory state during the provision of the program signal to the memory cell to program the memory cell, and wherein the program circuitry is configured to alter the program signal as a result of the detection and to provide the altered program signal to the memory cell to continue to program the memory cell from the first memory state to the second memory state.
US09123410B2	Memory controller for reducing capacitive coupling in a cross-point memory The present disclosure relates to a memory controller. The memory controller may include a memory controller module configured to identify a target word line in response to a memory access request, the target word line included in a cross-point memory, the memory controller module further configured to perform a memory access operation on a memory cell of the cross-point memory, the memory cell coupled between the target word line and a bit line; and a word line control module configured to float at least one adjacent word line adjacent the target word line, the floating comprising decoupling the at least one adjacent word line from at least one of a first voltage source or a second voltage source. In some embodiments, the floating reduces an effective capacitance associated with the target word line during the memory access operation.
US09123407B2	Devices and methods for deciding data read start A data read start decision device includes: a storing circuit configured to store code key data; a read check circuit configured to output a read start signal in response to code key data read from the storing circuit, and a controller configured to start reading environment setting data from the storing circuit in response to the read start signal. The read check circuit is configured to at least one of: receive the read start signal from the controller and transfer the read start signal to the controller in response to the read code key data; and generate the read start signal based on the read code key data and output the read start signal to the controller.
US09123404B2	Self clocking for data extraction A self clocking data extraction method is shown that is tolerant of timing jitter, data skew and the presence of multiple edges per data bit. The data is sampled when the following criterion are met: There is at least one edge across any track (the clock assures this criteria is met), followed by no edges in any track for a defined period of time (T), and all edge activity must occur in a period of time less than T (to keep from detecting false samples). This method enables the handling of trace data signals with poor electrical characteristics that can not be recorded by methods known in the prior art.
US09123401B2	Non-volatile memory array and method of using same for fractional word programming A non-volatile memory device that includes N planes of non-volatile memory cells (where N is an integer greater than 1). Each plane of non-volatile memory cells includes a plurality of memory cells configured in rows and columns. Each of the N planes includes gate lines that extend across the rows of the memory cells therein but do not extend to others of the N planes of non-volatile memory cells. A controller is configured to divide each of a plurality of words of data into N fractional-words, and program each of the N fractional-words of each word of data into a different one of the N planes of non-volatile memory cells. The controller uses a programming current and a program time period for the programming, and can be configured to vary the programming current by a factor and inversely vary the program time period by the factor.
US09123396B2	Semiconductor apparatus A semiconductor device may include first conductive patterns coupled to a common source and selection lines of a memory block formed at a substrate, second conductive patterns configured to form a bit line coupled to the memory block, and third conductive patterns configured to transmit a block selection signal to couple local lines of the memory block to global lines. The first to third conductive patterns are arranged in different layers over the memory block.
US09123395B2	Stack bank type semiconductor memory apparatus capable of improving alignment margin A semiconductor memory apparatus is capable of improving the alignment margin for a bank and sufficiently ensuring a space for forming a global input/output line. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a stack bank structure having at least two sub-banks continuously stacked without disconnection of data signal lines, and a control block arranged at one side of the stack bank structure to simultaneously control column-related signals of the sub-banks.
US09123394B2	Memory system and method using stacked memory device dice A method and apparatus for organizing memory for a computer system including a plurality of memory devices, connected to a logic device, particularly a memory system having a plurality of stacked memory dice connected to a logic die, with the logic device having capability to analyze and compensate for differing delays to the stacked devices stacking multiple dice divided into partitions serviced by multiple buses connected to a logic die, to increase throughput between the devices and logic device allowing large scale integration of memory with self-healing capability.
US09123392B1	Non-volatile 3D memory with cell-selectable word line decoding A three-dimensional array of memory elements is formed across multiple layers of planes positioned at different distances above a semiconductor substrate. The memory elements are each accessible by a word line in a plane and a local bit line. The three-dimensional array includes a two-dimensional array of pillar lines through the multiple layers of planes. The pillar lines are of a first type that act as local bit lines and a second type that provide access to the word lines by having respective memory elements preset to a permanently low resistance state for connecting second-type pillar lines for exclusive access to respective word lines. An array of metal lines on the substrate is switchably connected to the vertical bit lines to provide access to the local bit lines and the word lines.
US09123390B2	Method and apparatus of changing device identification codes of a memory integrated circuit device In the disclosed technology, the device identification code of a memory integrated circuit is changeable. In some cases, multiple device identification codes are stored on the memory integrated circuit, and multiple device identification code selection data are stored on the memory integrated circuit. A device identification code register can store a selected device identification code.
US09123389B1	Memory device, method of refreshing the same, and system including the same A method of refreshing a memory device includes counting the number of accesses to each of a plurality of memory blocks, comparing the counted numbers of accesses resulting from the counting with a first reference count, and performing an additional refresh operation on a corresponding memory block according to a comparison result.
US09123385B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, and surveillance system An electronic apparatus includes a thumbnail preparation unit configured to retrieve thumbnail images, each thumbnail image representing a scene of a different time of one or more moving images, a first thumbnail line display unit configured to time sequentially display a first plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to at least a part of one of the moving images as a first thumbnail line, a second thumbnail line display unit configured to display a second plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to a marked part of the moving images as a second thumbnail line, and a thumbnail shifting unit configured to shift a selection of a thumbnail along the second thumbnail line and update the first thumbnail line to display at least one thumbnail image of a temporally adjacent part of the marked part of the moving image corresponding to the newly selected thumbnail in response to a user instruction.
US09123383B1	Zero phase start estimation in readback signals A data storage system identifies analog-to-digital conversion samples with amplitude below a certain threshold. Remaining samples are grouped according to phase into one or more quadrants. A multi-coordinate with overlapping quadrants is used to further differentiate sample points. The system then computes an average phase for zero phase start estimation.
US09123382B1	Non-volatile caching for sequence of data Operation of a Data Storage Device (DSD) including a Non-Volatile Semiconductor Memory (NVSM) and at least one disk. A size value is determined corresponding to a sequence of data to be read from or stored in the DSD. If the size value is less than a threshold value, the sequence of data is stored in the NVSM. If the size value is greater than the threshold value, a first portion of the sequence of data is stored in the NVSM and at least a remaining portion of the sequence of data is stored on the at least one disk. The threshold value is based on at least a preparation time for accessing data from the at least one disk and a throughput value of the NVSM for storing data in or retrieving data from the NVSM.
US09123377B1	Apparatus and method for allowing passage of a leader through a tape drive tape path A tape drive for use with a tape may comprise a head for performing read and/or write operations on the tape, a drive leader that is cooperable with the tape for moving the tape through the tape drive, and a retraction mechanism for retracting the tape, the drive leader and/or a cartridge leader attached to the tape away from the head to allow at least a portion of the drive leader to pass by the head without contacting the head. The retraction mechanism may include a movable pin that is engageable with the tape, the cartridge leader and/or the drive leader, the pin being movable from a first position proximate the head to a second position disposed further away from the head than the first position.
US09123376B2	Line-shaped material conveyance mechanism, line-shaped material conveyance method, and tape conveyance mechanism A line-shaped material conveyance mechanism includes first and second support members, a guide groove, a first rotary arm, and a second rotary arm. One end of the first rotary arm is pivotally supported near the guide groove by a first rotary shaft. The other end of the first rotary arm connects one end of the second rotary arm in a state that can be rotated. A third support member is disposed on the other end of the second rotary arm. The third support member is guided and moves along the guide groove by rotating the first rotary arm around the first rotary shaft.
US09123369B2	Method and apparatus for determining position of multiple drive heads Determining the radial position of a first read head of a storage device includes reading servo data from a storage media platter surface using the first read head, deriving from that servo data a first positron error signal representing a first estimate of the radial position of the first read head, reading the servo data from the storage media platter surface using a different read head, deriving from that servo data a second position error signal representing an estimate of the radial position of the different read head, and combining the first estimate of the radial position of the first read head and the estimate of the radial position of the different read head to obtain a revised estimate of the radial position of the first read head. The combining could include taking account of a known positional offset between the first read head and the different read head.
US09123367B1	Swage mount having a mixture of a conductive material and a coating material and method of manufacturing the swage mount A swage mount is manufactured for attaching a head suspension assembly to a head actuator arm for a hard disk drive. A conductive material is deposited on a predetermined part of the swage mount. A coating material is deposited on the swage mount including the predetermined part. Heat is applied to the swage mount, forming a mixture of the conductive material and the coating material. The mixture is conductive and supports a reliable connection between the swage mount and other disk drive components. Furthermore, the mixture enhances cleanliness by reducing particles shed from the swage mount. The conductive material is preferably gold, and the coating material is preferably nickel-based.
US09123364B1	Base plate with relief ring for suspension assembly with modified deformation characteristics A base plate system including a base plate with first and second opposite surfaces, a boss tower extending from the first surface of the base plate and having an outer surface, a swaging hole extending through a height of the boss tower and a height of the base plate, and a relief channel recessed in the first surface of the base plate and extending around at least a portion of the outer surface of the boss tower, wherein the relief channel comprises a shape that is different from a shape of the outer surface of the boss tower.
US09123361B1	Reader with at least two-spin detectors A later spin valve multi-reader includes at least two spin detectors, a spin injector and a spin diffusion medium. The spin diffusion medium bridges the spin detectors and the spin injector. Each of the spin detectors detects a unique spin accumulation signal.
US09123356B2	Detecting track information from overlapping signals read from a data storage medium Detecting track information involves receiving first and second overlapping track signals from first and second read elements that read first and second tracks from a data storage medium. Information of the first and second tracks is estimated using the respective first and second track signals. An improved information estimate of the first track is obtained using the first track signal and the estimated information of the second track, and an improved information estimate of the second track is obtained using the second track signal and the estimated information of the first track. First and second track data are decoded using the respective improved information estimates of the first and second tracks.
US09123352B2	Ambient noise compensation system robust to high excitation noise A speech enhancement system controls the gain of an excitation signal to prevent uncontrolled gain adjustments. The system includes a first device that converts sound waves into operational signals. An ambient noise estimator is linked to the first device and an echo canceller. The ambient noise estimator estimates how loud a background noise would be near the first device before or after an echo cancellation. The system then compares the ambient noise estimate to a current ambient noise estimate near the first device to control a gain of an excitation signal.
US09123351B2	Speech segment determination device, and storage medium A speech segment determination device includes a frame division portion, a power spectrum calculation portion, a power spectrum operation portion, a spectral entropy calculation portion and a determination portion. The frame division portion divides an input signal in units of frames. The power spectrum calculation portion calculates, using an analysis length, a power spectrum of the input signal for each of the frames that have been divided. The power spectrum operation portion adds a value of the calculated power spectrum to a value of power spectrum in each of frequency bins. The spectral entropy calculation portion calculates spectral entropy using the power spectrum whose value has been increased. The determination portion determines, based on a value of the spectral entropy, whether the input signal is a signal in a speech segment.
US09123347B2	Apparatus and method for eliminating noise Provided are an apparatus and method for eliminating noise. The method includes: detecting a speech section from a noise speech signal including a noise signal; separating the speech section into a consonant section and a vowel section on the basis of a VOP at the speech section; calculating a transfer function of a filter for eliminating the noise signal to allow the degree of noise elimination to be different in the consonant section and the vowel section; and eliminating the noise signal from the noise speech signal on the basis of the transfer function.
US09123345B2	Voice interface systems and methods A voice-controlled system is described that can be accessed by a mobile computing device. A user can communicate requests using natural language utterances. A microphone can collect the utterances and provide them to the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device can transmit the human utterance to a voice interface system. The voice interface system can utilize user preferences when executing the request to provide a personalized user experience. Computer-implemented methods are also described herein.
US09123343B2	Method, and a device for converting speech by replacing inarticulate portions of the speech before the conversion An arrangement for converting speech into text comprises a mobile device (202) and a server entity (208) configured to perform the conversion and additional optional processes in co-operation. The user of the mobile device (202) may locally edit the speech signal prior to or between the execution of the actual speech recognition tasks, by replacing an inarticulate portion of the speech signal with a new version being recording of the portion. Task sharing details can be negotiated dynamically based on a number of parameters.
US09123341B2	System and method for multi-modal input synchronization and disambiguation Embodiments of a dialog system that utilizes a multi-modal input interface for recognizing user input in human-machine interaction (HMI) systems are described. Embodiments include a component that receives user input from a plurality of different user input mechanisms (multi-modal input) and performs certain synchronization and disambiguation processes. The multi-modal input components synchronizes and integrates the information obtained from different modalities, disambiguates the input, and recovers from any errors that might be produced with respect to any of the user inputs. Such a system effectively addresses any ambiguity associated with the user input and corrects for errors in the human-machine interaction.
US09123332B1	Method and apparatus of providing semi-automated classifier adaptation for natural language processing Example embodiments of the present invention may include a method that provides transcribing spoken utterances occurring during a call and assigning each of the spoken utterances with a corresponding set of first classifications. The method may also include determining a confidence rating associated with each of the spoken utterances and the assigned set of first classifications, and performing at least one of reclassifying the spoken utterances with new classifications based on at least one additional classification operation, and adding the assigned first classifications and the corresponding plurality of spoken utterances to a training data set.
US09123331B1	Training an automatic speech recognition system using compressed word frequencies Respective word frequencies may be determined from a corpus of utterance-to-text-string mappings that contain associations between audio utterances and a respective text string transcription of each audio utterance. Respective compressed word frequencies may be obtained based on the respective word frequencies such that the distribution of the respective compressed word frequencies has a lower variance than the distribution of the respective word frequencies. Sample utterance-to-text-string mappings may be selected from the corpus of utterance-to-text-string mappings based on the compressed word frequencies. An automatic speech recognition (ASR) system may be trained with the sample utterance-to-text-string mappings.
US09123330B1	Large-scale speaker identification Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving audio data encoding ambient sounds, identifying media content that matches the audio data, and a timestamp corresponding to a particular portion of the identified media content, identifying a speaker associated with the particular portion of the identified media content corresponding to the timestamp, and providing information identifying the speaker associated with the particular portion of the identified media content for output.
US09123327B2	Voice recognition apparatus for recognizing a command portion and a data portion of a voice input A voice recognition apparatus includes a command recognizer and a data recognizer. The command recognizer recognizes a command portion of a voice input and outputs a command based on a voice recognition result of the voice input. The data recognizer recognizes a data portion of a voice inputs and outputs a data based on a voice recognition result of the voice input. The data recognizer further includes a plurality of data-category recognizers respectively using a data-category dictionary for recognizing the data portion of the voice input and outputting a data result. A voice recognition result selection unit of the voice recognition apparatus selects one of the data results from the data-category recognizers based on the command recognized by the command recognizer.
US09123324B2	Non-linear post-processing control in stereo acoustic echo cancellation Methods, systems, and apparatus are provided for multiple-input multiple-output acoustic echo cancellation. A multiple-input multiple-output acoustic echo canceller (MIMO AEC) is provided as a high quality echo canceller for voice and/or audio communication over a network (e.g., packet switched network). The MIMO AEC is an extension of, as well as an application/usage of a single-input single-output acoustic echo canceller (“mono AEC”). The MIMO AEC is an extension of the mono AEC in that the code/theory underlying the mono AEC is adjusted for use with multiple channels. The manner in which AEC is applied (e.g., on each microphone signal using separate mono-AECs) is an application of mono-AECs.
US09123322B2	Howling suppression device, hearing aid, howling suppression method, and integrated circuit A howling suppression device includes a subtractor which subtracts a pseudo feedback signal from an input signal; an adaptive filter which produces a pseudo feedback signal for a next input signal; and a coefficient update control unit which controls an update rate of a filter coefficient of the adaptive filter and includes: a level calculation unit which calculates a signal level of the input signal; a signal-rising-edge detection unit which detects a rising-edge point; a reverberation section detection unit which detects a reverberation section; and an update rate control unit which sets the update rate to a first rate in the reverberation section and to a second rate in other sections. The adaptive filter updates the filter coefficient at the update rate set by the update rate control unit.
US09123321B2	Sequenced adaptation of anti-noise generator response and secondary path response in an adaptive noise canceling system A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate to the speaker to provide an error signal indicative of the effectiveness of the noise cancellation. A secondary path estimating adaptive filter is used to estimate the electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer so that source audio can be removed from the error signal. Adaptation of adaptive filters is sequenced so that update of their coefficients does not cause instability or error in the update. A level of the source audio with respect to the ambient audio can be determined to determine whether the system may generate erroneous anti-noise and/or become unstable.
US09123318B2	Object based musical composition performance apparatus and program In a musical performance apparatus, a time line management processing part displays one or more of time lines on a display unit according to an operation of an operating unit, each time line being an image representing a period for a sequence of one or more of sounds that repeat in a piece of music. An object management processing part displays one or more of objects on the display unit according to an operation of the operating unit, each object being a symbol corresponding to and representing a sound to be generated. A musical performance processing part determines belongingness of each object to the one or more of the time lines displayed on the display unit, and repeats control of generating sounds corresponding to the objects in parallel and independently for each time line at the period corresponding to each time line, such that each sound is generated at a sound generation timing determined according to a position of the corresponding object in a longitudinal direction of the time line to which the corresponding object belongs.
US09123312B2	Tuning mechanisms The improved tuning mechanisms include a novel string clamp comprising a lever based clamping element oblique to the string path that utilizes an enlarged radiused underside to provide a variable clamping point to address various diameters of strings which can be integrated into either a fine-tuner or Macro-tuner arrangements; further, there, is, in addition to an improved Global-tuner, a fixed dimension multi-tier insert plate for a tremolo base plate, provided in differing sizes, to support bridge elements in a radii that matches various fingerboard radii, and improvements directed towards integrated riser posts for bearing arrangements on the pivot axis of a fulcrum tremolo provide a slotted axel recess and a separate threaded outer sleeve-like portion to allow alignment to the tremolo's bearing axis regardless of the position of riser post within body for adjustably mounting the fulcrum tremolo to the instrument, which, in the preferred embodiment, all work cooperatively together.
US09123310B2	Liquid crystal display device for improving the characteristics of gate drive voltage An LCD device according to an embodiment includes a liquid crystal display panel in which n gate lines are formed; a timing controller to generate first to sixth clock signals; a first gate driver to apply a high gate voltage to one ends of the (2k−1)th gate lines in response to the first, third and fifth clock signals; a second gate driver to apply the high gate voltage to one ends of the (2k)th gate lines in response to the second, fourth and sixth clock signals; left discharge circuits each to apply a low gate voltage to the other end of the (2k−1)th gate line according to a voltage level on (2k+1)th gate line; and right discharge circuits each to apply the low gate voltage to the other end of the (2k)th gate line according to the voltage level on (2k+2)th gate line.
US09123309B2	Display device using boosting-on and boosting-off gate driving voltages A display device, including a signal controlling unit, a data driving unit, a gate driving voltage generating unit, a gate driving unit, and a display panel. The display panel displays an image during a frame period including a blank period and a display period. The gate driving voltage generating unit receives a control signal and an analog driving voltage. The gate driving voltage generating unit generates boosting-on and boosting-off gate driving voltages based on the analog driving voltage. The gate driving voltage generating unit outputs the boosting-on gate driving voltage during a part of the frame period and the boosting-off gate driving voltage during a remaining of the frame period.
US09123308B2	Display memory, driver circuit, display, and portable information device A display memory able to reduce power consumption, able to generate graphics at a high speed, and not needing memory mapping, a driver circuit, a display using the driver circuit, and a portable information apparatus, wherein a CPU read circuit is connected to one bit line of a display memory 7, a display read circuit is connected to the other bit line, a write circuit is connected to both bit lines, the CPU read circuit and write circuit are assigned to the access from the CPU, the display read circuit is assigned to the display screen display, and further the access from the CPU and the reading to the display screen are assigned to different two level periods of a clock signal of the memory and independently controlled. Further, a drive power supply of the display memory is divided and a drive power supply voltage is supplied to the display memory for every memory cell or for every plurality of memory cells.
US09123294B2	Organic light emitting diode display device This disclosure relates to a display device that compensates for a threshold voltage of a driving TFT, a voltage drop of a supply voltage source, and a mobility of the driving TFT. The display device can include a plurality of pixels. At least one pixel can include components such as a first capacitor, a second capacitor, a data transistor, a control transistor, an emission transistor, an initialization transistor, a driving transistor and a light emitting diode (LED) among other components.
US09123290B1	Adjustable display device A display device capable of being adjusted between flat and curved comprising: a display panel; a back cover system including: at least two angle block modules, one in each half of the back cover system, the angle block modules, wherein moving the angle block modules changes a curvature of the display panel; a driving system to move the angle block modules. A driving system includes a motor; a gear connected to the motor; block units arranged in a row in the angle block module and positioned at a rear of the display panel; a shaft bearing connecting a first block unit to a second block unit. A flatness controlling unit comprises an angle block module having a flatness controlling groove; a wire guided by the flatness controlling groove; and a tension adjusting part including a portion of the wire and a spring connected to the portion of the wire.
US09123288B2	Display devices for providing driving currents irrelevant to threshold voltages of driving transistors and driving voltages of light-emitting diodes A display device includes pixel units. Each pixel unit includes a driving transistor, a switch transistor, a reset transistor, a light-emitting element, and a control unit. The driving transistor has a control terminal, a first terminal coupled to a first operation voltage source and a second terminal. The reset transistor is coupled to the control terminal of the driving transistor. The light-emitting element is coupled to the switch transistor in series between the second terminal of the driving transistor and a second operation voltage source. The control unit stores a threshold voltage of the driving transistor and a driving voltage of the light-emitting element according to a voltage level of the second terminal of the driving transistor. The control unit changes a voltage level of the control terminal of the driving transistor according to the stored threshold voltage, the stored driving voltage, and a corresponding data signal.
US09123287B2	System for displaying images A system for displaying images employing a pixel structure. The pixel structure includes a first sub-pixel, a second sub-pixel, a third sub-pixel, and a filling layer. Particularly, each sub-pixel includes a color filter layer, and an electroluminescent element corresponding to the color filter layer. The transmittances of the color filter layers of the first sub-pixel, the second sub-pixel, and third sub-pixel, for a radiance level used for curing the filling layer, are determined according to the following equation: transmittance of the color filter layer of the first sub-pixel>transmittance of the color filter layer of the second sub-pixel>transmittance of the color filter layer of the third sub-pixel. Further, the distance between the first and second sub-pixels is greater than that between the first and third sub-pixels.
US09123286B2	Power generator having a power selector and organic light emitting display device using the same A power generator includes a booster that boosts an input voltage supplied from a power supply unit and that supplies a boosted input voltage to an output terminal, a selector that selects one of the input voltage and a voltage at the output terminal as a selected voltage and supplies the selected voltage as an output voltage, a reference voltage generator that generates a reference voltage based on the output voltage, a comparator that compares a feedback voltage supplied from the booster and the reference voltage with each other, and a controller that controls the booster to output a chosen voltage from the output terminal according to a comparison result of the comparator.
US09123285B2	Transparent display device and transparency adjustment method thereof A transparent display device and a transparency adjustment method thereof are provided. The transparent display device includes a transparent display unit, a sensing module and a processing unit. The sensing module detects at least one of conditions of the environmental background of the transparent display device and a user's input. The processing unit determines if it is necessary to adjust the transparent degree of a transparent image displayed by the transparent display unit or not according to a sensing result detected by the sensing module.
US09123283B2	Shift register, gate driving circuit and display apparatus The present disclosure relates to a shift register, a gate driving circuit and a display apparatus, wherein the shift register outputs an output signal of each stage in a forward direction according to a forward scanning signal and outputs the output signal of each stage in a reverse direction according to a reverse scanning signal, each stage of the shift register includes a forward scanning switch module, a reverse scanning switch module, a pull-up driving module; a pull-up module; a pull-down driving module; a first pull-down module; and a second pull-down module. A bi-directional scanning can be achieved by using the forward scanning switch module and the reverse scanning switch module to control to input different signals to different modules.
US09123282B2	Display A display is disclosed. The display comprises a panel, a data driver and a scan driver. The panel comprises pixels, data lines and scan lines. The data lines transmit data signals to the pixels, and the scan lines transmit scan signals to the pixels. The data driver provides the data signals, and the scan driver provides the scan signals. The scan driver comprises a shift register circuit. The shift register circuit comprises an i+1th stage carry shift register, an ith stage carry shift register and a jth stage buffer shift register. The ith stage carry shift register generates an i+1th start signal to start the i+1th stage carry shift register, so that the i+1th stage carry shift register generates an i+2th start signal. The i+1th start signal starts the jth stage buffer shift register to generate a jth output signal.
US09123279B2	Flexible display and method for controlling the flexible display A flexible display and a controlling method thereof are provided. The flexible display includes a plurality of pressure sensors, a display unit and a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is connected to the pressure sensors and the display unit. The processing unit obtains pressure values from each of the pressure sensors within a time unit and generates a pressure area and a pressure variance according to the pressure values from each of the pressure sensors. The processing unit further determines a display mode of the display unit according to the pressure area and the pressure variance. Therefore, the flexible display is capable of providing several kinds of display mode only based on the equipped pressure sensors.
US09123278B2	Performing inline chroma downsampling with reduced power consumption Methods and graphics processing pipelines for performing inline chroma downsampling of pixel data. The graphics processing pipeline includes a chroma downsampling unit for performing buffer-free downsampling of chroma pixel components. A vertical column of chroma pixel components is received in each clock cycle by the chroma downsampling unit, and downsampled chroma pixel components are generated on every clock cycle or every other clock cycle. Vertical, horizontal, and vertical and horizontal downsampling can be performed without buffers by the chroma downsampling unit. A programmable configuration register in the chroma downsampling unit determines the type of downsampling that is implemented.
US09123276B2	Display substrate and method of measuring pattern dimensions of display substrate A display panel includes a plurality of pixel areas and at least one inspection area. An incident light is irradiated onto an inspection pattern disposed in the inspection area and a reflection light reflected by the inspection pattern is detected. An optical critical dimension of the inspection pattern is calculated from the reflection light, and a dimension of a pixel pattern disposed in each pixel area is calculated from the optical critical dimension of the inspection pattern. Accordingly, the dimension of the pixel pattern may be indirectly measured from the inspection pattern.
US09123275B2	Method for displaying error rates of data channels of display A method for displaying error rates of data channels of a display is provided. A timing controller of the display repeatedly transmits a test signal with a specific format to a first and a second source drivers of the display via a first and a second data channels of the display. During testing, a first number and a second number of times of the first source driver and the second source driver determining that the received test signal does not have the specific format are counted respectively. The first and the second source drivers control displaying of a first area and a second area of a panel of the display respectively according to the counted first and second numbers of times. Accordingly, the error rates of the data channels are presented on the panel of the display in a way that the error rates could be recognized more easily.
US09123272B1	Realistic image lighting and shading An electronic device can utilize one or more sensors and/or imaging elements to determine the relative position of at least one light source relative to the device. In various embodiments, occlusions can be used to cause shadows to be cast on certain sensors. By determining the relative position of each occlusion relative to the sensor, the device can determine an approximate direction of the light source. Utilizing the relative position of a light source, the electronic device can properly light or shade a graphical object to be rendered by the device or otherwise process image information captured by the device.
US09123269B2	System for displaying message on a cord A system for creating and displaying an advertising message on an cord or string. In the preferred embodiment, the system includes a two piece construction made up of an internal gripping sleeve that attaches to the cord or string and a fixture that includes a bore for receiving the sleeve. The bore includes a foam internal surface that permits the fixture to forcibly slid over the internal sleeve but also has a tendency to attach itself to the sleeve when not moved by the user. The external surface of the fixture includes a displayed message.
US09123265B2	Planer light source device with fixing portion and display device using the same A planar light source device includes: a point light source that emits light; a circuit board that has a mounting portion, on which the point light source mounted, and a fixing portion, on which a connector supplying electric power to the point light source is mounted; and a frame that holds the circuit board with the point light source, wherein the circuit board has a protruding portion that protrudes from an end portion of the fixing portion, and wherein the fixing portion of the circuit board is fixed at an inner portion of the frame, and wherein the protruding portion of the circuit board is fixed at an outer portion of the frame, which is opposite to the inner portion of the fixing portion.
US09123264B2	Sign holder device A sign holder in the form of individual parts which, upon assembly, provides for the support and display of signage in a plurality of orientations. The sign holder includes a base configured to receive and support a first end to the stem, the stem having a first end and second end, the first end configured to be releasably retained by the base and the second end configured to retain a sign frame. The sign frame, in turn, is configured to be releasably retained by the second end of the stem and have a left side and a right side and a gap between its sides. The gap is provided with tabs for positioning the stem on the sign frame to retain the stem in a predetermined location.
US09123260B2	Receiver operating characteristic-based training A presentation component (118) presents information from one or more data source(s) (102) to an assessor for assessment. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyzer 120 uses an ROC analysis technique to evaluate the performance of the assessor. A feedback component (126) provides feedback as to the assessor's performance. A data manipulator (114) facilitates manipulation of the presented data.
US09123259B2	Discovering functional groups of an area Disclosed herein are techniques and systems for discovering functional groups in an area, such as an urban area. A process includes segmenting a map of the area into sections, and inferring, for each section, a distribution of functions according to a topic model framework which considers mobility patters of users and points of interest (POIs) in the section. The topic model framework regards the section as a document, each function as a topic, the mobility patterns as words, and a POI feature vector for the section as metadata. The process may further include clustering the sections based at least in part on a similarity of the distribution of functions between each of the sections to obtain functional groups, estimating a functionality intensity for each of the functional groups, and annotating each of the functional groups.
US09123257B2	Device for facilitating detection of hygienic hand washing A door mountable device for facilitating detection of hygienic hand washing. A dye dispenser is mounted on a door handle in a manner such that a soap washable dye is deposited on hands that contact the handle upon entry into a restroom facility. The resulting dye stain area is removed by thorough hand washing. Any stain remaining upon exiting the restroom is an indicator that hands have not been hygienically washed.
US09123254B2	Method and system for managing surveys A method, a system, and a computer program product for creating and conducting a survey are disclosed. While creating the survey, one or more answer formats corresponding to each of the one or more questions are defined. Then, answering mediums corresponding to each of the one or more answer formats are defined. The survey is then created based on at least one of the questions, the answer formats, and the answering mediums. The survey is then available to the associated users. While conducting the survey, the system receives answers for the questions in the survey through the answering mediums in their associated answer format, and compiles a survey report.
US09123250B2	Systems and methods for reporting real-time handling characteristics A vehicle may include a monitoring unit configured to determine a time-varying handling characteristic of the vehicle. The time-varying handling characteristic may include a characteristic of vehicle performance in executing maneuvers, a status of a vehicle component (e.g., tires, brakes, drivetrain, etc.), and/or the like. The time-varying handling characteristic may be transmitted to one or more nearby vehicles to improve the ability of manual operators and/or automatic-driving software of the nearby vehicles to predict the performance of the vehicle in executing maneuvers, to be aware of a failure (or likely failure) of a vehicle component, and/or the like. Record of the transmission of the time-varying handling characteristic and/or of any acknowledgements of receipt of the time-varying handling characteristic by the nearby vehicles may be logged to a persistent storage device.
US09123238B1	Method to enable small vehicles to trip a traffic light inductive loop sensor A method to allow vehicles of low metallic mass to trip an inductive loop detector at a traffic light by first matching the loop detector's running frequency, then, while monitoring, raising the frequency of the loop detector through normal transformer action with a transducer that is in close proximity to the loop detector, until the frequency of the transmissions from the transducer and that of the loop detector just start to diverge. This is the point at which maximal influence is achieved over the loop detector's running frequency commensurate with the transformer couple that exists between transducer and loop detector. Since the initially encountered (uninfluenced) frequency of the loop detector is measured, and the degree of increase subsequently induced is known in real time, a display can be provided for the user showing not only that a loop has been detected, but also the degree of influence achieved.
US09123237B2	Controlling a remote electronic device in a control state An electronic device for controlling a remote electronic device is described. The electronic device includes a processor and instructions stored in memory that is in electronic communication with the processor. The electronic device enters a control state that is not a power off state and is not a power on state. The electronic device also generates a control message for a remote electronic device while in the control state. The electronic device further transmits the control message for controlling the remote electronic device while in the control state.
US09123231B1	Methods and systems related to remote power loss detection Remote power loss detection. At least some of the example embodiments are methods including: tracking location of an asset by an onboard device mechanically coupled to the asset, the onboard device electrically coupled to a source of power of the asset, and the onboard device receiving power from the asset; charging a supercapacitor coupled to the onboard device; and then detecting a complete loss of power provided to the onboard device, and the detecting by the onboard device; and after the complete loss of power sending a message by wireless transmission, the sending based on power derived from the supercapacitor, and the message including an indication of a last known voltage provide by the asset prior to the complete loss of power, and the sending by the onboard device after the complete loss of power.
US09123224B2	Mobile perimeter access security system A mobile security system is provided having a container configured to be moved to a plurality of locations. A walkway extends transversely through the container and provides access to an exit gate when the mobile security system is positioned adjacent an exit gate. The mobile security system includes a RFID detection system for detecting and identifying RFID tags that move through the walkway. If a RFID tag associated with a jobsite item is identified, an alarm system and/or camera devices within the container are actuated. The electronic components of the mobile security system are stored in a primary cabinet in the container so as to be inaccessible from the walkway. The container is configured to prevent damage to the electronic components caused by movement, vibration, or harsh environmental conditions.
US09123214B2	Commodity sales data processing device A commodity sales data processing device that processes sales data relating to a commodity includes a memorizing part (such as a RAM 3) that memorizes commodity data including unit mass information of a commodity, an imaging part that images a commodity, a quantity specifying part that specifies the number of commodities based on the picture data taken by the imaging part, a measuring part that measures the mass of the commodity, a number calculating part that calculates the number of commodities based on the mass of the commodity measured by the measuring part and the commodity data memorized in the memorizing part, a judging part that judges whether or not the number of commodities specified by the quantity specifying part and the number of commodities calculated by the number calculating part match, and an informing part that informs the result of judgment by the judging part.
US09123213B2	Portable terminal for acquiring product data A portable terminal for the acquisition of product data, for example in a point of sale or in a collection, distribution and/or storage point, includes a coded information reader, a user interface, and an interface for the logical connection with an external control station. Advantageously, the terminal also includes an interface for the wireless connection with cellular devices and/or telephones and/or PDAs and at least one internal management unit for the activation of the interface. The interface allows establishing a wireless connection with a single pre-identified cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA, i.e., recognized following a recognition procedure. The terminal is then configured as a peripheral device of the pre-identified cellular device.
US09123212B2	Gaming machine including a feature gamble A gaming machine has a display and a game controller arranged to control images of symbols displayed on the display. The game controller is arranged to play a game wherein at least one random event is caused to be displayed on the display and, if a predefined winning event occurs, the machine awards a prize. A game has a feature having non-monetary characteristics which can be won, the non-monetary characteristics being able to be gambled. The gaming machine includes a selector by which a player is able to gamble at least one of the non-monetary characteristics of the feature.
US09123211B2	Wager selections for wagering games truncated by prior wage level A gaming system includes one or more input devices, one or more display devices, one or more processors, and one or more memory devices storing instructions. When executed by the one or more processors, the instructions cause the gaming system to receive, via at least one of the input devices, an input indicative of a wager selected from at least one wager amount being a function of a previous wager associated with an immediately preceding wagering game. The instructions cause the gaming system to display a wagering game on the one or more displays, the wagering game being in an advantageous state relative to the immediately preceding wagering game. The instructions further cause the gaming system to display an outcome of the wagering game on the one or more displays, at least a portion of the outcome being enhanced by an outcome of the immediately preceding wagering game.
US09123209B2	Symbol collection during reel spin A method for conducting a wagering game via a gaming terminal includes receiving, via an input device, a wager to play the wagering game. An array of symbol positions arranged in a plurality of columns is displayed, on one or more display devices. At least a portion of a plurality of symbols is visually moved with respect to the array of symbol positions on the one or more display devices. One or more of the plurality of the symbols are special symbols. In response to one or more of the special symbols being visually moved on the one or more display devices, the visually moved special symbols are caused to be visually collected in a symbol collection area adjacent to the array of symbol positions on the one or more display devices.
US09123208B2	Method and apparatus for settlement of processor based tournament competition A method of providing or receiving value from or to a participant value in a game tournament wherein a plurality of participants play a casino-style game, includes calculating an expected value for the position of each participant in the tournament, the expected value based upon the number of wagering units held by the participant at the point in time, the number of wagering units held by each other participant in the tournament at the point in time and a payout table for the tournament.
US09123206B2	Game library manager for a gaming machine Systems and methods for managing a gaming machine having one or more games and game configurations are disclosed. One aspect of the systems and methods includes providing a game framework including a game library manager that manages creation, update and deletion of multiple wagering games on a gaming machine.
US09123203B2	Enhanced video gaming machine The present invention provides a closed-loop system that allows the operator of video gaming machines or other systems to define promotional events for the particular machines or systems, monitor the activity of the particular machines or systems, and grant awards. More specifically, the promotional events may include scheduling information, winning criteria and awards. During the period of time that the promotional event is active, the activity of the machine or system is monitored to determine if the winning criteria has been satisfied. If the winning criteria are satisfied, information pertaining to event is recorded. The present invention is applicable to a variety of embodiments including video poker machines, black jack machines or other gaming and gambling machines, as well as other systems that include a display mechanism and an activity that can be monitored.
US09123202B2	Systems and methods for managing money from multiple players Various embodiments that may generally relate to one or more games at one or more venues. Gaming at a venue may qualify a player for a bonus game. A pool from which awards are paid for winning the bonus game may be funded through gaming activity that is not at the one or more venues.
US09123197B1	Gaming system and method of operation A system for conducting gaming includes at least one gaming machine communicating with an award server. Optionally, the gaming machine communicates with the award server via a network server. A game is conducted at the gaming machine. A determination is made whether to issue an award from the award server. In an optional embodiment, the determination is random; in another optional embodiment, the determination is based on the outcome of the game. The award is issued from the award server, at least in part, based on data communicated between the gaming machine and the award server.
US09123193B2	Device for receiving notes of value and method for determining the stock of a drum storage on the basis of a motor position The invention relates to a method for determining the stock of notes of value of a drum storage (22). For at least a part of the notes of value, the current motor position is determined after winding up the note of value and stored such that it is unambiguously assigned to the respective note of value. For determining the stock of the drum storage (22), the current motor position is determined and compared with the stored motor positions. Dependent on the result of this comparison, the stock is determined. Further, the invention relates to a device (10, 22, 30) for receiving notes of value, which comprises a drum storage (22), a memory element and a control unit (26), the control unit (26) implementing the above-described method steps.
US09123192B2	Method and device for processing banknotes A bank note processing apparatus processes bank notes by first singling the bank notes, then transporting the singled bank notes through a sensor device and on to several output units. Before delivering the bank notes to the output units, the bank notes are checked by evaluating data as well as determining and storing serial numbers of the bank notes, wherein the bank notes are delivered to the output units depending on the result of the checking. Further, in determining the serial numbers of the bank notes, a unique serial number is established for each bank note.
US09123190B2	Method for authenticating an object A method for authenticating an object that includes providing a label (12) with invisible indicia (14) printed with optically active material on a reflective substrate; providing a device that has a digital camera (18) having a light source (20), an image sensor (22), a first polarizing filter (24) having a first orientation, and a second polarizing filter (26) having a second orientation; illuminating the label with the light from the light source through the first polarizing filter; forming an image with the image sensor using reflected light from the label wherein the reflected light passes through the second polarizing filter prior to reaching the sensor; wherein the second polarizing filter makes the invisible indicia visible; and authenticating the object.
US09123189B2	System and method for point-of-use instruction In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, systems and methods for transferring data over a network include communicating with a user via a portable communication device over the network, receiving a request for at least one instruction sequence related to a particular repair task of a machine from the user via the portable communication device over the network, processing the request from the user by accessing and retrieving the at least one instruction sequence from a database component, and transferring the at least one instruction sequence from the database component to the portable communication device.
US09123188B2	Acceleration sensor fault detection apparatus Provided is an acceleration detection apparatus installed in a vehicle and including a plurality of acceleration sensors having different characteristics, a function to input diagnosis signals in order to diagnose the outputs of the acceleration sensors and diagnose the fault detection functions while the vehicle stops, and a function to compare the outputs of the sensors in order to detect a fault while the vehicle runs.
US09123185B2	Passenger transporting system and method for obtaining tickets in such a system A method for obtaining tickets for journeys in a passenger transportation system which comprises stations for entering and/or leaving transport means of the system for journeys between the stations, wherein at least one station of the system is assigned at least one contactlessly readable data carrier and/or at least one transport means of the system is assigned at least one contactlessly readable data carrier, wherein the contactlessly readable data carriers contain ticket information items, and one of the contactlessly readable data carriers is read by a mobile reader in at least one station and/or in at least one transport means, and the corresponding ticket information item or items is/are stored in the mobile reader.
US09123184B2	System and method for direct transfer of electronic parking meter data A single space electronic parking meter mechanism for inserting into an outer parking meter housing is provided. The mechanism includes an inner housing, a payment receiving structure supported by the inner housing and an electronic display screen supported by the inner housing. The mechanism also includes a wireless communication subsystem supported by the inner housing configured to wirelessly communicate with a parking management system and an electronic meter control system controlling the electronic display and the wireless communications subsystem. The mechanism includes a memory device receiving port externally accessible through the inner housing and a read-write removable memory device physically accessible from outside of the inner housing and configured to be coupled to the memory device receiving port. The removable memory device including operation mode information that is read by the electronic meter control system to select an operation mode of the meter mechanism.
US09123183B1	Multi-layer digital elevation model A multi-layer digital elevation model (DEM) structure is disclosed. A device may access a first structure that comprises a plurality of first elevation values and a plurality of location identifiers that may correspond to a geographic region. The first elevation values may be associated with a first layer in the geographic region and correspond to respective location identifiers. The device may access a second structure that identifies a second layer in the geographic region. Second elevation values that may correspond to at least some of the plurality of location identifiers may be determined. A multi-layer DEM structure may be generated that stores the first elevation values and the second elevation values in association with corresponding location identifiers.
US09123182B2	Animated preview of images Computer program products, methods, systems, etc. for generating an animated preview of a number of images are disclosed. A selection of a group of images is received. A set of digital images from the group of images are identified as being representative of the group. At least some portion of the identified set of representative digital images from the group is then used to create an animated image. The animated image serves as a preview of the group of images, such that, when a user browses the images and sees the preview associated with a corresponding folder or directory, the user is able to quickly and easily associate the images in the group with a particular event and identify contents of the folder or directory.
US09123180B2	Method, system and computer-readable recording medium for displaying shadow of 3D virtual object A method for displaying a shadow of a 3D virtual object, includes steps of: (a) acquiring information on a viewpoint of a user looking at a 3D virtual object displayed in a specific location in 3D space by a wall display device; (b) determining a location and a shape of a shadow of the 3D virtual object to be displayed by referring to information on the viewpoint of the user and the information on a shape of the 3D virtual object; and (c) allowing the shadow of the 3D virtual object to be displayed by at least one of the wall display device and a floor display device by referring to the determined location and the determined shape of the shadow of the 3D virtual object. Accordingly, the user is allowed to feel the accurate sense of depth or distance regarding the 3D virtual object.
US09123179B2	Surrounding image display system and surrounding image display method for vehicle A surrounding image display system (1, 2) equipped for a vehicle includes a processing unit (10, 12) that is connected to a camera (20, 22) that captures an image around the vehicle. The processing unit (10, 12) processes the captured image from the camera (20, 22) to recognize an attention object, and generates a display image in which a frame border (70) that at least partially surrounds the recognized attention object is superimposed on the captured image. The frame border (70) includes a first frame border portion (72) drawn in a first color and a second frame border portion (74) drawn in a second color different from the first color.
US09123174B2	Method and apparatus for displaying a simulated application of at least one coating to a digital image A computer implemented method that includes enabling, using a processor, a user to identify a first area of a digital image, wherein the first area will be colored with a first color. The method also includes segmenting, using the processor, the digital image into a first segment that represents the first area and a second segment that represents a second area of the digital image, wherein an original color of the second area will remain unchanged. The method further includes enabling, using the processor, the user to select the first color, wherein the first color corresponds a first coating color, and displaying, using the processor, the digital image with the first segment colored with the first color.
US09123167B2	Shader serialization and instance unrolling A graphics engine with shader unit thread serializing and instance unrolling functionality that executes multi-threaded shader logic in a single hardware thread is described. Hardware accelerated tessellation functionality is implemented utilizing programmable pipeline stages that allow custom, runtime configuration of graphics hardware utilizing programs compiled from a high level shader language that are executed using one or more shader execution cores. In one embodiment, multiple shader unit program threads are serialized to run in one hardware thread to allow a greater number of instructions to be executed on the shader cores and preserve hardware threads for primitive processing by other shader units.
US09123163B2	Medical image display apparatus, method and program A medical image display apparatus includes an image obtainment unit configured to obtain a first image and a second image of a subject generated based on volume data, a base line setting unit configured to set a base line in the first image obtained by the image obtainment unit, an image division unit configured to divide, based on the base line that has been set in the first image by the base line setting unit, the second image into two divided images, and a display control unit configured to display the two divided images, which have been divided by the image division unit, on the first image at a display device in such a manner that the two divided images are away from the base line by a predetermined distance.
US09123162B2	Integration cone tracing A method is provided for integration cone tracing with particular application for feature films and other demanding content creation using scenes of high complexity requiring global illumination. Instead of using a conventional noise prone ray tracer, cones are intersected with a scene bounding hierarchy to determine intersecting scene geometry, and integration results are computed by directional sampling within the cones. As a result, the working data set may be reduced as the rendering may begin with a smaller set of cones as compared to the large number of rays required for acceptable filtering in a conventional ray tracer. Furthermore, by refining the cones during the rendering only on an as-needed basis according to an acceptable noise threshold and by sharing secondary cone bounces among primary cones, the processing workload and data set requirements may be kept to a reasonable level even for multiple global illumination passes.
US09123156B2	X-ray CT apparatus and image reconstruction method In order to provide an X-ray CT apparatus and the like that reconstruct an image using an iterative approximation method which ensures stable convergence and can be executed at high speed, a computation device 5 of an X-ray CT apparatus 1 calculates matrices A, B, D, R, and R′ on the basis of the scanning conditions input through an input device 6 (step 1). Then, the computation device 5 calculates each element of a matrix I−α(SBTDA+βSR) (step 2). Then, the computation device 5 calculates the operator norm ∥I−α(SBTDA+βSR)∥ of the matrix I−α(SBTDA+βSR) (step 3). Then, the computation device 5 determines a relaxation coefficient α such that a predetermined conditional expression is satisfied (step 4).
US09123155B2	Apparatus and method for using augmented reality vision system in surgical procedures A system and method for improving a surgeon's vision by overlaying augmented reality information onto a video image of the surgical site. A high definition video camera sends a video image in real time. Prior to the surgery, a pre-operative image is created from MRI, x-ray, ultrasound, or other method of diagnosis using imaging technology. The pre-operative image is stored within the computer. The computer processes the pre-operative image to decipher organs, anatomical geometries, vessels, tissue planes, orientation, and other structures. As the surgeon performs the surgery, the AR controller augments the real time video image with the processed pre-operative image and displays the augmented image on an interface to provide further guidance to the surgeon during the surgical procedure.
US09123153B2	Scalable multi-primitive system Disclosed herein is a vertex core. The vertex core includes a reset scanner configured to remove reset indices and partial primitives in an input stream and resolve draw calls into sub-draw calls at reset index boundaries; and provide the resolved sub-draw calls to a plurality of downstream vertex grouper tessellators.
US09123149B2	Expert color system for color selection with color harmony and color emotion intelligence An expert color selection system that assists the user in selecting color combinations is disclosed. The expert system suggests combinations of colors that are harmonious with each other. The user may tune the level of harmony in the combination. The user may also select a color emotion for the color combination and set the emotion threshold. The suggested color combination can be used as interior or exterior paints and for color merchandise.
US09123145B2	Temporal noise control for sketchy animation Techniques are presented for controlling the amount of temporal noise in certain animation sequences. Sketchy animation sequences are received in an input in a digital form and used to create an altered version of the same animation with temporal coherence enforced down to the stroke level, resulting in a reduction of the perceived noise. The amount of reduction is variable and can be controlled via a single parameter to achieve a desired artistic effect.
US09123143B2	System and method for motion sickness minimization using integration of attended and unattended datastreams A system for simultaneous visual data presentation is provided having a processor and memory with instructions for execution by the processor for: receiving attended data; receiving unattended data; and generating presentation data. The presentation is suitable for simultaneous presentation of the attended data and the unattended data in a manner in which the unattended data at least partially overlaps the attended data and the unattended data does not interfere with the attended data by replacing, erasing, or suppressing the attended data, and vice versa. The presented unattended data gives cues that the user can sense and provide information to the user while attending to the presented attended data, without attending to the presented unattended data.
US09123141B2	Ghost artifact detection and removal in HDR image processing using multi-level median threshold bitmaps A ghost detection method for high-dynamic range (HDR) image creation using multi-level median threshold bitmapping. At each of multiple levels, median threshold bitmaps (MTBs) are generated for each original low-dynamic range image. At each level, the MTBs of the multiple original images are compared to generate a ghost map for each original image which indicates the locations of ghost pixels in the original image. For each original image, the ghost maps generated at the multiple levels are combined to generate a combined ghost map. The multiple combined ghost maps can then be used in creating the HDR image, for example, by discarding pixels in an original image that are indicated by the corresponding combined ghost map as being a ghost pixel.
US09123139B2	Ultrasonic image processing with directional interpolation in order to increase the resolution of an image In an ultrasonic image processing apparatus, an original image in the form of a three-dimensional ultrasonic image is generated from volume data based on the volume rendering method. Directional interpolation processing is then applied to the original image. More specifically, a corresponding point corresponding to a noted pixel in the display image is first determined on the original image. Then, on the original image, a plurality of candidate directions extending through the corresponding point are set, and a dispersion value is computed for each of the candidate directions. Further, a normal direction with the maximum dispersion value is specified among the candidate directions, and a reference direction along the contour of a tissue is determined in the direction orthogonal to the specified normal line. Alternatively, the reference direction is determined as a direction with the minimum dispersion value among the plurality of candidate directions. Based on a plurality of pixel values existing in the reference directions, an interpolated pixel value of the noted pixel is computed. Contrast emphasis processing is further applied following the directional interpolation processing, as required.
US09123138B2	Adaptive patch-based image upscaling Image upscaling techniques are described. These techniques may include use of iterative and adjustment upscaling techniques to upscale an input image. A variety of functionality may be incorporated as part of these techniques, examples of which include content-adaptive patch finding techniques that may be employed to give preference to an in-place patch to minimize structure distortion. In another example, content metric techniques may be employed to assign weights for combining patches. In a further example, algorithm parameters may be adapted with respect to algorithm iterations, which may be performed to increase efficiency of computing device resource utilization and speed of performance. For instance, algorithm parameters may be adapted to enforce a minimum and/or maximum number to iterations, cease iterations for image sizes over a threshold amount, set sampling step sizes for patches, employ techniques based on color channels (which may include independence and joint processing techniques), and so on.
US09123134B2	Method for tracking and forecasting marine ice bodies A near-real-time tracking and integrated forecasting of marine ice bodies observable on satellite imagery.
US09123133B1	Method and apparatus for moving object detection based on cerebellar model articulation controller network A method for moving object detection based on a Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) network includes the following steps. A time series of incoming frames of a fixed location delivered over a network is received. A CMAC network is constructed from the time series of incoming frames, where the CMAC network includes an input space, an association memory space, a weight memory space, and an output space. A current frame is received and divided into a plurality of current blocks. Each of the current blocks is classified as either a background block or a moving object block according to the CMAC network. Whether a target pixel of the moving object blocks is a moving object pixel or a background pixel is determined according to an output of the CMAC network in the output space.
US09123129B2	Multi-mode video event indexing Multi-mode video event indexing includes determining a quality of object distinctiveness with respect to images from a video stream input. A high-quality analytic mode is selected from multiple modes and applied to video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images if the determined level of detected quality of object distinctiveness meets a threshold level of quality, else a low-quality analytic mode is selected and applied to the video input images via a hardware device to determine object activity within the video input images, wherein the low-quality analytic mode is different from the high-quality analytic mode.
US09123128B2	Graphics processing unit employing a standard processing unit and a method of constructing a graphics processing unit Employing a general processing unit as a programmable function unit of a graphics pipeline and a method of manufacturing a graphics processing unit are disclosed. In one embodiment, the graphics pipeline includes: (1) accelerators, (2) an input output interface coupled to each of the accelerators and (3) a general processing unit coupled to the input output interface and configured as a programmable function unit of the graphics pipeline, the general processing unit configured to issue vector instructions via the input output interface to vector data paths for the programmable function unit.
US09123127B2	Contrast enhancement spiking neuron network sensory processing apparatus and methods Apparatus and methods for contrast enhancement and feature identification. In one implementation, an image processing apparatus utilizes latency coding and a spiking neuron network to encode image brightness into spike latency. The spike latency is compared to a saliency window in order to detect early responding neurons. Salient features of the image are associated with the early responding neurons. A inhibitory neuron receives salient feature indication and provides inhibitory signal to the other neurons within an area of influence of the inhibitory neuron. The inhibition signal reduces probability of responses by the other neurons to stimulus that is proximate to the feature thereby increasing contrast within the encoded data. The contrast enhancement may facilitate feature identification within the image. Feature detection may be used for example for image compression, background removal and content distribution.
US09123125B2	Image processing method and associated apparatus An image processing method includes: receiving a plurality of images, the images being captured under different view points; and performing image alignment for the plurality of images by warping the plurality of images, where the plurality of images are warped according to a set of parameters, and the set of parameters are obtained by finding a solution constrained to predetermined ranges of physical camera parameters. In particular, the step of performing the image alignment further includes: automatically performing the image alignment to reproduce a three-dimensional (3D) visual effect, where the plurality of images is captured by utilizing a camera module, and the camera module is not calibrated with regard to the view points. For example, the 3D visual effect can be a multi-angle view (MAV) visual effect. In another example, the 3D visual effect can be a 3D panorama visual effect. An associated apparatus is also provided.
US09123118B2	System and methods for measuring depth using an array camera employing a bayer filter Systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention can perform parallax detection and correction in images captured using array cameras. Due to the different viewpoints of the cameras, parallax results in variations in the position of objects within the captured images of the scene. Methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention provide an accurate account of the pixel disparity due to parallax between the different cameras in the array, so that appropriate scene-dependent geometric shifts can be applied to the pixels of the captured images when performing super-resolution processing. In a number of embodiments, generating depth estimates considers the similarity of pixels in multiple spectral channels. In certain embodiments, generating depth estimates involves generating a confidence map indicating the reliability of depth estimates.
US09123117B2	Systems and methods for generating depth maps and corresponding confidence maps indicating depth estimation reliability Systems in accordance with embodiments of the invention can perform parallax detection and correction in images captured using array cameras. Due to the different viewpoints of the cameras, parallax results in variations in the position of objects within the captured images of the scene. Methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention provide an accurate account of the pixel disparity due to parallax between the different cameras in the array, so that appropriate scene-dependent geometric shifts can be applied to the pixels of the captured images when performing super-resolution processing. In a number of embodiments, generating depth estimates considers the similarity of pixels in multiple spectral channels. In certain embodiments, generating depth estimates involves generating a confidence map indicating the reliability of depth estimates.
US09123116B2	Multiview face capture using polarized spherical gradient illumination A multiview face capture system may acquire detailed facial geometry with high resolution diffuse and specular photometric information from multiple viewpoints. A lighting system may illuminate a face with polarized light from multiple directions. The light may be polarized substantially parallel to a reference axis during a parallel polarization mode of operation and substantially perpendicular to the reference axis during a perpendicular polarization mode of operation. Multiple cameras may each capture an image of the face along a materially different optical axis and have a linear polarizer configured to polarize light traveling along its optical axis in a direction that is substantially parallel to the reference axis. A controller may cause each of the cameras to capture an image of the face while the lighting system is in the parallel polarization mode of operation and again while the lighting system is in the perpendicular polarization mode of operation.
US09123110B2	Vehicle attitude angle calculating device, and lane departure warning system using same A vehicle attitude angle calculating device finds a yaw angle of a vehicle with reference to a lane stably without using information on a road vanishing point even in the state where a vehicle pitch angle varies. The vehicle attitude angle calculating device includes: a dividing line detection unit that detects a dividing line from image information received from a vehicle-mounted imaging device, the image information being a captured image of an outside of a vehicle; a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance between the dividing line and the optical axis of the vehicle-mounted imaging device every predetermined processing period; and a vehicle angle calculation unit that calculates a dividing line angle based on the calculated distance between the dividing line and the optical axis of the vehicle-mounted imaging device and a vehicle proceeding distance where the vehicle proceeds during a predetermined processing period.
US09123105B2	Image processing device, image processing method, image capturing device, computer program, and recording medium An image processing device (21) is provided with: a noise suppression processor (23) for creating a noise-reduced image (NRs) by executing spatial filtering on a plurality of pixels, which fall within a reference range that includes a pixel of interest, in an input image (Is); and a distortion correction processor (24) for correcting distortion by local stretching or shrinking by a magnification factor (R) corresponding to the local amount of distortion in the noise-reduced image (NRs). The reference range is dynamically changed in accordance with the magnification factor (R). Control is performed so that the reference range becomes narrower as the magnification factor (R) increases.
US09123104B2	Apparatus and methods for reducing common-mode noise in an imaging system Apparatus and methods reduce common-mode error. An integrated circuit includes a plurality of signal channels, a first proxy channel, and a subtraction block. The signal channels are configured to receive a plurality of input signals and to generate a plurality of output signals, and each of the signal channels has a substantially similar circuit topology. The first proxy channel has a substantially similar circuit topology as the plurality of signal channels, and includes an output that can vary in relation to a common-mode error of the signal channels. The subtraction block is configured to generate a plurality of modified output signals by using the output of the first proxy channel to reduce the common-mode error of the plurality of output signal channels.
US09123100B2	Method and system for processing multiple series of biological images obtained from a patient A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable program code stored thereon which, when interpreted by a computing apparatus, causes the computing apparatus to implement an image processing tool for processing a plurality of biological images arranged in a plurality of image series wherein certain biological images across different image series have a predefined correspondence with one another. The computer-readable program code comprises computer-readable program code for causing the computing apparatus to: be attentive to receipt of an indication of a selected biological image from the plurality of biological images and belonging to a first one of the image series; be attentive to receipt of an indication of a segmentation mask created based on the selected biological image; apply the segmentation mask to a second biological image from the plurality of biological images, the second biological image belonging to a second one of the image series that is different from the first one of the image series, the second biological image having a predefined correspondence with the selected biological image; and display the second biological image after application of the segmentation mask.
US09123099B2	Systems with workstations and circuits for generating images of global injury Physician interactive workstations with global voxel distribution visualization may also include one or more of a 3-D color scale image of a population of voxel in target regions, organs or systems. The workstation may be configured to evaluate intensity or other measures of voxels of patient images associated with tissue for early detection of a global injury.
US09123097B2	System and method for automatic generation of initial radiation treatment plans A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a set of instructions executable by a processor. The set of instructions is operable to receive a current patient medical image of a current patient, compare the current patient medical image to a plurality of previous patient medical images, each of the previous patient medical images corresponding to a previous patient, select one of the previous patients based on a geometric similarity between the previous patient medical image of the selected one of the previous patients and the current patient medical image, and determine an initial radiation treatment plan based on a radiation treatment plan of the selected one of the previous patients.
US09123095B2	Method for increasing the robustness of computer-aided diagnosis to image processing uncertainties A classifier (20) is trained by a feature matrix (18, 18′) made up of feature vectors (F11, . . . , Fkm). The feature vectors are generated by operating on each of a plurality (k) of training image data sets with each of a plurality (m) of image processing algorithms (121, . . . , 12m) to generate processed and segmented images. Features of the segmented regions are extracted (14) to generate the feature vectors. In this manner, the classifier is trained with data generated with a variety of image processing algorithms.
US09123093B1	Vision inspection programming method and apparatus A method and programming system for specifying vision inspection tools for a vision inspection system, the programming system comprising a workstation including a processor programmed to provide a first interface including a first view of a vision inspection system as the inspection system is being specified, the first interface usable to select vision inspection tools to be used in the vision inspection system from a first tool subset and a second interface including a second view of the vision inspection system as the inspection system is being specified, the second interface usable to specify vision inspection tools to be used with the vision inspection system from a second tool subset, the second interface also usable to specify script expressions that cannot be specified using the first interface, wherein, a developer can switch from the second interface to the first interface to observe the second view and the first view of the vision inspection system, respectively, during the inspection system specifying process.
US09123091B2	Basis vector spectral image compression Computer implemented methods for compressing 3D hyperspectral image data having a plurality of spatial pixels associated with a hyperspectral image, and a number of spectral dimensions associated with each spatial pixel, include receiving, using a processor, the 3D hyperspectral image data, a set of basis vectors associated therewith, and either a maximum error amount or a maximum data size. The methods also include partitioning the 3D hyperspectral image data into a plurality of 2D images, each associated with one of the number of spectral dimensions, and an associated one of the set of basis vectors. The methods additionally include ranking the set of basis vectors if not already ranked. The methods may further include iteratively applying lossy compression to the 2D images, in an order determined by the ranking. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09123090B2	Image data compression device, image data decompression device, display device, image processing system, image data compression method, and image data decompression method A compression and decompression module provided in a display device includes: a comparison unit that, when first image data and second image data in which a gradation value of each of a plurality of pixels is expressed in m bits are input, compares gradation values of corresponding pixels of the input first and second image data; a compression unit that compresses the second image data and that, when values of predetermined n bits (where n≦m) of the gradation values match each other in a comparison result of the comparison unit, generates compressed data including identification data indicating that the values of the n bits match each other; and a control unit that performs control to output data, which indicates the gradation value of the corresponding pixel of the first image data, and the compressed data generated by the compression unit so as to correspond to each other.
US09123088B2	Partial tile rendering In accordance with some embodiments, partial rendering of non-changing or slowly changing frame tiles allows the graphics processing unit to spend less time processing non-changing or slowly changing portions of each frame, saving power and creating more room for performance in some embodiments.
US09123087B2	Systems and methods for segmenting an image A method on a computing device for categorizing one or more blocks of an image is disclosed. The method includes computing a membership value of each of the one or more blocks for each of one or more categories based on a set of parameters associated with each of the one or more blocks. The one or more categories comprise at least an image category. Each of the one or more blocks is categorized in the one or more categories based on the membership value. A category of at least one block is modified to the image category based on a reference signal and the membership value such that the number of blocks categorized under the image category increases.
US09123085B2	Optimizing the performance of an image editing system in a client-server environment Various embodiments of a method and system for an image editing system are disclosed. A client-side image editor may receive a copy of an image from a network-based server. The image may have previously been uploaded to the network-based server for storage purposes. The client-side image editor transforms the image, or proxy image, according to one or more image transformation operations. The client-side image editor maintains an edit list, including an ordered list of transformation operations performed on the image. In response to a “Save” operation, the client-side image editor sends the edit list to the network-based server. The altered image is not be sent. The network-based server receives the edit list and may apply the transformations to the original image. Since the edit list is very small relative to the altered image, sending the edit list to the network-based client reduces the time required for a “Save” operation.
US09123082B2	Providing resource consumption recommendations The subject disclosure provides systems and methods for recommending optimal consumption of a variety of resources that may be consumed by a consumer. A recommendation provided by the system may be based upon resource-consumption statistics gathered by a plurality of sensors, consumer's resource-consumption behavior, consumer-defined criteria, resource availability, and a cost of consumption. The recommendation may include a recommendation on how the consumer may lower resource consumption costs. The recommendation may further include optimal consumption considering consumption trends of a plurality of consumers living in a geographical proximity. The recommendation may include optimal usage of a consumer's vehicle such that the vehicle may consume the least amount of energy. The recommendation may further include offer(s) of credit/incentives by resource providers to consumers in exchange for less consumption of resource, alternative consumption of resources, and any combination thereof.
US09123081B2	Portable device for simultaneously providing text or image data to a plurality of different social media sites based on a topic associated with a downloaded media file A social media interaction application tool and related methods include a communication component, a dialog component, at least one social media link component, a tile display component, and an interaction component, wherein the social media interaction tool is stored on and executed from a portable media storage device, a hand held device, tablet computer, laptop computer, desk top computer or a combination thereof. In some contemplated embodiments, social media interaction application tools are embedded on or included in a media file or collection of media files that are stored or located on a portable media storage device, a hand held device, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desk top computer, a network server, an internet server, the cloud or a combination thereof.
US09123080B2	Content access control in social network A method includes concurrently displaying a content item area and access control list information corresponding to an access control list of distribution entities; receiving, from a user of a client system, input in the content item area, the input including a content item; presenting to the client system user an affordance that enables the client system user to update the access control list to produce an updated access control list including one or more distribution entities, at least one distribution entity of the one or more distribution entities corresponding to one or more recipient entities; and transmitting the content item and access control list to a server system for storing the content item in conjunction with the access control list. The server system enables access to the content item to one or more recipient entities in accordance with the access control list.
US09123079B2	Sponsored stories unit creation from organic activity stream Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to sponsored story generation from an organic activity stream in a social networking site. A user wishing to promote an entry from an organic activity stream may, using a sponsor user interface, specify the types of stories to promote to a portion of the home page displayed to a member of a social network.
US09123074B2	Dynamic promotional layout management and distribution rules Systems, methods and computer readable products are provided for enabling dynamic loading of one or more digital image branding functions associated with one or more distribution rules. A distribution rule is used to target a group of end users that are selected from a dataset mapping a plurality of end-users according to one or more distribution rules. Instructions are forwarded to present an indication the digital image branding function to each member of the end users group.
US09123069B1	Moving transaction details forward in buying process Online transactions are streamlined by moving pertinent transaction information forward in the buying process, so that a customer has the information when actually making a buying decision. In some implementations, a process may include generating a queue of items from previous purchase requests by a user, and presenting the queue of items on a page associated with an item available for purchase, such as an item detail page or search results page. Along with the queue, a fully landed cost of the items in the queue, may be presented on the page.
US09123065B2	Digital wallet broadcasting A service provider generates a customer key and a merchant key for facilitating efficient provision of assistance, by the merchant, with the customer's shopping and payment, via customer-merchant key coupling. When a customer approaches or enters a merchant's store the customer has signed up with, the user device carried by the customer wirelessly broadcasts a signal for the customer key unique to the merchant key. When the merchant server picks up the signal, the service provider communicates to the merchant server information in the user's profile including identifiers, shopping preferences, or the shopping history of the customer, subject to any user-created restrictions contained in the profile so that a sales clerk of the store may approach the customer to give recommendations, suggestions, or other assistance with shopping, based on the information.
US09123064B2	Online transactions using an embedded storefront widget A method and system of using widgets embedded in web pages as virtual storefronts is disclosed. A user of a social networking site may create a merchant account with a transaction service provider. The user embeds a storefront widget provided by the transaction service provider in the user's profile page on the social networking site and the user can use the storefront widget to input information about products that the user is selling. Other users of the social networking site view the user's profile page and the storefront widget will display the products that the user is selling. The other users may interact with the storefront widget to purchase the products that the user is selling.
US09123062B1	Ad sponsored interface pack A method comprises detecting presence information of one or more IDs stored on a mobile communication device, wherein the IDs are stored in a non-transitory memory on the mobile communication device, wherein a first ID of the one or more IDs is active on the mobile communication device; and wherein the IDs comprise an auto-installation routine and at least one of an application, a media file, and a widget. The method also comprises providing a content from a sponsor of the first ID to the mobile communication device, wherein the content is activated in association with a call on the mobile communication device.
US09123061B2	System and method for personalized dynamic web content based on photographic data There is provided a system and method for providing personalized dynamic online content based on photographic data. There is provided a method comprising receiving photographic data of a user, determining user preferences by analyzing the photographic data, generating personalized dynamic online content using the user preferences and a profile associated with the user, and providing the personalized dynamic online content for output on a display of the user. In particular, the photographic data may be analyzed to identify creative properties, such as favored brands and characters. Through the immediate user preference feedback provided by the photographic content, a higher degree of optimal targeted content can be provided to the user without requiring conventional burdensome procedures such as manually completed user surveys or lengthy periods of behavioral monitoring.
US09123060B2	System and method for providing short message targeted advertisements over a wireless communications network A method and system for providing targeted advertisement information to consumers over a wireless communications network are provided. In one embodiment, local advertisers register to advertise on wireless communications devices that are in close proximity to the advertiser. As a consumer enters a cell site that is near the location of the advertiser, the wireless network delivers a message to the wireless device specified by the local advertiser. An acknowledgement signal is then received by the network, and the local advertiser's account is charged for transmission of the advertisement. In a further embodiment, each of the messages is associated with one or more demographic codes, and a demographic code is selected to describe an advertisement preference of a user of a wireless communications device. Messages to be transmitted to particular wireless communications devices are selected based upon both the location information and the demographic codes associated with the messages.
US09123052B2	Marketing model determination system A system includes a variable determination module determining a variable operable to be used for the final model and also determining a modification to the at least one variable. An assumption determination module determines an assumption operable to be used for the final model. The assumption includes a transformation for the variable describing how the variable impacts the marketing objective or how the variable impacts another variable operable to be used in the final model. The assumption module also determines a modification to the assumption. A model generator generates a candidate model using the variable and the assumption, and generates a new candidate model using the modified assumption, the new variable or the modification to the variable. The candidate model or the new candidate model is operable to be selected as the final model based on at least one of a statistical measure and an indication of relevance for the variable in the candidate model and the new candidate model.
US09123051B2	Method and system of converting a generic tool and customer service system into a specific tool and specific customer service system Provided is a method for converting a generic system into a specifically-branded system after the sale of an item. The method alleviates a supplier's inventory burdens by allowing the supplier to inventory generic items, rather than items specifically branded for a particular retailer. The items may be branded with the selling retailer's logo or indicia after the sale of the item. Furthermore, the item may be associated with a customer service system, which may also be branded with the selling retailer's logo after the sale of the item. The conversion of the item and customer service system from a generic item and system into a specifically-branded item and system may foster the relationship between the supplier and retailer and entice the retailer to maintain the relationship with the supplier.
US09123048B2	Systems and methods for receiving and sponsoring media content A method and system of sponsoring a media item is disclosed herein. A media item is received from a submitter. The media item is published for consumer access. Requests for the media item are received from media consumers. A number of consumer requests for the media item is counted. A determination is made as to whether the number of consumer requests for the media item is higher than a predetermined threshold of popularity. If the number of consumer requests for the media item is determined to be higher than the predetermined threshold of popularity, the media item is sponsored on a webcast station.
US09123047B2	System for providing document services using a coupon with a coupon scanning device A system and method for providing access to and gaining access to document services using a printed coupon. The printed coupon contains one or more machine-readable symbols describing the document services to which a holder of the coupon is entitled. The document services include faxing, printing, copying, email, electronic file access, scan to email, scan to file and document services.
US09123046B1	Identifying terms Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, are described for identifying target terms, e.g., spam terms within a collection of documents. In one aspect, methods can include identifying spam terms by calculating a blacklist term frequency-inverse document frequency (BTF-IDF) score for multiple terms, and by selecting, as the spam terms, the terms that have scores above or below a threshold score. The multiple terms may be derived from documents that are associated with accounts that have been designated as spam accounts.
US09123039B2	System and method of a passphrase account identifier for use in a network environment A system and method for facilitating a financial transaction over a network including use of a passphrase account identifier is described herein. In one embodiment, a system for facilitating a financial transaction over a network comprises a communication interface; and a payment provider system configured to receive via the communication interface a passphrase account identifier from a merchant system, match the passphrase account identifier to a corresponding funding instrument number of a corresponding funding instrument, communicate the corresponding funding instrument number to an issuer system, receive from the issuer system a notification indication of one of acceptance of the funding instrument or decline of the funding instrument, and communicate back to the merchant system the notification indication.
US09123032B2	System for determining presence of and authorizing a quorum to transact business over a network A system for determining presence of and authorizing a quorum to transact business over a network includes a first set of machine-readable instructions resident on a digital medium accessible to a computing machine, the instructions causing the machine to monitor a network for active presence of individual ones of communications devices associated with members of an authorized team of individuals from which the quorum may be determined, a second set of machine-readable instructions resident on the medium for causing the computing machine to make a confirmation of the quorum against a set of rules, and to authorize one or more of the individual communications devices making up the quorum to perform one or more tasks based on quorum consensus, and a user configuration, scheduling, and notification application resident on the digital medium for enabling a user to configure, schedule, and notify team members of a pending quorum event.
US09123030B2	Indication of off-screen calendar objects Calendar application objects that do no not appear on the screen because of space constraints or other reasons may be associated with an edge of the time period displayed on the screen closest to a virtual location of each respective object in the calendar application. A user selectable indicator may then be displayed for one or more of the edges to indicate the presence of additional objects in the calendar application that are not currently displayed on the screen of the device, but would be displayed if the user were to scroll the displayed time period in the direction of the displayed time period edge associated with a respective indicator. The indicator may include additional data about the objects associated with the edge that do not appear within the time period shown on the screen.
US09123012B2	Method and system for defining packaging components using lifecycle analysis Methods and systems for defining packaging components are provided. An exemplary embodiment provides an expert system (508) for defining packaging components. The expert system includes a processor (512) and a memory (514). The memory (514) includes code (510) configured to direct the processor (512) to obtain a product definition, obtain lifecycle parameters, and access a database (518, 522, or 524) to identify packaging components that match the lifecycle parameters and product definition.
US09123006B2	Techniques for parallel business intelligence evaluation and management Techniques for parallel business intelligence and management are provided. Data is collected from a variety of disparate sources and from a variety of disparate network locations. The data is then filtered and normalized. Next, relationships between elements in the data are established and correlations are created between the elements. The elements are then tagged and integrated with other data of a distributed knowledge store to create customized business intelligence reports and customized data visualizations.
US09123004B2	Predicting an effect of events on assets A method, computer program product and computer system for predicting that an event identified in an event topic map meta-model will have an effect on at least one asset identified in an asset topic map meta-model. In an exemplary embodiment, a computer receives a query input from a user. The computer obtains an input of an event from the query input. The computer identifies at least one asset mapped to the event in an asset to event topic map meta-model that maps assets in the asset topic map meta-model to events in the event topic map meta-model. In identifying the at least one asset, the computer determines that the at least one asset has greater than a threshold probability of being affected by the event.
US09122998B2	Catalog-based software license reconciliation A software reconciliation engine utilizes a software rule-based catalog to produce accurate license reconciliation across a wide range of software configurations. A software offering may comprise software installables and corresponding constraints. Installed software and active hardware is discovered by a scanner, stored in an installed software database and active hardware database respectively and is mapped against entitled software offerings to determine whether the installed software is entitled to be installed on the hardware. The installed software has a base product attribute, a used-in-count attribute and a parent-child attribute that are used by the reconciliation engine to compare against the constraints to determine entitlement and report compliance.
US09122994B2	Apparatus and methods for temporally proximate object recognition Object recognition apparatus and methods useful for extracting information from an input signal. In one embodiment, the input signal is representative of an element of an image, and the extracted information is encoded into patterns of pulses. The patterns of pulses are directed via transmission channels to a plurality of detector nodes configured to generate an output pulse upon detecting an object of interest. Upon detecting a particular object, a given detector node elevates its sensitivity to that particular object when processing subsequent inputs. In one implementation, one or more of the detector nodes are also configured to prevent adjacent detector nodes from generating detection signals in response to the same object representation. The object recognition apparatus modulates properties of the transmission channels by promoting contributions from channels carrying information used in object recognition.
US09122991B2	Systems and methods for prediction of trips A system is disclosed. The system includes a processing subsystem that receives component data signals corresponding to a plurality of parameters of a device, wherein the processing subsystem generates one or more sets of state category component data by allocating the component data signals into respective one or more sets of state category component data, determines a plurality of first dynamic thresholds and a plurality of second dynamic thresholds corresponding to at least one of the one or more sets of state category component data based upon a respective set of state category component data in the one or more sets of state category component data and a respective parameter in the plurality of parameters, and determines an impending trip of the device utilizing the plurality of first dynamic thresholds and the plurality of second dynamic thresholds.
US09122986B2	Techniques for utilizing and adapting a prediction model A computer-implemented technique of providing relevant search results to a user of a website at a query time. The technique can include receiving, at a computing device having one or more processors, a query from the user, the query corresponding to a description of potential search results desired by the user. The technique can further include retrieving a user history corresponding to previous user interactions with the website and determining a context of the user corresponding to an interaction of the user with the website at the query time. The relevant search results can be determined based on the query, the user history, and the context of the user and a prediction model, and be provided to the user via updating of a webpage presented to the user. The technique can further include adapting the prediction model based on a prediction event and set of corresponding prediction event features.
US09122982B2	Device and method for destination prediction A device for constructing a hierarchical destination prediction mode includes an extracting unit configured to receive a user's historical location data and extract input data and output data from the user's historical location data. The input data includes a leaving location and associated time for the user and the output data includes an arriving location for the user. A determining unit is configured to determine the user's possible activities of each location and their original probabilities based on the input data and the output data, and to adjust the original activity probabilities based on the user's arriving patterns and leaving patterns. A prediction model obtaining unit is configured to obtain the hierarchical destination prediction model based on the input data and the adjusted probabilities. A high layer of the hierarchical destination prediction model represents activities and their transitions, and a low layer of the model represents locations of the activities.
US09122979B2	Image processing apparatus to perform photo-to-painting conversion processing An image processing apparatus includes a storage to store an original image, a processor to change a tone of a reduced image of the original image, a display to display a tone-changed reduced image, a connection determination unit to determine whether the image processing apparatus is connected to a network, a transmitter to transmit the original image to the server via the network together with data indicating a tone when the image processing apparatus is connected to the network, a controller to cause the processor to change the tone of the original image when the image processing apparatus is not connected to the network, and a receiver to receive the original image whose tone is changed by the server when the image processing apparatus is connected to the network.
US09122974B2	Print control apparatus for causing a printing apparatus to execute printing by controlling the printing apparatus, method of controlling the same, and storage medium According to a print control apparatus and a method of controlling the same of the present invention, when the printing apparatus is in a power saving state, when an instruction for registering in the printing apparatus sheet information stored in a storage unit in association with a sheet feeder of the printing apparatus is received, the sheet information is registered in a list, and when the printing apparatus returns from the power saving state, control is performed so that sheet information registered in the list is transmitted to the printing apparatus.
US09122972B2	Card holder device A card storage device for storing payment cards, such as credit and debit cards or other media in an orderly fashion. The device may be used at a food and/or drink establishment. The device securely stores a number of cards for a number of patrons who wish to open a tab at a bar, pub, restaurant, or other service environment.
US09122969B2	Dual transponder radio frequency identification Embodiments are discussed herein related to radio frequency identification (“RFID”) and, more particularly, to systems, methods, apparatuses, computer readable media products and other means for integrating two transponders into a tag, where each transponder functions independent from and does not couple with the other transponder. In some embodiments, one of the transponders can be a near field RFID transponder and the other a far field transponder. The near field RFID transponder can be used to, among other things, authenticate the far field RFID transponder. In some embodiments, the far field RFID transponder can be encoded to transmit generic information, while the near field RFID transmits more detailed or user-specific information. Additionally, in some embodiments, the near field and far field RFID transponders can operate in accordance with the same wireless protocol and include their own circuitry and antenna.
US09122968B2	Information carrying card comprising a cross-linked polymer composition, and method of making the same The disclosure provides a cross-linkable polymer composition, a core layer for an information carrying card comprising such cross-linked composition, resulting information carrying card, and methods of making the same. A crosslinkable polymer composition comprises a curable base polymer resin in a liquid or paste form, and a particulate thermoplastic filler. The base polymer resin is selected from the group consisting of urethane acrylate, silicone acrylate, epoxy acrylate, urethane, acrylate, silicone and epoxy. The particulate thermoplastic filler may be polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a copolymer of vinyl chloride and at least another monomer, or a polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a compound or blend thereof.
US09122966B2	Communication device A communication device is provided and includes a first major surface including a display and a mixed array. The mixed array includes at least two different types of array units and occupies an area coinciding with, in plan view as viewed perpendicular to the major surface, at least substantially the entire major surface. The mixed array includes at least one emitting or transmission element and at least one input or receiving element positioned in a pixel stack.
US09122963B2	Tamper-proof quality management barcode indicators A tamper-proof barcoded quality indicator operative to provide a machine-readable indication of exceedance of time and temperature thresholds following actuation thereof, including a first barcode including a first colorable area and being machine-readable before exceedance of the time and temperature thresholds, a second barcode including a second colorable area and not being machine-readable before exceedance of the time and temperature thresholds, a coloring agent located at a first location on the indicator, a coloring agent pathway operative to allow the coloring agent to move, at a rate which is at least partially a function of time, from the first location to the first and second colorable areas simultaneously for simultaneous coloring thereof upon exceedance of the time and temperature thresholds, thereby causing the first barcode to become unreadable and at the same time causing the second barcode to become machine-readable, and a tamper-proof actuator element operative to actuate the indicator.
US09122962B2	Color evaluation system, method and storage medium for evaluating color reproducibility and measure patches having identification and color space characteristics Print data are generated so as to include an evaluation patch group, which has at least one evaluation color patch, the color of which was determined depending on the type of input color space characteristics used in a color conversion process on content data representing print content, and an identification color patch having a color inherent to the type of input color space characteristics. The type of input color space characteristics is identified based on a colorimetric value of the identification color patch on a print. Judgment conditions for color reproducibility are acquired depending on the type of input color space characteristics.
US09122955B2	Method and system of classifying medical images A method of generating a category model for classifying medical images. The method comprises providing a plurality of medical images each categorized as one of a plurality of categorized groups, generating an index of a plurality of visual words according to a distribution of a plurality of local descriptors in each the image, modeling a category model mapping a relation between each visual word and at least one of the categorized groups according to the index, and outputting the category model for facilitating the categorization of an image based on local descriptors thereof.
US09122953B2	Methods and systems for character segmentation in automated license plate recognition applications Methods and systems for character segmentation in an automatic license plate recognition application. One or more images of a license plate are acquired. Then, a pixel-level importance may be calculated with respect to the image(s) of the license plate based on information within the image, such as gradient information and raw grayscale information. A seam selection can be then applied with respect to the pixel-level importance map and the image(s) by enforcing constraints based on known characteristics of license plates in order to provide for character segmentation with respect to the image(s) of the license plate.
US09122952B2	Methods and apparatus for one-dimensional signal extraction Methods and apparatus are disclosed for extracting a one-dimensional digital signal from a two-dimensional digital image along a projection line. In some embodiments a repeating sequence of pixel weight templates, and a sequence of relative positions, are selected in response to the orientation of a projection line and used to compute a sequence of weighted sums. The sequence can be selected to achieve desirable properties, for example photometric accuracy, geometric accuracy, resolution, and/or noise reduction. In some embodiments registers and multiply-accumulators are arranged and controlled so as to compute the 1D signal.
US09122951B2	Teachable object contour mapping for biology image region partition A teachable object contour mapping method for region partition receives an object boundary and a teaching image. An object contour mapping recipe creation is performed using the object boundary and the teaching image to generate object contour mapping recipe output. An object contour mapping is applied to an application image using the object contour mapping recipe and the application image to generate object contour map output. An object region partition using the object contour map to generate object region partition output. An updateable object contour mapping method receives a contour mapping recipe and a validation image. An object contour mapping is performed using the object contour mapping recipe and the validation image to generate validation contour map output. An object region partition receives a region mask to generate validation object region partition output. A boundary correction is performed using the validation object region partition to generate corrected object boundary output. An update contour mapping is performed using the corrected object boundary, the validation image and the contour mapping recipe to generate updated contour mapping recipe output.
US09122948B1	System and method for evaluating the perception system of an autonomous vehicle A method and apparatus are provided for optimizing one or more object detection parameters used by an autonomous vehicle to detect objects in images. The autonomous vehicle may capture the images using one or more sensors. The autonomous vehicle may then determine object labels and their corresponding object label parameters for the detected objects. The captured images and the object label parameters may be communicated to an object identification server. The object identification server may request that one or more reviewers identify objects in the captured images. The object identification server may then compare the identification of objects by reviewers with the identification of objects by the autonomous vehicle. Depending on the results of the comparison, the object identification server may recommend or perform the optimization of one or more of the object detection parameters.
US09122941B2	Protective case for a portable computing device A protective case for a portable computing device may include a rigid component comprising an upper surface and a cavity therein for receiving a portable computing device. The protective case may also include a cover having a surface area that is larger than the area of the upper surface that is open to the cavity. At least a central area of the cover may be transparent. The cover may be positioned over the cavity, and may also be positioned over part of the upper surface of the rigid component. The protective case may also include a pliable component molded around at least a portion of the rigid component and over a portion of the cover that is in contact with the upper surface of the rigid component, thereby forming a waterproof seal between the cover and the upper surface of the rigid component.
US09122940B2	Barcode scanner An assembly to deliver packaging film, having a barcode, to a packaging machine (10). Associated with the packaging machine (10) is a splicing machine (17) that joins film from rolls (14, 15) for delivery to the machine (10). A barcode scanner (19) extends transversely of the film, with the scanner (19) including a plurality of cameras (29). Once a barcode is detected, as an example ten images will be decoded and if six “readings” give the same result, then it can be assumed that the barcode has been correctly decoded.
US09122939B2	System and method for reading optical codes on reflective surfaces while minimizing flicker perception of pulsed illumination Methods and systems are disclosed for improved operation of readers of optical codes presented on electronic display screens or other highly reflective surfaces. Certain configurations include controlling image exposure and illumination pulse timing so as to avoid or minimize the perception of flicker of the pulsed illumination by a user or bystander while implementing methods for reading optical codes presented on electronic display screens or other highly reflective surfaces.
US09122936B2	Detecting device, detection method, and computer program product According to an embodiment, a detecting device includes a projecting unit, a calculator, and a detector. The projecting unit is configured to obtain a first projection position by projecting a capturing position of a captured image on a road surface, obtain a second projection position by projecting a spatial position in the captured image on the road surface, and obtain a third projection position by projecting an error position on the road surface. The calculator is configured to calculate an existence probability of an object on a line passing through the first and second projection positions so that an existence probability of the object between the second and third projection positions on the straight line is greater than between the first and third projection positions on the straight line. The detector is configured to detect a boundary between the road surface and the object by using the existence probability.
US09122929B2	Method of identifying a tracked object for use in processing hyperspectral data The invention relates a method of identifying a tracked object that has a known database of hyperspectral and spatial information. The method associates an identifier with the tracked object; selects a parameter associated with the hyperspectral or spatial information of the tracked object; detects a deviation in the selected parameter; compares the deviation with the database; and if the deviation exceeds a predetermined threshold, assigns a new identifier to the tracked object, and if the deviation does not exceed the predetermined threshold, continues tracking the tracked object.
US09122926B2	Iris recognition using localized Zernike moments A system receives an iris image and segments the iris region. The segmented iris region is mapped to a unit disk and partitioned into local iris regions (or sectors) as a function of the radius and angle The system calculates localized Zernike moments for a plurality of regions of the unit disk. The localized Zernike moment includes a projection of the local iris region into a space of Zernike polynomial orthogonal basis functions. The system generates an iris feature set from the localized Zernike moments for each partitioned region, excluding the regions which are comprised by occlusion. The iris features are weighted based on the conditions of blur, gaze and occlusion of the iris region. A probe iris image is then matched to a plurality of iris images in a database based on the distance of its feature set to the corresponding plurality of iris feature sets.
US09122925B2	Systems and methods for capturing artifact free images The present disclosure is directed towards methods and systems for capturing artifact-free biometric images of an eye. The eye may be in motion and in the presence of partially-reflective eyewear. The method may include acquiring, by a first sensor, a first image of an eye while the eye is illuminated by a first illuminator. The first image may include a region of interest. The first sensor may be disposed at a fixed displacement from the first illuminator and a second sensor. The second sensor may acquire, within a predetermined period of time from the acquisition of the first image, a second image of the eye. The second image may include the region of interest. An image processor may determine if at least one of the first and second images include artifacts arising from one or both of the first illuminator and eyewear, within the region of interest.
US09122924B2	Object identification Methods, devices, and systems for object identification are described herein. One or more method embodiments include converting data associated with an object on a geographical image or map into a number of primitives, fitting the number of primitives to a geometrical shape, and identifying the object based, at least in part, on the geometrical shape to which the number of primitives is fitted.
US09122923B2	Image generation apparatus and control method An image generation apparatus stores a plurality of selection condition rows including a plurality of selection conditions used for selecting an image from a plurality of material images, selects at least one material image from the plurality of material images as a first material image, obtains a feature quantity of the first material image, selects a selection condition row which is stored in the storage unit and includes a selection condition including the obtained feature quantity, selects a second material image from the plurality of material images based on a selection condition row which has been selected, and generates an image based on the first and the second material images which have been selected and the selection condition row which has been selected.
US09122921B2	Method for detecting a document boundary A method for detecting a document boundary in a captured digital image depicting a hardcopy document on a background. Each color channel of the captured digital image is analyzed to determine a corresponding busyness metric representing a complexity level of the image data. The color channel having a lowest busyness level is selected and analyzed to detect a document boundary of the depicted hardcopy document. The detected document boundary can be used to perform a perspective correction process to determine a corrected digital image where the depicted document has a substantially rectangular boundary.
US09122918B2	Systems and methods for specifying and formulating customized topical agents Systems and methods for determining a customized cosmetic formulation. In one method, a user is guided to capture an image of a skin region with known lighting and color characteristics, and the image is processed to provide calibrated skin color information. A customized cosmetic formulation is automatically determined for the user based on the calibrated skin color information. In another method, a user is interactively guided through capture of one or more skin region images using a device having an image sensor. The skin region images are processed to provide calibrated skin color information, which is compared to a ground truth data set to identify a set of closest known values in the ground truth data set. A customized cosmetic formulation is automatically determined for the user based on the comparison.
US09122913B2	Method for logging a user in to a mobile device A method is provided for logging a first user in to a mobile device being in a locked mode. The method comprising: storing a password associated with the first user and information that relates to a facial image of that first user; when the mobile device is in a locked mode: receiving a password inserted by a user; comparing the received password with the stored password and determining whether they match; if a match is found, prompting an image capturing device to capture an image; retrieving information that relates to a facial image from the captured image and comparing that information with the stored information; if the retrieved information matches the stored information, unlocking the mobile device.
US09122912B1	Sharing photos in a social network system Embodiments generally relate to sharing photos in a social network system. In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a plurality of photos associated with a target user in a social network system, and detecting a face of one or more persons in the plurality of photos. The method also includes computing significance values for the faces, where each significance value indicates a degree of significance between the target user and each person represented by each face. The method also includes generating a significance ranking of the significance values, and determining a group of photos for the target user based on the significance ranking.
US09122910B2	Method, apparatus, and system for friend recommendations A method is for friend recommendation which includes obtaining a first picture sent by a user, and determining one or more users associated with the first picture based on attribute information of the first picture. The method also includes, when it is determined that a total number of the users associated with the first picture is two or more, detecting whether a first user and a second user from the one or more users associated with the first picture are friends. Further, the method includes, when it is detected that the first user and the second user are not friends, sending friend recommendation information to one of the first user and the second user, wherein the friend recommendation information contains information of the other of the first user and the second. It is more likely that the friend recommendation information is of real interest of the users receiving the information.
US09122905B2	System and method for quality assurance in pathology Systems and methods for analyzing digital slide images. In an embodiment, a digital slide image is acquired from a specimen on a slide. Then, until it is determined that a quality of the digital slide image is sufficient, the quality of the digital slide image is determined and the digital slide image is reacquired. Once it is determined that the quality of the digital slide image is sufficient, the digital slide image and a measure of the quality of the digital slide image is provided to one or more recipients.
US09122898B2	Systems and methods for processing documents of unknown or unspecified format A computer implemented method for extracting meaningful text from a document of unknown or unspecified format. In a particular embodiment, the method includes reading the document, thereby to extract raw encoded text, analysing the raw encoded text, thereby to identify one or more text chunks, and for a given chunk, performing compression identification analysis to determine whether compression is likely. The method can further include performing a decompression process, performing an encoding identification process thereby to identify a likely character encoding protocol, and converting the chunk using the identified likely character encoding protocol, thereby to output the chunk as readable text.
US09122897B2	Method for the detection and classification of microcalcification clusters in digital mammograms A method for the detection and classification of microcalcification clusters in digital mammograms which comprises the following steps: obtaining one or more digital mammograms; pre-processing the one or more digital mammograms by eliminating the noise from each one or more digital mammograms; detecting the points that are potential microcalcifications represented by their centroids, in the one or more pre-processed digital mammograms; identifying each mass center of potential microcalcifications as a microcalcification or non-microcalcification; identifying microcalcification clusters, using an algorithm for locating microcalcification cluster; and classifying each cluster into the classes benign or malignant.
US09122895B2	Authorization for transient storage devices with multiple authentication silos In a transient storage device (TSD) with multiple authentication silos, a host computing device connected to the TSD is configured by the TSD to discover and act upon various types of authentication information in the silos. One or more logical combinations of authentication silos are switched to the authenticated state to grant access to an associated storage area. A particular ordering of authentication silos may be required to achieve a valid combination of authenticated silos. Ordering may be suggested by configuration information in the TSD. Ordering may also be based upon whether or not user input is required for authenticating a given authentication silo, the environment of use of the TSD, or a hierarchy from most trusted to least trusted authentication silo. With this information, the host proceeds with the most efficient authentication sequence leading to a grant of access to the storage area.
US09122893B1	Trusted platform module switching A computer system comprises a Trusted Platform Module System (TPMS). The TPMS comprises a first Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and a second TPM, which comports with a different TPM specification than that followed by the first TPM. A physical presence input device receives a local physical change signal that proves a local physical presence of a user at the computer system. A toggle input device, which requires the local physical change signal, causes the state being output from the GPIO pin on the first TPM to switch from a first state to a second state. This change of state causes a TPM switch to selectively decouple the first TPM from a central processing unit and to couple the second TPM to the central processing unit.
US09122888B2	System and method to create resilient site master-key for automated access A system encrypts a private key with a master key and includes a storage device for storing a protected private key at a site location, a processor that determines a plurality of derivatives by selecting an order of site characteristics from a plurality of disjoint sets of site characteristics unique to a software installation or site location, wherein the processor applies a hash algorithm to each site characteristic. The system further includes a buffer storage device for storing an order of random selections of the site characteristics for the derivatives. The system encrypts the master key with the derivatives and additionally stores the encrypted form of the master key in a storage device.
US09122887B2	User interface for secure virtual document management system A user interface for a virtual file management system that provides user access to managed content on mobile devices. The system comprises storage domains storing the managed content distributively using file systems, and a data infrastructure that organizes the managed content into a virtual file system. The data infrastructure includes a component that maintains policies defining controls for permissible operations on the managed content, the permissible operations including the file system primitives. A client application including a user interface is hosted on the mobile devices and is coupled to the data infrastructure and the storage domains and includes an enforcement component that retrieves and enforces the policies by applying the controls on the mobile devices.
US09122886B2	Track changes permissions Various features and processes related to document collaboration are disclosed. In some implementations, animations are presented when updating a local document display to reflect changes made to the document at a remote device. In some implementations, a user can selectively highlight changes made by collaborators in a document. In some implementations, a user can select an identifier associated with another user to display a portion of a document that includes the other user's cursor location. In some implementations, text in document chat sessions can be automatically converted into hyperlinks which, when selected, cause a document editor to perform an operation.
US09122885B1	Creating distinct user spaces through user identifiers A method of, and a processing system for, creating distinct user spaces. In a platform originally intended to be a single user platform, for each of a plurality of users, a first application used by the user can be assigned a user identifier (UID) unique to the user and the first application. The first UID can be associated with user data exclusively associated with the user and the first application to create a multi-user platform.
US09122874B2	Method and system for detecting restricted content associated with retrieved content In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for detecting restricted content associated with retrieved content. The method and system may include receiving a client request for content, saving contextual information from the client request, presenting retrieved content in response to the client request, and presenting the contextual information from the client request, and retrieved content, to a scanning facility. The scanning facility may utilize the contextual information from the client request to aid in the detection of restricted content associated with retrieved content.
US09122865B2	System and method to establish and use credentials for a common lightweight identity through digital certificates A system and method for authentication of a user using “lightweight” identities. The system and method provides for establishment of user credentials for a particular electronic mail address by an identity server through the recordation of a mail token and private token after receiving a request for credentials from the user. The identity server sends a private token to the user and sends a verification message to the user containing a specific link to the identity server for verification of the user along with the mail token, and then can verify the user by confirming that a mail token and private token recorded by the identity server match a mail token and a private token received from the user. After the verification process is successful, the identity server issues credentials that consist of a certificate either with or without a private key to the user which serves as an authenticated, unique, lightweight identity that a user can assume to access various services.
US09122863B2	Configuring identity federation configuration A method and apparatus for configuring identity federation configuration. The method includes: acquiring a set of identity federation configuration properties of a first computing system and a set of identity federation configuration properties of a second computing system; identifying one or more pairs of associated properties in the first and the second sets, where the pairs of associated properties include one property from each set of identity federation configuration; displaying, properties that need to be configured manually from the each sets of identity federation configuration properties, where the properties that need to be configured manually do not include the property in any pair of associated properties for which the value can be derived from the value of another property in the pair; automatically assigning a property that can be derived from the value of another property; and providing each computing systems with each set of identity federation properties.
US09122862B2	Password input method using visual object A method and apparatus is provided for switching from a regular desktop screen to a password input screen for a user to input a password. An apparatus may comprise a first screen display as the password input screen, a second screen display as the regular desktop screen, and a switching system. The switching system may be configured to switch a screen item position between the first screen display and the second screen display. The switching system may receive a user selection of a sequence of screen items as a password input and may switch operation of the apparatus between the first screen display to the second screen display.
US09122857B1	Authenticating a user in an authentication system There is disclosed method and system for authenticating user in authentication system comprising verifier and authentication device configured such that verifier and device comprise secret. A first voice sample of user recorded in verifier. Authentication information is generated in device. The device configured such that information generated is dynamic information based on secret. The information generated in device presented to user. An input signal received in verifier comprising a second voice sample of user and response by user to information. The input signal received in verifier in response to user responding to information by voicing response to information. The first and second samples compared in verifier. The information generated by device and response by user to information compared in verifier. An authentication result generated in verifier based on comparison of first and second samples and comparison of information and response. The result used for authenticating user.
US09122847B2	Mobile device peripherals management system and multi-data stream technology (MdS) A device and system for management of and access to externally connected peripheral devices by mobile devices. User and/or application data on a mobile device is sent to externally connected peripheral devices. External peripheral devices includes, but are not limited to, printers, scanners, displays, audio interfaces, speakers, network adapters, storage drives, hard drives, and the like. An end user mobile device application interface is installed as an application on a mobile device. Data may be sent directly to a peripheral device, or to a peripherals aggregation device, which may be active or passive.
US09122844B2	Proxy device for managing digital rights A system and method relate to a platform for distributing digital contents (digital content) to various client devices. A digital rights management platform allows a content provider to forward digital contents that is automatically ingested and processed in accordance with various requirements associated with providing the digital contents to the client devices. Information regarding the ingested digital contents may be provided to a coordinator device that uses this information to form a digital rights locker associated with the digital contents. A client device accesses the digital rights locker to obtain a rights token, or a proof of purchase, that is used to obtain rights data for accessing the digital contents.
US09122840B2	Performing collective operations in a distributed processing system Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for performing collective operations on a hybrid distributed processing system that includes a plurality of compute nodes and a plurality of tasks, each task is assigned a unique rank, and each compute node is coupled for data communications by at least two different networking topologies. At least one of the two networking topologies is a tiered tree topology having a root task and at least two child tasks and the at least two child tasks are peers of one another in the same tier. Embodiments include for each task, sending at least a portion of data corresponding to the task to all child tasks of the task through the tree topology; and sending at least a portion of the data corresponding to the task to all peers of the task at the same tier in the tree topology through the second topology.
US09122837B1	Validating integrated circuit simulation results A technique validates results from a circuit simulation estimation program. The technique determines whether the estimated results satisfy Kirchhoff's current law (KCL), Kirchhoff's voltage laws (KVL), and power conservation for the original circuit. A reporting tool shows the validation results and may be customized by the user. The tool can show in the original circuitry where the estimated results may be inaccurate.
US09122836B2	Recognition of template patterns with mask information Apparatus includes a machine readable storage medium for storing a template library having at least one template. The template is to include a first layout representation of at least one pattern to be formed by multi-patterning a single layer of an IC. The pattern has a plurality of portions to be formed using a plurality of respectively different photomasks. The first layout representation includes data identifying on which photomask each portion is to be located. An electronic design automation (EDA) tool includes a processor configured to receive a hardware description language representation of at least a part of a circuit and generate a second layout representation of the part of the circuit having a plurality of polygons. The EDA tool has a matching module that identifies and outputs an indication of whether one or more of the plurality of portions matches a subset of the plurality of polygons.
US09122835B2	Method for generating layout of photomask A method for generating a layout pattern of integrated circuit (IC) is provided. First, feature patterns are provided to a computer system and dummy pad patterns are generated in a space among the feature patterns. The layout pattern is then split into first feature patterns and second feature patterns. The dimensions of the first feature patterns are less than the dimensions of the second feature patterns. Afterwards, the dummy pad patterns are combined with the second features pattern to form a combined pattern. Then, mandrel patterns are generated in a space between the first feature patterns and the geometric patterns are generated according to the positions of the first feature patterns. Finally, the combined pattern, the mandrel patterns, and the geometric patterns are respectively outputted to form a first, a second, and a third photomasks.
US09122833B2	Method of designing fin field effect transistor (FinFET)-based circuit and system for implementing the same A method of designing a fin field effect transistor (FinFET)-based circuit includes designing, using a processor, a first circuit schematic design based on a performance specification, the first circuit schematic design is free of artificial elements, wherein the artificial elements are used to simulate electrical performance of the FinFET-based circuit. The method further includes modifying, using the processor, at least one device within the first circuit schematic design to form a second circuit schematic design taking the artificial elements into consideration. The method further includes performing a pre-layout simulation using the second circuit schematic and taking the artificial elements into consideration. The method further includes generating a layout, wherein the layout does not take the artificial elements into consideration, and performing a post-layout simulation, wherein the post-layout simulation does not take the artificial elements into consideration.
US09122831B2	LSI designing apparatus, LSI designing method, and program An apparatus and method that improve design efficiency when designing an LSI. A selector module generating section inputs IP connection information describing input/output flows of signals between IPs included in an LSI to be designed, analyzes the inputted IP connection information, and generates a selector module of a selector that matches the input/output flows of signals between IPs described in the IP connection information. A macro module generating section generates a macro module in which relationships between the selector and function blocks are indicated, using the selector module generated by the selector module generating section.
US09122830B2	Wide pin for improved circuit routing Embodiments described herein provide approaches for improved circuit routing using a wide-edge pin. Specifically, provided is an integrated circuit (IC) device comprising a standard cell having a first metal layer (M1) pin coupled to a second metal layer (M2) wire at a via. The M1 pin has a width greater than a width of the via sufficient to satisfy an enclosure rule for the via, while the M1 pin extends vertically past the via a distance substantially equal to or greater than zero. This layout increases the number of available pin access points within the standard cell and thus improves routing efficiency and chip size.
US09122826B1	Method and apparatus for performing compilation using multiple design flows A method for designing a system on a target device includes merging a netlist for a first partition of the system generated from a bottom-up design flow with a netlist for a second partition of the system from a top-down design flow to form a combined netlist, and performing fitting on the combined netlist.
US09122824B2	System-on-chip design structure and method Aspects may include a method of designing a system-on-chip. The method may include receiving multiple processing modules, each representing in software one of multiple processing units of a system-on-chip. The method may further include modeling communications from one or more of the multiple processing modules as accesses to memory. The method may further include generating a coherent memory module associated with the multiple processing modules based on modeling the communications from the one or more of the multiple processing modules as accesses to memory. The coherent memory module may represent in software a coherent memory associated with the multiple processing units.
US09122823B2	Stacked multiple-input delay gates Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, program product, and a logic circuit structure for correcting early-mode timing violations in a digital circuit design. A portion of a digital circuit design is identified having an early-mode timing violation. A logic circuit is identified within the identified portion of a digital circuit design having the early-mode timing violation. At least one input of the identified logic circuit is identified as having the early-mode timing violation. At least one transistor is added to the identified logic circuit, wherein the input of the added at least one transistor is coupled to the identified at least one input of the identified logic circuit, and wherein the addition of the at least one transistor delays the signal received at the identified at least one input to eliminate the early-mode timing violation.
US09122820B2	Subwavelength grating coupler A method, system or device for configuring an optical coupling device including obtaining characteristics of an optical signal and ambient conditions for storage in memory, utilizing a processor for identifying an optimum effective subwavelength area refractive index and a grating period for the input signal and ambient characteristics stored in memory, and utilizing the processor for identifying a preferred filling factor for a transverse polarization.
US09122817B2	Collaborative CAx apparatus and method A method for collaborative editing an electronic model of a CAx object may include providing access to an electronic model that is spatially decomposed into a plurality of editing regions, enabling a user to make changes to an editable feature corresponding to a particular editing region and blocking the user from making changes to an editable feature corresponding to an editing region assigned to another user. A corresponding apparatus may comprise one or more software modules and associated hardware that are configured to execute the described method.
US09122814B2	Vehicle computing module A vehicle computing system includes a vehicle computing module mounted on a main system board. The module includes a computing module circuit board with computing components mounted thereon including a central processing unit and a main memory. An edge connector connects the computing module circuit board to an edge connector socket on the main system board. A plurality of computing function interfaces are connected to the edge connector, and include a configuration interface connected to the central processing unit and, via the edge connector, to a controller on the main system board. The controller configures the central processing unit for operation in the vehicle computing system by enabling specification of the computing function interfaces during a vehicle computing module configuration. The computing function interfaces are configured during the vehicle computing module configuration to process data received by the vehicle computing module via the computing function interfaces.
US09122813B2	USB host determination of whether a USB device provides power via a USB coupling System and method for a USB host to determine whether or not a USB device provides power via a USB coupling between the USB host and the USB device. At a first time, it may be determined that the USB device is coupled to the USB host via a USB coupling and does not provide power. Power may be provided to the USB device via the USB coupling. At a second time it may be determined that the USB device does provide power via the USB coupling. Power may no longer be provided to the USB device via the USB coupling after it is determined that the USB device does provide power via the USB coupling. A battery of the USB host may be charged using power provided by the USB device via the USB coupling based on determining that the USB device does provide power via the USB coupling.
US09122812B2	Semiconductor device with vias on a bridge connecting two buses A semiconductor device comprises conductive buses and conductive bridges. A respective conductive bridge is conductively coupled to at least two portions of at least one of the conductive buses. At least N plus one (N+1) vias are coupled between every one of the conductive bridges and a respective feature in an integrated circuit when: (1) a width of the respective conductive bridge is less than a width of each of the at least two portions of the at least one of the conductive buses to which the respective conductive bridge is coupled, and (2) a distance along the respective conductive bridge and at least one of the vias is less than a critical distance. N is a number of conductive couplings between the respective one of the conductive bridges and the at least one of the conductive buses.
US09122811B2	Flexibly integrating endpoint logic into varied platforms In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to an integrated endpoint having a virtual port coupled between an upstream fabric and an integrated device fabric that includes a multi-function logic to handle various functions for one or more intellectual property (IP) blocks coupled to the integrated device fabric. The integrated device fabric has a primary channel to communicate data and command information between the IP block and the upstream fabric and a sideband channel to communicate sideband information between the IP block and the multi-function logic. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09122808B2	Network interface to a video device an illustrative video apparatus comprises a decoder that decodes video information in a native format, an emulation controller coupled to the decoder, and a network controller coupled to the emulation controller and capable of coupling to an external network. The video apparatus also includes a storage holding an instruction sequence executable on the emulation controller. The instruction sequence comprises a code for receiving network information from the external network and converting the network information to the native format for transfer to the decoder.
US09122806B2	SATA data appliance for providing SATA hosts with access to a configurable number of SATA drives residing in a SAS topology A method and apparatus for providing a SATA host with access to multiple SATA drives is disclosed. The apparatus may include: an emulated port multiplier for presenting at least one logical drive to the SATA host; a mapping module for maintaining a mapping between the at least one logical drive and a plurality of physical SATA drives, wherein the plurality of physical SATA drives reside in a SAS topology; and a SATA/STP bridge for providing an interface between the SATA host and the SAS topology, the SATA/STP bridge configured to function as a SATA target to communicate with the SATA host and to function as a STP initiator to communicate with the plurality of physical SATA drives in the SAS topology.
US09122791B2	Identifying a storage location for a storage address requested during debugging A method for identifying a storage location for a requested storage address. The method includes receiving a request to view data at a storage address and determining the requested storage address corresponding to a plurality of storage locations. The method includes determining whether the requested storage address identifies memory related to a dump file being analyzed by a dump formatter. Then, in response to determining the requested storage address identifies memory related to the dump file being analyzed by the dump formatter, the method includes identifying one of the plurality of storage locations. The method includes directing the request to the identified storage location.
US09122789B1	System and method for testing applications with a load tester and testing translator According to one embodiment, the invention comprise a Translation Tool, that translates messages in a client/server system into a form compatible with a Load Testing Tool, which are used to create a script for the Load Testing Tool. The Load Testing Tool utilizes the script created with the messages converted by the Translation Tool to generate emulated messages to test and evaluate the performance of the client/server system. The Translation Tool (possibly the same as the first translator) translates the messages generated by the Load Testing Tool into a form compatible by the client/server system.
US09122788B2	Appliance network for a networked appliance with a network binder accessory An appliance network has a network binder accessory to establish a private network among nodes that might be on different networks, using “one-click”.
US09122777B2	Method for determining coronary artery disease risk Markers and methods useful for assessing coronary artery disease in a subject are provided, along with kits for measuring their expression. Also provided are predictive models, based on the markers, as well as computer systems, and software embodiments of the models for scoring and optionally classifying samples.
US09122774B2	Medical image system Disclosed is a medical image system including a medical image management apparatus including a storage unit, a plurality of client terminals and an image generation apparatus. The medical image management apparatus be on standby for import of a medical image when an image import instruction is received from each of the plurality of client terminals, and the medical image management apparatus includes a control unit which stores the medical image in the storage unit and thereafter cancels the standby for image import. In a case where the image import instruction from another client terminal is received, the control unit cancels the standby for image import that is based on the image import instruction from one client terminal when a predetermined condition is fulfilled.
US09122773B2	Medical information display apparatus and operation method and program A predetermined period is selected on timeline, and electronic medical record information about examination and treatment received by a predetermined person to be examined during the selected period is retrieved. All of examined regions recorded in the electronic medical record information are extracted therefrom. Further, external view image representing an external view of the person to be examined is displayed, and marks representing the examined regions are superimposed at the positions of the examined regions in the external view image.
US09122772B2	Method for analyzing message archives and corresponding computer program A method for analyzing a large number of messages, wherein the number of messages is reduced based on pattern recognition and pattern simplification, rules for the pattern recognition and pattern simplification are based on a regular grammatical structure, and patterns are sought in the remaining messages, or directly, i.e., without previous simplification. Syntactic pattern recognition is used for each type of pattern search, and a finite machine is derivable using the regular grammatical structure underlying each pattern recognition by transforming the mapping rules into transfer function, such that structural connections between the messages can be displayed graphically.
US09122771B2	Graph similarity calculation system, method and program A computer implemented method and system for calculating a degree of similarity between two graphs whose nodes are respectively given discrete labels include providing, for each of the two graphs, label values respectively to a given node and nodes adjacent thereto so that different ones of the discrete labels correspond to different ones of the label values. The nodes are sequentially tracing for each of the two graphs, and, during the tracing of the nodes, a new label value is calculated through a hash calculation using a label value of a currently visited node and also using label values of nodes adjacent to the currently visited node to update the label value to the currently visited node. The degree of similarity between the two graphs is calculated on the basis of the number of the label values having been given to nodes of the two graphs and agreeing between the two graphs.
US09122764B2	Methods and apparatus to access process data stored on a server Example methods and apparatus to access process data stored on a server are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving a request to access process data via a web browser, identifying a server that stores at least a portion of the process data, wherein the server is associated with an interoperability data packing format, accessing the server to receive the process data, converting the process data from a format associated with the interoperability data packing format to a web browsing format, and embedding at least a first portion of the converted process data into at least one data field for display via the web browser.
US09122761B2	Business entity searching and automatic dialing for smartphones Business entity search results are provided for smartphones for automatic dialing. Search results are provided based on partial business entity name and location information. Search results are trimmed to only include name, address, and phone number. A smartphone is adapted to display search results concisely allowing the user to quickly identify and call the desired business entity.
US09122759B2	Systems and methods for online social matchmaking A computer-based system for presenting interpersonal relationship recommendation that utilizes peer based opinions about a potential match to influence the recommendation, and that presents the peer based opinions along with the recommendation.
US09122755B2	Instantaneous incremental search user interface An incremental search user interface is implemented to reduce search requests from a client system to a server system. In one aspect, a result list is cached in a memory of the client system, where the result list corresponds to a search request from the client system to the server system. In another aspect, a check is repeatedly performed, in a predetermined time interval, to determine whether an input keystroke is received. Upon confirming the receiving of an input keystroke, based on a partial query and the cached result list, determine whether a search request to the server is unnecessary.
US09122754B2	Intelligent video summaries in information access In a method for displaying video data within result presentations in information access or search systems, compressed thumbnails are computed for videos in a result page and applied to the result page. An end user is enabled to select a video in the result page and activate streaming of a video summary within the context of the associated result page.
US09122753B2	Method and apparatus for retrieving a song by hummed query An electronic apparatus and method for retrieving a song, and a storage medium. The electronic apparatus includes: a storage unit which stores a plurality of songs; a user input unit which receives a hummed query which is inputted for retrieving a song; and a song retrieving unit which retrieves a song based on the hummed query from among the plurality of stored songs when the hummed query is received. The song retrieving unit extracts a pitch and a duration of the hummed query, converts each of the extracted pitch and duration into multi-level symbols, calculates a string edit distance between the hummed query and one of the plurality of songs based on the symbols, and determines a similarity between the hummed query and a song based on edit operations which are performed within the calculated string edit distance.
US09122752B2	Personalizing content based on mood In order to increase the efficacy of a mood-based playlisting system, a mood sensor such as a camera may be used to provide mood information to the mood model. When the mood sensor includes a camera, a camera may be used to capture an image of the user. The image is analyzed to determine a mood for the user so that content may be selected responsive to the mood of the user.
US09122750B2	Classifying objects Embodiments of a classification pipeline disclosed herein have the ability to both collect data as it occurs and dynamically redact it, allowing ongoing statistics to be gathered and maintained while simultaneously constraining the total amount of storage capacity that must be dedicated to such a purpose. Various types of information can be extracted from or obtained on the object through the classification pipeline. In one embodiment, the classification pipeline comprises a plurality of layers implemented as a set of services available to network clients through a Web interface or an Applications Programming Interface (API). Each client can subscribe to one or more layers of the classification pipeline at their leisure and tailor their classification pipeline configuration through the interface. The classification pipeline can be configured to collaborate with other software to provide a consistent snapshot of the state of a network environment based on data collected at the time.
US09122748B2	Matching documents against monitors Techniques and tools are described for matching documents against monitors. An index can be generated from a plurality of monitors, where the index represents the query logic of the plurality of monitors. The index can be searched using the documents as search queries. The searching can comprise matching the documents against the monitors using the query logic represented in the index. An index can be distributed to a plurality of computing devices to be searched at the plurality of computing devices, where each computing device searches a subset of a plurality of documents against the full index. Searching at the plurality of computing devices can be performed in parallel, and results can be aggregated at a central location.
US09122745B2	Interactive acquisition of remote services A natural language specification of at least one high level information technology services requirement is obtained from a user, via a conversational interface; the same is parsed into first pre-defined semi-structured data, using a conversation parser. Based on the first pre-defined semi-structured data, a subset of candidate information technology services is identified, with a dialog engine, from a plurality of candidate information technology services provided by a plurality of vendors, the dialog engine is used to formulate a response including second pre-defined semi-structured data. The response is reverse-parsed into a natural language response, using the conversation parser. The natural language response includes a question for the user to assist in further refining the subset of candidate information technology services; the natural language response is presented to the user via the conversational interface.
US09122744B2	System and method for providing distributed intelligent assistance A system and a method for a service engine providing distributed intelligent assistance to a user are described herein. The method comprising steps of receiving and displaying a user inquiry from the user, the user inquiry having a linguistic pattern including a verb; generating and displaying a follow up question based on the user inquiry; receiving and displaying a follow up answer from the user; and generating and displaying a response based on the user inquiry and the follow up answer.
US09122742B2	Generating deportment and comportment cohorts A computer implemented method, system, and/or computer program product generates deportment and comportment cohorts. Digital sensor data comprises event metadata describes a set of events associated with an individual. Descriptive data about the individual is retrieved by data mining a combination of online sources and off-line sources. A set of conduct analysis models is selected based on event metadata and available description data. The event metadata and the description data are analyzed in the set of conduct analysis models to form a deportment and comportment cohort, where the deportment and comportment cohort comprises attributes identifying a demeanor and manner of the individual.
US09122735B2	Method and apparatus for modifying a transition to an altered power state of an electronic device based on accelerometer output A method and apparatus are disclosed for modifying a transition to an altered power state of an electronic device based on accelerometer output. The apparatus includes an electronic device having a display and an accelerometer. The apparatus also includes a determination module, and a modification module. The determination module determines an in-use condition of the electronic device based on accelerometer output for the electronic device. The modification module modifies a transition to an altered power state of the electronic device in response to the determination module determining the in-use condition.
US09122730B2	Free-text search for integrating management of applications An integration mechanism for managing computing components may be provided. It may comprise collecting management information about the computing components using a data collection component, storing objects of the collected management information in a full-text search-index data-structure, generating for each collected object a displayable result snippet, searching the full-text search-index data-structure for matching objects based on a received parameter, retrieving all matching objects of the full-text search-index data-structure related to the search, and displaying the matching objects in form of the related result snippets, wherein the integration mechanism is independent from the computing components it is collecting management information from.
US09122726B2	Tuple routing in a streaming application A system and method for modifying the processing within a streaming application are disclosed. The method may determine one or more parameters for a tuple at a first stream operator. The one or more parameters may represent a processing history of the tuple at the first stream operator. The method may associate the one or more parameters with the tuple metadata. A second stream operator may modify the processing of the tuple if the parameter falls outside a threshold.
US09122724B2	Combined join Computer-implemented systems and associated operating methods perform a combined join. A computer-implemented system comprises a processor that performs query processing in a relational database by receiving inputs of a variety of cases and sizes, and performing a combined database join of two of the received inputs using an index in memory formed from records of the first input and probed with records from the second input by optimizing the index for increased-speed searching using fast parent-to-child navigation. The variety of cases comprise combinations of unsorted, sorted, and indexed inputs, and the variety of sizes comprise input sizes from smaller than the available memory to input sizes substantially larger than available memory.
US09122721B2	Enriching database query responses using data from external data sources The subject disclosure is directed towards enriching database query responses using data from external data sources. When processing a database query seeking enriched data from an external data source, a request is communicated to the external data source based on the database query. An enriched database query response is generated based on data provided by the external data source. The enriched database query response may be combined with data returned via an internal database query operation, and/or inserted into a local database table.
US09122720B2	Enriching database query responses using data from external data sources The subject disclosure is directed towards enriching database query responses using data from external data sources. When processing a database query seeking enriched data from an external data source, a request is communicated to the external data source based on the database query. An enriched database query response is generated based on data provided by the external data source. The enriched database query response may be combined with data returned via an internal database query operation, and/or inserted into a local database table.
US09122716B1	Database upgrade management A system can include an upgrade system manager. The upgrade system manager can be configured to communicate with an upgrade database that employs a given schema. The system can also include a legacy system manager configured to communicate with a legacy database that employs a different schema, wherein the legacy database contains a subset of the data stored at the upgrade database. The legacy database can be configured to provide a forward migration trigger to the upgrade system manager in response to detecting an update to the legacy database. The upgrade system manager can further be configured to determine whether data received from an application configured to produce data for the upgrade database is to be provided to the legacy database.
US09122711B1	Simplified system backup protection and recovery A system, method, and medium for automatically identifying, protecting, and recovering the critical services and components of a server. A backup application detects a request to perform a backup operation. In response, the backup application performs a discovery process to identify the critical services and components of a server. The backup application includes a user interface to display the critical services and components to an administrator. The critical services and components are then backed up to a backup storage device. The collection of critical services and components can then be recovered to a target server when a recovery operation is needed.
US09122710B1	Discovery of new business openings using web content analysis In general, embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and computer readable media for identifying a new business based on programmatically analyzing content received from online sources and, as a result, discovering one or more references to the business. In embodiments, the system stores historical data representing previously identified new businesses and then uses attributes of those businesses in search queries to receive related content. Additionally or alternatively, the system stores data representing online sources that historically provided content containing references to new businesses and then continues to access those sources for additional content. In embodiments, the system performs content analysis on structured and/or unstructured content. In some embodiments, analysis of content received from a particular online source includes a source-specific algorithm that takes a source-specific representation of the content as input and produces a result indicating the likelihood that the content includes a new business reference.
US09122709B2	Management of media files Apparatus, systems, and methods provide a mechanism to enhance the management of mobile devices for users of the mobile devices. Various embodiments include apparatus and methods to manage media content for a mobile device with respect identification, in a management system, of the media content of the mobile device. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09122708B2	Crowdsourced search and locate platform A crowdsourced search and locate platform, comprising an application server and a crowdrank server. The application server: receives connections from crowdsourcing participants; navigates a first crowdsourcing participant to a specific geospatial location; sends an image corresponding to the geospatial location to the first crowdsourcing participant; receives tagging data from the first crowdsourcing participant, the tagging data corresponding to a plurality of objects and locations identified by the first crowdsourcing participant. The crowdrank server: retrieves a plurality of tags made by participating users computes agreement and disagreement values for each of the plurality of retrieved tags; performs an expectation-maximization or expectation-minimization process iteratively until a configured maximum number of iterations is performed or until an indicia of rate of change between iterations falls below a configured threshold; and provides resulting output values corresponding to geolocations of objects of a plurality of types to an administrative user.
US09122706B1	Systems and methods for image-feature-based recognition Methods and systems are described herein that allow a user to capture a single image snapshot from video, print, or the world around him or her, and obtain additional information relating to the media itself or items of interest displayed in the snapshot. A fingerprint of the snapshot is used as a query and transmitted to the server. Image Feature-Based Recognition, as described herein, uses a feature index to identify a smaller set of candidate matches from a larger database of images based on the fingerprint. Novel methods and systems using a distance metric and a radical hash table design exploit probabilistic effects and allow distinct image features to be preferred over redundant ones, allowing only the more distinctive data points to remain resident within the index, yielding a lean index that can be quickly used in the identification process.
US09122705B1	Scoring hash functions Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for scoring hash functions. In one aspect, a method includes computing one or more first performance indicators for an objective function computed on each of one or more sets of input data elements using a set of hash functions. A first overall performance indicator is computed using each of the computed performance indicators. The candidate hash function is added to the set of hash functions to generate a second set of hash functions. Second performance indicators are computed for the objective function computed on each of the sets of input data elements using the second set of hash functions. A second overall performance indicator is computed using each of the computed second performance indicators, and a score is computed for the candidate hash function using the first overall performance indicator and the second overall performance indicator.
US09122704B2	Mobile location aware search engine and method of providing content for same A method includes identifying a geographic position of a wireless device. Data input by a user while the user is located at the geographic position of the wireless device is received. The data is associated with a landmark at the geographic position. The data is provided to a database based on the geographic position. A wireless device includes a transmitter configured to transmit a geographic position of the wireless device to a database. A receiver is configured to receive data input by a user of the wireless device while the user is located at the geographic position of the wireless device. The data is associated with a landmark at the geographic position of the wireless device. The receiver is configured to automatically receive information associated with the landmark from the database.
US09122700B2	Parallel log structured file system collective buffering to achieve a compact representation of scientific and/or dimensional data Collective buffering and data pattern solutions are provided for storage, retrieval, and/or analysis of data in a collective parallel processing environment. For example, a method can be provided for data storage in a collective parallel processing environment. The method comprises receiving data to be written for a plurality of collective processes within a collective parallel processing environment, extracting a data pattern for the data to be written for the plurality of collective processes, generating a representation describing the data pattern, and saving the data and the representation.
US09122695B2	Extending cluster allocations in an extensible file system An extensible file system format for portable storage media is provided. The extensible file system format includes the specification of primary and secondary directory entry types that may be custom defined. The primary and secondary directory entry types can be further classified as critical and benign directory entries. The directory entry types can define whether a cluster chain corresponding to a file can be contiguously allocated.
US09122694B1	Systems and methods for highly scalable system log analysis, deduplication and management Systems and methods for parsing raw log data into structured log data, and removing duplicate entries, storing the deduplicated log data into binary format, and managing system events. The subject matter can increase speed of log data analysis and storage, reduce data storage for log data, and manage easily system events.
US09122693B2	Method and apparatus for determining contextually relevant geographical locations An approach is provided for determining and utilizing geographical locations contextually relevant to a user. A contextually relevant location platform determines location-based data associated with a user and/or user device. The contextually relevant location platform determines stationary points based, at least in part, on the location-based data. The contextually relevant location platform determines context data associated with the stationary points. The contextually relevant location platform determines at least one location anchor based, at least in part, on the stationary points and the associated context data, wherein the at least one location anchor represents a bounded geographical area of contextual relevance to the user.
US09122691B2	System and method for remote file search integrated with network installable file system A remote file system application program interface (API) for a remote file system installable file system (IFS) and operating system file system. The remote file system API enables a file content searching program that performs a search on a mapped remote drive to pass the file system path to search and the search criteria regular expression pattern to the remote system for searching and the results are returned to the client system in an IO stream. Such an application program interface is useful in the area of network file systems, network mapped drives, and file content searching programs such as a global regular expression processor (grep).
US09122689B1	Recovering performance of a file system post-migration An improved technique involves providing a pair of inode numbers in a directory entry for a file in a directory of a target file system. Along these lines, the target file system writes a first inode number and a second inode number to the directory entry for the file. While the client has not yet remounted its file system, that client may continue to use the file handle provided for the original file system. The data storage system continues to refer to a mapping table that cross-references initial inode numbers to target ones, at some cost in performance. Nevertheless, the client has an option to remount the file system at a time that is convenient to the client, so that the client may obtain a new handle. The client may subsequently use the new file handle to access the file.
US09122688B1	Naming scheme for different computer systems Storing a data storage object in a first data storage system that uses object IDs with a first object ID format includes determining if the data storage object was created on a second, different, data storage system having a second object ID format different from the first object ID format or created using an emulator of the different data storage system, using a lookup table to translate between the first object ID format and the second object ID format in response to the data storage object having been created on the different data storage system, and directly converting the object ID to a new object ID having the second object ID format without using external data. Directly converting may include converting at least a portion of the content of the data storage object into at least a portion of the object ID.
US09122685B2	Operating cloud computing and cloud computing information system A method for cloud computing comprising collecting cloud computing node status information from a cloud computing node connected to the cloud computing network; collecting cloud computing service status information indicative of an attribute of a cloud computing service executed in the node; collecting environmental data sets from computing systems connected to a network connected to the cloud, each environmental data set corresponding to attribute values of the computing systems; building a group of computing systems; storing the node and cloud service status information, the environmental data sets, and the identical attribute value of each computing system in a database; and responsive to a request for characteristic data from one of the computing systems, selecting the respective characteristic data out of the status information and the environmental data sets in the database and sending the characteristic data over the cloud computing network and the network to the requesting computing system.
US09122684B2	Media content discovery and character organization techniques Techniques for recommending media are described. A character preference function comprising a plurality of preference coefficients is accessed. A first character model comprises a first set of attribute values for the plurality of attributes of a first character. The first and second characters are associated with a first and second salience value, respectively. A second character model comprises a second set of attribute values for the plurality of attributes of a second character of the plurality of characters. A first character rating is calculated using the plurality of preference coefficients and the first set of attribute values. A second character rating of the second character is calculated using the plurality of preference coefficients with the second set of attribute values. A media rating is calculated based on the first and second salience values and the first and second character ratings. A media is recommended based on the media rating.
US09122682B2	Technique for processing data in a network A technique for processing data in a network is disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the technique may be realized as a method for processing data in a network having a plurality of network stations. The method comprises receiving a first representation of data at a first of the plurality of network stations, processing the first representation so as to generate a second representation of the data, and transmitting the second representation from the first network station to a second of the plurality of network stations for storage therein, wherein the second representation is stored at an address within the second network station. The method also comprises receiving the address at the first network station, and transmitting the address from the first network station to a third of the plurality of network stations for storage therein.
US09122678B2	Method and system for recommending enterprise collaboration data The suggestions of objects in a real-time collaboration tool can be accomplished by first forming a first vector representing an object utilized in the real-time collaboration tool. The vector can then be compared to a plurality of vectors representing a plurality of objects stored in a database to locate one or more vectors similar to the first vector. One or more of the plurality of objects stored in the database can be recommended to a user of the real-time collaboration tool based on the comparing.
US09122677B2	System and method for product identification A system and method for identifying an object includes a plurality of object sensors, each object sensor configured and arranged to determine at least one parameter describing objects as they are relatively moved with respect to a sensing volume and having a known position and attitude with respect to the sensing volume. A location sensor is configured and arranged to produce position information relating to the relative movement. Outputs from the object and location sensors are passed to a processor and the parameters are associated with respective ones of the objects on the basis of the position information and on the basis of the known positions and attitudes of the sensors. For each object having associated parameters, the processor compares the parameters to known item parameters to assign item identification to the object.
US09122672B2	In-letter word prediction for virtual keyboard A method including receiving an input of a character from a virtual keyboard rendered on a display, generating a set of characters that includes the character, and displaying the generated set of characters at a location associated with a key of the virtual keyboard of the display which corresponds to a subsequent candidate input character. An electronic device including a display having a virtual keyboard rendered thereupon and a processor, the processor being configured to perform the method. Also disclosed is a keyboard, including a plurality of keys, each key corresponding to one or more different characters of a plurality of characters, wherein in response to receiving an input of a character, the keyboard is configured to perform the method.
US09122671B2	System and method for grammar based test planning The present disclosure generally relates to the testing of a system that includes software or hardware components. In some embodiments, a testing framework generates a set of test cases for a system under test using a grammar. Each test case may perform an action, such as provide an input to the system under test, and result in an output from the system under test. The inputs and outputs are then compared to the expected results to determine whether the system under test is performing correctly. Prior to generating the set of test cases from the grammar, the testing framework processes the grammar to identify attributes of the test cases to be derived from the grammar and facilitates the modification of the grammar.
US09122670B2	Method for determining articular bone deformity resection using motion patterns The invention relates to a method for real-time determination an optimal corrected surface of a first bone and/or a second bone forming together an articulation, the first and/or second bones presenting an overgrowth deformation, said corrected surface providing a greater range of motion of the articulation, the method comprising the following steps: i) constructing from acquired images of the articulation 3D voxel models of the first bone and the second bone; ii) for each of first and second bone voxel models, constructing a coordinate system defined by a center and three axes; iii) applying a motion pattern on the coordinate system of the second bone with respect to the coordinate system of the first bone, a motion pattern being a set of contiguous positions of the first or second bone coordinate systems with respect to the other bone coordinate system, the contiguous positions defining a movement of one bone with respect to the other, wherein said motion pattern is initially loaded from a data base of predefined motion patterns; iv) determining a resection volume from said motion pattern as being the union of interpenetration volumes of the first or second bone voxel model with the other bone voxel model for each position of the motion pattern; v) determining the optimal corrected surface by virtually removing said resection volume from the first and/or the second bone voxel model.
US09122665B2	Rich formatting for a data label associated with a data point Rich formatting may be provided for rich data labels. A rich data label may be created for at least one data point associated with a visualization. The data label may be formatted and displayed on the visualization. The rich data label may be bind to a particular data point rather than adhering to conventional index-based anchor logic where a data label is bound to the index of a data point. Accordingly, in response to determining that the location of the data point has changed in the visualization, the location of the rich data label is automatically adjusted to remain attached to its original data point.
US09122661B2	Method, system and computer program product for providing digital content A method performed by a computer system. The method includes storing a first version of a mass-produced printed paper, the first version having a first digital format. The method also includes replacing first content in the first version with second content, and translating the first version into a second version, the second version having a second digital format. The second version is displayable on a display device as a likeness of the paper.
US09122658B2	Webpage display system leveraging OSGi A method, system, and/or computer program product generate and present a webpage on a user interface. A request for an initial page view of an initial page is transmitted from a client computer to a server-side layout manager in a server that is OSGi enabled. The client computer receives a copy of the initial page view, a client-side rendering engine, and a client-side layout manager from the server. The client-side layout manager parses out client-side controllers from the client-side layout manager to determine which views are to be pre-fetched before generating a requested webpage. The client-side layout manager invokes the client-side rendering engine to pre-fetch and cache selected views of particular webpages. The client-side layout manager then invokes the client-side rendering engine to build and render the requested webpage from the initial page view and one or more of the cached views.
US09122657B2	Webpage display system leveraging OSGI A method, system, and/or computer program product generate and present a webpage on a user interface. A request for an initial page view of an initial page is transmitted from a client computer to a server-side layout manager in a server that is OSGi enabled. The client computer receives a copy of the initial page view, a client-side rendering engine, and a client-side layout manager from the server. The client-side layout manager parses out client-side controllers from the client-side layout manager to determine which views are to be pre-fetched before generating a requested webpage. The client-side layout manager invokes the client-side rendering engine to pre-fetch and cache selected views of particular webpages. The client-side layout manager then invokes the client-side rendering engine to build and render the requested webpage from the initial page view and one or more of the cached views.
US09122655B2	Pre-translation testing of bi-directional language display A method for testing the display of bi-directional language script prior to translation in an application under test can include using unidirectional glyphs with shaping indicators to simulate right-to-left characters. The using step can include reversing an ordering of a first set of unidirectional text characters in an input string and mapping the unidirectional text characters to right-to-left code points in a bi-directional language code page to produce a pseudo-translated string. Multiple unidirectional language glyphs can be loaded where each corresponds to a same one of the right-to-left character code points as had been used to produce the pseudo-translation. The pseudo-translation and the glyphs can be combined to simulate right-to-left character rendering in the application under test such the resultant output is visually similar to the input string. Finally, the glyphs can include character shaping indicia such that a resultant output allows for the detection of shaping errors.
US09122653B2	Migrating virtual machines across sites A method for managing data swapping in a migration of virtual memory data in a virtual machine, where the data swapping is from a first host associated with a first storage device to a second host associated with a second storage device, is provided in another embodiment. The method includes receiving a migration instruction indicating the virtual machine to be migrated, and instructing the first host to copy data of the virtual machine to a sub-logical unit in the first storage device, the sub-logical unit having a mirror logical unit in the second storage device. A notification is sent, the notification being usable to instruct the second host to read data from the mirror logical unit.
US09122646B2	Graphics processing systems In a tile-based graphics processing system having plural rendering processors, the set of tiles 31 to be processed to generate an output frame 30 for display is partitioned among the different rendering processors by defining respective tile traversal paths 32, 33, 34, 35 for each rendering processor that start at a tile initially allocated to the processor and that, at least for the initial tiles along the path, traverse to spatially adjacent tiles in the output, and that will traverse every tile to be rendered if followed to their end. The next tile for a given rendering processor to process is then selected as being the next tile along its defined path, unless the next tile in the path has already been processed (or is already being processed) by another rendering processor, in which case the next tile to be allocated to the rendering processor is selected to be a free tile further on in the tile traversal path for that processor.
US09122643B2	Event trigger based data backup services Methods and systems of initiating a backup process of data stored on a computer are described. One method calls for the data to be backed up to be identified. A backup event trigger is defined, and the computer is monitored for the occurrence of the backup event trigger. If the trigger occurs, a balancing heuristic is applied, to determine whether to initiate the backup process.
US09122642B2	Hybrid data backup in a networked computing environment Embodiments of the present invention provide a hybrid (e.g., local and remote) approach for data backup in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). In a typical embodiment, a set of storage configuration parameters corresponding to a set of data to be backed up is received and stored in a computer data structure. The set of storage configuration parameters can comprise at least one of the following: a recovery time objective (RTO), a recovery point objective (RPO), and a desired type of protection for the set of data. Regardless, the set of data is compared to previously stored data to identify at least one of the following: portions of the set of data that have commonality with the previously stored data; and portions of the set of data that are unique to the set of data (i.e., not in common with any of the previously stored data). The above-described process is referred to herein as “de-duplication”. A storage solution is then determined based on the set of storage configuration parameters. In general, the storage solution identifies at least one local storage resource and at least one remote storage resource (e.g., a cloud storage resource) for backing up the portions of the set of data that are unique to the set of data. Once the storage solution has been determined, the unique portions of the set of data will be stored in accordance therewith.
US09122641B1	On-premise data deduplication for cloud environments A first computer system calculates a first value as a function of a data block. A second computer system compares the calculated first value with each of a plurality of values in a plurality of entries, respectively. The plurality of entries include a plurality of storage location pointers, respectively, that correspond to a plurality of data blocks, respectively, that were transmitted to a storage system before the first computer system calculated the first value. If the first value compares equally to a value contained in one of the plurality of entries, a storage location pointer of the one entry is transmitted to the storage system, wherein the storage location pointer corresponds to a copy of the data block that was sent to the storage system before the first computer system calculated the first value. If the calculated first value does not compare equally with any value contained in the plurality of entries, the first computer system transmits the data block to the storage system.
US09122639B2	Detection and deduplication of backup sets exhibiting poor locality Described are computer-based methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, for detection and deduplication of backup sets exhibiting poor locality. A first set of summaries of a first data set are determined, each summary of the first set of summaries being indicative of a data pattern in the first data set. A second set of summaries of a second data set are determined, each summary of the second set of summaries being indicative of a data pattern in the second data set. A set of comparison metrics are calculated, each comparison metric being based on a first subset of summaries from the first set of summaries and a second subset of summaries from the second set of summaries. A locality metric is calculated based on the set of comparison metrics indicative of whether the first data set and second data set exhibit poor locality.
US09122638B2	Block level incremental backup A system and method include creating a full backup copy of selected data from a storage device. A series of incremental backups are created over time following the creation of the full backup copy. The oldest incremental backup is merged into the full backup at a desired time.
US09122636B2	Hard power fail architecture The various implementations described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to enable power sequencing and data hardening in a storage device. In one aspect, the method includes determining whether a power supply voltage provided to the storage device is higher than an over-voltage threshold. The method further includes, in accordance with a determination that the power supply voltage is higher than the over-voltage threshold, performing a power fail operation, the power fail operation including: (1) signaling a power fail condition to a plurality of controllers on the storage device, (2) transferring data held in volatile memory to non-volatile memory, and (3) removing power from the plurality of controllers on the storage device.
US09122629B2	Elastic cache with single parity The invention provides an elastic or flexible SSD cache utilizing a hybrid RAID protocol combining RAID-0 protocol for read data and RAID-5 single parity protocol for write data in the same cache array. Read data may be stored in window sized allocations using RAID-0 protocol to avoid allocating an entire RAID stripe for read cache data. In the same SSD volume, dirty write data is stored in row allocations using RAID-5 protocol to provide single parity for the dirty write data. Read data is typically stored a window from the physical device having the largest number of available windows. Write data is stored in a row including the next available window in each arm, which decouples the window structure of the rows from the stripe configuration of the physical memory devices.
US09122624B2	Synchronizing a translation lookaside buffer with an extended paging table A processor including logic to execute an instruction to synchronize a mapping from a physical address of a guest of a virtualization based system (guest physical address) to a physical address of the host of the virtualization based system (host physical address), and stored in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB), with a corresponding mapping stored in an extended paging table (EPT) of the virtualization based system.
US09122621B2	Configurable intelligent I/O expander system A method and apparatus in a vehicular telemetry system for an intelligent I/O expander. The intelligent I/O expander may be configured in an active mode or a passive mode. A vehicular telemetry hardware system may be configured in a passive serial control mode or an active serial control mode. The intelligent I/O expander capable of adding additional device to the vehicular telemetry system.
US09122620B2	Storage system with reduced hash key memory A system and method are disclosed for storing data in a hash table. The method includes receiving data, determining a location identifier for the data wherein the location identifier identifies a location in the hash table for storing the data and the location identifier is derived from the data, compressing the data by extracting the location identifier; and storing the compressed data in the identified location of the hash table.
US09122618B2	Systems, apparatus and methods for quantifying and identifying diversion of electrical energy Systems, apparatus and methods for quantifying and identifying diversion of electrical energy are provided. Bypass diversion factors for consumer nodes in an inventory zone are determined by finding a solution to a system of load balance equations having slack variables representing aggregate tap loads for the inventory zone and in which consumer load profile data is scaled by the bypass diversion factors, which solution minimizes an objective function whose value is positively related to the sum of the slack variables representing the aggregate tap loads.
US09122615B1	Data cache egress for a data storage system Data cache egress of a data storage device (DSD) in a data storage system including a system controller. A size of a reserved space in a memory of the system controller is determined for storing a data cache image for a data cache of the DSD. A loss of power is detected in the data storage system and the data cache image is transferred from the DSD to the system controller. The data cache image is stored in the reserved space in the memory of the system controller.
US09122613B2	Prefetching of data and instructions in a data processing apparatus A data processing apparatus includes a processor and a hierarchical data storage system, including a memory and a cache, for storing the data and the instructions in storage locations identified by physical addresses. The apparatus includes address translation circuitry for mapping the virtual addresses to the physical addresses and load store circuitry receiving access requests from the processor. The store circuitry accesses the translation circuitry to identify physical addresses that correspond to virtual addresses of the received data access requests, and to access the corresponding physical addresses in the hierarchical data storage system. Preload circuitry receives preload requests from the processor indicating virtual addresses storage locations that are to be preloaded. Prefetch circuitry monitors at least some of the accesses performed by the load store circuitry and predicts addresses to be accessed subsequently, and transmits the predicted addresses to the preload circuitry as preload requests.
US09122611B2	Method for giving read commands and reading data, and controller and storage system using the same A method for giving a read command to a flash memory chip to read data to be accessed by a host system is provided. The method includes receiving a host read command; determining whether the received host read command follows a last host read command; if yes, giving a cache read command to read data from the flash memory chip; and if no, giving a general read command and the cache read command to read data from the flash memory chip. Accordingly, the method can effectively reduce time needed for executing the host read commands by using the cache read command to combine the host read commands which access continuous physical addresses and pre-read data stored in a next physical address.
US09122609B2	Caching method and system for video coding A method of caching reference data in a reference data cache is provided that includes receiving an address of a reference data block in the reference data cache, wherein the address includes an x coordinate and a y coordinate of the reference data block in a reference block of pixels and a reference block identifier specifying which of a plurality of reference blocks of pixels includes the reference data block, computing an index of a set of cache lines in the reference data cache using bits from the x coordinate and bits from the y coordinate, using the index and a tag comprising the reference block identifier to determine whether the reference data block is in the set of cache lines, and retrieving the reference data block from reference data storage when the reference data block is not in the set of cache lines.
US09122608B2	Frequency determination across an interface of a data processing system One or more systems, devices, methods, and/or processes described can determine a maximum cache command rate of a processor unit. For example, an interface of the processor unit is configured to be coupled to an interconnect of a multiprocessor system and is configured such that a first portion of the interface provides a signal to a second portion of the interface, where the first portion of the interface operates utilizing a known frequency and the second portion of the interface operates utilizing a cache frequency of the processor unit; the second portion of the interface circulates the signal; the first portion of the interface receives the signal from the second portion of the interface; the first portion of the interface determines a cache command rate based on the known frequency, the frequency of the cache, and the signal; and the interface provides information indicating the cache command rate to the interconnect.
US09122600B2	Systems and methods for remote monitoring in a computer network Systems and methods for providing automated problem reporting in elements used in conjunction with computer networks are disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of elements that perform data migration operations and a reporting manager or monitor agent which monitors the elements and data migration operations. Upon detection of hardware or software problems, the reporting manager or monitor agent automatically communicates with elements affected by the problem to gather selected hardware, software, and configuration information, analyzes the information to determine causes of the problem, and issues a problem report containing at least a portion of the selected information. The problem report is communicated to a remote monitor that does not possess access privileges to the elements, allowing automated, remote monitoring of the elements without compromising security of the computer network or elements.
US09122597B2	Information processing apparatus, information processing method and medium storing program Disclosed is an information processing device provided with: a plurality of processing units each having a TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer); a means for acquiring a designation of a processing unit, from among the plurality of processing units, where TLB information is to be collected, and for acquiring a designation of the timing at which the TLB information is to be collected; and a means for collecting the TLB information from the designated processing unit at the designated timing.
US09122588B1	Managing asymmetric memory system as a cache device Some implementations provide a method for managing data in a storage system that includes a persistent storage device and a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) cache device. The method includes: accessing a direct mapping between a logical address associated with data stored on the persistent storage device and a physical address on the NVRAM cache device; receiving, from a host computing device coupled to the storage system, a request to access a particular unit of data stored on the persistent storage device; using the direct mapping as a basis between the logical address associated with the data stored on the persistent storage device and the physical address on the NVRAM cache device to determine whether the particular unit of data being requested is present on the NVRAM cache device.
US09122586B2	Physical-to-logical address map to speed up a recycle operation in a solid state drive A method for increasing performance of a recycle operation in a solid state drive, comprising the steps of (A) creating an empty physical-to-logical address map in a memory having a plurality of entry locations, (B) filling one of the plurality of entry locations with a physical page address associated with each data write operation to a block, where the block has a plurality of pages, (C) writing the physical-to-logical address map to a last of the plurality of pages during a write to a second to last page of the block and (D) initiating a recycle operation of the block by reading the address map to determine whether the pages contain valid data.
US09122585B2	Method for managing data in storage device and memory system employing such a method A method for managing data in a storage device includes: receiving a logical page from a host and calculating an actual time stamp of the logical page; finding a block of the storage device in which the logical page is stored and detecting a time stamp of the block and a page offset of the logical page stored in the block; calculating an approximate time stamp of the logical page stored in the block using the time stamp of the block and the page offset; and determining that the logical page is in a first state if the difference between the actual time stamp and the approximate time stamp is smaller than a threshold value, and determining that the logical page is in a second state different from the first state if the difference between the actual time stamp and the approximate time stamp is larger than the threshold value.
US09122581B2	Data versioning in solid state memory Embodiments are directed to maintaining versions of data within a solid state memory. One or more embodiments create at least one data structure associated with at least one logical page of a solid state memory. The logical page is associated with at least one physical page in a data block of the solid state memory. A first set of information associated with the logical page is stored in the data structure. A second set of information associated with the physical page is stored in the data structure. The second set of information includes at least versioning information identifying which version of the logical page is represented by a dataset is stored within the physical page.
US09122580B2	Flash memory system and managing and collecting methods for flash memory with invalid page messages thereof A flash memory system and managing and collecting methods for flash memory with invalid page messages thereof are described. When the valid data pages of the flash memory are changed to invalid data pages, a recording area is used to record the message of the invalid data pages to effectively collect the occupied space of the invalid data pages in the flash memory. Further, while garbage collecting step is performed, a block is rapidly selected according to the message of the recording area and the valid data pages in the selected block are correctly identified, copied and removed.
US09122578B2	Solid state memory with reduced number of partially filled pages The invention concerns a solid state memory, comprising multiple logical units. The solid state memory contains an internal buffer for temporarily storing the incoming data steam before the incoming data are programmed to at least one page. The internal buffer keeps data that are not yet programmed in case a switch from one logical unit to another is performed. A method for operating such a device is presented.
US09122573B2	Using extended asynchronous data mover indirect data address words An abstraction for storage class memory is provided that hides the details of the implementation of storage class memory from a program, and provides a standard channel programming interface for performing certain actions, such as controlling movement of data between main storage and storage class memory or managing storage class memory.
US09122571B2	Apparatus and method for managing data access count An apparatus counts, for each piece of data, an access count indicating a number of times of access to the each piece of data for every unit time so as to store a management information element including the access count and identification information identifying the each piece of data. The apparatus deletes, from the plurality of management information elements stored in a memory, a management information element that includes the access count having a value minimum among the plurality of management information elements, when a number of the plurality of management information elements reaches a predetermined number. The apparatus determines whether there is a piece of data that satisfies a condition related to rapid increase of access, based on the access counts included in the plurality of management information elements.
US09122567B2	User interface system and method A system and method for controlling an electric-vehicle is provided. The system and method calculates a likelihood of arriving at a destination based on vehicle data and a current route. The likelihood is compared to least a first threshold and a second threshold. A first action is implemented when the likelihood is less than the first threshold and greater than the second threshold. A second action being different from the first action is implemented when the likelihood is less than the second threshold.
US09122565B2	Memory controller and memory control method Provided is a memory controller that manages memory access requests between the processor and the memory. In response to the memory controller receiving two or more memory access requests for the same area of memory, the memory controller is configured to stall the memory controller and sequentially process the memory access requests.
US09122558B2	Software updates using delta patching Methods, apparatuses, and systems for software updates using delta patching are described. A first image representative of a first software stack and a second image representative of a second software stack may be combined into a compound image by a first computer. The first computer may compare the compound image and the first image to determine a difference between the compound image and the first image. The first computer may generate a file representative of the difference between the compound image and the first image, and data representative of the file representative of the difference between the compound image and the first image may be recorded to a computer-readable storage medium.
US09122555B2	Information processing system, information processing apparatus, storage medium having stored therein information processing program, method of executing application, and storage medium stored therein data of application An exemplary portable storage medium stores therein a program of an application. An exemplary information processing apparatus can execute the application. The storage medium stores a first data which is a program or data forming a part of the application and second data which is a program or data forming a part of the same application formed by the first data. The information processing apparatus reads the second data from the storage medium and installs the second data in the information processing apparatus. Further, the information processing apparatus starts and executes the application based on the first data stored in the storage medium and the installed second data.
US09122551B2	Methods and systems for generating read-only operating systems Methods and systems for use in generating read-only production operating systems including at least one application for use with a target workstation are disclosed. One example method includes providing a baseline operating system based on a hardware profile of the target workstation, executing an installation script for a target application, adding at least one resource to the baseline operating system based on an error message indicating at least one resource called by the installation script is not found, and writing, at a computing device, a production operating system to a read-only media. The production operating includes the baseline operating system and the at least one resource.
US09122549B2	Method and system for emulation of instructions and hardware using background guest mode processing A method includes receiving, from a requesting guest environment, a device call requesting access to a device; sending the device call to an emulating guest environment, the emulating guest environment emulating the device; receiving, from the emulating guest environment, a result of the device call; and sending the result of the device call to the requesting guest environment.
US09122548B2	Clipboard for processing received data content An embodiment of the invention directed to a method is associated with data content, comprising discrete data portions including first data and second data portions separated from each other in the data content. A copy operation is implemented on data portions so that at least some of the data portions are each copied to a buffer, which include the first and second data portions. A paste operation is carried out to present each of the copied data portions as an input for an output data selection task. Prespecified criteria is used in the output data selection task to select a number of the copied data portions to be selected data for a given purpose, the selected number of copied data portions being less than data portions presented by the paste operation, and the selected copied data portions including the first and second data portions.
US09122547B1	Embedding a guest module within an embedder module Systems and methods embedding a guest module within an embedder module are disclosed. According to some aspects, an embedder module is executed at a computer. A request to access a guest module is received via the embedder module. The request comprises a tag in a programming language. The tag identifies the guest module. An event is provided, using information associated with the tag, to an executing instance of the guest module responsive to the request to access the guest module. Processing of the event at the executing instance of the guest module is signaled.
US09122533B2	System and method for reducing cloud IP address utilization using a distributor registry System and method for providing cloud computing services are described. In one embodiment, the system comprises a cloud computing environment comprising resources for supporting cloud workloads, each cloud workload having associated therewith an internal cloud address; and a routing system disposed between external workloads of an external computing environment and the cloud workloads, the routing system for directing traffic from an external cloud address to the internal cloud addresses of the cloud workloads. The routing system comprises a virtual router configured to function as a network address translator (“NAT”); a distributor connected between the virtual router and the cloud workloads; and a distributor registry accessible by the distributor for maintaining information comprising at least one of port mappings, cloud address mappings, and cloud workload configuration information.
US09122532B2	Method and apparatus for executing code in a distributed storage platform An approach is provided for creating a framework for executing code in nodes of a distributed storage platform. An in-node code framework receives at least one job for execution over a distributed computing platform. The in-node code framework determines at least one distributed storage platform containing at least a portion of the data for executing the at least one job. The in-node then processes and/or facilitates a processing of the at least one job to determine code for executing at one or more storage nodes of the at least one distributed storage platform, wherein the code supports the at least one job.
US09122530B2	Management apparatus and management method A highly reliable management apparatus and management method capable of allocating a resource that satisfies a user's request is suggested.A management apparatus and management method for managing a plurality of computer resources and allocating a requested computer resource to a user in response to a resource request for allocation of the computer resource, wherein the resource request contains a performance requirement and function requirement for the computer resource for which allocation is requested; performance information about performance of each computer resource and function information about a function of each computer resource are obtained; the plurality of computer resources are searched for candidates for the computer resource to be allocated to the user, based on the obtained performance information and function information about each computer resource and the performance requirement and function requirement requested in the resource request; the computer resource to be allocated to the user is decided from among the candidates detected by the search; and the decided computer resource is allocated to the user.
US09122529B2	Dynamic job processing based on estimated completion time and specified tolerance time The invention provides a system and method for managing clusters of parallel processors for use by groups and individuals requiring supercomputer level computational power. A Beowulf cluster provides supercomputer level processing power. Unlike a traditional Beowulf cluster; however, cluster size in not singular or static. As jobs are received from users/customers, a Resource Management System (RMS) dynamically configures and reconfigures the available nodes in the system into clusters of the appropriate sizes to process the jobs. Depending on the overall size of the system, many users may have simultaneous access to supercomputer level computational processing. Users are preferably billed based on the time for completion with faster times demanding higher fees.
US09122526B2	Dynamic program evaluation for system adaptation A method and apparatus to maintain a plurality of executables for a task in a device are described. Each executable may be capable of performing the task in response to a change in an operating environment of the device. Each executable may be executed to perform a test run of the task. Each execution can consume an amount of power under the changed operating environment in the device. One of the executables may be selected to perform the task in the future based on the amounts of power consumed for the test runs of the task. The selected one executable may require no more power than each of remaining ones of the executables.
US09122522B2	Software mechanisms for managing task scheduling on an accelerated processing device (APD) Embodiments describe herein provide a method of for managing task scheduling on a accelerated processing device. The method includes executing a first task within the accelerated processing device (APD), monitoring for an interruption of the execution of the first task, and switching to a second task when an interruption is detected.
US09122520B2	Generic wait service: pausing a BPEL process A generic wait service for facilitating the pausing of service-oriented applications. In one set of embodiments, the generic wait service receives, from a paused instance of an application, an initiation message comprising a set of key attributes and an exit criterion. The key attributes uniquely identify the paused instance, and the exit criterion identifies a condition that should be satisfied before the paused instance is allowed to proceed. The generic wait service then receives, from one or more event producers, notification messages comprising status information (e.g., statuses of business events) and information correlating the notification messages to particular instances. If a notification message is determined to be correlated to the paused instance, the generic wait service evaluates the exit criterion based on the status information included in the message. If the exit criterion is satisfied, the paused instance is notified of the status information and is allowed to proceed.
US09122519B1	Governor for elimination of repetitive requests A browser invokes a program from a server. The server responds with a web page and ancillary logic. The browser displays the web page and loads the logic into memory. The ancillary logic includes a command set, a status indicator for each command type, and a set of command type governors. When a command is initiated at the browser, the appropriate governor observes the status, and deletes the command if the status is “not complete” or passes the command for transmission to the server if the status is “completed.” This prevents the transmission of repeated or redundant commands to the server.
US09122516B2	Information processing system, image forming apparatus, control method, and recording medium for management of a job consisting of multiple tasks A flow service server group manages a job consisting of multiple tasks generated according to a user request, and a task server acquires a task included in the aforementioned managed job if a processing standby status exists, and carries out specific task processing. The task server notifies the flow service server group at a fixed interval that task processing is in progress. The flow service server group then issues a command to the task server that has not completed task processing within a prescribed time to suspend the task processing, and issues a command to a task server capable of task processing that is identical to the task processing to alternatively execute the task processing.
US09122514B2	Administering message acknowledgements in a parallel computer Administering message acknowledgements in a parallel computer that includes compute nodes, with each compute node including a processor and a messaging accelerator, includes: storing in a list, by a processor of a compute node, a message descriptor describing a message and an acknowledgement request descriptor describing a request for an acknowledgement of receipt of the message; processing, by a messaging accelerator of the compute node, the list, including transmitting, to a target compute node, the message described by the message descriptor and transmitting, to the target compute node, the request described by the acknowledgement request descriptor; receiving, by the messaging accelerator from the target compute node, an acknowledgement of receipt of the message, including notifying the processor of receipt of the acknowledgement; and removing, by the processor from the list, the message descriptor and the acknowledgment request descriptor.
US09122513B2	Method and apparatus for efficient execution of concurrent processes on a multithreaded message passing system A graph analytics appliance can be employed to extract data from a graph database in an efficient manner. The graph analytics appliance includes a router, a worklist scheduler, a processing unit, and an input/output unit. The router receives an abstraction program including a plurality of parallel algorithms for a query request from an abstraction program compiler residing on computational node or the graph analytics appliance. The worklist scheduler generates a prioritized plurality of parallel threads for executing the query request from the plurality of parallel algorithms. The processing unit executes multiple threads selected from the prioritized plurality of parallel threads. The input/output unit communicates with a graph database.
US09122512B2	Real time measurement of I/O interrupt delay times by hypervisor for hot spot analysis A method includes determining a reference I/O service time of an I/O operation on a server and measuring, with a processor of the server running a hypervisor configured to manage a plurality of logical partitions (LPARs), each LPAR running one of a plurality of instances of an operating system (O/S), an actual I/O service time of the I/O operation. The method also includes determining, by the processor, a delay time of virtualization on the server based on the reference I/O service time and the actual I/O service time.
US09122510B2	Querying and managing computing resources in a networked computing environment An approach for querying and managing/manipulating network computing resources (e.g., cloud computing resources) is provided. Typically, an interpreter component may be implemented so that a language describing such computing resources may be interpreted. The interpreter component may include other components such as a request processor, a provisioning queue, an execution engine, a results store, and response marshaller/handler that collaborate to manage the computing resources. Such computing resources may, for example, include virtual machine instances, virtual machine images, storage volumes, network resources, files, software bundles, etc.
US09122509B2	Co-location of virtual machines with nested virtualization Co-locating a virtual machine with nested virtualization, in one aspect, may comprise receiving a list of one or more virtual machine instances to co-locate with associated configuration information. A parent virtual machine instance may be identified to host the one or more virtual machine instances. Virtual machine images associated with the one or more virtual machine instances may be consolidated. A composite parent virtual machine image may be created based on the consolidated virtual machine images and the parent virtual machine instance. The parent virtual machine instance may be configured to accommodate for capacity requirement of the one or more child virtual machine instances. The parent virtual machine instance may be started on a processor via the composite parent virtual machine image. The one or more virtual machine instances may be started within the parent virtual machine instance as one or more child virtual machine instances.
US09122507B2	VM migration based on matching the root bridge of the virtual network of the origination host and the destination host A method is provided in one example embodiment that includes detecting a migration of a virtual machine from an origination host to a destination host and comparing a first root bridge to a second root bridge to verify data link layer continuity of the virtual network on the destination host. The virtual machine is connected to a virtual network, the first root bridge is associated with the virtual network on the origination host and the second root bridge is associated with the virtual network on the destination host. The method may further include blocking the migration if the first root bridge and the second root bridge are not the same.
US09122506B2	Virtualization apparatus and method for controlling access to hardware device by I/O request A virtualization apparatus and a method for controlling the same. In a method for controlling a virtualization apparatus including a plurality of domains, a sub domain transmits an input/output (IO) request for a hardware device to a main domain, and the main domain controls whether or not the IO request accesses the hardware device according to a resource needed to perform the IO request.
US09122503B1	Systems and methods for adaptive throttling of input/output requests in a virtual environment A computer-implemented method for adaptive throttling of input/output requests in a virtual environment may include (1) monitoring input/output requests sent from a virtual machine to a storage system, (2) determining a latency of one or more of the monitored input/output requests, (3) determining that the latency exceeds a threshold, and (4) reducing, in response to determining that the latency exceeds the threshold, a rate at which an application on the virtual machine sends input/output requests to the storage system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09122495B2	Relative addressing usage for CPU performance The embodiments provide a computing device for incorporating data into code such that the data is relative to the code and, thereby, available for relative addressing. The computing device may include a code generator configured to receive source code from a source code database, and generate executable object code from the source code. The executable object code may include at least one instruction referencing data having an absolute address from a data source. Also, the computing device may include a data incorporator configured to transfer the data from the data source into the executable object code, where the transferred data is relative to the at least one instruction. Further, the computing device may include a relative addresser configured to adjust the at least one instruction to include a relative address for the transferred data including converting the absolute address to the relative address.
US09122494B2	Method and apparatus for code size reduction A method for code size reduction, which comprises determining basic blocks in an IR module; grouping the basic blocks having duplicate code into groups; providing weighting values corresponding to different instructions of the module, wherein the weighting values are determined based on a plurality of intermediate representation program codes; determining a weighted size of the module, wherein the weighted size of the module is determined by summing weighted sizes of the basic blocks of the module, and the weighted size of each basic block is determined by summing products of numbers of different instructions of the basic blocks and the corresponding weighting values; removing duplicates in one group to obtain a module having one processed group; determining a weighted size of the module having one processed group; and comparing the weighted size of the module to the weighted size of the module having one processed group.
US09122488B2	Identification and translation of program code executable by a graphical processing unit (GPU) A device receives program code, and receives size/type information associated with inputs to the program code. The device determines, prior to execution of the program code and based on the input size/type information, a portion of the program code that is executable by a graphical processing unit (GPU), and determines, prior to execution of the program code and based on the input size/type information, a portion of the program code that is executable by a central processing unit (CPU). The device compiles the GPU-executable portion of the program code to create a compiled GPU-executable portion of the program code, and compiles the CPU-executable portion of the program code to create a compiled CPU-executable portion of the program code. The device provides, to the GPU for execution, the compiled GPU-executable portion of the program code, and provides, to the CPU for execution, the compiled CPU-executable portion of the program code.
US09122486B2	Bimodal branch predictor encoded in a branch instruction Each branch instruction having branch prediction support has branch prediction bits in architecture specified bit positions in the branch instruction. An instruction cache supports modifying the branch instructions with updated branch prediction bits that are dynamically determined when the branch instruction executes.
US09122484B2	Method and apparatus for mashing up web applications Disclosed are a method, apparatus, and computer program, product for mashing up web applications. The method includes: obtaining at least two document object models (DOM) corresponding to at least two web applications respectively; merging nodes of the at least two document object models to obtain a new document object model; connecting, on the new document object model, the nodes belonging respectively to the at least two document object models; and obtaining a new web application from the new document object model after connection.
US09122482B2	Image processing apparatus, control method therefor and storage medium A second control unit in an image processing apparatus receives a packet transmitted from an external apparatus, copies and stores the received packet, analyzes the header of the received packet, deletes the analyzed header, and, when transitioning the image processing apparatus from a second power mode to a first power mode based on the result of analysis in the case where the image processing apparatus is in the second power mode, transitions the image processing apparatus from the second power mode to the first power mode, and transfers to the first control unit the received packet that was stored and does not transfer to the first control unit the received packet from which the header was deleted.
US09122481B2	System and method for standby power reduction in a serial communication system In a serial communication system having a device including a receiver detection module, this specification is directed to systems and methods for selectively reducing the power consumed by the receiver detection module, preferably when the device is operating in a low power mode. In some embodiments, a signal detection module is configured to receive a control signal from the transmitter of a device at the other end of the communications link to control the operation of the receiver detection module. The control signal may be in-band or may be transmitted on a sideband of the serial link.
US09122469B2	Expansion card and motherboard for supporting the expansion card A motherboard assembly includes a motherboard and an expansion card. The motherboard includes an expansion slot with a first idle pin connected to a standby power through a resistor. The expansion card includes an edge connector having a second idle pin and first to fifth electronic switches. When the first electronic switch receives a high level signal through the first and second idle pins, the first and fourth electronic switches are turned on. The second, third, and fifth electronic switches are turned off. The second system power outputs a standby voltage through the standby voltage output terminal. When the first electronic switch receives a low level signal, the first and fourth electronic switches are turned off. The second, third, and fifth electronic switches are turned on. The standby power outputs a standby voltage through the standby voltage output terminal.
US09122466B1	Power system reconfiguration with automatic transfer switch Reconfiguring a power system for an electrical load includes establishing a secondary feed to an electrical load that is receiving power from a primary power source. A set of secondary feed lines is coupled between a donor power source and a power input to the electrical load such that the set of secondary feed lines is configured to supply power from the donor power source to the electrical load. An automatic transfer switch is coupled in parallel with the set of secondary feed lines. The electrical load is transferred by the automatic transfer switch from the donor power source to the primary power source for the reconfiguration.
US09122464B2	Method, apparatus, and system for energy efficiency and energy conservation including energy efficient processor thermal throttling using deep power down mode Embodiments of the invention relate to energy efficient and conserving thermal throttling of electronic device processors using a zero voltage processor state. For example, a processor die may include a power control unit (PCU), and an execution unit having power gates and a thermal sensor. The PCU is attached to the thermal sensor to determine if a temperature of the execution unit has increased to greater than an upper threshold, such as while the execution unit is processing data in an active processor power state. The PCU is also attached to the power gates so that upon such detection, it can change the active processor power state to a zero processor power state to reduce the temperature of the execution unit. When the sensor detects that the temperature has decreased to less than a lower threshold, the PCU can change the processor power state back to the active state.
US09122463B2	Server and heat dissipation system thereof A server includes a chassis, processing units and an airflow generating device. The processing units are disposed inside the chassis for heat dissipation of the processing units. Each processing unit includes a motherboard, an electric heat source, a heat dissipation fin set and a stopping air bag. The electric heat source is disposed on the motherboard, the heat dissipation fin set is attached to the electric heat source and the stopping air bag including an air inlet opening is located at space between the heat dissipation fin set and one of the processing units which is adjacent to the stopping air bag. When the airflow generating devices are operated, air is blown into the stopping air bag through the air inlet opening so that the stopping air bag is inflated to occupy the space to stop an airflow from flowing through the space.
US09122458B2	Removable cage and electronic apparatus An electronic apparatus includes an apparatus casing and a removable cage. The removable cage includes a cage body, a carry handle, and a locking mechanism disposed on the cage body. The carry handle includes a pivotally-connecting part, pivotally connected to the cage body, a handle body, and a pushing part. The handle body and the pushing part are oppositely connected to the pivotally-connecting part. The locking mechanism includes a latching part and an unlocking part. The latching part can be engaged into a lock slot of the pivotally-connecting part so that the carry handle is fixed relative to the cage body for carrying the cage body. The unlocking part can be driven to disengage the latching part from the lock slot. By the lever rule, the carry handle can move the cage body into the apparatus casing further or move the cage body reversely to depart from the apparatus casing.
US09122453B2	Methods and systems for processing crowdsourced tasks The disclosed embodiments illustrate methods and systems for processing one or more crowdsourced tasks. The method comprises converting an audio input received from a crowdworker to one or more phrases by one or more processors in at least one computing device. The audio input is at least a response to a crowdsourced task. A mode of the audio input is selected based on one or more parameters associated with the crowdworker. Thereafter, the one or more phrases are presented on a display of the at least one computing device by the one or more processors. Finally, one of the one or more phrases is selected by the crowdworker as a correct response to the crowdsourced task.
US09122449B2	Modular gang box docking system for computing devices A modular docking system for being installed adjacent to an at least one additional electrical component within a gang box. In at least one embodiment, the system provides a docking plate engagable with the gang box and configured for removably receiving an at least one mobile computing device. The docking plate provides an at least one elongate mounting aperture for allowing a screw to pass therethrough and be engaged with an at least one free mounting tab of the gang box while also allowing the docking plate to be selectively offset relative to the gang box. A cover plate is engagable with a front surface of the docking plate. An at least one component adapter is engagable with one of a pair of opposing component tabs of the electrical component for increasing a height of the electrical component so as to substantially approximate a height of the docking plate.
US09122446B2	Antenna structures in electronic devices with hinged enclosures Electronic devices may include radio-frequency transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. The antenna structures may include antenna resonating elements, parasitic antenna resonating elements, and antenna ground structures. The antenna structures may include metal traces that are wrapped around an elongated plastic carrier. The plastic carrier may have metal traces that are coupled to a metal bracket using solder that protrudes through a hole in the metal bracket. A printed circuit board may be mounted between the metal bracket and a metal housing. The metal housing may have a protruding ridge portion that is gripped between prongs on the metal bracket. A cover may cover the metal traces on the elongated plastic carrier. The antenna structures may be mounted between hinge structures that couple upper and lower housing structures. The antenna structures may be configured to operate with comparable performance when the upper and lower housing structures are open and closed.
US09122445B2	Display device, electronic apparatus and display control method with a thumbnail dispay A display apparatus includes: a display device that displays a plurality of images in a first row, an operation of an application program being assigned to each of the images; a rearrangement device that rearranges the plurality of images, when a portion of the first row is specified, such that the specified portion is at an opened facing page section; an execution device that executes the operation of the application program corresponding to an image located at the opened facing page section when the opened facing page section is specified; and a display control device that controls the display device, when the operation is executed by the execution device, to perform a display according to the operation executed.
US09122441B2	Opening applications in unified desktop Embodiments provide for a handheld device with a unified desktop for integrating the functionality of the handheld device with a larger computer system. When connected to a peripheral display and/or a display of the larger computer system, the handheld device provides a unified desktop displayed across the screen(s) of the handheld device and the peripheral display. The unified desktop unifies the functionality provided by the larger computer system and the handheld functionality, e.g., communication applications (e.g., phone, SMS, MMS). A user can seamlessly interact with applications, e.g., open, move, close, receive notifications, on the unified desktop whether the applications are displayed on the screens of the handheld device, or the peripheral display of the larger computer system.
US09122437B2	Information processing apparatus, method, and medium for managing status information about an image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a job history control unit and a status control unit. If the job history control unit is transmitting a job history when the status control unit transmits status information to a management server, the status control unit transmits status information including prohibition against entering a power saving mode. If the job history control unit is not transmitting a job history, the status control unit transmits status information including permission to enter the power saving mode to the management server.

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